Minneapolis, MN – Freedom Road Socialist Organization’s Political Secretary Steff Yorek gave the following statement to Fight Back! regarding the Nov. 13 evening events in Paris.

“On behalf of Freedom Road Socialist Organization I would like to express my sincere condolences and solidarity to the people of Paris and in particular to the family and friends of those killed in the Friday evenings attack by the so called Islamic State. I would also like to express my sincere condolences to the people of Beirut and the family and friends of those killed in Thursday’s market bombing, also carried out by the so called Islamic State.”

“The racists both within the mainstream media and on social media have taken the attacks in Paris as a license to run unrelenting attacks against Muslims, Arabs and refugees. Others have expressed less overtly racist and national chauvinist sentiments – that are also wrong. President Obama made himself a poor example. He made no statement on the bombing of the Beirut market the killed 49 and injured 239. In stark contrast, he termed the Paris attack to be “an attack on the civilized world.” I do not mean to diminish the pain that people in Paris are feeling right now, only point out that it is the same pain felt by people in Beirut, the bombed hospital in Kunduz Afghanistan and the wedding party in Yemen. “

“The events of 9/11 in New York City have been the justification for 14 years of war and counting. Without going into a complex analysis I think that it is fairly simple to draw the connection between the actions of U.S. Imperialism since that time and the events in Paris. It is easy to be jaded and feel like more war is the inevitable outcome of the events of Friday. We cannot sit by and allow that to be the case. We must oppose further war moves and not let this be a rationale for the expansion of U.S wars.”

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #MiddleEast #Europe #PeoplesStruggles #Lebanon #Syria #France #Antiracism #ParisAttacks #IslamicState