Minneapolis, MN – Students and members of the community gathered here, March 24 on the University of Minnesota campus, for an event called ‘At home and abroad: Women under attack and fighting back.’ The program, sponsored by the Anti War Committee and the Women’s Student Activist Collective, was during with women's history month and addressed the current FBI attacks on women international solidarity activists and their families, how war disproportionately affects women and the right to be in solidarity with women in war-torn parts of the world.

Jess Sundin, Meredith Aby and Thistle Parker-Hartog of the Twin Cities based Anti War Committee spoke at the event.

Meredith Aby stated, “After all these years, Iraq and Afghanistan are still occupied by U.S. troops and contractors and the U.S. began a new war on Libya last weekend. Women and children are always the first victims of war. The women of Iraq and Afghanistan are worse off now than they were before war and many women are calling for the U.S. to leave their country.
 U.S. militarism cannot be a force for liberation and in fact on the ground is a force which violates rather than protects women’s rights.”

Aby also made the point; “The U.S. government cynically used the plight of women and feminism as an excuse to wage wars of conquest against Afghanistan and Iraq and to steal their natural resources. In truth, a foreign invader and occupier can never bring freedom to women.”

Jess Sundin talked about importance of international solidarity, stressing the work the Anti-War Committee has done to support the women of Palestine and Colombia.

Thistle Parker-Hartog addressed the FBI and grand jury repression that has been unleashed on international solidarity and anti-war activists. Parker-Hartog, like Sundin and Aby, is among the 23 mainly women activists who received subpoenas to the Chicago grand jury, headed by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

Parker-Hartog stated, “We don’t know if the FBI and the Attorney General thought we women would be an easy target, but we absolutely will show them just how wrong they are.”

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #InternationalSolidarity #FBI #womensMovement