Learn about the North Brooklyn Pipeline here. The LNG (liquefied natural gas) project that connects to the North Brooklyn Pipeline is totally unjust, illegal, a climate catastrophe, and is charging all of us, undemocratically, to PAY for it! Public comment has been a crucial tool in defeating fracked gas infrastructure before!

The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced Wednesday March 10, (6 pm) for the public hearing on the air permit National Grid has requested to build new liquefied and compressed fracked gas infrastructure by Newtown Creek.

We need everyone to register with the NYS DEC to show up (virtually) on March 10 and provide public comment.

RSVP for prep session Tuesday March 2, 6:30 pm, so that you’ll be prepared to defend our community. We’ll go over why public hearings are important and break down the legal arguments and scientific facts that will give the DEC reasons to DENY National Grid’s air permit.

We need YOUR help to call on Corey Johnson, Speaker of the New York City Council, to support Resolution 747A so that NYC can go on official record pressing Congress to move money from the $740 billion U.S. military budget to aid municipalities like NYC.

The city-wide coalition to Move the Money From War to Our Communities has launched a call-in campaign for Mondays: but you don’t need to wait for next Monday! Let’s use phone calls, emails and social media to impress upon Corey Johnson the importance of his active support of Resolution 747A. We’ve learned that bombarding the council office with emails and phone calls DOES work. Take one of these actions TODAY; then mark your calendar for next Monday and all those following to take action UNTIL WE WIN!!

1) CALL the SPEAKER. Call the Speaker’s Legislative Director Jeffrey Baker at 212-788-7210 or District Office 212-564-7757. Leave a voicemail if you don’t get through to a staff member, and try again later. See below for script.

2. SEND an EMAIL to SpeakerJohnson@council.nyc.gov with the same script as below, or write your own.

3. TWEET @NYCSpeakerCoJo:  We need jobs, education, and healthcare, not militarized police and endless wars. MOVE THE MONEY from WAR to OUR COMMUNITIES. City Council, pass RES 747A now! #MoveTheMoneyNYC

Script: Hi, my name is [NAME] and I am a New Yorker, resident of [BOROUGH] in zip code [ZIP CODE]. I am also a member of (Organization). I am urgently requesting COUNCIL MEMBER JOHNSON to sign on to Resolution 747A, and give it his active support. I strongly believe that NYC needs to go on record opposing the Pentagon’s $740 billion budget, in light of the devastating municipal budget cuts which we are facing due to the COVID-19 crisis. Now is the time to divest from a Pentagon budget that enriches select military contractors at the expense of life-affirming human services, such as schools, public health, affordable housing, and transportation.

Strategy for Black Lives has collaborated with other NYC-based organizations to provide a month of strategic action. By utilizing their combined resources, and with the assistance of community mobilization, they aim to remove positions of power the most corrupt, those who have wielded their authority to harm Black lives.

Strategy for Black Lives will also share Black educational content in order to inform communities of Black excellence and highlight our numerous contributions to a society that often fails to acknowledge them.

Check out these posts:
From East Brooklyn Mutual Aid: learn how Mother Gaston Boulevard got its name!
From Strategy for Black Lives: learn about Cicely Tyson’s determination to “use my career as a platform”

But don’t stop here…THIS IS A CALL TO ACTION!
Complacency is NOT an option. Let us use this Black History Month to ELEVATE BLACK VOICES, EMPOWER BLACK COMMUNITIES, and DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY

Humanitarian Catastrophe and Genocide Unfold in Tigray, Ethiopia

Thurs. Feb 11, 10 am–3 pm: Join this protest at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 47th St & 1st Ave, Manhattan, with members and supporters of the Tigray diaspora community to alert members of Congress and the international community on the widespread ethnic persecution, human rights violations, property destruction, rape, ethnic profiling, and humanitarian crisis running rampant across the Tigray regional state. Learn more here.

