Much of the rush hour traffic are US military personnel coming through downtown to access the I-10 highway to return to their homes outside the city limits. Protestors chanted, “No Blood for Oil! and No Justice! No Peace! US out of the Middle East!”

The mobilization took place days after the Biden administration unleashed airstrikes into Syria, using the pretext that Iran is aiding the Iraqi resistance to the 18-year long U.S. occupation.

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Earlier in the week, President Trump announced that U.S. troops would be leaving northern Syria. This created an uproar in the corporate mainstream media that the U.S. would be “abandoning an ally” in regional Kurdish forces. A few days later, Turkey, a U.S. ally and NATO member, began an aerial bombing campaign aimed at targets just across the Turkish border into northern Syria, its most oil-rich region. While Turkey’s recent actions need to be condemned strongly, U.S. attempts to destroy Syria set the stage for recent events.

“The Tucson Anti War Committee wanted to demonstrate our anger at the continued U.S. meddling in other countries’ affairs that have disastrous consequences for those people. We know the U.S. was only using the Kurds to try to balkanize Syria because the Syrian Arab Army, with help from Iran, Russia and others, have successfully defeated the coalition of terrorist groups backed by the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Israel. We must oppose the most violent regime on the planet: U.S. imperialism currently led by billionaire president Donald Trump,” stated co-organizer Brian Dutz.

“Turkey has long been a junior partner of U.S. imperialism through NATO, but we know that calls for continued U.S. intervention in Syria to help the Kurds is not the solution. We uphold the right of self-determination for Syria, and the U.S., with its 12 military bases in northern Syria, violate that right,” Dutz continued.

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Tucson, AZ - At the Annual Tucson Peace Fair, February 23, the Tucson Anti War Committee organized a short march through the event to draw attention to maneuvers of Trump and U.S. imperialism against Venezuela. On the international day of action calling for “No War on Venezuela,” to celebrate one month of successful resistance to the coup attempt against President Maduro, the solidarity activists shouted, “Hands off Venezuela” and drew supporters to the march from the crowd and the groups tabling.

A brief rally was held, with speakers from the Alliance for Global Justice, Pima County Green Party, DSA Tucson, ISO, and International Marxist Tendency, as they all denounced the coup by Trump and Guaido as illegitimate and unpopular. As Venezuela expatriate counter-protesters tried to attack the government of President Maduro for rejecting phony ‘humanitarian aid,’ a few people shouted that Venezuela’s government has accepted real aid from China and Russia.

As Eduardo Cott read the statement from the Tucson Anti War Committee, he noted that “Sanctions kill” and that “ending the U.S. sanctions is equivalent to giving $12,000 to every person in Venezuela. I think that could go a lot farther than a few bags of rice.”

Tucson was one of hundreds of cities around the world that told Trump and his war criminal officials John Bolton and Eliot Abrams: Hands off Venezuela!

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Tucson, AZ – Just one day after President Trump announced official recognition for the illegally self-inaugurated interim president of Venezuela, Juan Guaido, a dozen activists rallied outside the downtown federal building, January 24. The rally took a stand in solidarity with the democratically-elected president, and former union bus driver, Nicolas Maduro.

Organizers from the Tucson Anti War Committee expressed their solidarity with the masses of workers, campesinos and indigenous peoples fighting for their right to self-determination and their Bolivarian Revolution.

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Protesters held signs showing the downtown traffic the demands of “U.S. out now!” and “The War on Terror only makes more terrorists!” Glaring statistics highlights the damage to Afghanistan, such as close to 360,000 dead, overwhelmingly civilian deaths and over $1 trillion spent.

Commenting on the futility of U.S. regime change efforts, longtime activist Joe Bernick of the AZ Peace Council said, “The old colonialism of imposing rule from outside just doesn't work anymore. The people resist it no matter what.”

