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VETERANS FOR PEACE
CONVENTION

Sessions

Friday, July 25, 2025

1:30 - 2:45 pm PT

 

New Colonialism: First Nations and the Nuclear Weapons Industry

Moderators:  Ellen Barfield and Greg Corning

Panelists:  Kathy Wan Povi Sanchez · Ian Zabarte · Gerry Condon

DescriptionIndigenous speakers from New Mexico and Nevada will explain the terrible damage to their lands and people from US nuclear weapons production and testing, and the resistance and mutual support their people continue to defend their lands and their people's health.

 

Nuclear weapons bring contamination and destruction at every stage, mining, milling, transportation, construction, testing, and waste handing and storage, and indigenous lands are disproportionately the sites of these activities. Our speakers will address the harms they and their people and lands have experienced and continue to, and their ongoing resistance.

 

Kathy Wan Povi Sanchez is a native spirit-rooted social activist and community educator from San Ildefonso Pueblo, NM, near the Los Alamos nuclear weapons plant. She is inspirational doing presentations and trainings in many roles for Tewa Women United for more than twenty years. She has developed transformative tools which address healing colonial trauma of mind, body, heart, and spirit, all from Native women's lived perspective. She will speak about resisting contamination and exploitation of Pueblo land by Los Alamos, especially heavier impacts of radiation on women and children.

 

Ian Zabarte is Shoshone from the Duckwater community. He is a graduate of UNLV, and currently an honorary research fellow at Liverpool University. In 1984 he became aware, then active, to stop nuclear testing. He is a founding member of the Native Community Action Council, to address the disproportionate risk to indigenous people of exposure to radioactive fallout. He has spoken at Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing meetings opposing the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump on Shoshone land.

Gerry Condon is a Vietnam-era veteran and war resister, and a former president and current Board member of Veterans For Peace. For the last ten years he has served as president of VFP's Golden Rule Committee, which organizes the voyages of the historic Golden Rule anti-nuclear sailboat.  He serves on the Coordinating Committee of the VFP Nuclear Abolition Working Group and is one of the authors of theVeterans For Peace Nuclear Posture Review.

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New Colonialism

Friday, July 25, 2025

3:00 – 4:15 pm PT

Wars RAGE As the World BURNS

Moderator: Gary Butterfield
Panelists:  Mike Prysner, Charlotte Dennett, Shirine Jurdi

Summary of Session:  Today's war-ridden environment is overwhelming the news about and public attention to the ongoing climate crisis, yet the ever-growing
catastrophic effects of climate change intensify. We humans are falling short in our
response. We"ll provide an overview of the military's devastating contribution to the climate crisis and how to respond locally through protesting against military air shows.

Purpose/Goal of session:   Inform VFP members of the existential threat the US military has on Earth's climate and living creatures, and what we can do in our own
communities.

Topics Covered Militarism, climate change, social justice and survival of mankind.

 

Relation to Current Events Today's militaristic conflicts - shooting wars, economic violence and the ultimate threat of nuclear war, which all have the potential end impact of worldwide catastrophe, have relegated awareness of the unchecked climate crisis to back-of-mind. Although direct emissions from war fighting, termed “Scope 3+” in a report by the Conflict and Environment Observatory, are important, more critical is the resulting global increase in military spending and the increased Scope 3, “Supply Chain,” emissions by the war industry. Indian author Amitav Ghosh highlighted this problem in his essay in The Climate Book, edited by activist Greta Thunberg:  “…affluent nations felt able to contribute only $10 billion to a fund to help countries which are exceptionally vulnerable [to the climate crisis] but had no difficulty in increasing their defense spending by $1 trillion.”

Follow-up Actions:  Increase VFP's membership awareness of the role the U.S. military, as the world's largest single institutional consumer of fossil fuels and emitter of greenhouse gases, has on the climate crisis. Then have members engage with and educate local climate and social justice advocates to protest military air shows as a focal point or example of our military’s waste and pollution. We will support and monitor these efforts through our contact email: climate@veteransforpeace.org.

