Category: US Peace Council
Tell the New U.S. Administration — End Economic Sanctions in the Face of the Global COVID-19 Pandemic
worker | February 10, 2021 | 8:55 pm | COVID-19, US Peace Council | Comments closed

Tell the New U.S. Administration — End Economic Sanctions in the Face of the Global COVID-19 Pandemic

Take action and sign the petition – click here!

To: President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and all Members of the U.S. Congress:

We write to you because we are deeply concerned about the impact of U.S. sanctions on many countries that are suffering the dire consequences of COVID-19.

The global COVID-19 pandemic and global economic crash challenge all humanity. Scientific and technological cooperation and global solidarity are desperate needs. Instead, the Trump Administration escalated economic warfare (“sanctions”) against many countries around the globe.

We ask you to begin a new era in U.S. relations with the world by lifting all U.S. economic sanctions.

U.S. economic sanctions impact one-third of the world’s population in 39 countries.

These sanctions block shipments and purchases of essential medicines, testing equipment, PPE, vaccines and even basic food.  Sanctions also cause chronic shortages of basic necessities, economic dislocation, chaotic hyperinflation, artificial famines, disease, and poverty, leading to ens of thousands of deaths. It is always the poorest and the weakest – infants, children, the chronically ill and the elderly – who suffer the worst impact of sanctions.

Sanctions are illegal. They are a violation of international law and the United Nations Charter. They are a crime against humanity used, like military intervention, to topple popular governments and movements.

The United States uses its military and economic dominance to pressure governments, institutions and corporations to end all normal trade relations with targeted nations, lest they risk asset seizures and even military action.

The first step toward change must be an end to the U.S.’ policies of economic war. We urge you to end these illegal sanctions on all countries immediately and to reset the U.S.’ relations with the world.

Add your name – Click here to sign the petition

***

U.S. Peace Council • P.O. Box 3105, New Haven, CT 06515 • (203) 387-0370 • USPC@USPeaceCouncil.org
https://uspeacecouncil.orghttps://www.facebook.com/USPeaceCouncil/@USPeaceCouncil

U.S. Peace Council Statement on the January 6, 2021 Events in Washington DC
worker | January 12, 2021 | 8:34 pm | US Peace Council | Comments closed

U.S. Peace Council Statement on the
January 6, 2021 Events in Washington DC

People’s Movement is Faced with
a Serious Threat
!

January 10, 2021

The deep political and social contradictions of the U.S. capitalist system, which were becoming increasingly visible to the people during the past few decades, and had come to the surface with the election of Donald Trump in 2016, found their most glaring manifestation in the open riot of Trump supporters and the takeover of the Congress Building on January 6th.

The right-wing riot in Washington, DC on 6 January 2021 was a manifestation of the deepening economic and social crisis in the United States. High levels of social inequality and economic disarray engulfing the whole society, for which the U.S. ruling class has no solutions within the framework of the dominant capitalist order, has resulted in the loss of legitimacy of the state and its institutions. Yet, the general malaise in U.S. society is being falsely presented as a fight between Trump and his legions, on the one hand, and the Democrats and ‘moderate’ Republicans, on the other.

What happened: a riot but not a coup

Many have interpreted the January 6th event as a coup attempt by Trump to retain state power by extra-legal means. And many, especially the supporters of the Democratic Party, have been jubilant over the failure of this “coup” attempt and the final victory of Democrats in these elections. The impression is being advanced that this “failed coup” represented the last gasp of an aberrant era that started with the election of Donald Trump and is ending with the transition to Joe Biden. But this was neither a coup attempt against the U.S. ruling class, nor the last phase of a perceived aberrant era in contemporary U.S. history.

First, no successful coup in history has simply resorted to official challenges to the electoral process or the take-over of a country’s parliament by a mob of angry civilians. A coup attempt also requires, the mobilization or support of all or part of the state’s repressive apparatus — military, police, and other coercive entities — and seizure of the state’s executive branch, not simply the country’s parliament. There are many coup examples testify to this pattern — 1953 in Iran, 1973 in Chile, 2002 in Venezuela, 2009 in Honduras, 2014 in Ukraine, and 2019 in Bolivia, just to name a few.

