News and Views from the People's Struggle
Minneapolis, MN – Organizers of the weekly peace vigil on the Lake Street/Marshall Avenue Bridge between Minneapolis and Saint Paul have announced plans to dedicate the April 10 vigil to making an anti-war statement in response to the military crisis in Korea.
Minneapolis, MN – Despite rain showers, nearly 200 people joined a protest here April 6 to speak out against U.S. wars around the world and against the ever-growing use of drones as an instrument of military intervention.
Chicago, IL – Nahla Yafai, a Yemeni student in Chicago, was emphatic. “Drones have hit our country again and again. Many civilians and children have died, but no one knows here, except for our community. And now you know, and you must speak out.” In the past year, Yemen became the main destination for U.S. drone strikes in the world. Yafai stood with three other Yemeni women, all wearing shirts painted with their national flag at an April 6 rally to oppose drone warfare.
Jacksonville, FL – Last month, the United States Navy announced the construction of a major command center for surveillance drones at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station (NAS), pending approval by Congress. According to the Pentagon, the center would cost an estimated $22 million and would make the North Florida city one of two new sites for drone operations in the US. The Navy will construct the other new command center on the West Coast.
Chicago, IL – On the morning of March 20, 2003, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) news anchor opened the broadcast with the news that the bombing of Baghdad had begun the night before. “Protests have broken out in Bonn, Tokyo and London, and in San Francisco and Chicago, hundreds of protesters have been arrested.”
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following article from Workers World.
New Orleans, LA – Students and activists at the University of New Orleans (UNO) staged a dramatic action to protest a speaking event featuring Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers, Feb. 28. 60 people stood up from the audience toward the beginning of the soldiers’ speech and revealed red shirts they were wearing with signs taped to their chests. Each person wore the name of a different name of a Palestinian child killed by Israel’s soldiers, followed by the word “Silenced.” Wordlessly, the demonstrators walked out en masse as the two soldiers stood before a crowd that had diminished to a dozen people, including activists who remained holding a banner in the front of the room.
Chicago, IL – Joe Iosbaker, of the Anti War Committee here, denounced Pentagon plans, Feb. 23, to place a new drone base in West African country of Niger.
Chicago, IL – Elizabeth Parisian of the group Stand Up, Chicago, stood outside the Boeing Company's world headquarters in Chicago. 30 protesters attempted to deliver a letter to Boeing CEO W. James McNerney Jr. Boeing is part of a ‘coalition’ of politicians and big corporations that wants to shrink the federal budget by cutting services to poor and working people. But McNerney received more in pay last year than Boeing paid in federal taxes. Boeing is one of the largest U.S. contractors. Most of their contracts are for weapons, such as fighter jets, attack helicopters and spy drones.
#ChicagoIL #AntiwarMovement #BoeingCorporation #WJamesMcNerneyJr
St. Paul, MN – With the wind chill at 15 degrees below zero, about 30 peace and justice activists gathered here, Jan. 23. Their slogan, “No U.S. Drones in Mali, No U.S. intervention in Mali” was the week’s theme of the Peace Vigil that happens every Wednesday on the Lake Street/Marshall Avenue Bridge across the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and Saint Paul.