The U.S. imperialists and its military forces are notorious for outright military intervention and violating the territorial sovereignty of countries around the world. Indeed, it is well known that the U.S. military has been freely operating their drones and other aircraft within Philippine airspace to transport war matériel and personnel in their various military bases and facilities, as well as take part in local military operations, including conducting drone surveillance, in the name of “counter-terrorism.”

In the same way that U.S. soldiers played an active role in the bombing of Marawi City in 2017, American military officers are also often sighted in tactical outposts of the AFP in various parts of the country, acting as advisers and directing counterguerrilla operations of Filipino soldiers against Filipino revolutionary fighters.

It is thus not surprising, but nonetheless a condemnable act of outright intervention, that the U.S. military is flying drones and carrying out air strikes in the Philippines against the New People’s Army (NPA). A few weeks ago, a unit of the NPA in Surigao del Sur, reported that a “Hermes”-type drone fired rocket bombs at their position as they engaged members of the 30th IB in a gun battle in the Katarugan mountains, in Barangay Lobo, Cantilan, Surigao del Sur, last May 11, 2023 at around 5:15 p.m. Two Red fighters were killed in the attack. Images of the area taken after the drone strikes show surrounding burned trees and vegetation.

NPA Red fighters are familiar with how the AFP uses its noisy FA-50s, Super Tucano jets or McDonnel Douglas and Agusta Westland helicopters for firing rocket bombs and strafing.

With the AFP not having publicly acknowledged that its drones are being armed with rocket bombs, there is high probability that the May 11 armed drone strike in Surigao del Sur was carried out by the U.S. military itself, either by arming the AFP’s Hermes drones purchased from Israel with its Hellfire missiles, or using its own Reaper drones which from the ground could be mistaken for a Hermes drone.

The U.S. military is known for having carried out tens of thousands of drone strikes operations overseas, especially in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where up to at least a few hundreds of civilians have been killed. On U.S. instigation, drones are now also being increasingly used by the Indian government in its attacks against the people and revolutionary forces.

It is up to the AFP to explain whether it allowed the U.S. to operate armed drones and fire rockets or drop bombs within the Philippines, in violation of Philippine sovereignty. Or whether, the AFP is now itself using armed drones to carry out aerial bombing in its counterinsurgency operations, which puts the lives of civilians in danger, and causes excessive loss of lives, in violation of international humanitarian law.

#Philippines #drones #USImperialism #Asia

Milwaukee, WI – About 30 people gathered here, June 24, to stand in solidarity with socialist Cuba and Bolivarian Venezuela. The rally was called in response to President Trump’s unveiling of new restrictions on travel to Cuba.

Speakers at the rally explained Trump’s new policies towards Cuba, the history of Latin American struggle against U.S. imperialism, and the current fight for freedom in Venezuela. One of the speakers, Bryan Pfeiffer from Workers World, condemned the hypocrisy of President Trump’s statement that Cuba and Venezuela violate “human rights,” when Black and brown people in the U.S. are daily victims of police terror.

Attendees vowed to continue to rally in solidarity with people struggling from freedom everywhere. The rally was organized by the Milwaukee Coalition Against Trump, the Latin America Solidarity Committee, End the Wars Committee – Peace Action WI, the Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement, Workers World Party, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

#MilwaukeeWI #International #AntiwarMovement #Cuba #Venezuela #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #USImperialism #antiimperialism #Socialism

Forty people attended a forum Oct. 29, “Revolution in the Philippines: Daring to Struggle, Daring to Win.” The forum at Mayday Books featured a presentation by Joe Iosbaker, a Chicago-based anti-war movement leader and member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) who participated in a recent international solidarity delegation to Western Mindanao in the Philippines.

The delegation to the Philippines consisted of 160 activists from several countries. Iosbaker said they went to witness the human rights abuses taking place on a daily basis in the countryside of the Philippines. These human rights abuses are committed by foreign mining companies, agricultural companies that own entire islands of the Philippines, the landlord class, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the Philippine National Police. The struggle of the Filipino people in the countryside is sharp, and the struggle of indigenous peoples of the Philippines is particularly sharp now with the discovery of one of the five largest deposits of gold in the world on their land.

