San Jose, CA – On September 2, San Jose State University intended to host Northrop Grumman at the Fall ‘26 Business, Financial Services, and Logistics Job and Internship fair. Northrop Grumman, a weapons manufacturer which maintains $3 billion in contracts with the Defense Department, is a target for Students for a Democratic Society’s (SDS) ongoing campaign demanding SJSU cut ties with war profiteers.

In response to Northrop Grumman’s invitation to the campus career fair, SDS at SJSU organized a mail-in and rally calling for the career center and university administration to deplatform war profiteers like Northrop Grumman. The mail-in was a tactic employed by students to flood the inboxes of university administrators leading up to the day of the career fair, and it proved to be an effective one.

On the day of the career fair, as student protesters gathered outside the SJSU Student Union, SDS received notice that Northrop Grumman had completely withdrawn from the career fair. This withdrawal follows a similar incident last semester at SJSU, in which student protesters forced Lockheed Martin to withdraw from a campus informational session.

Despite Northrop Grumman's withdrawal, the students continued with their rally outside the career fair to call out the school administration’s ongoing collaboration with war profiteers, echoing chants such as “When Northrop does the killing, admin makes a killing!”

Panda Shim from SDS stated, “Whether it’s Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman, we will not allow these defense organizations who actively supply weapons to commit genocide overseas and terrorize our immigrant communities onto our campus!”

“SJSU has invited Northrop Grumman to this career fair despite the students making it clear, time and time again, that we will not ever accept war profiteers to do business on our campus. Northrop Grumman is the sixth-largest weapons manufacturer on the planet and has been supplying the U.S. and Israeli air forces with missile delivery systems and laser weaponry for their fighter jets and attack helicopters. Shame!” said Mateo Rodriguez-Deal from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Sharat Lin from San Jose Against War provided words of support, “As you build the anti-war student movement here on campus, know that the people of San Jose support your struggle and are building the anti-war, pro-Palestine movement!”

“Our voices matter, our concerns matter, and what happens to people outside our campus matters. San Jose State should be a place where students can build their futures without having to compromise their conscience. Keep war profiteers off campus!” said Haddy Barghouti from Students for Justice in Palestine to close the rally.

While the students were able to successfully kick Northrop Grumman off campus, their fight is not over. This smaller victory was part of a larger ongoing struggle to push their campaign forward and cut ties with all war profiteers.

#SanJoseCA #CA #AntiWarMovement #WeaponsIndustry #StudentMovement #SDS #SJAW #Featured

Grand Rapids, MI – On September 2, over a dozen community members gathered for an emergency protest held by Grand Rapids Opponents of War (GROW) in response to Trump air strikes on southern Iran. 

The U.S. strikes resulted in multiple civilian deaths, with Al Jazeera reporting at least 11 people killed. Iran’s state media confirmed a separate U.S. strike on a family wedding procession killed two women and two children in south Iran.

The rally was met with overwhelming community support from pedestrians, as well as dozens of cheers and solidarity fists from cars passing by on their way home from work.

Protesters held a large banner that read “No U.S. war on Iran” visible at the intersection. Many participants held signs reading, “No blood for oil” and “U.S. hands off Iran!” 

Jude Florez, representing GROW, reminded the crowd about the U.S. government’s history of bombing wedding processions, including a Yemeni wedding procession. Jude urged the crowd that with Trump as commander in chief, “We must not grow desensitized to the brutal acts carried out by the U.S. government. We must continue to show up and condemn these war crimes.” 

Aanya Usmani spoke on behalf of Palestine Solidarity Grand Rapids, saying, “By being out here today, we are honoring the brave Iranian people who lost two daughters and two mothers in yesterday's U.S. air strikes on a wedding celebration.” At which the crowd shouted “Shame!” 

The rest of the hour was spent chanting and handing out flyers to people. GROW promoted their current campaign urging Grand Rapids City Council to adopt a proclamation calling for no U.S. sanctions and no U.S. war on Iran, Venezuela and Cuba.

#GrandRapidsMI #MI #AntiWarMovement #Iran #GROW

Minneapolis, MN – On August 30, the newly-formed U.S. Out of Africa Committee of Women Against Military Madness hosted its first event, “Understanding the Tools of Empire: A Panel on Mass Incarceration, Police Violence, and Extraordinary Rendition.” 

Dozens of community members packed the main room of the Lucy Parsons Center. They wanted to learn about the relationship between racialized policing and mass incarceration inside U.S. borders, and U.S. intervention and state-sponsored abductions in Africa.

Khrys Wetzel, a founding member of the U.S. Out of Africa committee (UOA) and volunteer with the MN Anti-War Committee (AWC), opened the function. Wetzel grounded attendees in a brief history of Black August. In 1979, the Black Guerrilla Family, a group of revolutionaries incarcerated in San Quentin State Prison started it. Black August is a month to commemorate persecuted and slain Black freedom fighters. It is also an opportunity to strengthen organized resistance to racial injustice and state repression of Black people and other oppressed nationality peoples. 

Panelist Jae Yates of the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice (TCC4J) explained, “North American policing has its roots in the slave patrols responsible for capturing escaped slaves and forcibly returning them to plantations.”

Yates continued, “Post-Reconstruction, these militias were formalized into modern police departments that funneled Black people into prisons for crimes that boiled down to taking up space in public.”

Panelist Alissa Washington, the executive director of Wrongfully Incarcerated and Over-sentenced Families Council (WIAOFC), said, “These struggles aren’t identical, but they’re connected through systems of power that decide whose lives deserve protection, whose suffering matters, and whose lives can be treated as disposable.”

Washington highlighted the sprawling nature of the U.S. prison system, which now comprises 20% of the global prison population. This, in spite of the fact that U.S. residents only make up 4.2% of the world’s population. The U.S. prison system is by far the largest on earth, with Black, Chicano, indigenous and other oppressed nationalities jailed at higher rates than whites.

One of the primary campaigns that WIAOFC has championed is the call to free Washington’s fiancé Cornelius Jackson, known as Corn. Jackson was sentenced to life without parole at the age of 19 for being present at the scene of a crime he did not commit. Panel attendees listened with rapt attention as Washington described Jackson’s case, then joined her in chanting “Free Corn!”

Nicholas Tolliver, another founding member of UOA emphasized that the same system that surveils, represses, incarcerates, and kills Black and other oppressed people across the U.S. also inflicts horrific violence on civilians in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. 