Mike Prysner, joining the US Army mere months before Sept. 11, 2001, Mike Prysner found himself invading Iraq in March 2003. After a year occupying the country, he returned home to get involved in the struggle against the war. His testimony at the 2007 Winter Soldier hearings became an internationally-renowned denunciation of the US occupation.

He would gain prominence for organizing other Iraq veterans and leading civil disobedience against the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. His speeches and protest actions became seen by tens of millions.

All the while, Mike was producing articles, newsletters, and other media aimed at active-duty service members with an anti-war message–much of it distributed on U.S. bases. Many readers became war resistors. This project evolved into a podcast show, Eyes Left, becoming a key resource for US troops becoming politically conscious.

As a writer and producer of The Empire Files, he has continued to advocate for a better, more peaceful world through educational media projects.

Charlotte Dennett is an attorney, author and investigative journalist, identified by Time magazine as an “expert in resources-based politics.” A former reporter in the Middle East, her most recent book (2020), Follow the Pipelines: Uncovering the Mystery of a Lost Spy and the Deadly Politics of the Great Game for Oil investigates the mysterious 1947 death of her father, this country’s First Master Spy in the Middle East, as he attempted to determine the route of the Trans-Arabian Pipeline.  Charlotte reveals how feverish competition among intelligence networks, military, and Big Oil interests have led to decades of war and the genocide in Gaza.

 

Oil and Gas exploitation: the $500 billion end game in Gaza

 

Shirine Jurdi holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s in International Affairs from Lebanese American University and did doctoral studies at Tokyo University in Foreign Studies which paved the way for work on topics pertaining to international peace and security within a gender perspective. A member of international networks, she is the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regional representative of the Women’s international League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the MENA regional liaison officer for Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (MENAPPAC) and project coordinator for projects in the Permanent Peace Movement. Her work on disarmament and gender has been extensive; member of the coalition on Control Arms, and currently team leader of WILPF Lebanon on Ban Killer Robots Campaign. 

 

"Climate Crossfire: From Gaza to Ukraine, How War Military Spending Accelerate Climate Chaos"

 

Gary Butterfield was drafted into the US Army during the Vietnam War and then declared as a Conscientious Objector and opposed the war while in the military. He is resolute in acting on his commitment to Peace. He is a past President of the San Diego Chapter of Veterans For Peace and currently on the Steering Committee of the National Veterans For Peace Climate Crisis & Militarism Project. He is also a member of San Diego 350.org and is keenly interested in the effects of militarism on the climate crisis.

We will examine the US military’s relationship to the climate crisis and what we can do to raise awareness and help us change the story from Empire to Earth Community.  Specifically we will examine the Veterans For Peace’s “No MAS” (No Military Air Shows) initiative to end the polluting and wasteful Blue Angels and Thunderbirds aerial acrobatics over our cities. Military air shows are a highly visible example of the Pentagon’s exorbitant contribution TO the climate crisis. Focusing on air shows is an effective way for climate activists to make the connection between the military and climate degradation.

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Wars Rage
Evening program

Friday, July 25, 2025

6:00 PM PT

Evening Program

Moderators:  Susan Schnall, Michael T. McPhearson

Description:

 

​As Veterans For Peace commemorates its 40th anniversary, the Friday evening program invites attendees to reflect on the devastating lessons of history and the urgent need to act for peace and justice today. Framed by the convention theme—*Learning from the Past, Building the Future: 80 Years Remembrance, 50 Years of Reflection, 40 Years of Action*—the evening will honor the end of World War II, the Holocaust, and the millions of lives lost to the global conflict and genocide.

 

This solemn and powerful program draws a direct line from the horrors of the past to the moral crises of the present. A Hibakusha—survivor of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—will bear witness to the lasting trauma of nuclear war. A member of Jewish Voice for Peace, and granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, will speak to the responsibility of remembrance and resistance in the face of rising injustice. A Palestinian activist will offer urgent testimony on the suffering in Gaza and the West Bank, challenging U.S. complicity in ongoing displacement and violence.

