No war! and invites
This week there are a couple of cozy events to stop the Los Alamos Data center! First on Tuesday at 6pm behind the Ann Arbor Friends Meeting, we are getting together and sharing food and making yard signs.
Then on Thursday, we are going bowling and youre invited! We are going at 10pm because that is when the $2 bowling and $2 dollar shoe rental starts at Station 300 in Saline
Now here's the good stuff: our thoughts on Trump's latest atrocity. The USA has a long and storied history with regime change. What's happening in Venezuela, while being more explicitly framed in its goals, is nothing new. Since 1900 we've done it more than 150 times. Famously we target socialist leaders, countries with resources we want, or both. Here are some things to keep in mind.
1) It doesn't matter what Maduro has done. It doesn't matter how our government comes to the awful decisions it does. Anytime the west intervenes, especially through regime change, we are siphoning away autonomy from the global south. We should remain clear on what crime Trump is punishing: Maduro's denial of access to Venezuela's fossil fuels.
2) We know that this is about fossil fuels because Trump explicitly stated the goal of having our private fossil fuel companies run Venezuela. This makes the imperialist project of America not just a threat to the global south we should be in solidarity with, but also an existential threat to all of us.
3) From this and other countless examples, we know the work of anti-war, anti-genocide, and anti-imperialist movements *IS* the work of climate justice movements and vice versa. Neither can be achieved independently. If we are stopping the data center to protect our climate, we must also resist our military, the world's largest polluter.
4) Further, we should understand that the goal of "National Security" is naked imperialism, and not self defense. Our aggression and resource theft from the global south have never made us safe. *WE* keep us safe.
5) This makes this latest act of violent imperialism inextricably linked to our very own local data center struggle! LANL and UM have been long partners in "security" research, and their latest venture into AI is imperialist, warmongering work at the expense of our trees, water, earth, and lives.
It always bear saying: Keep UM out of Ypsi! End the Israeli genocide! Divest from and dissolve the fossil fuel companies! Make food, not bombs! WAR IS NOT INEVITABLE!
Suggested reading: "How to hide an empire," by Daniel Immerwahr