Over the past quarter-century, the U.S. has used the “War on Terror” as a pretext for expanding military intervention in countries across the African continent. This causes regional instability, rampant corruption, and bloody counterinsurgent aggressions funded and directed by the U.S. government and the Pentagon.

The strategic command center of the U.S. military in Africa, AFRICOM, carries out lethal drone strikes and summary executions with impunity. Companies including Honeywell and Palantir reap enormous profits manufacturing equipment and planning for this military violence. Meanwhile, the shadowy state-sponsored kidnapping practice of extraordinary rendition continues to transfer people to foreign countries. Prisoners are detained indefinitely and subjected to extrajudicial torture.

While racist domestic police forces brutalize, criminalize, incarcerate, and kill people inside U.S. borders, the U.S. military-industrial complex invests in militarized violence across the countries of Africa and beyond. 

Panelists closed by encouraging audience members to join groups like UOA, TCC4J and WIAOFC in order to build the collective power needed to effectively combat the oppressive U.S. state and its imperialist appendages overseas.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #OppressedNationalities #BlackAugust #AFRICOM #AntiWarMovement

Chicago, IL – 100 nurses and their allies gathered outside the Cook County Pension Fund in downtown Chicago on Augurst 27 demanding the fund sever ties with Palantir, a surveillance technology company. National Nurses United (NNU), the largest union of registered nurses in the U.S., organized the Chicago protest, as well as seven others across the country.

NNU’s campaign to “Purge Palantir” comes as many hospitals establish deeper ties with the company. Some hospitals use Palantir to automate nurse staffing, laying off local managers and worsening working conditions. Other hospitals share patient data with Palantir, which then uses that information so ICE can target and deport immigrant patients.

“Union nurses cannot be silent when our most vulnerable people, babies and children, are being detained by federal immigration agents,” said NNU President Jamie Brown, RN. “While our patients and neighbors are living in fear of immigration raids enabled by Palantir, our hospitals are facing huge cuts, and our patients are facing mounting health care costs because of HR 1. Nurses aren’t just saying no to Palantir, but we’re calling for our public resources to go toward the benefit of working people, not billionaires and their corporations.”

Husam Marajda of U.S. Palestinian Community Network stated, “Per Palantir’s own admission, it serves to help fight ‘U.S. adversaries.’ This specifically means that Palantir serves war and terror. It means that Palantir gives technology to criminal governments and administrations like the United States and Israel and others, to commit war crimes. To kidnap and separate families. To cause destruction everywhere.”

Among Palantir’s backers and investors are the managers of various public worker pension funds, including the Illinois State Board of Investment and the Cook County Pension Fund. CTU Recording Secretary Vicki Kurzydlo explained, “We cannot tell our students and our families that we stand with them while our retirement dollars are invested in companies like Palantir, whose technologies are being used to target, arrest, and disappear people!”

Nurses and health care workers occupied the street for ten minutes. Organizers placed baby shoes in front of banners reading, “Patients over Palantir” and “Purge Palantir.” The shoes represented the over 500 babies that ICE has detained since 2025. Other protesters held notes that children wrote in ICE detention. Some raised umbrellas with big eyes attached symbolizing that nurses are “keeping an eye” on Palantir’s harmful activities.

NNU continues to organize against hospital funding cuts and Palantir. They fight for a better, healthier, future for all. One of NNU’s main calls is to, “Fund care, not billionaires.” You can sign the petition at the National Nurses United website.

#ChicagoIL #IL #Labor #NationalNursesUnited #Palantir #ImmigrantRights #ICE #AntiWarMovement

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Dallas Against the Trump Agenda Coalition. The group plans to march on the RNC in Dallas on September 10.

Dallas Office of Special Events has cancelled our permit application to protest the RNC

As organizers attempt to exercise their First Amendment right to protest the midterm Republican National Convention, the city of Dallas has escalated from stalling our permit request to cancelling it.

Organizers applied for a permit and had repeatedly met with city officials to negotiate in good faith. From officials rejecting our original route without finalizing an alternative to city hall police and DPD ordering our organizers to leave the vicinity of the City Hall Plaza during our press conference, the city has placed obstacle after obstacle in our way.

Taken together, these actions appear intentional in an attempt to weaken the march, disrupt our preparations, and push protesters out of sight and sound of the convention.

The First Amendment protects our right to march and bring our message within sight and sound of its intended audience.

With the convention approaching, the process of finalizing this permit has gone from glacial to permafrost. In a phone call with the Office of Special Events, they mentioned that they were told by the Dallas Police Department to cancel our permit. Further, we were told that DPD wants us to fill out a “First Amendment Activity Request form.”

We will not accept being pushed around. We will exercise our right to assemble and our right to free speech. We will march on the Republican National Convention.

Republicans claim they’ll bring thousands of people to Dallas to organize behind the Trump agenda. We are preparing a family-friendly statewide march to represent the millions of people who reject the Trump agenda, to confront their attacks on immigrants, women, trans people, marginalized communities, anti-fascist organizations and people, and their hawkish pursuit of endless wars.

They don’t want us there. That is exactly why we have to show up.

#DallasTX #TX #PeoplesStruggles #Trump #ImmigrantRights #AntiWarMovement #RNC2026 #RNC

Salt Lake City, UT – On Tuesday, August 25, members of the Utah Anti-War Committee met with Salt Lake District 1 Councilor Jiro Johnson. Johnson’s county council district covers a Raytheon facility, which the UAWC has been campaigning against since May. The anti-war activists demanded that Johnson publicly condemn the Raytheon facility in his district.

The meeting was secured after activists packed Salt Lake County Council earlier in August, calling on Johnson to introduce legislation against the facility. At the meeting, Johnson at first did not commit to issuing a written and public condemnation of Raytheon, citing concerns around Republican backlash to his policy agenda.

Activists continued to push for a firm anti-Raytheon, anti-war stance at the meeting. They gave the deadline of September 16, marking 200 days since the start of Trump’s war against Iran, in which a Raytheon Tomahawk missile killed over 100 schoolchildren at an Iranian girls’ school.

After the meeting, UAWC took to social media to urge the community to call on Johnson to take a side against Raytheon. In comment sections and Instagram stories, more community members began to call on Johnson to condemn the war-profiteering facility in his district.

Soon, Johnson relented, posting on August 28 the public, written condemnation of war and Raytheon, which activists had demanded, on his official social media page.

“It's despicable that corporations like Raytheon and other members of the military-industrial complex are getting rich off this violence,” Johnson’s statement read.

