Veterans for Peace

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Veterans for Peace is affiliated with the United for Peace and Justice.[1]

United for Peace & Justice

Veterans for Peace is a member group of United for Peace & Justice, a coalition claiming membership of over 1,400 local and national groups throughout the United States who,

"have joined together to protest the immoral and disastrous Iraq War and oppose our government's policy of permanent warfare and empire-building."[2]

Personnel

Board of Directors

The following have served on the Board of Directors:[3]

2013 Board

25 March 2013 Board meeting;[4]

Directors Present:Patrick McCann, Adrienne Kinne, Matt Southworth, Mike Hearington, Michael McPhearson, John Heuer, Tarak Kauff, Gerry Condon, Mike Prysner, Mark Foremen, Doug Rawlings, Mike Reid, and Ken Dalton

2012

2011

VFP Board Call Meeting November 21, 2011

2010

Officers

As at March 24, 2010, the following were officers of the organization:[3]

Staff

As at March 24, 2010, the following were staff of the organization:[6]

Tributes to Deceased Members

The following are deceased members of Veterans for Peace:[7]

Chapter Contact-persons

The following is a list of the contact-persons for the various chapters of Veterans for Peace:[9]

Solidarity with Sept. 24 FBI Raid Activists

The Committee to Stop FBI Repression lists Veterans for Peace and Veterans for Peace Minnesota Chapter 27 as organizations that have issued a statement of solidarity in support of the activists raided in the September 24, 2010 FBI Raids.[10]

Vietnam visit

In 2010, circa March, a delegation from Veterans for Peace visited Vietnam.

Paul Cox, the leader of the group, fought with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam.

Other members of the delegation, all members of Veterans for Peace, were Susan Schnall, a former Navy nurse who tended wounded soldiers during the Vietnam war at a California Navy hospital, Michael Uhl, a former Army counter-intelligence officer who served in Vietnam, Ken Mayers, a former Marine Corps major who served in Vietnam and Geoff Millard, an Army National Guard soldier who served in Iraq.

The veterans were in Vietnam for two weeks to visit people suffering from Agent Orange exposure, members and leaders of the Vietnamese Agent Orange Victims Association (VAVA), public health workers and officials of the Vietnamese government. They are gathering information to make the case to the U.S. government that the Vietnamese people should be compensated for the pain and suffering endured as a result of being exposed to Agent Orange.

Mike Ferner, a former Navy hospital corpsman and president of Veterans for Peace, was also a member of the VFP delegation to Vietnam.[11]

Iran Forum

An anti-war forum entitled “Syria & Iran: The Next War?” was held in New York, June 10 at the Solidarity Center. It featured anti-war veterans from the Iranian, Israeli and U.S. militaries, and was organized by United for Peace and Justice, Veterans for Peace and the U.S. Peace Council. The International Action Center hosted the meeting and IAC co-founder Sara Flounders, a longtime member of the Stalinist Workers World Party, chaired. All the speakers were members of the VFP Iran Working Group.

Michael Kramer, secretary of VFP Chapter 021-Northern New Jersey, was in the Israeli Defense Forces during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. His personal experiences as a settler and combatant led him to reassess his views on Zionism and the role of the U.S. in the Middle East. He is now a supporter of Palestinian self-determination, the right of return of all Palestinians to their homeland and the Arab cause for independence and self-determination, and an IAC volunteer.

He described Israel as an “unsinkable aircraft carrier” for the Pentagon and an enforcer of U.S. interests in the Middle East.

Faraz Azad, an American-Iranian living in the U.S., served in the Iranian Air Force from 1971 to 1973. Faraz ‘s activism dates to his 1973 arrival in the U.S., first as a student activist and then as a member of the National Board of the U.S. Peace Council. He is the chair of VFP’s Iran Working Group, organizational secretary of the U.S. Peace Council, co-chair of Iran Pledge of Resistance, and nongovernmental organization representative of the World Peace Council at the United Nations.

Faraz urged the political movement in the U.S. to reach beyond itself to educate others on the nature of imperialism, on how and why the U.S. is threatening Syria and Iran, and on how U.S. wars abroad hurt people in the U.S. He challenged groups and individuals to leave their comfort zones and find ways to work together to stop this war drive.

Michael McPhearson, who is originally from Fayetteville, N.C., was a field artillery officer in the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division during the 1991 Gulf War. He is the national coordinator for United For Peace and Justice and a national board member as well as a former executive director of Veterans for Peace. He is a member of Military Families Speak Out, works closely with the Newark, N.J., based People’s Organization for Progress and publishes the mcpearsonreport.org, expressing his views on war and peace, politics, human rights, race and other things.[12]

VFP Board

25 March 2013 Board meeting;[13]

Directors Present:Patrick McCann, Adrienne Kinne, Matt Southworth, Mike Hearington, Michael McPhearson, John Heuer, Tarak Kauff, Gerry Condon, Mike Prysner, Mark Foremen, Doug Rawlings, Mike Reid, and Ken Dalton

External links

References

  1. ↑ Affiliates
  2. ↑ United for Peace & Justice: Member groups
  3. ↑ Jump up to: 3.0 3.1 VFP website: Board
  4. ↑ VFP VFP Board Meeting Minutes 25 March 2013
  5. ↑ VFP Board Call Meeting Minutes November 21, 2011
  6. ↑ VFP website: Staff
  7. ↑ VFP website: Tributes to Members Passed
  8. ↑ The Turning: A History of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Andrew E. Hunt, New York University Press, 1999, P. 9
  9. ↑ Veterans for Peace website: Chapter contact-persons
  10. ↑ Committee to Stop FBI Repression: Solidarity Statements (accessed on Oct. 6, 2010)
  11. ↑ Pacific Free press, Vets Return to Nam: A Pledge for Agent Orange Victims 30 March 2010
  12. ↑ US Peace Council, Watch the Video “Syria & Iran: The Next War?” – Veterans for Peace, PeoplesVideo | June 28, 2013
  13. ↑ VFP VFP Board Meeting Minutes 25 March 2013
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