http://no2nato2019.org

April 4, 2019, will mark the 51st anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the internationally revered leader in struggles against racism, poverty and war.

And yet, in a grotesque desecration of Rev. King’s lifelong dedication to peace, this is the date that the military leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have chosen to celebrate NATO’s 70th anniversary by holding its annual summit meeting in Washington, D.C. This is a deliberate insult to Rev. King and a clear message that Black lives and the lives of non-European humanity, and indeed the lives of the vast majority, really do not matter.

Since its founding, the U.S.-led NATO has been the world’s deadliest military alliance, causing untold suffering and devastation throughout Northern Africa, the Middle East and beyond. Hundreds of thousands have died in U.S./NATO wars in Iraq, Libya, Somalia and Yugoslavia. Millions of refugees are now risking their lives trying to escape the carnage that these wars have brought to their homelands, while workers in the 29 NATO member-countries are told they must abandon hard-won social programs in order to meet U.S. demands for even more military spending.

Dr. King’s words linking the three evils of American society: Militarism, Racism and Poverty, and his deeply profound remark that every bomb that falls on other countries is a bomb dropped on our inner cities, reveal the deep-rooted relationship between militarism and the social, racial, economic and environmental injustices that now impoverish whole cities and rural communities and have plagued our society and the world for a long time. It was exactly one year before he was murdered that Rev. King gave his famous speech opposing the U.S. war in Vietnam, calling the U.S. government “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world” and declaring that he could not be silent.

We cannot be silent either. As Rev. King taught us, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

Every year NATO has held its summits, people around the world have organized massive protests against it: in Chicago (2012), Wales (2014), Warsaw (2016), Brussels (2017 & 2018) — and 2019 will be no exception.

We are calling for a peaceful mass mobilization against this year’s NATO Summit in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, March 30. Additional actions will take place at the opening of the NATO meeting on April 4. We ask you to make every effort to join with us in Washington DC, or, if not possible, organize a rally or demonstration in your area. We need to show, in the strongest possible way, our opposition to NATO’s destructive wars and its racist military policies around the world.

We also invite you to add your, and/or your organization’s name to the list of supporters of the anti-NATO, Anti-War and Anti-Racism mass actions in Washington DC. Please go to the web site at http://no2nato2019.org to add your organizational or individual endorsement of the action or to make a donation to build the action.

You can also contact us by email: Contact@No2NATO2019.org.

Thank You.

Steering Committee for the March 30^th Anti-NATO Mobilization:

• Bahman Azad, Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases • Ajamu Baraka, Black Alliance for Peace • Leah Bolger, World Beyond War • Alison Bodine, Mobilization Against War and Occupation • Gerry Condon, Veterans For Peace • Miguel Figueroa, Canadian Peace Congress • Sara Flounders, International Action Center • Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance • Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler, Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ • Madelyn Hoffman, U.S. Peace Council • Tarak Kauff, Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases, Veterans For Peace • Marilyn Levin, UNAC • Joe Lombardo, UNAC • Tamara Lorincz, Canadian Voice of Women for Peace • Jeff Mackler, West Coast UNAC • Alfred L. Marder, U.S. Peace Council • Sarah Martin, Women Against Military Madness • Nancy Price, WILPF-US Section • Paul Pumphrey, Friends of the Congo • Cindy Sheehan, March on the Pentagon • Paki Wieland, CODEPINK • Phil Wilayto, Virginia Defenders • Ann Wright, Veterans For Peace, CODEPINK • Rev. Bruce Wright, Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign and Refuge Ministries • Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance

https://bit.ly/2RbJmku

Listen to the Sun. Jan. 6, 2019 special edition of the Pan-African Journal: Worldwide Radio Broadcast hosted by Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire. The program features our regular PANW report with dispatches on the delayed election results in the Democratic Republic of Congo; Cuba is commemorating the 60th anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution in Jan. 1959; the Syrian government is still battling the remnants of terrorists inside their country; and there are conflicting reports over the status of the doctors’ strike in the Southern African state of Zimbabwe. In the second hour we probe deeper into the character of the national elections in the DRC through an interview with President Joseph Kabila and other commentators. In the final hour we continue our focus on the history of the Cuban Revolution.

Rally – Madison United Against the Far Right

2 E Main Street, Wisconsin State Capitol, State Street Side, 11 A.M.

On January 12, far-right groups are planning a “We the People” rally to be held at the Wisconsin state capitol. The organizers of this rally include the 3% United Patriots and The Free Men Report.

The 3% United Patriots is a right-wing militia group that has been organizing armed vigilante squads at the US-Mexico border for years. They detain people crossing the border, handcuffing them and delivering them to US Border Patrol. They’ve since spread across the country.

The Free Men Report is a Madison-based far-right group. They organize against the rights of immigrants and against women. They harassed a group of UW students marching against the Kavanaugh appointment, screaming at people as they walked past.

The far right has been exploding in growth since the election of Donald Trump. The murder in Charlottesville at the “Unite the Right” rally and the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue are two of the most visible attacks, but they are not the only ones. Hate crimes have skyrocketed, pipe bombs were sent through the mail, and others were stabbed to death on a train in Portland and at a bus stop in Boston. Far right groups like Patriot Prayer, the Proud Boys, and the 3%ers have grown in membership and influence.

On Dec 29, dozens of us, from many different political organizations and backgrounds, met to discuss the rise of fascism across the world and in Wisconsin and to organize a response to it. At that meeting, we agreed to hold a counter-rally at the time and location of the far-right rally, where we will gather in large numbers to show that anti-immigrant, racist, and sexist groups have no place in Madison.