In their own statement, the UAWC said, “This condemnation was demanded by activists and did not come from nowhere, and it was not easy to win. It was the result of deliberate and sustained anti-Raytheon activism by the community since May of this year.”

“A statement from the councilor where Raytheon operates is a good step. We count it as a win. But clearly, much more is needed to stop the U.S. war machine,” continued UAWC.

Those wanting to join the anti-war movement and build on this victory should attend the next Utah Anti-War Committee meeting on Saturday, September 5, 3 p.m. at the Salt Lake City Main Library Level 3 Conference Room.

#SaltLakeCityUT #UT #AntiWarMovement #UAWC #BDS #Raytheon

Philadelphia, PA – On Wednesday evening, August 26, over 80 protesters gathered outside the entrance of the Pennsylvania Convention Center to protest the war profiteers attending the Defense Industrial Base Accelerator, a convention centered around building the U.S. industrial base for greater war production.

It is not surprising that Philadelphia would be chosen to host such a convention. There has recently been a bipartisan push at local and national levels to bolster the position of the defense industry in Philadelphia.

Just last August, Trump cooked up a deal with Republic of Korea President Lee Jae Myung which entailed a direct investment of $5 billion into shipbuilding venture Hanwha Philly Shipyard Inc. so that it may expand its facilities and workforce to take on U.S. military contracts. This July, Trump announced a $10 billion investment for new defense industry jobs at the first ever Pennsylvania Defense and & Innovation Summit. At the same conference, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency awarded a $2 billion contract to Hanwha Philly Shipyard Inc. for new missile instrumentation ships. Rhoads Industries, right next door to the shipyard, also secured a $24 million investment from JPMorgan Chase for skilled workforce training and the development of nuclear sub facilities.

Protesters lined up along the road with banners reading “Hanwha out of Philly – no war profiteers in our city!” and “Smash U.S. imperialism.” Some carried effigies of IDF soldiers and ICE agents hanging from nooses.

A member of Koreans for Decolonization, representing the Philly Alliance Against Imperialism, spoke out against Hanwha’s presence at the convention, stating, “The Korean people do not want war and division. But these money-hungry companies are willing to cash checks into the U.S. war economy while exploiting Korean and American workers. Hanwha is an arm of U.S. imperialism, from its partnerships with the IOF to the UAE, and until the U.S. imperialist project is destroyed, Hanwha will continue to contribute to the violence and genocide it benefits from.”

Members of Philadelphia Students for Justice in Palestine also highlighted the presence of Philly-headquartered Day and Zimmerman, an artillery manufacturing company and IDF supplier, at the convention.

After an hour of speeches, protesters entered Broad Street, marched around the convention center and dispersed.

#PhiladephiaPA #PA #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #Hanwha #WarIndustry #BDS

St. Paul, MN – Amid a nationwide wave of outrage against Flock automatic license plate readers, community members packed city council chambers on August 26 for a public hearing on police surveillance technology and data privacy. Dozens of community members testified to their opposition to the city’s use of the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered cameras made by Flock and Axon, as well as autonomous drones manufactured by Skydio.

The public hearing was initiated after the previous week’s city council meeting, when activists with the Free Palestine Coalition (FPC) interrupted the proceedings to demand transparency around the city’s contract with Skydio and a process to end it. Organizers explained that Skydio was complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, supplying cutting-edge drones that use AI to surveil urban areas and identify potential targets.

“Skydio is a U.S. company, but the reason it scaled up its sales to institutions started when it sold hundreds of drones to the Israeli military for its genocide in Gaza,” explained FPC organizer and Saint Paul resident Wyatt Miller in his comments to the council members. “If it wasn’t necessary before a genocide, it shouldn’t be necessary now.”

In June, the FPC initiated a campaign against a proposed Skydio contract with the nearby city of Minneapolis. Hundreds of community members mobilized to urge Minneapolis not to contract with a genocide-complicit company and raised concerns around the technology’s use in the hands of the city’s infamous police department. Minneapolis City Council ultimately caved to community pressure and voted to reject the proposed Skydio contract.

The coalition then teamed up with anti-surveillance group Eyes Off Saint Paul to address the issue in that city. Advocates learned that the Saint Paul Police Department (SPPD) had quietly adopted a similar Skydio drone program without a public hearing, claiming the drones constituted an expansion of an existing contract, allowing it to bypass normal public process.

“We can’t find any public record of the contract. We don’t know how much money is being spent,” Miller told the council. “The only dollar amount that’s been published publicly comes as an ‘estimate’ to the media from the police department itself.”

Many speakers expressed outrage over expenditures on new surveillance tools at a time when Mayor Kaohly Her’s budget includes significant cuts and the closure of the public library in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood.

Anna Madison is a member of Eyes Off Saint Paul as well as Families Against Military Madness. “Militarized AI-powered technology continues to advance at a pace that is increasingly difficult to keep up with,” Madison explained to the council. “The only way we can ensure that this technology is not used to harm us is to end these contracts and ban AI-powered mass surveillance immediately.”

Much of the popular outrage has focused on Flock, with high-profile instances of communities destroying the stationary AI cameras around the country. At the regular Saint Paul City Council meeting that took place just before the special hearing on surveillance, the council passed a nonbinding resolution announcing the removal of two city-operated Flock cameras. However, the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office reportedly continues to operate Flock cameras in Saint Paul.

Activists vowed to continue the fight, looking beyond just Flock to other city contracts with AI-powered surveillance companies. They said the oppressive nature of these technologies were demonstrated by their use during the federal anti-immigrant crackdown as well as by Israel in its oppression of Palestinians.

“Corporations cannot be trusted not to share data and recordings with immigration enforcement like what we saw with Operation Metro Surge,” Cedar Larson of Women Against Military Madness told the council. “We know that Axon recently acquired Israeli company Carbyne, which makes AI-powered emergency communications used by police. This props up Israel’s tech sector, which makes up 20% of the apartheid state’s GDP and about half of its annual exports.”

Sana Wazwaz is a Palestinian American and chapter lead of American Muslims for Palestine – Minnesota, part of the FPC. “Our coalition firmly believes that no fantasy of stopping crimes is worth the greater crime of being complicit in fascism and genocide,” Wazwaz told the council. “Skydio has an active contract with the very entity that terrorized our community just this last winter. In the words of Minneapolis Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, ‘To contract with Skydio in light of what happened during Metro Surge is nothing short of morally bankrupt.’ ”

Speakers also argued that crimes committed by SPPD and other police departments showed they could not be trusted with new surveillance technologies. Officers in several states have been accused of using Flock data to stalk ex-girlfriends. An officer in Texas allegedly used the system to track the movements of a woman seeking an abortion.