Those who call the January 6 events a coup attempt ignore the fact that the majority of the U.S. ruling class had no problem with the election of Biden for several reasons: (1) Trump had already become too disruptive to the normal operation of the state; (2) Trump’s handling of the pandemic in particular had left the economy and the capitalist class’ legitimacy in tatters; (3) Biden Administration, as a carbon copy of the Obama administration, would serve their interests more smoothly and in a less confrontational way; and (4) Many former Secretaries of Defense from both parties had already warned against any military involvement in the elections. Thus, Trump was aware that any coup attempt would be doomed before it began. As Glenn Greenwald has observed,

“There is a huge difference between, on the one hand, thousands of people shooting their way into the Capitol after a long-planned, coordinated plot with the goal of seizing permanent power, and, on the other, an impulsive and grievance-driven crowd more or less waltzing into the Capitol … and then leaving a few hours later.”

Characterizing what Trump and his supporters did as a coup attempt is a diversion that falls into the misleading narrative of one side of the factional infighting within the U.S. ruling class, that of the Democratic Party.

Second, what happened on January 6 was not simply instigated by Trump and his “enablers,” but was yet another manifestation of the deepening crisis of legitimacy of the U.S. imperialist state, further exacerbated during the past year by the state’s failure to protect people’s lives — both physically and economically — in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Decades of wasteful spending of the country’s resources on wars and militaristic policies abroad, at the expense of people’s most basic needs, have created deep class divisions, polarization, and widespread distrust of state institutions, such that business as usual is becoming impossible for the U.S. ruling parties.

What happened on January 6 was a right-wing populist and racist reaction, in the opposite direction of progressive demands, to the very same cumulative effects of the deepening class and racial divisions and polarization of the whole society — massive unemployment, rampant poverty, and enormous number of deaths — all direct results of the government’s policy of neglect. That, too, was a clear expression of the masses’ distrust for the institutions of the U.S. state. Here, the electoral process was just a trigger, not the cause, of this explosion — in the same way as the assassination of a prince was the trigger for the start of WWI, not its cause.

In Germany during the 1930s, the same dangerous process of the deepening crisis in capitalism led to the rise of Hitler, Nazism, and WWII. There, too, the deeply stressed and poverty-stricken masses of people, who had legitimate objections to the prevailing situation, were misled by “populist” misleaders like Hitler toward the establishment of a fascist state. There, too, the attack on the German parliament, the Reichstag, was the trigger that started the process.

Third, seeing the current crisis as an “aberrant” period caused by the Trump Administration disregards the root causes of the widespread crisis that afflicts the system. The cumulative contradictions of the system that have been intensifying over the past several decades, have more openly come to the surface, and will be acting as the primary driving force of all present and emerging tensions. In other words, the events of January 6th were not the final phase of an “aberrant” Trump era but the beginning phase of a new era of intensified confrontations. Deep-rooted class and racial conflicts, not just superstructural political conflicts, will constitute the main arena of people’s struggle.

Threats to the people’s movement

The events of January 6 at the Capitol building played against a backdrop of severe crises, not only in the U.S. but, indeed, the world – nuclear annihilation, climate catastrophe, and neoliberal destruction of the social contract – which call for a united people’s movement.

These events are being used to distract from more fundamental problems. Overnight, the basic needs of working people for economic relief from evictions, unemployment, and the pandemic itself have been put on the backburner. While a record $740B military appropriation sailed through Congress with only 20 Democrats in opposition, desperately needed reforms that benefit working people have been sidetracked.

A domestic terrorist act is being touted by the Democrats in the name of combating fascism, when in fact it is a further lurch in the direction of the authoritarian state. Existing law already legalizes excessive police powers to address any threat of domestic terrorism. The bipartisan supported Patriot Act, for which Joe Biden takes credit as a major author, already provides a legal veneer to abrogate Bill of Rights freedoms. Obama signed away habeas corpus in 2011 with his NDAA.

These extensions of the coercive power of the state have been and will be used to suppress popular movements and need to be resisted. Likewise, the mania for censoring so-called hate speech will be used for silencing any dissent to the present order.

The failure of the capitol police to prepare for the march, which was organized openly, and the complicity of law enforcement officers with the right-wing white supremacists, who breached the Capitol on January 6 further expose the disparity in the treatment of those who are on the right and the left in the U.S., particularly those who are indigenous, black, and brown. This has been demonstrated throughout 2020 in the treatment of protesters opposing police violence.

The response of the ruling class to this crisis of legitimacy is to increasingly rely on repression because it cannot solve the contradictions of global capitalism.

The way forward

What is happening in the U.S. is a microcosm of what the capitalist financial institutions and elites have wreaked upon the planet through trade agreements and an imperialist foreign policy that has suppressed populations through illegal acts of interference, aggression, and economic warfare designed to create the conditions for exploitation, the theft of land and resources and environmental destruction. Our actions cannot be limited to the U.S. because if the global elites are willing to oppress and exploit people anywhere, the crises we face will continue.

