Veterans For Peace (VFP)
1404 North Broadway
St. Louis MO 63102
United States
Contact person: Mike Ferner
+1 314 725 6005
+1 314 725 7103
vfp@veteransforpeace.org
mike@veteransforpeace.org
http://www.veteransforpeace.org
Topics
- Peace politics
- Educational policy/project
- Human rights
About us
Veterans For Peace was founded in 1985, as a non-profit 501c3 educational organization and recognized as a United Nations Non-Governmental Organization in 1990. The organization includes men and women veterans of all eras and duty stations spanning the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), World War II, the Korean, Vietnam, Gulf and current Iraq wars as well as other conflicts. Our collective experience tells us wars are easy to start and hard to stop and that those hurt are often the innocent.
We draw on our personal experiences and perspectives gained as veterans :
• to raise public awareness of the true costs and consequences of militarism and war - and to seek peaceful, effective alternatives,
• to restrain our government from intervening, overtly and covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations,
• to end the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons,
• to seek justice for veterans and victims of war,
• to abolish war as an instrument of national policy.
Activities:
• War in Iraq: VFP local chapters continue to conduct educational forums, demonstrations and ongoing Iraq memorial displays, such as Arlington West, to remember the growing human cost of the war, to end the occupation and to bring our troops home now!
• At home: Members and chapters actively participate in efforts to save VA healthcare and defend veterans’ rights; to protect our civil liberties threatened by the “Patriot Act” and other repressive legislation; to provide counseling to active duty military needing assistance through the GI Rights Hotline ; and to provide alternative information to counter military recruiters in the schools.
• Vietnam: VFP has worked with other Vietnam veterans to bring medical supplies; help build clinics, hospitals, and schools; advocate for Agent Orange victims and promote reconciliation and friendship between our two countries and peoples.
• SOA Watch: Each year VFP members from across the country go to Fort Benning, Georgia, to demonstrate for the closing of the Army's infamous School of the Americas, a training center for thousands of soldiers from repressive regimes in Latin America with long records of human rights abuses.
• Korea: After revelations of the massacres of civilians by American soldiers during the Korean War, we sent several fact-finding delegations to investigate these allegations and bring the hidden history of that war before the public. Today we continue to work for an end to that conflict through our Korea Peace Campaign.
• Vieques: Along with other veteran and community groups, we actively supported the people of Puerto Rico in their struggle to end the US Navy's six decades of bombing and shelling on the island municipality of Vieques. We continue to support current efforts for cleaning up the environment and return of the land to the people of Vieques.
• Colombia: VFP sent fact-finding delegations to this violence-torn land and educated U.S. citizens on US military involvement, the murder of union leaders by para-militaries and other human rights abuses, including the harmful effects of chemical defoliants used in the "war on drugs".
• Central America: In the 1980s, we opposed US sponsored wars and continue to support people struggling for their rights and dignity. We regularly send election observers to Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador in support of justice and peace.
Mike Ferner is the Interim Director of Veterans For Peace.
For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.