Wazwaz concluded, “What we have seen with the murder of Marcus Golden here in Saint Paul, with the murders of Philando Castile, George Floyd, Jamar Clark, that law enforcement without community control over police must not be given surveillance tools.”

#StPaulMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #PeoplesStruggles #Skydio #Palestine #Surveillance #Flock

New Orleans, LA – On August 27, about 30 people gathered for a demonstration against Palantir, a data analytics corporation notorious for its use in mass surveillance and the Palestinian genocide. New Orleans Nurses United led the protest alongside National Nurses United (NNU) locals in seven other cities.

“We nurses are outside the federal building in New Orleans today because one in four people detained by ICE are taken to Louisiana detention centers,” said Hannah Miller, an ICU nurse and NNU member.

The crowd chanted “Purge, purge Palantir!” and raised picket signs that read “Palantir Out!”.

NNU chose to target Palantir in this coordinated National Day of Action because hospitals contract the corporation to manage patient information, including automated scheduling and management. Palantir is currently partnering with the Trump regime to target people for deportation based on Medicaid data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Trump and his fearmongers in Congress continue to send billions to corrupt CEOs who profit from violence and suffering. They have stolen more than a trillion dollars from healthcare for working people,” said Miller.

Nurses then occupied a busy street for over ten minutes and raised a giant banner that read, “Patients over Palantir!” They put stickers on signs and buildings informing bystanders on the dangers ICE and Palantir pose.

“We must unite to say no to Palantir making us work harder for less, no to Palantir arming masked thugs to kidnap our neighbors, no to Palantir enabling Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, and no to Palantir everywhere!” stated Nick Michaels, an organizer with New Orleans Stop Helping Israel’s Ports (NOSHIP).

Organizations that joined NNU in this demonstration include NOSHIP, Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP), and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #Labor #Nurses #NationalNursesUnited #Palantir #AntiWarMovement #ImmigrantRights #ICE

On Tuesday, August 25th, members of Utah Anti-War Committee met with Salt Lake District 1 Council member Jiro Johnson.

We demanded that Johnson formally and publicly condemn the Raytheon AST weapons facility located in his district in West Valley City. Raytheon makes bombs and guided missiles for the Israeli and U.S. military. These weapons are used in well-documented war crimes in Iran and Palestine.

Earlier in August, our movement won a verbal statement against Raytheon from Johnson in County Council. But he stopped short of agreeing to write a public anti-war condemnation of Raytheon. Johnson said he needed to “consider” before condemning Raytheon AST, as he feared political backlash from Republicans against his policy agenda.

He told community members in our meeting that, “children are dying every day, but I need to think of the political ramifications.”

This is an issue of right and wrong, and about where average people in Salt Lake want political power spent. There can be political costs to doing the right thing. But Raytheon is a company profiting off bombing civilians in tents in Gaza and killing unarmed schoolgirls in Iran.

What’s worse, Raytheon does it with our taxes while housing, education, jobs, healthcare, and our environment are left on the wayside. Jiro Johnson should release a statement against Raytheon AST. He ran for Council on a progressive platform, and the war-profiteering facility is in his district.

A statement from the County Councilor where Raytheon AST operates would represent a real blow against the Republicans’ unpopular pro-war agenda. We need to make companies profiting from war and genocide with our taxes unwelcome in our communities and demand reinvestment in people’s needs.

Johnson committed to meet UAWC again by September 16, 200 days from the start of Trump’s illegal war on Iran. It’s the perfect time for him to publicly condemn an unpopular, genocidal war-profiteer like Raytheon and call for money for Utah’s needs, not war.

We only got this meeting by months of protesting, educating, and building the anti-war movement. To strike a blow against Raytheon, we need to organize even more and stay united.

Be ready to call on Jiro Johnson to honor the progressive principles that got him elected.

Raytheon Out of Salt Lake!

#SaltLakeCityUT #UT #AntiWarMovement #Raytheon #BDS #Palestine #Iran

San José, CA – On August 20, the second day of the fall semester, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) led a protest on the San José State University Campus. SDS has been leading a “No Tech for Genocide” campaign for several years, demanding that university administration cut all ties with weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin. San José State University has maintained ties with Lockheed for decades, including hosting specific engineering master’s programs tailored to send students straight to working as weapons designers.

At 1:30 p.m., students gathered at the Arch of Dignity and started chants such as “Lockheed Martin off our campus!” and “Lockheed does the killing, admin makes a killing!”

Nikki Flowers from SDS stated, “We are here to make sure our university knows we will not sit idly by. We will not allow our tuition, our resources, to be funneled into companies like Lockheed Martin.”

Flowers demanded that SJSU admin “cut all university partnerships with these war profiteers, with these defense and technology corporations, and government entities complicit with the occupation and genocide of Palestine.”

Ethan Maruyama from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization stated, “While tuition goes up every year, making living increasingly unaffordable for students, SJSU admin continues to maintain contracts with war profiteers.”

Maruyama continued, “We will not passively watch as the U.S. empire tries to consolidate the little power they can hold onto. Students on this campus and across the nation have led a long militant history of struggle, from the anti-war movement to the immigrant rights movement, and we will continue down that militant path. Through our day to day struggles, like this protest today, we can build the movement to strike blows against the enemy by continuing to put pressure on SJSU admin.”

Finally, the students stopped at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library for a speech from Jack McCann of San José Against War. “Israel continues to murder Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank,” McCann stated. “It is clear that institutions like San José State have made it possible for this to happen.”

The students continued to march throughout the campus, with many students joining them along the way. This action and noise demonstration called attention to SJSU's ties to war profiteers and complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. SDS will continue to pressure university administration to cut ties with Lockheed Martin, and all other war profiteers.

#SanJoseCA #CA #AntiWarMovement #StudentMovement #BDS #Palestine #LockheedMartin

Minneapolis, MN – On August 20, dozens of community members attended a panel titled “How MN Money is Funding Palantir’s Deadly Surveillance Network” at the Lucy Parsons Center. The panel, organized by the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC), discussed divestment from the AI surveillance company Palantir. Palantir facilitates human rights violations against Palestinians, as well as immigrants in Minnesota.