We will be rallying at the State Capitol on Jan 12 at 11:30am, on the State Street side, to counter this far-right rally.

We are also having a second organizing meeting on Saturday Jan 5 from 2pm-3:30pm. This meeting is open to the public, even if you can’t attend the rally. Find the Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/398912914181868/.

If you are a part of an organization or group that would like to sponsor, endorse, or help organize, please reach out to the hosts to get in touch.

I’m #StrikeReady… Rising power! Los Angeles is strike ready for our students! #UTLAStrong

UTLA

“The Palestinian people are determined to continue the intifada for all of the national rights of our people. This position is naturally consistent with the struggle of all progressive global forces confronting global imperial arrogance and struggling for independence, self-determination and liberation, for social justice, equality and socialism, based on a fair distribution of the wealth and human principles of peace, rejection of war, imperialism and all forms of oppression and exploitation…” – Ahmad Sa’adat

Today, we remember the 10th anniversary of the Israeli sentencing of prominent Palestinian national liberation and international left leader Ahmad Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. We urge you to join us for an International Week of Action between 15 and 22 January 2019 to free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners!

On 15 January 2019, we will mark the 17th anniversary of Sa’adat’s arrest by the Palestinian Authority in the context of “security cooperation” with the Israeli occupation. After a violent attack on the PA’s Jericho prison in 2006, where Sa’adat was held under United States and British guards, Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades are serving lengthy sentences in Israeli prisons. Sa’adat was sentenced to 30 years in prison, convicted in an Israeli military court of leading a prohibited organization and “incitement.”

Sa’adat is a leader in the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and the Palestinian national liberation movement. He is a figure of international importance and political clarity, targeted behind bars in an attempt to isolate him from his political role. He stands alongside nearly 6,000 fellow Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails on the front lines of the liberation struggle. As such, he is a symbol of Palestinian, Arab and internationalist resistance to capitalism, racism, apartheid and colonization.

The case of Ahmad Sa’adat also clearly highlights the complicity of international powers in the occupation and colonization of Palestine. He and his comrades were held for years under U.S. and British guards in a Palestinian Authority prison – and those guards moved away in a prearranged agreement to allow the Israeli occupation army to attack Jericho prison in 2006. The support of the United States, Britain, Canada, the European Union, Australia and others for the Israeli colonial project continues to perpetuate its impunity as it carries out land confiscations, home demolitions, mass imprisonment, extrajudicial executions, the ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem, the siege on Gaza and further crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The Palestinian Authority kidnapped Sa’adat under false pretenses and imprisoned him for four years before its prison was attacked by the Israeli occupation. This is part and parcel of the policy of “security coordination” that has led to the repeated imprisonment of Palestinians for their political involvement by the PA. Despite critical words, the policy remains firmly in place – with devastating and deadly consequences for Palestinians, as seen in the case of Basil al-Araj.

On 15-22 January 2019, join us in a collective call for the freedom of Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian Prisoners. Join us to build the global grassroots campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions from Israel and complicit corporations. Join us to fight for an end to aid and support for the Israeli occupation that has been confiscating land and lives for over 70 years.

We urge you to organize events, actions and protests in cities, campuses, communities, towns, campuses and all other public spaces. When we raise our voices, we can help to break the Israeli isolation of Ahmad Sa’adat and his fellow Palestinian prisoners. Free Ahmad Sa’adat! Free all Palestinian Prisoners! Free Palestine!

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat

TAKE ACTION:

1. Organize events, actions and protests at Israeli embassies and consulates around the world to urge freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat. Protest in public squares and other open community spaces. Send us your events! Use this form or email samidoun@samidoun.net (Read about past years’ events here.)

2. Distribute this call to action and take media actions, like posting photos with posters calling for freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat and other Palestinian prisoners. Download the posters below and send us your photos! Email us at samidoun@samidoun.net or send us a message on Facebook.

3. Include Ahmad Sa’adat and the Palestinian prisoners in your Palestine solidarity, anti-racism, anti-imperialist and social justice events. Bring flyers and posters or share a statement from Sa’adat as part of your program. Let us know what you’re doing: Email us at samidoun@samidoun.net or send us a message on Facebook.

Important recent writings and interviews by Sa’adat (English):

• Ahmad Sa’adat: Palestine will be freed by the people, not the elites
• Ahmad Sa’adat: Prisons, the Black Liberation movement and the struggle for Palestine
• Letter from Ahmad Sa’adat to Georges Abdallah: “You remain a symbol and a model for us”
• Palestinian leader Ahmad Sa’adat from prison: We are struggling for democracy, liberation and justice for all
• Call to action from Ahmad Sa’adat: Boycott Israel!

POSTERS

Languages: English | Arabic | French | Dutch | Swedish | German | Turkish | Greek | Italian | Spanish | Danish

ENGLISH

Rally to End the Government Shutdown

815 16th Street, NW, AFL-CIO, 12 NOON – 2 P.M.

Join us for a union-led rally to protest the continuing shutdown and resulting furloughs that are financially hurting 800,000 federal employees and families.

The rally will begin at AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C. and will continue with a brief march to the White House after keynote speakers to include furloughed federal employees, Union Leaders, and Members of Congress.

Mark your calendars and come down to have your voice heard!

This event is hosted by: AFGE, AFL-CIO, AFSCME, AFT, APWU, DPE, FEA/NEA, IAFF, IAMAW, IBEW, IBT, IFPTE, MM&P, LIUNA, MEBA MTD, NATCA, NAGE, NALC, NFFE, NNU, NPMHU, NRLCA, NTEU, NWSEO, POPA, PASS, SIU, SEIU, SMART, SATCO, UPTO.