Regarding Ukraine, say NO to another U.S. war based on lies
Workers World publishes the following email sent out by the International Action Center on Feb. 13.
‘The bombs dropped on Vietnam explode in Harlem.’
— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 1967
One year after the fascist coup in Kiev:
Stop $3.5 billion in weapons to the Ukraine government! Stop bombing Donbass!
In New York:
Join the PROTEST
Tuesday, Feb. 17
5:30 p.m.
CNN / Time Warner Center
10 Columbus Circle at West 59 Street, Manhattan
Facebook event page: tinyurl.com/nrsa8ac
Around the U.S.:
Organize speakouts and pickets on the anniversary of the fascist coup in Ukraine, Feb. 18-23
Send info and photos to [email protected]
Millions of people around the world have watched with alarm as the U.S.-backed government of Ukraine escalates its war of terror against the independent Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics of the Donbass region. But in Washington and European capitals, there was utter silence about the massacre of civilians — until the anti-fascist volunteer militias of Donbass surrounded up to 7,000 Ukrainian troops in the Debaltsevo region in early February.
Only then was there a flurry of diplomacy by France and Germany. The two European powers fear another defeat for the far-right government in Kiev, which came to power one year ago with U.S. and European Union assistance. In Washington, Republican Sen. John McCain, along with high-ranking allies in Congress and the Obama administration, is pushing to openly arm the Ukrainian junta, which includes avowed neo-Nazis in power for the first time since World War II.
The announcement in Minsk on Feb. 12 of a new ceasefire agreement is no cause to relax. On the contrary, Ukraine’s regime violated the previous ceasefire every day for months, targeting civilians with terror attacks. Already, influential neo-Nazi groups in Kiev and Sen. McCain in Washington have said they refuse to recognize the ceasefire.
As the one-year anniversary of the fascist-led coup approaches, Washington and NATO have been unable to accomplish their goals. At every step, they have encountered mass resistance, from armed people’s militias in the Donbass region to mass protests of mothers and grandmothers against the military draft in western Ukraine. But the danger continues to escalate as Washington and Wall Street grow more desperate.
According to German intelligence sources, up to 50,000 people have been killed in the Ukrainian civil war since April 2014. Ukraine’s military bombs schools, hospitals and homes, using U.S.-supplied weapons and tax dollars — our money!
McCain, Secretary of State John Kerry and others say they want to send Kiev $3.5 billion in heavy weaponry to continue the slaughter. All this is being done to bring NATO to Russia’s doorstep. Meanwhile, people in the U.S. are lied to by the media and officials, who blame Russia for the crisis and egg on further provocations.
Most people in the U.S. are unaware of Washington’s role in Ukraine. Yet every bomb that falls on children in Donbass is paid for with money stolen from hungry children here and brings us closer to a new world war that young Black, Brown and white workers will be expected to fight — the same young people who are today resisting racist police terror and low-wage exploitation at home.
It’s a critical moment to draw the connections between #BlackLivesMatter, #Fightfor15 and #SaveDonbassPeople. People across Ukraine oppose the war and are challenging the latest military draft, despite state repression and fascist terror in the streets. It is urgent that anti-war and progressive people here stand up against the U.S. masterminds of Ukrainian war crimes.
Ukraine is at the top of the news. Even a very modest action can have a big impact. Ask your local anti-war group, community organization or union to hold a rally or picket. Or get a couple of friends together to hold signs in a heavily trafficked area. Hand out flyers. Invite the media. Take some pictures that can be shared online. Every action against this growing war counts.
Money for jobs, housing, schools and health care, not war!
Justice for Mike Brown and Eric Garner, not aid for fascist gangs!
International Action Center
212.633.6646
IACenter.org
No2NATO.org
