Rhode Island Anti-War Committee

OPPOSE U.S. IMPERIALISM. Friday, September 25, 4 PM in Providence.
Join with the RI Anti-War Committee to stand against American militarism. Demand a permanent end to the U.S./Israel war on Iran. Stop the oil embargo on Cuba. No more aid to Israel and support self-determination for the Palestinian people. Call for the U.S. to sign on to the UN Treaty to Ban Nuclear Weapons. We meet every Tuesday and Friday at 4 PM at the intersection of Francis and Gaspee Streets across from the Providence Place Mall. Bring friends, signs and banners. Share our Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/3733581220138826/3741455632684718. Help spread the word.
The A.I. Race: China vs. the United States. Joshua Cooper Ramo is a leading scholar on China and currently CEO of Sornay, LLC. In an interview on CNBC, he expressed doubt about the prospects of the U.S. and China reaching an accord about reigning in the development of A.I. and establishing safeguards on its dangers. When China hears talk about slowing down the growth of A.I., it interprets that as the desire and intention of the U.S. to curb its development in China alone. In 1839, when China was an underdeveloped country, Britain invaded it in the O***m Wars and then China was invaded by nine other nations over the next 30 years. Since that time, Chinese leaders have vowed never again to let their nation lag behind in technological development.
Ramo, who has lived and worked in China for 25 years, said intense technological innovation is of paramount importance in China. In the early 2000s, when Intel tried to sell China older models of semiconductors, China rejected them and set about designing and building their own. As far as safety goes, it comes first in the Chinese way of thinking, unlike the profit first mentality in America. The Chinese government has world-class PhD tech experts inside it. They spend time thinking about the effects of A.I. on their country and take that into account in their planning.
When asked about China’s domestic economy and lack of internal consumption, Ramo said the government is always tinkering and experimenting with ways to deal with that. Rather than slowing down the growth of A.I., the Chinese are working to control and absorb the shock of it to their country. As an example, he mentioned that 20 years ago China employed 1.5 million workers making shoes. Now there is no one employed in that industry. A solution was found to mitigate the effect on workers who were employed in that field. The same effort will be applied to integrate workers affected by A.I. into new fields of employment. They will not be left to fend for themselves as workers in the U.S. will likely be.
U.S. policies attempting to curb China’s growth have failed. Remember Trump’s 150% tariffs of just last year? Both countries are extremely important to the world economy. Just as the nuclear arms race in the 1980s led wiser minds to negotiate détente, hopefully China and the U.S. can find a way to cooperate on dealing with Artificial Intelligence.

RI Antiwar Committee at PVD Fest Saturday

Free Palestine, NO WAR on Iran, End the blockade of Cuba,

PROTEST U.S. IMPERIALISM. Stand with the RI Anti-War Committee to demand that the U.S. end its war on Iran. Let Cuba live. End the oil embargo. Call for a halt to U.S. aid to Israel and instead, provide sufficient humanitarian aid for the Palestinians. Stop all U.S. military incursions around the world. We meet every Tuesday and Friday at 4 PM at the intersection of Francis and Gaspee Streets across from the Providence Place Mall. Bring friends, signs and banners. Share our Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1353429870194027/1353429880194026. Help spread the word.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place. The calls for reigning in or slowing down the development of artificial intelligence are growing. At the same time, though, there are voices saying that we must push ahead with A.I. or our adversaries will take the lead. Thus far, few politicians besides Bernie Sanders want the government to act on regulating A.I. and the Trump administration has dismissed concerns about A.I. running amuck and harming humans.
The most influential group in this debate is the billionaire class. They have reaped enormous profits from the development of A.I. as the seven major companies involved in this work have been powering the growth of the stock market for the last year or so. The investors who have poured billions of dollars into the building of data centers would also stand to lose if the government intervened and put the brakes on A.I. growth.
It’s like a new arms race. Instead of nuclear weapons though, it’s A.I. agents that might take things into their own hands and design a biological weapon that would wipe out humanity. More than ever, we need international cooperation rather than U.S. domination to develop solutions to the problems facing the world’s people.
Gone are the days when the biggest gripe about A.I. was spell check.

