by Steve Chavez
Daily Lobo Guest Columnist
In the 1980’s, many peace groups marched against U.S. policy in Central America. I began attending some of their meeting in 1986.
I also began intense research on the groups and I am now doing the same with the groups of today. Who are the leaders of the groups and what is their goal?
I am a musician with a special interest in Guatemala and Mexico and their music. The first meeting I attended was in 1986 on Guatemala sponsored by the New Mexico Peace Council. The meeting was in support of the rebel movement. This did not make sense. The council was the leading force. Their members in turn started their own groups to make it appear that there were many groups. I was surprised when they were openly raising aid for the rebel movement. I attended another on El Salvador and again they supported the Marxist dominated rebels. New El Salvador Today even raised money in America’s churches saying the money was going to aid the rural people. The rural people were actually the people in what they called the “zones of control.” These zones were Marxist rebel controlled. (Did Marx believe in God?) Then there is no Son of God and yet they raised money from the believers of the Son of God.
At the same time they supported Nicaragua and funded and supported Construction Brigades filled with peace-minded students. When Daniel Ortega was not re-elected, the Construction Brigades and all the other groups who were there to “help the people” left.
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It proves that they were actually helping an ideology.
I began intense research on these peace groups and in particular the New Mexico Peace Council. The leader of this public group was Gerry Bradley. Gerry was also the head of N.M. Marxist Educators for Socialist Action. There was also a UNM Peace Council.
I’m sure you’ve all heard of the United States Peace Council run by the Communist Party of the United States? George Meyers, Chairman of the Labor Department, advocated on UNM grounds, the overthrow of the United States “through force if necessary!” The U.S. Peace Council was part of the World Peace Council. Arkady Shevchenko, the highest-ranking person to ever defect from the Soviet Union, stated at Popejoy Hall, in response to my question about the Peace Councils, that the World Peace Council is a “nest of KGB spies.”
The KGB leading all the way to the UNM Peace Council? To me, that’s the culmination of my research and yet it was never reported. What if my research on these groups lead to the CIA?
Who are the groups of today? On Jan. 27, the Lobo printed a letter by Fiona Sinclair with the New Mexico Solidarity Network. The Network was the main organizer of the International Day of Action for Peace held on Jan. 18 and also sponsors and endorses many of other actions. I contacted Fiona, on the e-mail address in the letter, requesting if the group is affiliated with any national or international political organization and who their leader is. Her response: “We are all decision makers, and we are not affiliated with any one group, national or international.”
On Feb. 7, the Lobo printed another letter by Georgia Bennett with the Stop the War Machine. I contacted the group’s Web site at www.stopthewarmachine.org, where it states that “the SMW committee came out of the broader peace and social justice group, the New Mexico Solidarity Network. We felt a more specific focus was needed here on the local Military Industrial Complex: the War Machine.” Georgia’s response to me about the Network was, “I don’t know much about the Solidarity Network.”
After a few more Web sites, I found solidnet.org. Look for yourself. It is not my fault my research leads this way. The title states: The purpose of Solid Net (Solidarity Network) is to inform about the activities as well as the ideological and political views of different Communist and Workers’ Parties on National and International issues.”
After the defeat of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua in 1989 and the further collapses of communism that followed, I noticed many of the student activists quit school without degrees because they spent so much time on being “active.” Most students didn’t know who their leader was or their goal. If I tried to explain to them that they were not in a peace group but in an anti-United States, pro-Communist Internationalist cult-like group. Some students at these meeting would thank me for informing them. Other students, otherwise known as the shouters, were brainwashed beyond repair. The leaders of these groups hated when I came because they were there to recruit students.
Last year I wrote a letter exposing the hypocrisy of Don Schrader, the “ultimate peacemaker.” Have you seen him in front of the bookstore? He hasn’t been there since the day after my letter.
If you’re still not convinced go to the Peace and Justice Center, conveniently located across the street, and look at how many wars they do support and justify.
Now, get back to the real reason you are here. Don’t become a professional peace activist hoping for another war so you can feel important again.
