Planting the Seeds for a Youth-Driven Antimilitarism Movement
Why you can trust us
A bolder antiwar movement is desperately needed at this moment to prevent the US-Israeli war in the Middle East from escalating further. While slogans against militarism were heard at the historic No Kings protests, we also need to build something more enduring, localized, and concrete to bring the genocidal attacks on Lebanon and Iran to a halt.
Veteran organizing was key to ending the U.S. war on Vietnam. While the movement against the Iraq war did not succeed in preventing the U.S. operation, veteran organizing planted the seeds for long-term efforts to turn youth against war. Writing for YES! in 2023 on the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, Ruben Abrahams Brosbe reported on efforts by veterans “to counter both the narrative and incentives that military recruiters offer young people” and “share the truth about traumatic personal experiences as well as practical information”:
“I think it’s super trippy, that there are children who are old enough to be in the military and being deployed to Iraq, who were not born when the war started. That is something that is just devastating and tragic to me,” Damiani says. “It fuels my fire to keep talking to the kids, because they need to know.”
–Ruben Abrahams Brosbe
Read the full article: Veterans Push Back Against Military Recruitment in Schools
From the Archives: Holding Up What Trump Seeks to Destroy
Trump has been pledging for months to overthrow the government of Cuba, and he has continued to make these threats despite the unpopularity of his war on Iran, which has killed at least 2,076 people so far. This is a crucial time for progressives to hold up the achievements of the blockaded Caribbean nation that the U.S. administration seeks to destroy. Its health care system, for example, has brought care around the world while forging peaceful ties with other countries.
“Cuba’s spending on medical services and training, then, is an investment in its national security,” wrote Sarah van Gelder for YES! in 2017. “They invest in training people to heal, not to kill, all over the world.”
Read the full article: What Cuba Can Teach Us About Health Care
From the Archives: A Blueprint for Ending Global Food Crises
A global food crisis is mounting due to the disruption of fertilizer shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. While the US-Israeli war on Iran is to blame as a short-term cause, it’s crucial to recognize how pro-corporate globalization has made supply chains for food production highly vulnerable to disruption. Writing for YES! in 2017, Eric Holt-Gimenez argued that recurrent food crises can be ended with a global shift toward local, ecological, and regulated production.
“For decades, family farmers the world over have resisted this corporate control,” Holt-Gimenez wrote. “They have worked to diversify crops, protect soil and native seeds, and conserve nature. They have established local gardens, businesses, and community-based food systems. These strategies are effective. They need to be given a chance to work.”
Read the full article: 7 Steps to Solving the Food Crisis
New Work by YES! Contributors
- Sarah van Gelder, founding editor of YES!, argues that the most reliable form of resilience is not individual wealth or distant institutions, but solidarity — the power of ordinary people to collectively meet their needs and determine the conditions of their lives.
- Sonali Kolhatkar, the host of Rising Up With Sonali, describes how U.S. sanctions function as economic warfare against entire populations in Venezuela, Iran, and Cuba.
- Marianne Dhenin reports on the aftermath of DOGE’s attacks on Social Security, as disabled, ill, and aging Americans are facing a broken system that’s now harder to navigate than ever.
New Solutions Journalism From Independent Media
? Inside the Grassroots Campaign That Pushed a Drone Company Out of Brooklyn – Truthout
? Mutual Aid Is a Lifeline for the Million People Displaced by War in Lebanon – Waging Nonviolence
? No Kings Must Mean No War – Truthout
?️ The Life and Career of Democracy Now! Founder Amy Goodman – The Progressive
? These Indigenous Iditarod Mushers Are Preserving Dogsled Culture – Prism
❤️? Fighting Cancer Has Given Me New Insights on the Anti-Fascist Challenge We Face – Truthout
Rising Up With Sonali
Rising Up With Sonali, formerly the broadcast arm of YES! Media, is lifting up solutions journalism through hard-hitting interviews with change makers. In recent days, Sonali Kolhatkar discussed the antiwar movement with Truthout editor-in-chief Negin Owliaei, as well as the new documentary Steal this Story, Please with Amy Goodman, and the Black Census Project with Kristin Powell.
When you subscribe to Rising Up With Sonali, you’ll receive 3-4 interviews a week in your inbox, with full access to video and transcripts of all conversations.
We Have Models for Facing and Surviving Crisis
From veteran-driven organizing and food sovereignty, to global antiwar struggles and health care for all, past generations have demonstrated that crises do not inevitably lead to devastation – they can be faced, and we can survive them. Through that creative survival, we have the opportunity to dismantle U.S. militarism once and for all, and in its stead, build a world that can feed and care for everyone.
You make this newsletter possible! Please support us in uplifting solutions journalism – even, and especially, in these turbulent times – by making a one-time or monthly donation.
In solidarity,
t r u t h o u t
|
Truthout
hosts a monthly newsletter with relevant content from the YES! digital archives and new solutions journalism from a variety of publications. These curated resources can help us imagine – and build – movements for transformation.
|