All this tells us that the era of hoping for reforms from above has ended. It is time for the people’s movement to recognize this dangerous qualitative shift in the current situation in the U.S. and adapt its approach, tactics, and organizing methods to the requirements of the present situation.

A unified grassroots mass movement is needed to address the fundamental class contradictions of the system as a whole and not limit itself to fighting against the symptoms solely by seeking cosmetic changes through elections and reforms from above. We need to bring all contingents of the people’s movement — labor, social justice, civil rights, human rights, environmental, peace — together under a single coordinated network, with a clear agenda that addresses the root causes of the present crisis and not only its variegated symptoms.

In particular, given the fact that the deep social, economic, and environmental crises that our people are facing today have been exacerbated by decades of militaristic policy promoted by both corporate parties, it has now become an urgent responsibility of our peace movement to explain to the masses of people, especially those who are falling victim to the right-wing populist propaganda, that the main cause of their suffering is the imperialistic military and economic policies of the U.S. government and not their fellow citizens — African-Americans, other people of color, immigrants, the poor, etc. — who are themselves the main victims of the same policies.

We must act on this and other urgent responsibilities swiftly if we do not want to see the ugly history of the past repeat itself, this time in the United States.

***

U.S. Peace Council • P.O. Box 3105, New Haven, CT 06515 • (203) 387-0370 • USPC@USPeaceCouncil.org
https://uspeacecouncil.orghttps://www.facebook.com/USPeaceCouncil/@USPeaceCouncil

Statement of the U.S. Peace Council on 2020 U.S. Elections
worker | December 15, 2020 | 12:50 pm | US Peace Council | Comments closed

Statement of the U.S. Peace Council on 2020 U.S. Elections

Our Struggle for Peace and Social Justice
Must Be Intensified!

December 12, 2020

November 3rd has passed and slightly more than a third of the eligible electorate chose the Democrat, slightly less than a third the Republican, and the remaining third chose none of the above by either not voting or casting a ballot for a third-party alternative. The threat of an October surprise did not materialize although Trump’s desperate attempts to nullify the results of the elections continue.

The important issues of war and peace facing humanity, especially for those of us in the belly of the beast with a special responsibility to address the actions of our own government, were non-issues in most if not all U.S. election campaigns.

Regardless of who occupies the Oval Office, the decadent trajectory of neoliberalism continues: imperialism abroad and austerity for working people at home. The permanent institutions of the state — the Pentagon and the national security and surveillance apparatus — endure.

Although Trump did not start any new wars, he did not end any of the now perpetual U.S. military engagements. The U.S. policy of sanctions against 39 countries, constituting a third of the world’s population, are a form of warfare that kills and maims similar to bombs. The wars abroad are increasingly mirrored by wars on the people at home, by the militarization of society — in particular the police — and by strangulation of the economy. The response by the major imperial powers to the pandemic of COVID-19, in particular in the U.S. and Europe, has exacerbated this war at home and exposed the social, political and economic cracks in late stage, monopoly capitalism.

Behind the ethnic and gender diversity of Joe Biden’s announced appointments is the continuity of the Obama-Biden administration’s engagement in permanent war and regime change and commitment to “full spectrum dominance.” The promise of U.S. “leadership” means, in fact, U.S. dominance of billions of people who did not choose the American state to rule them. These scourges will be not exorcized with the defeat of Donald Trump.

This fundamental continuity, beneath a façade of bipartisan bickering, calls for an independent peace movement to promote these actions, among many others:

  • Drastically cut the military budget.
  • Return all troops from all war zones and close all the foreign military bases.
  • End all unilateral coercive measures (blockades and sanctions).
  • Stop supporting allied wars and stop U.S. and allied assassinations.
  • End the nuclear weapons escalation and sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)
  • Stop the cold war with China.
  • Reestablish diplomatic relations with Cuba, end the blockade, and return Guantánamo.
  • Negotiate with Iran, not assassinate and threaten military attacks.
  • End the asphyxiating sanctions on Venezuela and reestablish diplomatic relations.
  • Recognize and respect the right of Palestinians to self-determination and end its financial and diplomatic support for the apartheid state of Israel.
  • Repeal the Nicaragua Investment Conditionality Act (NICA Act).
  • Fully abide by the UN Charter.
  • Demilitarize the police.

Above all, we need to intensify our struggle for a just transition from a military to a peacetime economy to meet human and community needs and restore the environment, and join hands to build a world founded on cooperation, peace and respect for sovereignty of all nations.