 

U.S. Air Force veteran Joy Metzler and Airman Juan Bettancourt, both recent conscientious objectors, will share their deeply personal journeys of refusing to participate in war—and their continued work for peace.

 

Together, these voices call on us to honor the past not with silence, but with action—to break cycles of violence, challenge imperialism, and build a future rooted in truth, justice, and peace.

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Saturday, July 26, 2025

11:00 - 12:15 pm PT

 

The Borderlands: Militarization, Deported Veterans, Refuge, and the Migrants' Journey

Moderator:  Mike Tork

Panelists:  Robert Vivar · Lulu Matute · Dora Rodriguez

Description:

This panel will discuss several issues we see happening on the border today.

  • Providing aid to those in need and how it has been impacted by the current administration.

  • Deporting Veterans who have served this country honorably.

  • The migrants’ journey: One that is arduous, dangerous, and with uncertain outcomes.

  • The human side of migration. Putting a face on migrants.

 

Mike Tork has been involved with solidarity work at the border, in Mexico and El Salvador, for over 20 years. He has helped organize SOA Watch gatherings in Columbus, GA, and Ambros Nogales. Mike is currently a VFP Board Member and the Treasurer.

Mike will continue standing in solidarity with those oppressed and marginalized. Those caught up in the racist net we call border policy. There is no policy. Not broken, working as planned.

Dora Rodriguez -  In a life-saving attempt to flee El Salvador's civil war in 1980, Dora Rodriguez was one of thirteen survivors found near death after crossing the border through the Sonoran Desert.  By bravely sharing her migration story and through her unwavering support for migrant rights, Dora has become a prominent figure in the sanctuary movement in Tuscon, Arizona.

Through her public speaking and advocacy, Dora educates communities about the harsh realities migrants face in the desert and inspires transformative change in response to the immigration injustices affecting our border towns.

Now living in Tucson with her husband and five children, Dora is also a proud grandmother.  She serves as the founder and Director of Salvavision, a nonprofit offering aid and support to migrants and deportees. 

 

Dora is available for book readings, workshops, panels, podcasts, and other events.

 

To book or for more details, please email anna@dorarodriguez.org

Lulu Matute is the Organizing Coordinator for School of the Americas Watch (SOAW), a U.S.-based interfaith organization committed to nonviolent resistance against war and militarization since 1989. In collaboration with diverse communities and international partners, she has organized delegations of U.S. lawmakers, advocates, medical professionals, students, and cultural workers to witness firsthand the consequences of U.S. foreign and immigration policies in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and Central America. These efforts highlight the root causes of migration—including displacement, economic inequality, and state violence—as well as the devastating effects of border militarization across the hemisphere.

Rooted in SOAW’s legacy, Lulu works alongside grassroots movements in Latin America resisting U.S.-backed militarization, privatization, and the displacement of Indigenous and campesino communities. Since 2016, she has also volunteered in the borderlands, providing humanitarian aid, emergency medical services, and search-and-rescue support to migrants in crisis, upholding the principle that all lives deserve dignity and protection.

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The Border

Saturday, July 26, 2026

Noon PT

 

Post 9/11 Caucus

Moderator:  Ian Mooney

Description:  Gathering of Post 9/11 veteran members for discussion

Ian Mooney is a veteran of the US Army and a graduate worker at the University of Kentucky’s Philosophy Department. Their research focuses on questions of environmental ethics, police and military abolition, and new political ontologies. In
addition to serving on the CCMP steering committee, Ian organizes with UCW local 3365, the Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition, the DSA, and the Red Black Alliance.

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Post 9/11

Saturday, July 26, 2025

1:00 – 2:15 pm PT

 

Resistance to Attacks on VA

Moderator:  Arlys Herem

Panelists:  Suzanne Gordon · Paul Sullivan · Linda Ward-Smith

Description:  Over the past three decades and more, the Department of Veterans Affairs has risen to the task of  providing care and benefits for veterans, delivering some of the best healthcare in the nation as well as  access to disability compensation and educational benefits and more.   A cynical, criminal  kleptocracy is now launching an unprecedented attack on our VA care and benefits.  Veterans all over the country are mobilizing to protect the front-line care and excellent benefits that the VA delivers.  They are fighting for a system  that serves the entire nation through its teaching and research and shows what a home grown national healthcare system looks like.  This panel will discuss how we can resist these attacks and get more vets to join us.             