But in the Philippines there is not only oppression and exploitation. There is also a powerful and dynamic revolutionary movement fighting for fundamental change. That movement is led by the National Democratic Front (NDF), the New People’s Army (NPA) and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Launched in 1968, the armed struggle waged by the New People’s Army follows the strategy pioneered by Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party – a protracted people’s war that builds a base in the countryside and gradually accumulates forces to surround the cities from the countryside. The movement is active in 70 of the country’s 81 provinces. The New People’s Army, under the political leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines, operates in more than 100 guerrilla fronts throughout the country. But NPA members don’t just engage in armed struggle, they also carry out work to serve the people and do educational work in the communities where they are based. The National Democratic Front’s allied mass organizations build movements fighting for justice among many sectors of society including workers, farmers, women, students and more.

The national democratic movement has played an important role in major struggles in the Philippines, like the People Power movement that ousted U.S.-backed dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the 1980s, and other mass movements since then. But the revolutionaries have not made their peace with the system after cosmetic changes while exploitation and oppression continue. The mass movement and the armed struggle have continued for more than 47 years, and are strengthening in the current period. Their struggle builds on the 400-plus-year history of the Filipino people’s struggle against brutal Spanish and then U.S. colonial domination of their land.

During the question and answer part of the forum, much of the discussion turned to questions about newly-elected Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte, a controversial figure who has already declared that he will pursue a foreign policy independent of Washington D.C., and has announced a warming of economic and political relationships with China. He also quickly restarted peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front and freed some of the movement’s political prisoners. The NDF has issued statements welcoming the advances in peace negotiations and the freeing of political prisoners, which they had been demanding for years. They have also united with some aspects of Duterte’s policies, most particularly his declaration to be independent of Washington’s influence. They have also strongly criticized Duterte where they disagree with him or have seen inconsistency between his rhetoric and the reality on the ground, and they are continuing their struggle for fundamental change in the Philippines.

The current geopolitical importance of the Philippines is underscored by the U.S. government’s declared ‘pivot to Asia.’ This pivot, announced in 2012, is in part a military response to the rise of the People’s Republic of China. It’s also designed to help enforce U.S. corporate interests in the Philippines and elsewhere in the Pacific. U.S. imperialism as a factor in national economic and political affairs is constantly present in the Philippines.

The Philippines has long been a key launching pad for the U.S. to project its power in the Pacific and toward Asia, so Duterte’s declarations of an independent Filipino foreign policy and his warming to China have raised major alarm bells among the powerful in Washington D.C. Predictably, the Western capitalist media is treating Duterte like a crazy person.

In this context of U.S. imperialism’s ‘pivot to Asia’ and the resulting increase in oppression of the Filipino people, it is vitally important for progressive people in the U.S. to learn about and show solidarity with the dynamic movement fighting against oppression and exploitation, and fighting for a new society in the Philippines.

#MinneapolisMN #OppressedNationalities #Philippines #PeoplesStruggles #AsianNationalities #NationalDemocraticFrontOfThePhilippines #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippines #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganizationFRSO #USImperialism #antiimperialism

The article noted that “The south Korea-U.S. ‘mutual defense pact’ concluded 65 years ago is an unpardonable country-selling one as it has desperately blocked the independent development of the south Korean society, laid a stumbling block in the way of the Korean nation for peace and reunification of the country and brought a war disaster to Korea.”

The article also noted, “The south Korean people can neither get rid of misfortune and pain nor can the danger of war be defused on the Korean peninsula nor the north-south relations improve as long as the U.S. keeps south Korea under its military occupation and domination and sycophants and traitors are allowed to kowtow to the aggressors.”

The U.S. has about 30,000 troops stationed in south Korea and regularly partners with the south Korean authorities to stage provocative military exercises.

The U.S. recently upped the number of its troops on the Korean peninsula as a part of Washington’s “pivot towards Asia.” The “pivot” or “rebalancing towards Asia” as it has recently been rebranded, is the current U.S. strategy to dominate the Pacific region and contain socialist China by projecting military force, treaties and economic agreements.

#DemocraticPeoplesRepublicOfKorea #Korea #Asia #KoreanReunification #KoreanWar #USImperialism

Fort Lauderdale, FL – 20 antiwar and international solidarity activists gathered in Pembroke Pines, Nov. 25, to hear two leaders of the Colombian human-rights movement speak about their country and U.S. intervention. The event was the final stop on a nationwide speaking tour.

The guest speakers are well known in Colombia. Gustavo Gallardo is the International Relations Coordinator of La Marcha Patriotica and July Henriquez is a human rights lawyer. La Marcha is one of the largest and most active social justice movements in Colombia and it continues to face heavy and deadly repression by the Colombian government. In fact, because of their involvement in the leftist movement, Gallardo and Henriquez were forcibly displaced from their home city of Barranquilla to the capital of Bogota.