***

U.S. Peace Council • P.O. Box 3105, New Haven, CT 06515 • (203) 387-0370 • USPC@USPeaceCouncil.org
https://uspeacecouncil.orghttps://www.facebook.com/USPeaceCouncil/@USPeaceCouncil

Venezuelans Want to Vote! Defending Venezuelan Elections Against U.S. Intervention
worker | November 12, 2020 | 6:49 pm | US Peace Council, Venezuela, World Peace Council | Comments closed

International Webinar

Venezuelans Want to Vote!
Defending Venezuelan Elections Against U.S. Intervention

A discussion with Venezuelan peace organizations on the upcoming legislative elections in Venezuela and how peace forces around the world can help protect the people’s right to vote in the face of U.S. blockade and intervention.

November 18, 2020, 6:00 – 8:00 PM (EST)

Organized by:

  • Simon Bolivar Institute (ISB) — Venezuela
  • Committee for International Solidarity and the Struggle for Peace — Venezuela
  • U.S. Peace Council
  • Canadian Peace Congress

Endorsed by:

  • World Peace Council (WPC)
  • Popular Resistance
  • Black Alliance for Peace (BAP)
  • United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)
  • International Action Center (IAC)
  • Sanctions Kill!

Program:

Moderator: Bahman Azad, Executive Secretary of U.S. Peace Council

Speakers:

— Carlos Ron, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
— Gabriel Aguirre, General Secretary, COSI, Venezuela
— Ajamu Baraka, National Organizer, Black Alliance for Peace
— Margaret Flowers, Director, Popular Resistance
— Miguel Figueroa, President, Canadian Peace Congress
— Monisha Rios, International Affairs Coordinator, VAMOS Puerto Rico
— Vijay Prashad, Executive-Director, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research

Followed by Q/A Period

Language: English & Spanish

Register Here:

bit.ly/VZvotes

***

U.S. Peace Council • P.O. Box 3105, New Haven, CT 06515 • (203) 387-0370 • USPC@USPeaceCouncil.org
https://uspeacecouncil.orghttps://www.facebook.com/USPeaceCouncil/@USPeaceCouncil

TIME TO BUILD A MOVEMENT TO CUT RUNAWAY MILITARY BUDGET
worker | August 6, 2020 | 7:36 pm | US Peace Council | Comments closed
TIME TO BUILD A MOVEMENT TO CUT
RUNAWAY MILITARY BUDGET

U.S. Peace Council
August 3, 2020

For many decades, the US antiwar movement has been calling on Congress to cut the Pentagon budget, now officially at $740 billion.

These demands were almost always ignored by Congress where the great majority of Republicans and Democrats have long been in the grip of the military-industrial complex. Every year Congress would ignore the antiwar movement and pass a bigger war budget. Only a few enlightened members of Congress would voice an objection.

But now, perhaps, there are the first glimmers of hope that the silence of Congress about the Pentagon budget may be coming to an end. It has taken crisis piled upon crisis to make Congress budge. It will take a movement to make Congress move further.

The sheer power of the military-industrial complex in U.S. politics can be measured by what it has taken to begin to shift Congress, even a little bit.

It has taken a pandemic that has killed upwards of 150,000 and infected 4.5 million Americans. It has taken unemployment levels not seen since the Great Depression, leading to immense federal, state and city budget deficits and looming savage cuts to public services and public employee jobs, wages and benefits.

The pandemic has exposed the inadequacy of an already weakened and tattered U.S. health care system, now called upon to meet an unprecedented public health emergency. The botched and callous Trump Administration response to the pandemic has laid bare all the racial and class inequalities in U.S. society.

The pandemic has exposed the gross disparity in access to decent health care suffered by Black, brown and other working people of color. These communities already faced structural inequalities in housing, education, income, and household wealth. These communities make up a disproportionate number of the essential workers who must expose themselves to the virus to put food on the table. They are disproportionately among the victims of the pandemic.

On top of this, the May 25 police murder of George Floyd triggered weeks of protests against the wanton violence of militarized police departments against Black people. The demand to take funds away from militarized police departments has evolved into a broader discussion of defunding the Pentagon — the very institution militarizing the police departments — to generate funds to meet the country’s genuine needs.