The panelists explained that Palantir arose from U.S. wars on Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2000s. Palantir’s surveillance technology exists as a tool to direct violence against vulnerable groups. Palantir’s programs parse vast amounts of data on the lives of many people, streamlining the process by which intelligence agencies, militaries and police forces choose who to target. This includes recent U.S. strikes on Venezuela and Iran, and Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

Palantir’s technology also enables federal agents within the U.S. to surveil Americans, especially targeting immigrant communities. During the past winter, Minnesota faced an occupation by thousands of ICE agents who acted violently and killed protesters.

Palantir is also utilized by the Israeli military for rapid mass targeting of Palestinians. “Having a computer program that orders execution amounts to a very thin moral pretext for a conscious act of genocide,” said Joe Yamine, speaking for the AWC.

The Minnesota State Board of Investment currently has $57 million invested in Palantir. Panelists stressed the importance of getting the SBI to divest that money, much of which comes from public worker pensions, as well as taxpayers.

Palantir is now facing significant opposition from many groups across the country, including divestment campaigns. Panelists highlighted the successes of public pressure on politicians, universities and hospitals to cut ties with the company. These successes are a result of community actions, which will continue to gain ground as more groups organize around the cause. Under pressure from anti-war activists in Denver, Palantir recently moved its headquarters to Miami, Florida.

As Kenny Morris from the American Friends Service Committee explained, “Divestment is possible. It’s happened before, and I’m sure it will happen in your state too.”

Speakers included members of the American Friends Service Committee, the Palestine Justice Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, and Minnesota 50501.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Surveillance #Palantir #MNAWC

Tucson, AZ – On August 20, members of the Tucson Anti-War Committee (TAWC) hosted a call-in event to tell war profiteer Howmet Aerospace that companies that profit from endless wars and genocide are not welcome in their community.

However, when TAWC members started calling, they discovered Howmet Aerospace shut down their phone lines, not even allowing voicemail messages.

As part of a national campaign, the TAWC led teach-ins on Howmet. They also flyered the community with educational information, protested outside the Howmet facility, and hosted regular call-in days. In June, TAWC members and supporters filled Howmet’s Tucson voicemail with 130 messages. They demanding that Howmet quit arming war and genocide and cut their contract with Lockheed Martin.

In response, Howmet completely shut down their phone lines for the August 20 call-in event. Howmet had the phones back up and running the next day, so TAWC members pivoted. The new tactic by TAWC is to send emails demanding Howmet stop building parts for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet and expressing outrage that tax dollars help Howmet profit off of war and genocide while people struggle to afford groceries and rent. 

Howmet primarily produces wheels and engines for commercial trucks and planes. However, 17% of their revenue comes from building specialty parts for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 jets. Like all U.S. weapons, these lethal fighter jets are used to commit war crimes across the world in places like Gaza, Iran, Lebanon, Yemen and more.

They were also used in support of the murder of more than 200 fishermen off the Caribbean coast. Each jet can carry up to 18,000 pounds of bombs. These bombs strike civilian infrastructure like homes, schools and hospitals. 

Howmet shows that they prioritize profits, purposely ignore the concerns of the people. The Tucson Anti-War Committee will continue to bring the fight straight to the weapons manufacturers like Howmet.

#TucsonAZ #AZ #AntiWarMovement #TAWC #WeaponsIndustry #Palestine

Jacksonville, FL – On Saturday, August 15, community members and leaders of Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network (JPSN) rallied to demand an end to the U.S.-Israeli continued murder of Palestinian journalists.

The event was just five days after the anniversary of the martyrdom of Anas Al-Sharif, an award-winning frontline Palestinian journalist. Al-Sharif was murdered by a targeted airstrike on August 10, 2025, by the Israeli occupation forces.

The rally featured several speakers from JPSN who shared stories of the martyred journalists. People understand the journalists as the bearers of truth who risk their lives every day to capture the horrors of Israeli occupation for the world to see.

Reporting from Gaza has been in significant decline due to the systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists. Since the start of the escalated genocide in Gaza on October 7, 2023, there has been a recorded 242 Palestinian journalists killed by the Israeli occupation forces.

The loved ones of journalists are targets as well, with many families of journalists killed by the Israeli forces. Even after death, their stories and their voices live on through the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and their unified resistance.

Immediately after the rally, JPSN hosted a vigil to honor all of the martyred journalists, reading aloud the wills of Anas Al-Sharif, Saleh Aljafawari, and Hossam Shabat. This was followed by a moment of silence. Just as Palestinian journalists resolve to report on the war and genocide in the face of death, Jacksonville protesters promised to continue their solidarity effort to not let free speech die.

#JacksonvilleFL #FL #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #Gaza #JPSN

Minneapolis, MN – On Thursday, August 13, the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition (MPAC) hosted a panel titled “To Hell With Honeywell” at the Lucy Parsons Center. The panel shared the history of Honeywell’s production of weapons parts in Minneapolis, and local resistance efforts to its complicity in U.S. war crimes.

Honeywell is a prominent U.S. weapons manufacturer with a major facility operating right in the backyard of the Northeast neighborhood. Honeywell’s own website shows that in 2025 roughly 40% of its profits came from “Defense and Space,” with half of those profits coming from sales to the U.S. government.

The panelists condemned the new $500 million contract that Honeywell currently has with the Department of Defense. Under a separate defense contract, the Minneapolis Honeywell location was given over $30.8 million to accelerate production of technology in support of Israel’s genocide in Palestine, specifically, production of 1890 Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile Extended Range (AARGMER) inertial measurement units (IMUs). These parts, used in missiles and military drones, are integral to the navigation of these weapons towards their targets.

The panel also featured organizers from the historic “Honeywell Project” in Minnesota spanning back to the 1960s. This decades-long campaign pressured the Minneapolis Honeywell location to stop the local production of cluster bombs used to commit war crimes in Southeast Asia and Lebanon.

During the presentation, images of IMUs found in Palestine after bombings showed production labels, “Honeywell, Inc. Mpls, MN.” Both Lockheed Martin and Boeing use these specific IMUs from Honeywell in a number of their fighter jets, missiles and bombs. Furthermore, the General Atomics company uses them in its infamous MQ-9 Reaper Drones. These weapons have been used by the U.S. and Israel to target people in countries across the globe, including Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Venezuela, Somalia and Yemen.

In the case of this new Department of Defense contract, the Honeywell location in Minneapolis is unique, as the department states that these specific IMUs can only be produced at the Minneapolis Honeywell location without there being a significant delay in production.

