A message from the United National Antiwar Coalition, https://www.unacpeace.org/
In 2016, UNAC sent members on fact-finding and solidarity delegations to Syria and the Philippines. We spoke at a protest meeting and rally in Warsaw, Poland, where NATO was holding a summit, and built anti-NATO rallies in several cities in the US. We helped found the Hands off Syria Coalition, which is making great strides towards building an opposition to the US intervention in that country. We co-sponsored and helped build rallies for Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani political prisoner being held in solitary confinement and sentenced to 86 years for crimes she did not commit.
We supported campaigns to free all Muslim political prisoners falsely arrested by the US government. We protested at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions and built rallies to help interject the issue of US wars abroad into the elections. We built an organization and web site to support human rights and freedom of speech in Odessa, Ukraine, sent a delegation to a rally in Odessa to commemorate the killing of pro-democratic rights protesters, and sponsored tours of people from Odessa in the US. We attended the 20th anniversary of the Southern Human Rights Organizer’s Conference and other meetings and conferences of UNAC affiliated and supported groups.
But 2017 promises to be a watershed year for UNAC and the movement as a whole. The presidential election campaigns did not address the issues of US sponsored wars, which continue in several counties. This is because both candidates are pro-war. The election of Donald Trump threatens to break the agreements that the US negotiated with Iran, and pro-war people are being proposed for key positions. Additionally, threats to immigrants, to Muslims, and to many social programs threaten to accelerate the wars at home. People have been coming together to protest the Trump agenda, and these demonstrations are broadly attended by people from the climate change movement, the anti-war movement, the Black Lives Matter movement, the civil liberties, labor and other movements fighting the attacks from the government, which, under Trump, will likely accelerate.
People will not wait four years to try and turn this around through new elections. We can expect to see mass movements developing as people take to the streets to struggle against wars and to protect gains won through generations of struggle. UNAC will play a central role in these struggles. We will hold our next convention in Richmond, Virginia in late April, 2017, around the time of the end of the first 100 days of the Trump administration. This conference will be held in an area that is new for us and is designed to reach out to the growing movement and to new UNAC affiliates throughout the South.
We need your help! UNAC is one of the very few national organizations in the US that has consistently opposed U.S. aggression at home and abroad. Our coalition includes some of the most active anti-war groups across the country, organizing major marches, conferences and trips abroad to support peace and justice. Because we do not rely on any political parties, NGOs, or outside organization, we are asking you to donate to support UNAC’s work. Because we are a totally self-supporting organization, we can analyze current events and take positions on issues without restrictions placed on us. Our agenda is to oppose US imperialism at all turns, not just when it is politically convenient. That is why we need your help.
To make a donation by check or online, please go here: https://www.unacpeace.org/donate.html.
If your organization would like to join UNAC, please go here: https://www.unacpeace.org/join.html
“Not My President!” across the country for the week following reactionary demagogue and billionaire Donald Trump’s win. People of all nationalities, led by youth, denounced his program of racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, sexism, and homophobia.