In response to this disastrous situation, on May 19, 2020, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland CA), along with Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair, Representative Mark Pocan, led a group of 29 Democrats calling upon the Congress to cut the Pentagon budget by $350 billion. In their letter to the House Armed Services Committee, the authors stressed: “The enemy we’re fighting right now is COVID-19, so our sole focus should be on expanding testing, tracing, and treatment, funding towards vaccine development, and relief for the American people. Increasing defense spending now would be a slap in the face to the families of over 90,000 Americans that have died from this virus.”

However, within less than a month, the demand for $350 billion cut was reduced to a meager 10% ($74 billion), in the actual amendment introduced by Lee and Pocan on June 15, 2020. This $74 billion cut was also supported by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey in their amendment introduced to the Senate. According to Rep. Pocan, these amendments “would take $74 billion in annual savings from the Pentagon — exempting salaries and health care — to create a domestic federal grant program to fund health care, housing, childcare and educational opportunities for cities and towns experiencing a poverty rate of 25 percent or more.”

Yet, in less than a month, despite the fact that the majority of the American people and more than 60 national economic, environmental, racial justice, and peace groups had endorsed the amendment, the 10% cut amendment failed in the House on June 21, 2020. The House vote for the Lee-Pocan Amendment was only 93 in favor (92 Democrats and 1 independent; no Republicans), and the NDAA passed with 139 Democrats and 185 Republicans voting for it.

According to the National Priorities Project, had this meager 10% cut passed, the funds thus saved could be re-allocated to cover:

  1. Housing every one of the United States’ over half a million homeless people.
  2. Creating more than one million infrastructure jobs across America, especially in many of the most economically depressed locations.
  3. Conduct two billion COVID-19 tests, or six tests per person (44 times as many as has already been done).
  4. Easily close the $23 billion funding gap between majority-white and majority non-white public schools.
  5. Fund free college programs for more than two million of the poorest American students.
  6. A revolution in clean energy. $74 billion could create enough solar and/or wind energy to meet the needs of virtually every American household.
  7. One million well-paid clean energy jobs, enough to transition most dirty industry workers into renewables.
  8. Hire 900,000 new elementary school teachers, or nine per school, creating a golden age of education.
  9. Send a $2,300 check to the more than 32 million currently unemployed people across the country.
  10. Purchase enough N95 masks for all 55 million essential workers to use, one per day, every day for a year, with change to spare.

Yet, the grip of the military-industrial complex and the defense contractors proved itself too strong for the majority of U.S. Congress to act in the interest of the American people.

Nevertheless, this phase of the struggle for 10% cut in the Pentagon budget signified a new beginning. It was the first time that the taboo of cutting the military budget was broken and 93 members of Congress defied the pressures of military establishment lobbyists and openly voted for it. On July 28, 2020, Reps. Lee and Pocan formed a new Congressional caucus, the Defense Budget Reduction Caucus, to continue the fight. “For too long, Congress has put the profits of defense contractors above the needs of the American people,” said Congressman Pocan. “Last week’s $740 billion defense budget represents a 20% increase in just four years at a time of relative peace. From unnecessary new nuclear weapons to the Space Force to the ballooning use of outside contractors — our Pentagon spending is growing more rapidly than needed with abundant waste and endless wars. With this new caucus, we hope to lead Congress in decreasing and redirecting the defense budget,” he said.

The Way Forward

Spending colossal sums on a bloated Pentagon and endless wars was always mad. But in conditions of mass unemployment, fiscal crisis and an historic uprising against racial injustice crying for new political priorities, such spending is more insane than ever. The better forces in Congress already see these truths. The more a united antiwar movement and its allies can generate grassroots Move the Money campaigns in cities around the country, the sooner a majority in Congress will see it. (The Poor People’s Campaign, and the National Priorities Project, for example, are calling for cutting the Pentagon budget in half).

Here is how you can help:

  1. If your member of Congress was among the 93 who voted for saner Federal priorities on July 21, send a thank you email or phone call. If your member of Congress voted the wrong way, let him hear your displeasure. The list is here.
  2. Demand that your member of Congress joins the newly formed Defense Spending Reduction Caucus in Congress.
  3. Most important, join the growing number of local Move the Money to Human Needs! campaigns around the country. Increase pressure on Congress, most of whom refuse even to mention the huge military budget. These campaigns generate an urgently needed, local discussion and insist that the City Council in each city demand that the Congress members representing the city vote to move a significant portion of our tax money from militarism and violent policing to human, community and clean-environment needs. Priority must be placed on poor and under-served communities and on working people. These campaigns insist that each City Council hold public hearings on the dollar amounts that the city desperately needs but that get diverted to the Pentagon.

For more information on how to get a local campaign started go to the new Move the Money to Human Needs! Campaign website: https://MoneyForHumanNeeds.org.