Sign this petition to support Security and Justice for Tigrayans in Ethiopia. Contact Senators Schumer and Gillibrand. Urge them to follow up with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and insist that this issue be brought up in the United Nations Security Council. Internet communications must be restored and the borders to Tigray opened for access for humanitarian aid as well as independent journalists. Read more below:

Recent news reports from Ethiopia continue to be very alarming. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed claimed victory in the military offensive on the state of Tigray. However internet communications are still cut off, as is access to independent journalists. The U.S. is a major supporter of Abiy Ahmed, who was awarded the Nobel Peace in 2019 work for his role in securing a peace agreement with Eritrea. However, he has turned a deaf ear to the pleas to address the tensions with Tigray by diplomacy. Recent reports are that that plans are underway by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (Ethiopia) and President Isaias Afwerki (Eritrea) for a “final offensive,” using as many half a million troops to rid Tigray of its population.

Check out this article with background information in Black Star News by BFP Board Member Dr. Mohammed Nurhussein. Most recent article emphasizes the unacceptable use of the threat of starvation as a tool of war. Also see this statement by United African Congress, an umbrella organization representing the interests of 3.5 million continental African immigrants throughout the United States of America. Also helpful in understanding background is this recent article in Washington Post. Note reference at the end to “strong (U.S.) interests in Ethiopia and the region.” Exactly what are those interests?

Other recent updates:
From BBC News: The Nobel Peace Prize winner who sent his troops to battle
From Al Jazeera https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/6/stories-of-separation-and-violence-as-more-ethiopians-reach-sudan
From Al Jazeera (Dec. 9, 2020)Ethiopia rejects independent probes into Tigray conflict

Other actions you an take:
A group of 17 senators sent a letter to then-Secretary of State Pompeo expressing concern re the Ethiopian crisis. Neither Schumer nor Gillibrand signed it.
Contact Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, urging them to follow up with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and to urge that this issue be brought up in the United Nations Security Council. Ask how Ethiopia is obtaining the weapons it’s using to carry out this military assault.
Contact Rep. Karen Bass, Chair of the Africa Subcommittee of Foreign Affairs (202) 225-7084), and Rep. Gregory Meeks, Chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. (202) 225-5021 Urge them to follow up on statement issued on November 6 calling for a ceasefire, national dialogue, and protection of civilians.
Congressional switchboard: 202-224-3121
Contact U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Mills, to urge him to call for emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, demanding an end to hostilities and withdrawal of all foreign troops from Tigray region of Ethiopia.
Contact U.S. State Department (Anthony Blinken, Secretary of State), urging him to stop the government of Ethiopia, an ally of the United States, from using arms, possibly sold to it by our country, from committing war crimes and genocide upon its own people

It’s imperative that the U.N.Security Council meet and take urgent action to stop genocide. Internet communications need to be restored and the borders to Tigray opened for access for humanitarian aid as well as independent journalists.

Brooklyn  For Peace stands in support of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. Monday Feb 1 launched the Moral Mondays Campaign to promote their 14 Point Agenda during the first 100 days of the Biden-Harris administration. Please join them in a Mass Call-In.

February 1 is the anniversary of the launch of the sit-in movement in Greensboro, NC in 1960. This series of Moral Mondays will push Democrats, Republicans and Independents to pass bold and historic legislation in support of the 14 Point Agenda of the Campaign. This teach-in on the current political moment will roll-out the 100-day action plan and for a massive call-in action targeting Schumer and McConnell, demanding immediate action on Covid relief.

Spread the word by liking and sharing on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Without redirecting resources from military buildup to domestic needs, there’s no way the Biden-Harris administration will be able to fund the large-scale programs urgently needed to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, invest in health care, jobs, infrastructure, education and more. Join us in pushing, on the local and national level.

Check out the 14 policy priorities of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

Closest to home: Get the NYC City Council to Take a Stand! NYC City Council Res 747-A calls on the federal government to move significant funds away from the military budget to fund human needs and services, and for in-depth public hearings to be conducted on the dollar amounts that the City needs but that get diverted to the Pentagon.

17 Council-people are co-sponsors. We need 26 for a majority, and 35 for a super-majority to insure that it will pass. Looking at the city’s looming budget shortfall, this is urgent.

Find your Councilperson here. Are they on the list of co-sponsors? Contact them to demand that they put their money where their mouth is, and push to get colleagues to sign on as well. Are they missing from the list? Contact them to urge them to sign on.

Are you looking for a way to make a difference by acting locally while thinking globally? BFP is part of Move the Money–NYC, a city-wide coalition. YOUR participation will make it stronger!
Next meeting (on Zoom): Mon. Feb 22, 5 pm.

Email bfp@brooklynpeace.org for more info.