Speaking from Chicago, Bill Ayers, activist and author of the new book, "Demand the Impossible!: A Radical Manifesto," tells Radio Sputnik’s Loud & Clear "we should not only note the International Day of Peace but we should also recommit ourselves to building a popular peace movement."
Reflecting on decades of activism that started with opposing the Vietnam war and taking part in a sit-in outside a pizzeria in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that refused to serve African Americans, Ayers told host Brian Becker, "It’s one of the great failures – of my own activism, of our activism – that we don’t have a robust peace movement capable of stepping into a very treacherous and dangerous time."
During the same week as the International Day of Peace, US President Donald Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly, a multilateral body the US helped design in order to promote global peace after World War II, and threatened new acts of war.
"The week has been dominated by the news that our great leader, Donald Trump, was there at the United Nations threatening to ‘destroy the nation of North Korea’ – in other words a nation of 27 to 28 million people," Loud & Clear’s Becker said Thursday, noting "it’s hard to really take the International Day of Peace seriously in the context of what’s going on."
Ayers, 72, warned fellow activists against becoming so jaded and cynical about the endless war capitalism needs to thrive "that we don’t take seriously a nuclear threat coming from a very dangerous and unstable leader."
Alluding to America’s hot wars in Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria and Somalia, Ayers noticed a paradox: "We consider ourselves – most Americans – a peaceful people, but nothing could be further from the truth."
"We have to raise that consciousness and raise our awareness," Ayers suggested, in order to reach "the point of building an unstoppable social movement."
While recognizing the importance of cultivating a new generation of leaders, "we also need every one of us not to wait for the leader, but actually knock on doors, talk to our neighbors, talk in our classrooms and houses of worship and in our workplaces – because it’s on all of us."
