Teach-in on Ukraine, Wed July 22, UNM Law School

July 8, 2015

Dear Albuquerque friends –

The Study Group will be hosting a teach-in on the Ukraine situation at the UNM Law School (1117 Stanford NE) on Wednesday, July 22, from 6-9 pm.  I (Greg) will be joined (via Skype on the big screen) by Steven Starr, Senior Scientist with the Physicians for Social Responsibility.  We expect this discussion to be lively and wide-ranging.  We hope you will be able to come.  This is a public event, so feel free to tell any interested friends. 

As we see it, the U.S. has embarked on hybrid wars with Russia and China in order to retain U.S. global dominance.  The arms control presumption of gradual nuclear disarmament is being replaced by war, a quite intentional process which will destroy this society one way or another if it is not stopped soon. 

I debated U.S.-Russian relations with the senior arms control specialist in the National Security Council last month and heard a far more solidified, obstinate, and uninformed belligerence toward Russia than I expected.  As you probably also see from your own reading, we are in serious trouble. 

The relatively stable post-Cold War decades are now gone, never to return.  We are in a completely new situation, one in which our president just declared that our current “anti-terrorism” wars are “generational,” i.e. permanent. Hybrid and proxy wars are increasing, according to the Pentagon itself. 

Progress on nuclear disarmament is now intimately connected with profound economic, climate, and ecological crises, with justice within and between societies, with human dignity and common survival.  We do not see nuclear disarmament as an isolated issue (and never have).  It is more and more a fundamental requirement for human solidarity and survival, and it is high time we approached it as such. 

In our view, this leads to a very different kind of politics than we usually see coming from the carefully separated niches of the U.S. nonprofit community, something closer to what we are seeing in parts of Europe today. 

We are eager to hear your practical political insights and suggestions as well as to discuss the situation in Eastern Europe.  We have been strategizing with our colleagues in a few other organizations and may be able to discuss some of that content as well if there is time. 

Very best wishes,

Greg and Trish