The 16-year anniversary comes as the Trump administration is seeking to mobilize as many as 4000 U.S. combat troops to confront the re-emergence of the Taliban. Secretary of Defense James “Mad Dog” Mattis is looking to change the rules of engagement to broaden the scope of U.S. airstrikes, which will likely end in more civilian casualties.

The action, organized by the Tucson Antiwar Committee and the AZ Peace Council, joins the nationwide protests endorsed by the United Antiwar Coalition.

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“We know that the last Muslim ban was successfully resisted by mass struggle at airports and other places and we aim to join the wave of anti-Trump resistance,” said organizer Amanda Molina.

The protest is co-sponsored by the Arizona Peace Council and welcomes the endorsement from other anti-war organizations.

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Tucson, AZ – About 35 Tucsonans rallied outside the federal building here, Oct. 21, to demand “Hands off Syria.” The protest was organized by the Tucson Anti-War Committee with participation from the Alliance for Global Justice, Veterans for Peace, and members of the local Green Party. As busy traffic passed by, Chuck Kaufman of the Alliance for Global Justice addressed the crowd, “There is no such thing as a humanitarian intervention. Do you think the U.S. can enforce a ‘no fly zone’ on Syria without going head to head with Russia? Of course not. Our leaders are insane.”

U.S. taxpayer money has financed and armed so-called ‘rebels’ in Syria to destabilize the country and create the conditions for yet another regime change in the region. “The bombs falling in Aleppo make me ashamed of every American-made munitions destroying innocent Syrian lives,” said Bob Philips, president of the local Veterans for Peace and a Marine veteran of the war in Viet Nam.

Those in attendance shared their views with Fight Back!. “People are dying every day from poverty and a lack of clean water in the U.S.,” said Amelia Ariel. Looking that the bigger picture, Eduardo Quintana, a veteran and past president of the Machinists Union local strongly stated, “We need peace, we need to bail out student debt, we need money for jobs, healthcare and climate change not for war profiteers and creating chaos in the world while extending the corporate empire.”

Protesters are wary of Hillary Clinton’s campaign talk of ‘no fly zones’ and confrontation with Russia. Naval veteran George Mairs called Clinton, “a hawk!”

All of the action’s participants agreed to continue the fight to end U.S. wars and expressed the need to build the movement for peace.

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Tucson, AZ – Eastside morning traffic was greeted by two dozen anti-war activists at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Oct. 11, with signs reading “Drones kill children” and “Drone attacks create terrorists.”

Speaking about the base’s role in the so-called ‘war on terror,’ event organizer Jack Cohen-Joppa said, “This base contains drone operators who remotely fly the drones that lurk over the skies and bomb the people of the Middle East.” The U.S. military drone program began under President Bush and has escalated under President Obama to over 500 strikes and up to 1000 civilians killed.

“This wanton, indiscriminate killing of Muslim and Arab peoples must stop and we need to build a strong anti-war, anti-imperialist movement to stop it because the corporations who profit from war will not stop it themselves. It is the peoples’ struggle that will stop them,” said Matt Smith, a longtime anti-war activist.

Several participants in the action came from the weekend’s School of the Americas Watch event that took place in the border region to highlight the oppression of migrants and their families. The Oct. 11 action was also joined by CODEPINK founder Medea Benjamin, who is in Tucson for a speaking tour.

The Tucson Anti-War Committee is planning an action to protest the U.S. role in Syria in the coming week.

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The protest, organized quickly by the Tucson Anti-War Committee, saw an explosion of interest in the event in less than 48 hours. “We are seeing a clear dividing line between those who stand for justice, peace and human dignity and those who support imperial wars, racism and capitalist greed. Clearly, we know where Ducey, the Republicans, and some Democrats stand,” said one of the organizers.

Arizona currently has several hundred Syrian refugees and the numbers could grow if President Obama continues the program to accept them. Ducey is part of a growing number of governors, now up to 32 states, who want to refuse entrance to Syrian refugees. Protest participants commented that this is only the beginning of mass mobilizations in solidarity with refugees and the oppressed.

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