OPPOSE U.S. IMPERIALISM. Friday, September 11, 4 PM in Providence.
Join with the RI Anti-War Committee to stand against American militarism. Demand a permanent end to the U.S./Israel war on Iran. Stop the oil embargo on Cuba. No more aid to Israel and support self-determination for the Palestinian people. Call for the U.S. to sign on to the UN Treaty to Ban Nuclear Weapons. We meet every Tuesday and Friday at 4 PM at the intersection of Francis and Gaspee Streets across from the Providence Place Mall. Bring friends, signs and banners. Share our Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/3733581220138826/3741455622684719. Help spread the word.
Push Back Against Trump’s Attempt to Dominate Latin America. It is Trump’s often-stated goal to push China out of Latin America and curtail its influence there. However, despite U.S. efforts, China has become Peru’s largest trading partner. China has done this as U.S. and European businesses have pulled back from buying Peruvian minerals and goods. China now buys about a third of Peru’s exports.
The State Department has warned Peruvian officials that China’s $1.3 billion investment in its newly constructed port in Chancay will erode Peru’s sovereignty. But Peruvian officials point out that the port is regulated by its own authority, police, customs and government ministries. The modern port, which is north of Lima, has autonomous cranes, driverless trucks and a mile-long tunnel beneath the city that is used by container traffic.
While China’s investments have powered Peru’s economy, the U.S. has pushed for Peru to buy into U.S. security projects. These include a $1.5 billion modernization of Peru’s naval base and the purchase of American F-16 fighter jets. These expenditures will only benefit American weapon manufacturers and do nothing for the Peruvian people.

OPPOSE U.S. IMPERIALISM. Friday, September 4, 4 PM in Providence
Join with the RI Anti-War Committee to stand against American militarism. Demand a permanent end to the U.S./Israel war on Iran. Stop the oil embargo on Cuba. No more aid to Israel and support self-determination for the Palestinian people. Call for the U.S. to sign on to the UN Treaty to Ban Nuclear Weapons. We meet every Tuesday and Friday at 4 PM at the intersection of Francis and Gaspee Streets across from the Providence Place Mall. Bring friends, signs and banners. Share our Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/3733581220138826/3741455629351385. Help spread the word.
How Will This Benefit the Venezuelan People? The U.S. government is forming a partnership with a private oil producing company led by Alejandro Betancourt López. The White House announced that it had reached a deal with the Venezuelan government and Mr. Betancourt’s company to secure billions of barrels of oil reserves. Mr. Betancourt has been under investigation in Spain and Switzerland for money laundering and tax fraud. He lives in Britain and was barred from foreign travel. However, the Trump administration pressed these governments to allow him to travel to Venezuela to participate in making these deals. That alone should raise concerns about how much oil wealth will flow to the Venezuelan people.
The White House said the deal will come at no cost to the U.S. and that the federal government would be guaranteed 20% of the oil that Mr. Betancourt’s company produces at cost. The U.S. would also have the right of first refusal to buy the remaining 80% of the company’s output. The U.S. government’s partnership could make it easier to shield Mr. Betancourt’s company from legal scrutiny or political upheaval.
So far the capture of Mr. Maduro by the U.S. has done little to change the fortunes of Venezuelans. Millions remain in poverty and electricity blackouts continue to occur while no date has been set for new elections. Most Venezuelans consider the oil reserves to be at the center of their country’s identity. They are just beginning to reckon with the realization that a huge amount of oil has just been turned over to the United States.

OPPOSE U.S. WARS. Tuesday, September 1, 4 PM in Providence
Stand with the RI Anti-War Committee to demand that the U.S. end its war on Iran. Let Cuba live. End the oil embargo. Call for a halt to U.S. aid to Israel and instead, provide sufficient humanitarian aid for the Palestinians. Stop all U.S. military incursions around the world. We meet every Tuesday and Friday at 4 PM at the intersection of Francis and Gaspee Streets across from the Providence Place Mall. Bring friends, signs and banners. Share our Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1353429870194027/1353429876860693.
Help spread the word.
Stabbing Oneself in the Foot. That’s about the size of it, as the Trump Administration continues to craft its foreign policy priorities. At the same time that the Group of 20 (the largest Western economies) is meeting in Asheville, NC, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is meeting in Kyrgyzstan. The SCO consists of 10 nations including China, Russia, Iran and India. Rather than waging a war like the U.S. is doing that has upended the global economy, causing inflation and shortages, China is using its geopolitical and economic power to lead the non-Western nations to undermine Trump’s attempts to dominate the world.
Through its purchases of Russian and Iranian oil, China has been instrumental in helping those economies weather the sanctions imposed on them by Trump. China’s Xi Jinping is casting himself as a leader who can push back against U.S. hegemony. He is showing that he can build relationships with other countries while Trump is unraveling relations with nations that were once staunch allies.
More nations like Canada seem willing to turn away from the U.S. and seek other means to develop economic relations with the rest of the world. It is noteworthy that the tariffs that Trump imposes on other countries are ultimately paid for by the American consumer who is already facing rising inflation and interest rates.