United call for actions against war on Syria
The following is a call issued by dozens of organizations in the United States for national days of action from June 28 to July 17 “to oppose the U.S./NATO and Israeli war on Syria.”
The White House’s June 13 announcement that it would begin directly supplying arms to the opposition in Syria is a dramatic escalation of the U.S./NATO war against that country. Thousands of U.S. troops and intelligence personnel are training opposition forces and coordinating operations in Turkey and Jordan.
Israel, the recipient of more than $3 billion annually in U.S. military aid, has carried out heavy bombing raids against Syria. The Pentagon has developed plans for a “no-fly” zone over Syria, threatening a new U.S. air war.
The pretext for this escalation is the assertion, presented without any actual evidence, that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons in the conflict that has been raging for more than two years. Like their predecessors, President Barack Obama and other top U.S. officials pretend to be concerned about “democracy” and “human rights” in Syria, but their closest allies in the campaign against Syria are police-state, absolute monarchies like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Once again the so-called “Responsibility to protect,” R2P, is used as a pretext for NATO to dominate this region.
Just as the false claim of “weapons of mass destruction” was used as justification for the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, the allegations that chemical weapons were used by the Syrian military is meant to mask the real motives of Washington and its allies. Their aim is to carry out “regime change,” as part of the drive to create “a new Middle East.”
The invasion of Iraq in 2003, the U.S.-backed Israeli war in Lebanon in 2006, the 2011 NATO bombing of Libya, the now-escalating war in Syria and the growing threats against Iran are part of a coordinated regional effort by the United States, Britain and France to dominate this oil-rich and strategic region.
The U.S. government cuts basic services and has eliminated hundreds of thousands of public sector workers’ jobs in the last three years in the name of a discredited austerity which has destroyed the economy, but has unlimited billions available for wars of aggression and NSA surveillance of almost every American.
We join together to call for National Days of Action, June 28-July 15, 2013, to demand:
Stop the U.S./NATO/Israeli war and all forms of intervention against Syria!
- Self-determination free from outside intervention for the Syrian people!
- Fund people’s needs, not the military!
- U.S. Out of the Middle East!
Endorsers:
- United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)
- ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism)
- United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ)
- AFI3RM
- All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (GC)
- Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines
- Arab Americans for Peace
- Arab Americans for Syria – AA4S
- BAYAN USA
- CRI-Panafricain
- Freedom Road Socialist Organization
- Global Network Against Nuclear Power in Space
- Green Party of the United States
- Honduras Resistencia USA
- International Action Center
- International Coalition to Free the Angola 3
- Iran Working Group VFP
- KmB Pro-People Youth
- March Forward!
- May 1 Workers and Immigrant Rights Coalition
- Pakistan USA Freedom Forum
- Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL)
- Revival of Panafricanism Forum
- SI Solidarity with Iran
- Socialist Action
- Syrian American Forum
- The Green Shadow Cabinet
- U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)
- U.S. Peace Council
- Ugnayan (Linking the Children of the Motherland)
- Veterans For Peace
- Workers World Party
- World Can’t Wait
- Akbar Muhammad, International Representative, Nation of Islam
- Ardeshir Ommani, President, American Iranian Friendship Committee (AIFC)
- David Swanson, RootsAction
- Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report (organization for identification purpose only)
- Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild
- Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala, candidates, Green Party
- Jim Lafferty, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild/Los Angeles
- Margaret Flowers & Kevin Zeese, PopularResistance
- Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report (organization for identification purpose only)
- Nada Khader, WESPAC
- Prof. Jared Ball, radio host
- Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General
- Ron Jacobs, journalist
- Sami Ramadani, journalist and scholar
- Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival
- ANAKBAYAN Los Angeles and San Diego
- BAYAN-SOCAL
- Bob Carter, Justice for Palestinians, Houston (organization for identification purpose only)
- Coalition to Stop $30 Billion to Israel
- Community Futures Collective
- Eugene E Ruyle, Peace and Freedom Party
- Habi Arts
- Kevin Akin, California State Chair, Peace and Freedom Party
- LEF Foundation
- Los Angeles Peace Council
- Maine Code Pink
- Peace and Freedom Party, Santa Cruz County
- Peoples Video Network
- Puerto Rican Alliance-LA
- RI Peoples Assembly
- RI SOS Save Our Schools Coalition
- RI Unemployed Council
- Sabah Jawad, Iraqi Democrats Against Occupation
- School of the Americas Watch – LA (SOA Watch-LA)
- SiGAw-GABRIELA USA
- Southern California Immigration Coalition (SCIC)
- Stop the War Machine, New Mexico
- Teach Peace Foundation, Sacramento, Calif.
- The Dream Team 2013, RI
- Union of Progressive Iranians
- West County Toxics Coalition, Richmond, Calif.
See unacpeace.org to endorse or for more information.
