United National Antiwar Coalition

UNAC statement on Syria

U.S./Israel Hands Off Syria!

A Statement by the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)

The May 2-3 and 4-5 nighttime bombings of Syria’s International Airport, military installations in a Damascus suburb and a military supply depot reportedly killed 300 people. The bombings were initially denied but then confirmed by Israel and soon after given the stamp of approval by the Obama Administration.

The previous week President Obama and Secretary of Defense Charles Hagel threatened to escalate U.S. intervention in Syria based on the unsubstantiated charge that Syria had employed weapons of mass destruction, in this case the deadly sarin gas.

What is incontrovertible is that U.S. allies in the region – Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia – have supplied hundreds of millions of dollars in lethal military aid to destabilize the Syrian regime. The U.S. itself claims to have supplied some $400 million in “non-lethal aid.” The U.S., which funds Israel’s multi-billion dollar “Iron Dome” missile program, is the chief military force in the region.

No serious observers believe that Israel, the largest recipient of U.S. aid in the world, to the tune of $4 billion annually, acts without U.S. approval – the same is undeniable with regard to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. NATO ally, Turkey.

In the case of Qatar, a nation without an army, the U.S.-established and privatized Blackwater military installation is used daily as an operational base for the U.S. war in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.

The U.S. Machiavellian strategy in Syria is first and foremost to advance its economic, military and regional “interests.” The latter includes deepening the isolation of Iran, whose oil wealth the U.S. corporate elite seeks to regain.

We recognize no rights among imperial nations to determine the future of any oppressed nation on earth, not to mention the modern day neo-colonial interveners. With regard to Syria, that right belongs to the Syrian people only.

The U.S. government is presently restrained by the mass antiwar sentiment expressed in repeated polls over the past two years. The most recent Pew Research poll indicates that 62 percent are opposed to any U.S. intervention in Syria. We must add to this the fact the U.S. bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the decades long U.S. support to the Egyptian Mubarak dictatorship as well as the constant drone attacks on Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia have earned it the deep hatred of the peoples of the Middle East and beyond.

The Iraq “weapons of mass destruction” justification for this still-raging war, that has taken the lives of 1.5 million Iraqis so far, and the ongoing war in Afghanistan, wherein the U.S. puppet Hamid Karzai regime is discredited around the world, has convinced social justice activists everywhere that the U.S. imperial rulers fight for oil and military-geographic advantage and not for peace and justice.

More than ever the U.S. and the worldwide antiwar and social justice movement must demand:

· U.S./Israel Hands Off Syria!

· Bring All U.S. Troops and Mercenaries Home Now!

· Self-determination for the Syrian People!

· No to U.S. Sanctions Anywhere!

· End All U.S. Aid to Israel!

· U.S. Out of the Middle East Now!

5/9/13

Syrians and their supporters demand “Hands Off Syria” August 29, 2013 in New York City.

http://www.workers.org/

Full statement: http://tinyurl.com/mrwoq2a

The insidious lies of empire are always used to spearhead colonial attacks against oppressed nations. Trump, the self proclaimed isolationist, transformed before our eyes into the Clinton interventionist, an alternative he had earlier used to frighten so many. London, Paris and Washington rushed a proposal to the United Nations Security Council blaming Syria.

The U.S. stance reeks of hypocrisy, as within the last month U.S.-led bombings in Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria, have killed up to 700 civilians, including hundreds of children, according to reports from those countries.

Stop the war! U.S. out!

It is the duty of those living in the belly of the beast, in the U.S., to unequivocally demand imperialist forces leave Syria. We have to combat bourgeois propaganda until our vocal cords are worn. The same media that justify the police lynchings of Black children in the U.S. are using the deaths of Syrian children to justify war.

Sept. 7 march in NYC from Union Square to Times Square.

By Kris Balderas-Hamel
and Dorothy Brown
Detroit

Workers World Party’s Detroit Branch, along with the Wayne State University chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, hosted a Midwest conference March 24-26 on resisting capitalism and all its oppressions and fighting for socialism. This important gathering took place during the 100th anniversary year of the Russian Revolution, which was discussed at the conference, along with the need for socialist revolution in the United States here and now.

Conferencegoers came from many states, including Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, and were predominantly youthful. More came from Detroit and other Michigan cities and towns. For many it was their first WWP conference.

The weekend kicked off the evening of March 24 with a “Red, Black and Queer” slideshow presentation by longtime union and LGBTQ organizer Gerry Scoppettuolo of Boston before a packed house at the Detroit WWP headquarters. “Red, Black and Queer” refers to the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union in the Congress of Industrial Organizations which achieved unity of Black, white and gay union members. The slideshow referenced decades of people’s resistance in the struggle for LGBTQ liberation…

Joe Mshahwar, a youth leader in the Detroit WWP branch and a key conference organizer, gave Workers World his assessment of the revolutionary weekend: “The conference was a tremendous success. Youth cadre, with the support and hard work of older comrades, were able to pull off a thoroughly Bolshevik conference in the midst of a multifaceted ruling class offensive on local, state, national and international levels. Comrades and allies brought powerful analysis rooted in struggle, spanning our fight on the streets of Detroit to the fight on the streets of Caracas.