The two brave activists spoke about the thousands of political dissidents displaced, disappeared and assassinated by American-trained Colombian forces. They also explained the history of Western imperialism in South America and how the U.S. continues attempting to impose its political and economic will on the Colombian people. They also talked about how most of the military officers who direct the Colombian paramilitaries are trained at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning Georgia. Thousands die at the hands of the Colombian government death squads every year, including as many as 4000 trade unionists over 25 years.

The School of the Americas trains thousands of South American military officers in deadly tactics, including torture and assassination, in order to do the U.S. government’s bidding throughout Latin America. The Colombian leaders both spoke at the annual protest outside of the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia two days earlier.

In his speech, Gallardo referred to Colombia as “the Israel of Latin America.” Like Israel, Colombia is a strategic base for the U.S. to launch economic and military warfare against the people and governments in the surrounding countries.

Gallardo expressed how many of the destabilization protests and killings that occurred in neighboring Venezuela over the last year were actually conducted by Colombians trained by the U.S. Gallardo compared this to the destabilization efforts in Syria, where so-called rebels were trained and armed by the U.S. in order to take down a government resisting U.S. domination.

After Gallardo spoke about the U.S. military and economic agenda, July Henriquez focused the discussion on “U.S. prison imperialism.” She explained how the U.S. seeks out new markets for its private prison industry. She said Colombia and several other countries in Latin America are being used to expand this industry. Hundreds of private prisons, run by American-based companies, are emerging throughout Latin American and Africa as places to dispose of political dissidents and social justice activists.

Henriquez argued that these private, for-profit prisons are designed by the U.S. and used in the countries it dominates. In Colombia, where death squads and political repression are severe, private prisons are used to dispose of the poor and the displaced in society. In Colombia the prisoners are being used as cheap labor for private businesses as well.

Members of the audience asked what they could do to express solidarity with activists in Colombia fighting for change. Gallardo and Henriquez responded, “Make sure the right information permeates American society; protest your legislators and demand that they stop creating and funding policies that further U.S. imperialist aims in Colombia.”

A great bond of solidarity was felt between the activists from the two countries. Feelings of hope were expressed as young people of the U.S. and Colombia continue to struggle for peace and justice.

People’s Opposition to War, Imperialism and Racism (POWIR) sponsored the talk and the national tour was organized by the Alliance for Global Justice.

#FortLauderdaleFL #Colombia #Americas #SchoolOfTheAmericas #USImperialism #LaMarchaPatriotica

Minneapolis, MN – About 30 people came together here, August 9, to protest the escalating U.S. war on Iraq. Meredith Aby-Keirstead of the Twin Cities-based Anti War Committee told the crowd, “We are here today to say hands off Iraq. The U.S. needs to stop its intervention in Iraq and in the region. Immediately. There is no potential outcome where Iraq will be better off after more U.S.-sponsored death and destruction.”

“We know from the past months of protests and hard work that the president doesn’t care about massacres. He turned a blind eye to the daily massacres by the Israeli military to schools, hospitals and refugee centers which have killed almost 2000 people – a staggering number of them children,” Aby- Keirstead continued.

The Aug. 9 protest was initiated by Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and had the backing of peace and anti-war groups in the Twin Cities area including the Anti-War Committee, Twin Cities Peace Campaign, Veterans for Peace and Women Against Military Madness.

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #AntiwarCommittee #Iraq #USImperialism

Chicago, IL – Hundreds of protesters stood across the street from the Israeli consulate here, July 22, shouting, “Hey, Israel, waddya say? How many kids did you kill today?” They aimed their voices at a smaller crowd that waived Israeli flags and who gathered directly in front of the consulate in a show of support for the murderous assault on Gaza over the past two weeks.

While the pro-Israel rally was only a few hundred people, compared to the 700 that came out to support the people of Gaza, that didn’t stop the Zionists from acting aggressively. According to Hatem Abudayyeh of the U.S. Palestine Community Network and the citywide Coalition for Justice in Palestine, “The most rabid of them came across the street when their event ended to confront us.”

The Chicago Police Department sent their mounted police and others to face off, not with the approaching crowd from the Israeli side, but against the Palestinians and their allies. Abudayyeh said, “If our side had done that, gone across the street to disrupt the Israeli demo, the cops would’ve been all over us.”

Women leaders of Students for Justice in Palestine-Chicago led most of the rally’s chants.