Protesting Honeywell over the decades

Twin Cities residents are no strangers to disrupting production at Honeywell and telling war profiteers that they are not welcome. Longtime local organizers Sarah Martin, of Women Against Military Madness and the Honeywell Project in the 1980s, and Cindy Doll, also of the Honeywell Project and a Minnesota Nurses Association member, shared lessons. They explained how organizing led to the massive actions and extensive engagement that created roadblocks to Honeywell’s production and damaged its reputation over the years.

The panelists talked about the founders of the Honeywell Project, including anti-war and civil rights activist Marv Davidov, and 25 others who started meeting in 1968, when Honeywell’s corporate headquarters was located in Minneapolis. They shared the devastating impact of the 90 million cluster bombs, many made by Honeywell, that were dropped over Southeast Asia during the U.S. war on Vietnam. Unexploded ordinance is still killing civilians, many of them children, and farm animals decades later in places like Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

The Honeywell Project led leafleting campaigns, bannering actions outside of the homes of Honeywell executives, meetings with company leaders, vigils, civil disobedience actions, and demonstrations outside Honeywell headquarters and shareholder meetings.

Some of these actions included thousands of demonstrators. Martin said, “At an October protest in 1983, 575 people were arrested!”

Martin continued, “The people formed a chain around the headquarters,” adding, “These protests closed the headquarters down several times.” Panelists estimated there were 2200 arrests between 1980 and 1987.

Demonstrations continued against landmines, as the “Alliant Action” campaign in the 1990s, when Honeywell formed a new company, Alliant Techsystems, to include its defense division.

Describing years of direct action protests at the Honeywell headquarters in Minneapolis in the 1980s, Cindy Doll shared, “Being part of the Honeywell Project for me meant a great deal of learning about weapons, about the history of war, about protest movements, about government involvement in war at home and abroad” and “I learned how to talk to my city council representative, my employer, my family.”

Reflecting on the power of workers and organized labor, other panelists highlighted the role that activists and organized labor have in resisting Honeywell’s production of weapons parts.

Amber Mathwig with About Face: Veterans Against the War shared, “These IMUs are manufactured by unionized labor – Teamsters, specifically, here in Minneapolis. And I think that’s a really important aspect of challenging the military-industrial complex because so much of our organized labor is within the military industrial complex.” She explained, “There are challenges there in pointing out to people, ‘Hey, your lifestyle, your good union benefits, come at this huge expense to the cost of life around the globe.’ And that is one thing that About Face has been uniquely positioned to talk about.”

With such a strong local history of opposing U.S. militarism and Honeywell’s production of weapons in Minneapolis, advocates said that rich history can teach future generations.

Lina Jebara of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network and the Minnesota Anti-War Committee said, “We know disruption to Honeywell’s IMU production would be disastrous,” pointing out that, “With increased shortages, we really are particularly positioned in Minneapolis to affect the ability to which the U.S. and Israel are able to actually create these munitions and carry out these crimes against humanity.”

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #MPAC

San Francisco, CA – On the afternoon of August 15, 100 people gathered in front of the San Francisco Federal Building for a national day of action to demand, “U.S. out of Korea” and “No to a Pacific war.”

Protesters chanted, “No boots on the ground, no bombs in the air! U.S. out of everywhere!” and “From Korea to the Philippines, stop the U.S. war machine!”

Many held signs reading “Stop U.S.-Korea war games” alongside giant cartoon heads of President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae

A speaker from Bayan explained the Negros 19 Massacre, where the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) claimed to kill 19 New People’s Army fighters. However, family and the people’s movement clarified that nine were civilians, including teens, college students and journalists. U.S tax dollars go to arm and train the AFP who commit these human rights violations in their war.

They further explained, “Marcos Jr. and his cronies sell out the Filipino people in service of U.S. imperialism and giving foreign monopoly capitalist like American Sugar Refining, the parent company of C&H Sugar, unbridled access to plunder our rich resources by keeping peasant farmers from asserting their right to land.”

The C&H factory workers in nearby Crockett, California, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 6, recently went on strike. That factory is connected to sugarcane sources from the Philippines.

“We will fight for our dignity and our right to determine our own future!” said Heath Lee from Nodutdol, reflecting the growing trend against U.S. military forces occupying bases in Korea.

Lee continued, “Our demand is clear: the United States must leave Korea, like it must leave the Philippines, Palestine, Puerto Rico, Guam, Panama, Okinawa and everywhere else!”

A representative of Palestinian Youth Movement expressed the unity and solidarity between the liberation struggles of Palestine, Korea and the Philippines.

The rally alternated speeches with singing performances as well as militant and energizing drumming performances. The program included speakers from Nodutdol, Bayan, Gabriela, International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, and the Palestinian Youth Movement.

#SanFranciscoCA #CA #International #Korea #AntiWarMovement

Grand Rapids, MI – On the morning of August 19, activists walked into the Grand Rapids Retirement System board meeting with one goal in mind: “What will it take for the city pension plan to divest from Israeli companies?”

The ongoing “Grand Rapids Divest from Israel” campaign started when Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests confirmed the existence of a $1.1 million investment from the retirement system in an Israeli AI company called NiCE.

NiCE makes AI-powered software for use in anything from business management to police surveillance. 

“Word has gotten out among the broad public that our government has been funneling billions of dollars into Israel every year, and Americans are rightly upset about it,” said Nick Young during the public comment section of the board meeting. 

Young continued, “We suggest that you, as the board of the General Retirement System, communicate with your investment consultants and investment managers, directing them to eliminate all holdings in NiCE.”

Palestine solidarity activist Jessica Plichta commented, “This isn’t the police or U.S. government using and accessing our information alone, it is a foreign entity from a foreign government who is committing crimes against humanity that is using and saving our private information.”

After the meeting, trustees talked with activists, and many expressed their openness to working together to find which asset manager held the NiCE investment on behalf of the city and to continue the conversation.

“It is a great initial step,” said Anthony Hegarty. “People don’t want our economy tied up with Israel anymore. We want our city to stop conducting business with Israel and if it means chipping away at each lousy investment to get there, we will do it.”

#GrandRapidsMI #MI #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #BDS #Divestment

From August 9 through August 17, Chrisley Carpio of the Central Committee of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization took part in the Jaju Solidarity Brigade, the first international delegation to attend the annual August 15 Korean Liberation Day March, in what is known as the Republic of Korea. The Jaju Solidarity Brigade visited U.S. bases and sites of historic importance to the progressive movement in Korea and learned about various fronts of struggle for Korean peace, sovereignty and reunification.