***

U.S. Peace Council • P.O. Box 3105, New Haven, CT 06515 • (203) 387-0370 • USPC@USPeaceCouncil.org
https://uspeacecouncil.orghttps://www.facebook.com/USPeaceCouncil/@USPeaceCouncil

No To War In Venezuela – U.S. Peace Council
worker | January 31, 2019 | 8:23 pm | Nicolas Maduro, Struggle for Peace, US Peace Council, Venezuela | Comments closed
PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY!

SIGN THE STATEMENT HERE —–> nowaronvenezuela.org

Desplácese hacia abajo para leer la versión en español.

 

No U.S. War on Venezuela!

Support National actions on Saturday, February 23 – the one month anniversary of U.S. attempted coup.

 

We cannot be silent in the face of the latest U.S. aggression against the Venezuelan people.

 

Nicolás Maduro is the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, chosen twice by the people as part of an internationally observed electoral process. Since the 1998 election of Hugo Chávez, the United States has been relentless in its pursuit of regime change in Venezuela. With Donald Trump in the White House, these efforts have escalated to threats of all-out military violence, the plundering of billions of dollars in wealth from the Venezuelan people and pushing a multitude of outrageous lies in the global media.

 

For hundreds of years, the U.S. has waged war against the people of the world through coups, invasions and economic warfare. Juan Guaidó is a U.S. puppet. He is not a representative of the Venezuelan masses. The idea that a person can swear themselves in as president at a rally in the interest of “defending democracy” is laughable. The right wing in Venezuela claim the Bolivarian elections are rigged because they refuse to participate in them. Instead they engage in voter intimidation using violence reminiscent of Jim Crow terrorism against African-Americans in the Deep U.S. South.

 

U.S.-led sanctions and currency manipulation are responsible for the suffering in Venezuela. Marco Rubio and right-wing media guide the Venezuelan opposition from Miami. The U.S. cannot stand for any country on the planet to enjoy its natural wealth or the fruits of its labor independent of Wall Street and the Pentagon. Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world and is rich in gold and other mineral wealth. Iraq war architect John Bolton said that regime change in Venezuela would be a tremendous opportunity to gain more profits for Wall Street. We believe him.

 

Since the Bolivarian Revolution in 1998, massive strides have been taken to uplift the working class, Afro-Venezuelans and Indigenous populations in Venezuela. The working poor have made tremendous gains because the government implemented policies and passed laws to fight racism, sexism, homophobia and economic inequality. Despite sanctions and sabotage, Venezuela has maintained a transparent and democratic system through many elections. Venezuela provides aid to struggling people worldwide through subsidized fuel and by leading the way with progressive labor laws. Their gains are part of the global struggle waged by workers and the oppressed against the wealthiest and most powerful capitalists on the planet.

 

Therefore, we demand:

 

● The U.S. immediately cease all hostile actions against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela — lift all sanctions, stop backing a coup, cease efforts to destroy the Venezuelan economy and respect the right of the Venezuelan people to self-determination.

● All countries involved in the plunder of Venezuelan wealth immediately return what they have stolen to the democratically elected government of Venezuela and its people.

● Wall Street must immediately pay reparations to the Venezuelan people for their suffering under genocidal sanctions and currency manipulation.

 

In the internationalist and liberatory spirit of Simón Bolívar, we pledge to mobilize and fight on the side of Venezuela’s right to sovereignty, understanding that the gains won under the Bolivarian Revolution are gains for all the world’s workers and oppressed.

———————–

¡No a la guerra de EE.UU. contra Venezuela!

 

No podemos permanecer callados ante la última agresión de los Estados Unidos contra el pueblo venezolano. 

 

Nicolás Maduro es el presidente de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela, elegido dos veces por el pueblo como parte de un proceso electoral internacionalmente observado. Desde la elección de Hugo Chávez en 1998, Estados Unidos ha sido implacable en su búsqueda del cambio de régimen en Venezuela. Con Donald Trump en la Casa Blanca, estos esfuerzos han escalado a amenazas de violencia total militar, el saqueo de la riqueza de miles de millones de dólares del pueblo venezolano y el impulso de una multitud de escandalosas mentiras en los medios de comunicación globales.