After the Zionist event dispersed, the youthful protesters took off on a march across the Loop to the Chicago Tribune building. They held a die-in there to dramatize that Palestinians in Gaza are still dying under the guns, bombs and missiles of the Israeli attack.

For the Palestinian community in Chicago and the solidarity movement, Chicago won’t be quiet until the U.S.-backed siege of Gaza is over.

#ChicagoIL #AntiwarMovement #PalestineSolidarity #Zionism #HatemAbudayyeh #attacksOnGaza #USImperialism #IsraeliOccupation #MiddleEast

Miami, FL – Over two dozen activists gathered at the Torch of Friendship in downtown here, June 21, to rally against U.S. intervention in Iraq. As the news comes out that the Obama administration is considering military action in Iraq, south Florida anti-war activists sent a message that the people of this country are opposed to endless war.

On June 16, the U.S. announced plans to deploy 275 troops to Iraq and U.S. officials announced the potential of military strikes. Military action by the U.S. destroyed the country of Iraq, killing hundreds of thousands and will not bring about peace now. The rally demanded that the U.S. not seek an intervention in Iraq, that no U.S. troops get sent overseas and that no airstrikes or drone strikes take place.

Cars honked to show support and passersby joined to listen to the speeches and chant “No justice! No peace! U.S. out of the Middle East!” and “Money for jobs and education, not for wars and occupation!” The banner that read “U.S. hands off Iraq” waved alongside signs that said “Not then, not now! U.S. out of Iraq!” and “First Bush, then Obama, different party, same drama!”

People’s Opposition to War, Imperialism, and Racism (POWIR) organized the protest, with Occupy Miami, Progressive Democrats of America-Miami, CODEPINK Miami, Miami-Dade Green Party, Veterans for Peace Miami and SOA Watch coming together to say “Hands off Iraq!” Members of different organizations gave speeches and recounted the timeline of the U.S. war and occupation in Iraq.

Cecelia O’Brien, lead organizer for POWIR, opened the rally by narrating the history of U.S. military aggression in Iraq. President George Bush Sr. launched the first U.S. war on Iraq in 1990. Then when Clinton was in office, the U.S. used murderous sanctions and committed Operation Desert Fox, a four-day bombing campaign against Iraqi targets. Under George W. Bush, the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 and spent over $1 trillion. It appears that Obama is now following the pattern. “No matter what party has been in power for the past 20 years, we have been at war with Iraq. Is Obama truly an anti-war president? He has significantly expanded the drone campaign in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. He has not yet shut down Guantanamo Bay. And this week he sent armed troops to Iraq.”

“Many of us were here back in 2003 and protested when we invaded Iraq. During that time hundreds responded and we held weekly vigils for many years,” said Ray Del Papa, an organizer with SOA Watch who was involved with the Broward Anti-War Coalition during the years that Bush was in office.

O’Brien said, “It is urgent for the American people to take action now and not allow another war to be waged against Iraq. This protest is part of actions taking place across the country because of the potential threat of another war. The organizers of POWIR are announcing that when the U.S. strikes Iraq, we will respond with an emergency action at the Torch of Friendship the next day at 5:00 p.m.

#MiamiFL #AntiwarMovement #Iraq #USImperialism #POWIR

Joe Iosbaker, an activist with the Anti-War Committee-Chicago, was asked to address the meeting and comment on what he witnessed in Homs, where he was stationed as an observer.

Iosbaker told attendees, “In Homs we saw, first, the tragedy and horror of the U.S.-backed armies. We spoke with survivors and saw the photos of 900 martyrs.

“Second, we saw the triumph of the people, as hundreds rallied in each neighborhood and surged into the polling places to cast their ballot.

“Third, we witnessed Sawa, the coming together of the people, the parties and the leader of the country, President Bashar al Assad.

“Fourth, we were drawn into the warm embrace of the Syrian people, we danced debka and we put our fingers in ink as a symbol of solidarity.

“We will return home to bring to the American people what we saw, the truth of a democratic election, a constitution that is popular and a president who is being given the mandate by the people of Syria: to defeat the imperialist U.S., NATO, Zionist aggression; to reconstruct the country, and to heal a people who have suffered this vicious intervention.

“At this time, I want to say that the Syrian people represent that which is best, most noble and most beautiful of humanity: resistance to injustice, to war and occupation. You take your place with the people of Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, and most recently Ukraine, in the long pantheon of heroic peoples.