“On Saturday, after a full day of plenaries, conference participants joined SDS in facing down pigs to demand all-gender bathrooms at WSU. The night ended with an open-mic cultural program featuring dozens of spoken word and musical artists and a resistance sing-along. It was an experience I won’t forget, a testament to the powerful work of communists in the ravaged rust belt.”

Conference sessions can be viewed on the Workers World Party – Michigan Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/WWP.michigan/

Members and friends of Workers World Party at Wayne State University in Detroit March 26, 2017

Hosted by Jewish Voice for Peace – Milwaukee

Ascension Lutheran Church, 1236 S Layton Blvd., Milwaukee, 6-8 P.M.

You’re invited to this exciting panel presentation with:
• Lubnah Shomali, B A D I L: Resource Center for Palestinian
Residency & Refugee Rights, Bethlehem, Palestine
• Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Executive Director, Voces de la
Frontera
• Gregory L Chambers Jr., Co-organizer, SURJ (Showing Up for
Racial Justice) – MKE, and Plaintiff, ACLU lawsuit against
Milwaukee Police Dept for stop-and-frisk policing practices
• Michelle Boyd, Turtle Mountain Chippewa

**Moderated by Rachel Ida Buff, Jewish Voice for Peace-Milwaukee

Come join the discussion about the right of return, build connections between Badil and US advocacy groups/communities, and connect issues of Palestinian right of return to other Indigenous, racial justice, and refugee struggles in our communities.

Here are some questions the panelists will consider:
• While the US limits refugees from several Muslim-majority
countries, where do Palestinian refugees stand in the world?
• How is their struggle connected to the immediate issues
facing various immigrant and refugee populations, and how is
it different?
• How can we support practical visions to realize the right of
return for Palestinian refugees in the context of the struggle
for human rights for all?

ACCESSIBILTY: Ascension is wheelchair accessible. The wheelchair accessible entrance is at the south end of the building off the rear parking lot.

For those who are driving: Please park in the parking lot at the rear of the church and use the south entrance to enter. [The primary parking lot entrance is under construction.] There will be signs posted inside directing folks to the room.

+ Lubnah is coming from Bethlehem, Palestine to speak at the JVP National Member Meeting coming up in Chicago at the end of the month and then will be touring the midwest. See link below for more info:
https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/badil-midwest-tour/

Co-Organizers & Co-Sponsors:
Ascension Lutheran Church
BADIL: Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights
Friends of Palestine
Facing the Nakba – An Education Project
Jewish Voice for Peace – Milwaukee
US Palestinian Community Network – Milwaukee
Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition

Fight for $15

#FightFor15

Today, #FightFor15 workers and The Movement for Black Lives activists across the country are taking to the streets to fight against racial and economic injustice. Learn more: FightFor15.org

Watch the livestream. Comment. Share. Let the world see that you are fighting right there with us.

Blacksburg, VA April 4

https://workersworldbaltimore.org/

Saturday’s Exciting Program:

10—10:30 Registration – Food canteen is open

10:30 promptly —11 am — Welcome and opening talks – Rev. CD Witherspoon, Baltimore civil rights activist, Mumia Abu-Jamal “Harriet’s Daughters” and Monica Moorehead, Workers World Party’s Presidential candidate

11—12:30 pm — First Panel: Fighting racism, police terror, and the war against immigrants; Fighting for Indigenous, women’s, and trans liberation

– Special message from Vaughn Prison rebellion –

Floor discussion – Questions & comments

12:30—1:50 pm – Second Panel: Capitalism is at a dead end, socialism is the future – Floor discussion

1:50—2 pm – Special presentation: Joining a revolutionary socialist party – Lamont Lilly, Workers World Party’s Vice-Presidential candidate and participant in the Freddie Gray protests

2—2:30 pm – Lunch in Hall

2:30—3:30 pm Keynote presentation: “Resistance in the Epoch of Trump – Next Step May Day” Larry Holmes – First Secretary, Workers World Party

3:30—5 pm – Third Panel:  Stopping the war, at home and abroad – Floor discussion – Questions & comments – Special report on defending Cuba and Venezuela –

5—6 pm – Anti-capitalist, socialist and anti-fascist unity in the epoch of Trump

6—6:30 pm Dinner in Hall

6:30—7 pm The artist’s role in revolution – Special preview and screening of “Up.Rise the Film” by film makers Rebecka Jackson and Rasika Ruwanpathirana

7—8:30 pm – Summations and action proposals for May Day

9 – Midnight Get-together at Harriet Tubman Solidarity Center, 2011 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218 – Drinks on us!

When movements come together, we are unstoppable. Join us Tuesday: http://bit.ly/FF15APRIL4 #FightFor15 #BeyondTheMoment