Fight Back!: Can you briefly summarize the political situation on the Korean Peninsula? And its relationship to the United States?

Chrisley Carpio: The people of the Korean Peninsula were once a united people. Today, its people are divided by U.S. imperialism at the 38th parallel. The North, known as the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea, is a liberated, socialist state that is in charge of its own affairs, including its government, military, economy and society. In the DPRK, every person is guaranteed a job, a place to live, and groceries such as rice and soy sauce, no matter the state of the economy.

South Korea, known as the Republic of Korea, is occupied by the United States. It is plagued by more than 62 U.S. bases. Instead of leaving in 1945 at the end of the Japanese occupation of Korea, U.S. military advisors stayed and took over bases and facilities previously used by the Japanese occupiers. Per the U.S.-South Korea Status of Forces (SOFA) Agreement, the U.S. government has operational control of the military of the ROK, which cannot act without its approval; it can take whatever land it wants, and the ROK must comply; and members of the U.S. military cannot be easily tried or held accountable to Korean laws no matter what crimes they commit.

The U.S. occupation has wrought murders of children, persecution of political prisoners, sexual violence against women, displacement from homes and farms, and many other atrocities besides. Recently, U.S. wartime preparations, such as the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield war games, have increased U.S. military activity in South Korea in an effort to keep it, in the words of U.S. Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, a “fixed aircraft carrier floating in the water” and “a dagger pointed at China.”

Fight Back!: What sites did you visit on the delegation? What did you take away from these stops?

Carpio: We visited two major gravesites in Daejeon: the National Cemetery where pro-Japanese collaborators are buried with tall, engraved gravestones not far from pro-independence fighters, and Sannae Golryeonggol, the site of the unmarked graves of the 300 anti-occupation political prisoners who were taken out of Daejeon Prison and shot, under the supervision of the U.S. military. We traveled to Gunsan Air Force Base and saw the breathtaking Sura Tidal Flats, the mud flats essential for the survival of 63 legally protected species, which the ROK government wants to demolish to make way for an expansion of Gunsan Air Base. Nearby is the Haje Village, where the people have rallied around a 600-year-old hackberry tree and hold monthly cultural festivals in its honor in an effort to take back ownership of land that was stolen.

Some distance from Paju City, we visited the Peace Park built after U.S. military tanks ran over Korean grade school girls, killing them, in 1988 and 2002. The 2002 killings of Shim Mi-seon and Shin Hyo-sun and the absence of any charges against the U.S. military killers led to mass candlelight vigils that demanded changes to the SOFA Agreement.

We protested the presence of the U.S. military at the Rodriguez Firing Range in Pocheon, which is the size of 1800 soccer fields, and did the same at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, the largest overseas U.S. base in the world. We saw the Daechu-Ri Hwangsaeul Memorial Hall, filled with photos of the farmers’ militant battle against the government to defend the rich agricultural lands which for generations had been theirs, before they were forcibly displaced.

We visited the STD Management Center near Camp Casey in Dongducheon, where Korean women were forced into prostitution in the nearby camp town, confined whenever a U.S. soldier was thought to have an STD, and shot with so much penicillin that they could not walk, only crawl. We saw the house where the Korean camptown woman Yun Geum-I was brutally murdered by U.S. Private Kenneth Lee Markle, who was only tried and jailed after massive protests by women’s organizations, student organizations, and many more. He was the first American ever to be successfully tried and imprisoned for crimes committed against a Korean in spite of the SOFA Agreement. It was this incident which marked the beginning of the decline of the use of Korean women to fill the camp town near Camp Casey, which is now filled with trafficked Filipino women.

For every death was a memorial hard-won by protest and struggle. For every addition to a U.S. base was an effort to stop its expansion. For every human rights violation was a fierce struggle for justice. This delegation showed me that the fight for peace, reunification, and national liberation from U.S. occupation is alive and well in Korea.

Fight Back!: What are the demands of the peace movement in Korea? What does this movement look like?

Carpio: The demands of the peace movement in Korea cut a wide scope: the departure of all U.S. government and military personnel from Korea; the closure of U.S. bases across the peninsula; ending the Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercises; ending preparations for war in the Indo-Pacific; the return of all land taken by the U.S. government; an end to the SOFA Agreement and the US-ROK alliance, and more.

At their core, the demands are for peace, sovereignty and the reunification of the Korean people. At the protests we saw this week were multiple trade union federations, student organizations, women’s organizations, peasants’ organizations, civil liberties groups, and more. To paint a picture for you, in Seoul, the Korean Liberation Day protest on August 15 mobilized 10,000 people, and to conclude the rally, all in attendance worked together to rip a giant American flag to shreds.

Fight Back!: What are the challenges that the movement in Korea faces today?

Carpio: In the ROK, there are brutal restrictions on freedom of speech going back to the earliest years of U.S. occupation, and these laws still operate. The National Security Act of 1948 criminalizes any positive discussion of North Korea, anti-state activity, and any discussion of communism in general. Even now, activists can face a decade or more in prison just for the publication of a book sympathetic to the North. Apart from repression, there also exists a growing far-right movement, which faces little to no hostility from the U.S.-backed ROK government. At the August 15 protest in Seoul, we encountered some of these right-wingers. We outnumbered them vastly.

Fight Back!: What stake do the peoples of the United States have in an end to the occupation in Korea? What can anti-imperialists in the United States do towards this end today?

Carpio: In the U.S., the people face economic hardships and social problems too—but where does our taxpayer money go? Instead of food stamps and unemployment benefits, our money goes to the destruction of precious environmental habitats in Korea, the leveling of schools, houses and farms, the manufacture of F-16s and stray bullets that fly out of U.S. bases to hit civilians, tanks that kill children, facilities that violate women.

Like the Korean people, we don’t have a say in these decisions. They are made for us by the rich war hawks who sit on Wall Street. The same yoke that holds us down—U.S. imperialism—has been holding down the people of South Korea for at least 73 years. At the end of the day, the peoples of the U.S. and of Korea have the same enemy, and we in the U.S. are in a good position to mobilize against war on China and war preparations in Asia, not only in Korea but also countries like the Philippines. We should take the so-called dagger that is Korea out of the hands of the U.S. imperialists and turn it around. We should march against imperialist wars. And we should stand stalwart and say: U.S. out of Korea! Long live international solidarity!