 

Durante cientos de años, los Estados Unidos han librado una guerra contra los pueblos del mundo a través de golpes de estado, invasiones y guerras económicas. Juan Guaidó es un títere de los Estados Unidos. No es representante de las masas venezolanas. La idea de que una persona puede auto juramentarse como presidente en un mitin en interés de “defender la democracia” es risible. La derecha en Venezuela afirma que las elecciones bolivarianas están amañadas porque se niegan a participar en ellas. En vez, se involucran en la intimidación de los votantes mediante el uso de la violencia que recuerda el terrorismo de Jim Crow contra los afroamericanos en el sur de los EE. UU.

 

El llamado al “diálogo” entre el gobierno venezolano elegido democráticamente y la oposición respaldada por los Estados Unidos oculta la verdadera naturaleza de esta guerra. Las sanciones lideradas por los Estados Unidos y la manipulación de la moneda son responsables del sufrimiento en Venezuela. Marco Rubio y los medios de comunicación de derecha guían a la oposición venezolana desde Miami. Los Estados Unidos no puede tolerar que ningún país del planeta pueda disfrutar de su riqueza natural o del fruto de su esfuerzo laboral independiente de Wall Street y el Pentágono. Está comprobado que Venezuela tiene las reservas de petróleo más grandes del mundo y es rica en oro y otros minerales valiosos. El arquitecto de la guerra de Irak, John Bolton, dijo que el cambio de régimen en Venezuela sería una gran oportunidad para obtener más ganancias para Wall Street. Le creemos.

 

Desde la Revolución Bolivariana en 1998, se han dado pasos masivos para elevar la clase trabajadora, los afrovenezolanos y las poblaciones indígenas en Venezuela. Los trabajadores pobres han logrado enormes avances porque el gobierno implementó políticas y promulgó leyes para combatir el racismo, el sexismo, la homofobia y la desigualdad económica. A pesar de las sanciones y el sabotaje, Venezuela ha mantenido un sistema transparente y democrático a través de muchas elecciones. Venezuela brinda ayuda a personas con dificultades en todo el mundo a través de combustible subsidiado y liderando el camino con leyes laborales progresivas. Sus logros son parte de la lucha global emprendida por los trabajadores y los oprimidos contra los capitalistas más ricos y poderosos del planeta.

 

Por lo tanto, exigimos:

 

● Los Estados Unidos cese de inmediato todas las acciones hostiles contra la República Bolivariana de Venezuela: levanten todas las sanciones, dejen de respaldar un golpe de estado, cesen los esfuerzos para destruir la economía venezolana y respeten el derecho del pueblo venezolano a la libre determinación.

 

● Todos los países involucrados en el saqueo de la riqueza venezolana devuelvan inmediatamente lo que han robado al gobierno elegido democráticamente de Venezuela y su pueblo.

 

● Wall Street debe pagar de inmediato reparaciones al pueblo venezolano por su sufrimiento bajo las sanciones genocidas y la manipulación de la moneda.

 

En el espíritu internacionalista y liberador de Simón Bolívar, nos comprometemos a movilizarnos y luchar por el derecho a la soberanía de Venezuela, entendiendo que los logros y beneficios obtenidos durante la Revolución Bolivariana son ganancias para todos los trabajadores y oprimidos del mund

The US Plans Endless Occupation and the Partition of Syria
worker | February 19, 2018 | 8:17 am | Syria, US Peace Council | Comments closed
The US Plans Endless Occupation and the Partition of Syria

U.S. Peace Council February 15, 2018

Since the liberation of Aleppo in December 2016, report after report of military victories by the Syrian government and its allies over the foreign jihadist mercenaries led some in the Western media to suppose that the war was all but over.
For a time, the Syrian war, which had claimed more than 400,000 lives and made refugees of millions of Syrians, moved out of the headlines. Some in the U.S. antiwar movement may have also allowed themselves to hope the war in Syria was winding down.
Unfortunately, the war in Syria is back in the headlines. Events are now moving fast.

  • The US-led coalition fighting ISIS in Syria conducted air and artillery strikes against the Syrian Army recently, killing an estimated 100 “pro-regime fighters,” according to a coalition statement. Some were Russians according to reports. Thus, two nuclear-armed great powers are in direct conflict now in Syria.
  • Syrian jihadist “rebels” shot down a Russian warplane for the first time on February 3rd, and Russia’s defense ministry said the pilot was killed as he resisted capture by jihadists.
  • A third nuclear-armed state, Israel, is now fully in the war, primarily, it would seem, for anti-Iran reasons. On February 10, an Israeli F-16 warplane returning from a bombing raid on Iran-backed positions in Syria was shot down over central Syria by anti-aircraft fire. Israel is boasting its raids took out half the Syrian government’s air defenses.
  • The ideological offensive against Syria has resumed. Fresh “reports” from dubious sources such as “The White Helmets” and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights — observing from England! — on the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government appear in the U.S. corporate media and some “alternative” media. Such slanders can spread across the world in a heartbeat, while it takes months to disprove them — as they all have been disproved.[1]