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Resistance to VA

Saturday, July 26, 2025

2:30 – 4:00 pm PT

Labor/Building Unity

Moderator: Steve Morse
Panelists: Diana Valles, Mark Dimondstein, Rose Roach, John Braxton, Betsy Zucker, Jackson Potter

Description:

 

The LABOR/BUILDING UNITY workshop features panelists who have reached out to build unity between Labor and anti-militarism, veterans’, immigration, health care and community issues. 

As people in the US face increasing repression, inequality, economic hardship and division from a militarized oligarchy, how do we as veterans for peace and as workers do our part to forge the broad coalition movement building peace, democracy, and racial, economic and climate justice?

 

We intend also to strengthen the connection between our work for peace and issues we have faced in our own working lives. 

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LaborGroup

Saturday, July 26, 2025

4:30 – 11:00 PM PT

The Event

Moderators: Susan Schnall, Michael T. McPhearson
 

Description:  

Join us Saturday evening as we honor four decades of Veterans For Peace and gather in community to reflect, remember, and recommit to the work ahead. The evening begins with a social hour featuring light refreshments and a cash bar, followed by a formal program that commemorates the end of World War II, the Holocaust, and the millions of lives lost to war and genocide.

 

The program will also confront ongoing injustices, including U.S.-backed violence and displacement in Palestine and mass deportations in our own communities. Keynote speaker Michael Prysner, Iraq War veteran and anti-war organizer, will offer a powerful call to action. Retired Army Colonel and former diplomat Ann Wright will share her continued commitment to peace since resigning from the State Department in protest of the 2003 Iraq War.

 

The evening will include a solemn *presenté* ceremony honoring VFP members who have passed in the past year and a celebration of members and chapters recognized for their outstanding efforts in the pursuit of peace and justice. This reception is both a tribute to our legacy and a rallying moment for the future.

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Event

Sunday, July 27, 2025

8:30 - 9:45 pm PT

 

Militarization of Japan under the "Pivot to China" strategy

Moderator: Rachel Clark
Panelists:  
Kanako Matsuda · Mari Shintani  · Ken'ichi Narikawa

Description: The reality of hosting U.S. military bases and Japanese self-defense forces under the U.S. command: chemical pollution, noise pollution, constant threat to their daily life by hosting military bases. Japan's lack of sovereignty. 

Kanako Matsuda is a member of Okinawa Environmental Network and of Ginowan Churamizu kai (Society of Clean Water in Ginowan City, Okinawa) 

 

Born on the island of Okinawa, she has been working for the restoration of Ryukyu Okinawa's rights and environmental protection since 2020.
Master's student, specializing in environmental justice.

 

Mari Shintani lives in Kumamoto Prefecture, Kyushu.  4 years ago, she moved from Kumamoto City to the countryside where she was surprised to realize that the area above her house had become a training ground for military aircraft flying at low altitude, which led her to do a lot of research. Since then she has felt the militarization of her surroundings.

 

Two and a half years ago, she joined the Women's Association for Peace and Against Military Expansion in Kumamoto from its launch, organizing study groups and campaigning against militarization.

 

Ken'ichi Narikawa is a life-time member of Veterans for Peace and co-representative of Veterans for Peace Japan (VFP Japan).

 

He served in the Maritime Self-Defense Force for 27 years. His deployment to Djibouti led him to question the Self-Defense Force, and his request to retire was granted in 2014. 

 

After traveling around the world and across Japan, he purchased and renovated an old farmhouse in a rural community in an outskirt of Hiroshima in 2017, with plans to become a farmer growing rice and soybeans based on natural farming methods. 

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China
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