#International #Korea #AntiWarMovement #Feature

Minneapolis, MN – On August 15, community members gathered at Mayday Plaza to honor the 81st anniversary of Korean Liberation Day. The event was held in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood, right outside of Mayday Books.

The action was emceed by Trent Fast from the Minnesota Anti-War Committee and Leo Del Rio from About Face, who began with the acknowledgement of the U.S.’s ongoing presence and occupation in Korea.

One occupation replaced by another

Fast explained to the crowd that the first liberation day in Korea was in 1945, after World War II ended. This marked an end to decades of Japanese colonial rule. Soon after, however, the United States military “showed up and established its own, brand-new occupation.” Thus, the Korean War began.

From 1950 to 1953, the U.S. government killed over two-and-a-half million Koreans and nearly decimated every major North Korean city. At the end of those three long years, the Mutual Defense Treaty was signed. Even though the war had “ended,” the U.S. remained in Korea as an imperialist force, occupying newly-designated South Korea. This occupation still lasts today. On average, there are about 28,000 U.S. troops that are living in Korea, and South Korea has the largest overseas U.S. Army base in the world.

Cedar Larson, representing WAMM, educated the crowd around the Mutual Defense Treaty and other similar agreements, calling them, “political tools to increase U.S. domination and control” over the land. They said the treaty gave the U.S. the “opportunity to threaten their enemies” and had “disastrous effects on the lives of the people.”

Forced prostitution

Larson also drew attention to the human rights violations that have been occurring since the 1960s. For example, the governments of the United States and South Korea established areas around military bases known as “special tourist zones for foreigners” – meaning soldiers. In these designated areas, South Korean, American and United Nations troops introduced forced prostitution. Women and girls, as young as 15, were “deceived, kidnapped, and forced into sex labor,” said Larson.

These crimes have continued to the present day. Even though laws have been put into place, they are rarely followed. The areas discussed above are often now branded as “tourist stops” but have a dark underbelly.

Ecological consequences of imperialism

Liz McLister from FAMM brought up the ecological effects that the U.S. occupation has had in Korea. McLister said that from “contaminating water supplies and arable land” to “disrupting wildlife habitats,” the U.S. has only brought destruction to the country. As climate change continues to worsen, the Pacific region is experiencing extreme heat, rising sea levels, coastal erosion and severe storm systems.

U.S. activities in the region are accelerating ecological damage and leaving its communities traumatized by decades of systemic abuse. Emily Newberg from WAMM stated, “Occupation is wrong. To occupy another’s land to take away their sovereignty and their self-determination. It leads to catastrophe in almost every way: economically, environmentally and nationally as the people are torn apart by propaganda and false promises.”

Not only does this occupation affect the communities living in Korea, but also U.S. citizens. U.S. tax dollars are being used to maintain around 80 military bases in Korea, using “$6 billion to maintain U.S. bases and troops in South Korea,” according to Larson. McLister pointed out that the “Korean peninsula is of immense strategic value to U.S. military operations.”

Korea’s proximity to China and other strategic locations makes it the perfect target for the U.S. military and imperialist interests.

Simulated invasion

Along with the maintenance of military bases, the United States also engages in staged military exercises or “war games.” Since 2021, the U.S. government has stolen $60 billion from U.S. taxpayers to fund war games like Ulchi Freedom Shield, RIMPAC and Balikatan. These military exercises are conducted in “preparation” for a war with other countries in the area, such as China and Japan.

Fast noted that during the upcoming week, the United States and South Korean militaries were planning to hold “one of the largest annual war drills on earth.” This exercise is named Ulchi Freedom Shield.

During these drills, tens of thousands of troops are deployed to the border with the North, simulating an invasion. Fast said that these war games could quickly escalate to actual war if there is a simple misunderstanding by either side, and have a heavy psychological toll on the people of Korea, who fear an uncertain future.

The day after the protest, President Donald Trump announced a reduction of the scope of this year’s Ulchi Freedom Shield, in apparent reaction to depleted U.S. military capacities stemming from the ongoing U.S. war on Iran.

As Naveen Borojerdi from MPAC put it, Korea is a “country that has paid a massive toll for its right to self-determination.”

A speaker from Anakbayan asked rhetorically, “For whom? For whom was the United States liberating countries across Asia? It was not for those people.”

Organizations were represented at the action, included About Face: Veterans Against the War, Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), Families Against Military Madness (FAMM), Minnesota Peace Action Coalition (MPAC), Anakbayan Twin Cities, and the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC).

#MinneapolisMN #MN #International #AntiWarMovement #Korea

New York, NY – On August 15, over 100 people gathered in the heart of Times Square, near the Army Recruiting Office, to mark Korean Liberation Day. The protest was organized by Nodutdol and Bayan USA.

Korean Liberation Day is a celebration of the Korean resistance rising up and overthrowing Japanese imperialism on August 15, 1945. Since that day, it has become a yearly celebration to remember the militancy of the Korean people against imperialism and occupation.

For this protest, Nodutdol and Bayan demanded “U.S. out of Korea” and an end to the Pacific war. The United States has long engaged in violent meddling and intervention in South Korea to oppose North Korea. Additionally, weapon trade and war games in the region have escalated deaths of civilians.

A speaker from Nodutdol said, “My grandmother lived through the Korean War as a young girl. The U.S. claims to have saved Korea, but my grandmother and the millions of civilians killed would say otherwise. We cannot hear the voices of the dead, but we must hear the voices of the living!”

Next, the action marched to the Philippines Consulate, where a speaker from Anakbayan told of the complicity of the Philippines government in the oppression of its people both in the U.S. and at home. They went on to share how Filipino and Korean people are both affected in similar ways by U.S. imperialism, the military presence in their homelands, and “war games” conducted by the U.S., Philippines and South Korea, to imitate acts of war against China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Protesters marched to a corporate office for Hanwha, a South Korean weapons profiteer that also makes deals with the government of the Philippines. A speaker from the Philadelphia Alliance Against Imperialism explained how Hanwha has recently expanded its operations in the nearby city, directly profiting from U.S. imperialism’s warmongering and forcing its workers to endure dangerous and even deadly conditions.

Throughout the rally and march, protesters chanted, “No boots on the ground, no bombs in the air, U.S. out of everywhere!” and “From Korea to the Philippines, stop the U.S. war machine.”

#NewYorkNY #NY #NYC #Korea #USOutofKorea #Nodutdol #BayanUSA #AntiWarMovement #KoreanLiberationDay #Feature