During his campaign and in the early days of his Administration, Trump seemingly narrowed the US goal to the defeat of one terrorist group, ISIS (or ISIL), which since 2014 had won substantial territory in Syria and Iraq. He downplayed the goal of “regime change.” But the failure of the U.S., its NATO allies, and their proxies for seven years to overthrow the Syrian government forced Trump to switch from Obama’s direct attempts to oust the current Syrian government to Plan B, i.e., Trump administration’s attempt to adopt an indirect way to force a regime change in Syria.   The Obama Administration policy was clear enough: “regime-change,” i.e. ousting Syrian President Assad by means of proxies, the so-called “moderate rebels” — actually well-paid terrorist mercenaries recruited by means of social media from all over the Muslim world and bankrolled by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Their terrorism against the Syrian people was aided by Israel, Jordan and Turkey, with overall military coordination of the war by the U.S.   However, at his Stanford University speech on January 17, 2018, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced the main points of Trump Administration’s new version of U.S. policy toward Syria:

  1. Long-term presence of U.S. military forces engaged in combat operations;
  2. Expansion of the military mission from defeat of ISIS to also preventing Iranian influence in the post-ISIS Syria;
  3. “Stabilization” (that is, provision of humanitarian, economic, and political assistance) to areas under rebels’ control;
  4. National elections under United Nations supervision; and
  5. “[Rallying] the Syrian people and individuals within the regime to compel Assad to step down.”

In less convoluted terms, the Trump Administration’s Plan B seeks to achieve the U.S. goal of forced regime change through the following three consecutive steps:

  1. Step One: Partitioning of Syria and establishing permanent U.S. military bases in northern Syria, where the oil is;
  2. Step Two: Arming and training the rebel forces in the secured Kurdish areas; and,
  3. Step Three: Using the captured territories and the trained rebel forces under the command of Syria-based U.S. forces to impose a regime change in Damascus.

These are important facts about the new U.S. plan for Syria and the Middle East:

  • The U.S. is now directly engaged in illegally occupying Syrian territory, claiming rights to Syrian oil and attacking the Syrian army in the name of “self-defense.”
  • Officially, U.S. forces inside Syria number at least 2,000. The real count may be far higher. There are also many thousands of U.S. forces on ships in the Mediterranean or in nearby countries.
  • The 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria are arming and organizing the 30,000-strong the so-called “Syrian Democratic Forces,” a mix of Kurdish and Arab fighters who have been the primarily fighting on the U.S. side in Syria.
  • Turkey has recently invaded northern Syria to attack the Syrian Kurds who live in northern border areas contiguous to Turkey. The Turkish government fears its own large, Kurdish minority’s rightful aspirations for national self-determination. Turkey fears that Syria’s north can become a staging area for a liberation struggle inside Turkey.
  • Normally, subservient Turkey was the conduit for most of the foreign mercenaries entering Syria. Now, the Turkish invasion, wholly illegal and unjustified, complicates U.S. occupation plans, which are also wholly illegal and unjustified.
  • The invasion has created an intra-NATO problem. Turkey is in NATO but has been drifting away from the U.S.-dominated war alliance with its recent major arms purchases from Russia.
  • Trump has done everything possible to strengthen the U.S.-Israel-Saudi axis, which since 2011 has been the core support of the terrorist mercenaries in Syria.
  • In nearby Afghanistan, it is clear the U.S. has not won the 17-year war against the Taliban insurgency, so Trump is sending more U.S. troops to shore up the government in Kabul and forestall a humiliating U.S. defeat.

Trump’s overall military budget in 2018 will come to $716 billion. Under Trump, there is no turning away from interventionist wars that begun or continued by his predecessors, despite his campaign rhetoric to the contrary.     Tom Paine once wrote “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered.…” Neither is US imperialism easily conquered, even though its power is waning.   Urgent action by U.S. peace movement is needed. We must urgently re-energize the work of the whole U.S. peace movement on Syria. At the upcoming, long overdue national antiwar actions for April 2018, the demand “Hands off Syria!” must be front and center.   _______________ [1] See, “Now Mattis Admits There Was No Evidence Assad Used Poison Gas on His People,” Newsweek: http://www.newsweek.com/now-mattis-admits-there-was-no-evidence-assad-using-poison-gas-his-people-801542

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