8 AM, Friday, Jan. 10, 2020
Rally: No U.S. War On Iran! U.S. Out of Iraq & the Middle East! Money For People’s Needs Not War!
Lafayette Hill Rd. & Lincoln Memorial Drive, Milwaukee
Sponsored by Peace Action Wisconsin
More info: 414-269-9525
Photo: WI BOPM, Jan. 4, 2020
No War on Iran! Emergency Protest!
5:30 -8:30 P.M., Wacker and Wabash, Chicago
Donald Trump decided to declare war against Iran when he assassinated a senior Iranian general at the Baghdad airport. Now, predictably Iran has retaliated. The entire region could be engulfed in war and this war can quickly become a global conflict. Join the thousands of people who are demanding no war with Iran, who are demand peace!
Come out to this emergency protest at Wacker and Wabash, the people will not go quietly into another disastrous war in the Middle East!
Iranian children carry portraits of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani during a funeral ceremony in Tehran, January 6, 2020. / https://www.presstv.com/
11:30 A.M., 111 W College Avenue, Appleton, WI – Houdini Plaza
This Thursday at 11:30 A.M., students across the country and within the Fox Valley will be rallying against a potential U.S. war with Iran. We will not be forced into fighting another endless war, it is never the children of the Wall Street aggressors that die in war but the children of working families who never wanted it to happen. If you are able bring a sign, please do so and dress warm!
Baltimore protest, one of dozens in the U.S. over the past week.
Draftees and enlistees — eighteen-year-olds from the South Bronx, factory workers from Buffalo, miners’ sons from Kentucky, unemployed youth from Watts — hate the military and the Vietnam War. They throw a wrench into the Pentagon’s war machine, becoming leaders of the anti-war movement and organizing a union in the conscript military to battle war, racism and their officers. Turn the Guns Around: Mutinies, Soldier Revolts and Revolutions
January 7, 2020
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has targeted the US airbase of Ain al-Assad in Anbar province in western Iraq after launching a wave of attacks to retaliate the US assassination of top Iranian anti-terror commander, Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
“Tens of surface-to-surface missiles” were fired at the strategic airbase and the attack was later confirmed by the US officials.
The IRGC has called for a complete withdrawal of US troops from the Arab country, asserting that it would not differentiate between the US and Israel in retaliating against the assassination of the Iranian national hero.
“We warn US allies providing bases for the [American] terrorist army… that any country serving as the origin of bellicose and aggressive attacks in any form against the Islamic Republic of Iran will be targeted,” read the IRGC statement.
The IRGC added that it would release more details about the strike.
The strike comes as no surprise since Iran had vowed to take a “harsh revenge” in the wake of the US terror attack.
Sirens were reportedly heard and American helicopters flew over the airbase and the total alert was activated.
US President Donald Trump was being briefed about the retaliatory strikes.
“We are aware of the reports of attacks on US facilities in Iraq. The President has been briefed and is monitoring the situation closely and consulting with his national security team,” White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.
RELATED CONTENT: Iraq PM Confirms Receiving “Signed” US Troops Pullout Letter
The Pentagon claimed that it would take necessary measures to protect the US military forces amid heightened tensions in the region.
“We are working on initial battle damage assessments,” Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in statement, adding that the bases targeted were at al-Assad air base and another in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
Following the strikes on Wednesday morning, oil prices rose over 4.5 percent at one point. The benchmark WTI jumped as much as 4.53 percent to $65.54 a barrel before settling down.
Global stock markets have also plunged as investors took fright at the escalating tensions. Tokyo opened sharply lower on Wednesday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index dropped 1.57 percent or 370.40 points to 23,205.32 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was down 1.35 percent or 23.32 points at 1,701.73.
Wall Street stocks lost more ground, with The Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 0.4 percent to close the session at 28,583.68. The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.3 percent to finish at 3,237.18 but the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dipped only a fraction to 9,068.58.
Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) anti-terror group, better known as Hashd al-Sha’abi forces, announced the start of Crushing Response Operation to the United States.
Meanwhile, White House was preparing for an address to the US nation by the American commander in chief.
The story is being updated…
Featured image: Courtesy of Alaa Ghazy @alaaghazy2010
WI BOPM has been friends with the members of Wisconsin FRSO (Fightback) and their national organization for decades. This red baiting attack by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is beyond outrageous – and very dangerous. We express our solidarity with FRSO and like them will never back down to corporations, the banks and the Pentagon that are the real enemies of workers and oppressed peoples the world over.
January 7, 2020 statement from: Wisconsin FRSO
The Freedom Road Socialist Organization was named in an article published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week after a candidate for Milwaukee County Executive was pictured at an anti-war protest near an FRSO banner.
As a revolutionary socialist organization, we do not currently endorse candidates for public office, however, we appreciate political candidates that are willing to take a principled stand against Trump’s escalation of war with Iran.
Over 100 community members, trade unionists, students, elected officials, and progressive candidates attended the anti-war rally on January 4th to say “Money for human needs, not war,” “No war against Iran,” and “U.S. Out of Iraq!”
The Freedom Road Socialist Organization has played a leading role in organizing mass movements in Milwaukee for over a decade. Nationally, FRSO claims hundreds of members as leaders in the anti-war, labor, immigrant rights, campus organizing, and police accountability movements. These popular movements encompass a broad spectrum of political ideologies, from liberalism, to social democracy, to revolutionary socialism. FRSO believes a broad united front strategy is necessary to defeat our enemies, the billionaire capitalist class.
As a billionaire’s son, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele has used his inherited wealth to buy power and attack the interests of working and oppressed people in Milwaukee County. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that a representative of Abele referred to FRSO as “kooks” in the Journal Sentinel’s redbaiting hit piece.
FRSO wants to replace the inherently undemocratic system that allows the super-rich, such as Abele and Trump, to implement their racist and anti-worker agendas over the working class majority. Recent polls show that socialism is extremely popular among young people, so while billionaires slander Socialists as “kooky,” we know that now is the time to build a mass movement for socialism to end the power of the billionaire class.
FRSO will play a leading role in the January 14th protest outside Trump’s rally at the UWM Panther Arena at 5:00pm. We look forward to working with other socialists, as well as progressives, liberals, and all others who oppose Trump’s racist, anti-worker agenda.
Art Build for People’s Climate Coalition / March on the DNC
The People’s Climate Coalition and the Coalition to March on the DNC will be hosting a collaborative Art Build this Sunday January 12th, 2020 from Noon to 7:00pm! The Art Build will be at 1915 E Kenilworth Place, in the basement of Kenilworth Studios.
Feel free to drop by any time and help with making posters, banners, signs and more! We will be making demonstration art for both our Milwaukee Climate Action Movement and for the upcoming Trump Protest on January 14th.
A delegation of 8 Detroit anti-war and community activists delivered the following letter to the Iraq Consulate in metro-Detroit. A number of media figures were given the letter and some interviews were done. The letter also was sent to the Iraq Embassy in DC and the Iran interest section in DC and the Iran mission to the UN.
January 7, 2020
To the families of the martyrs of the recent U.S. bombings;
To the peoples of Iraq and Iran;
To the governments of Iraq and Iran:
We, the members of the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice and the Moratorium Now Coalition, wish to express our profound and heartfelt condolences to you following the outrageous and criminal bombings and assassinations of your people by the Trump regime, the Pentagon militarists and the vultures of Wall Street.
We mourn with you the dozens of victims of the U.S. air strikes against the Popular Mobilization Units who are known world-wide as heroic fighters against ISIS terrorists. The cowardly murders of Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Iranian General Qasem Suleimani have shocked the entire world.
Our organizations have worked tirelessly for many years against United States imperialism which brings war and devastation to all parts of the planet. U.S. imperialism, as the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated before his assassination, “is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” Dr. King went on to explain to the people of the United States that the bombs being dropped overseas (in Vietnam at the time) exploded in our cities right here at home. We continue to see this with the growing poverty and racism here in our own country while hundreds of billions of our tax dollars go into the rat-hole of military spending and imperialist war.
We will continue to build a mass movement right here in the United States to demand –
· Stop the wars against Iraq and Iran, in the Middle East and around the world.
· End the sanctions – another form of warfare
· Bring all U.S. troops, planes and ships home NOW!
· Money for jobs, health care, education and housing – Not War
Sincerely,
David Sole for Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) and
Here are three ways to get involved with the #CLOSEmsdf movement in January!
1. All of Us or None/#CLOSEmsdf Meeting: Join us on Tuesday, January 21st from 5:30 pm to 8 pm at Suite 108 of the Welford Sanders Enterprise Center. The address is 2821 N. Vel R. Phillips Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53212.
2. CMI Panel Series: Reentry: Ready or Not: The very existence of Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility exemplifies the failure of Wisconsin’s reentry system. Join us on Thursday, January 23rd from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at Turner Hall to participate in this important community conversation. The address is 1034 N. Vel R. Phillips Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53203.
3. Smart Justice Lobby Day:
Join us on Wednesday, January 29th at 11:30 am at the Wisconsin State Capitol to demand that Wisconsin policymakers overhaul the harmful policies and practices that force people to be detained at Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility.
Best regards,
The #CLOSEmsdf Team
No War in Iran – Global Day of Action
Leaflet (Print out 8 1/2 x 11, Cut in Half): Milwaukee Global Day Of Action Iran Iraq 1 25 2019
As a part of the Stand For Peace!
12 NOON – 1 P.M. Corner of North Avenue and Dr. MLK Blvd.
Thank you to everybody who came out to protest US military occupation in the Middle East on January 4th! But that was only the beginning. We do not want to lose momentum now! The anti-war, anti-imperialist movement in the United States needs to show Washington DC that we are serious about preventing another genocidal invasion – this time in Iran. Please join us again as we take to the streets, this time at the corner of North Ave and Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd.