“Long live Syria! End the war now! U.S./NATO, hands off Syria!”

#DamascusSyria #Damascus #AntiwarMovement #Elections #Syria #JoeIosbaker #USImperialism #AntiWarCommitteeChicago #basharAlassad #MiddleEast

Minneapolis, MN – Twin Cities area peace and anti-war groups held a protest at the office of Senator Amy Klobuchar, May 30, to respond to President Obama’s announcement that the U.S. plans to leave nearly 10,000 troops in Afghanistan. Organized under the call of “Zero Troops in Afghanistan – Bring All the Troops, Drones and War Dollars Home Now,” about 25 people joined the picket.

A statement issued by organizers says in part, “While Obama and the Pentagon talk about the war ‘ending,’ the reality is that U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan and the war and occupation will continue.”

“The longest war in U.S. history is essentially getting longer. A year from now, or in two years, what new excuse will be available to keep troops involved in a war and occupation that does nothing but harm the people of Afghanistan?” the statement asks.

The statement concludes, “We say enough. Not one more day, not one more death, not one more dollar for the war and occupation of Afghanistan.”

Meredith Aby-Keirstead, a member of the Anti-War Committee spoke at the protest, saying in part, “While the president’s speech focused on how the U.S. is ending and changing its operation in Afghanistan, we see the speech as a political smokescreen for the U.S. continuing its war and occupation in Afghanistan.”

Minnesota Peace Action Coalition initiated the Friday protest. The event was endorsed by AFSCME Local 3800, Anti-War Committee, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Mayday Bookstore, Military Families Speak Out (Minnesota chapter), Socialist Action, Twin Cities Peace Campaign, Students for a Democratic Society (UMN), Veterans for Peace, Women Against Military Madness, Workers International League.

Military Families Speak Out, a national network of family members of military personnel issued a call for protests against the decision to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #Afghanistan #AntiWarCommittee #USImperialism

Editors note: Prominent Chicago- based anti-war activist Joe Iosbaker is in route to Damascus, Syria where he will participate in a delegation of observers for the Syrian election’s. Fight Back! will publish commentary by Iosbaker as we receive it.

Beirut, Lebanon – In a front page story, May 30, headlined “Foreign Jihadis in Syria Pose Risk to West,” the New York Times reports that the U.S. and the UK are concerned about the blowback from the U.S./NATO war on Syria. Hundreds of sectarian fighters have been recruited from the UK and France, and according to the U.S. government, 70 from the US. The article describes efforts by Al Qaeda groups to prepare these recruits to “strike back home.”

In President Obama’s speech at West Point this week, he announced plans for increasing U.S. support for “moderates” among the Free Syrian Army (FSA). This is another effort to get their war in Syria on course. But this aid to so-called moderates is for public relations in the West. The FSA is not a unified, disciplined army. It is well known that weapons provided to a ‘moderate’ reactionary force today end up in the hands of the most brutal of the sectarian forces tomorrow.

The most successful armies fighting to overthrow Syria’s government are those of the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Nusra Front and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Fighters tired of losing will join them. In the fall, the largest of the brigades linked to the U.S.-supported Syrian National Council crossed over and announced they would be affiliating with the Nusra Front.

To spell it out, the U.S. support of the ‘moderates’ won’t achieve the stated objective of countering the influence of sectarians. So what is the real objective of the White House?

Ousting Assad by any means

For three years, the U.S. has funded foreign-led, foreign-dominated armies in Syria. U.S. allies Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey have been responsible for most of the direct aid and delivered most of the weapons. The U.S. began directly providing small arms and other battlefield equipment in the summer of 2013, but was involved from the outset in vetting the forces that the Qataris were backing.

In the U.S., the Obama administration and the mainstream media stick to the mantra that the U.S. allies operate independent of Washington. This is a pretty weak story. Over a year ago, the New York Times revealed that back in 2011, the CIA had been in the Qatari cabinet meetings where the decisions were being made about which of the Syrian fighters to arm. More than that, the Gulf States and Turkey would never have made those moves if the U.S. hadn’t given them the OK.

The monarchies in the Gulf States have supplied several billion dollars worth of arms, not just to any of the fighters arrayed against the Syrian Arab Army; they have especially backed the most sectarian of those. Saudi Arabia is the main backer of those linked to Al Qaeda. If Washington truly wanted that stopped, how could the Saudi’s have continued it? The tail doesn’t wag the dog.

New rhetoric, unchanged U.S. objective

Increased U.S. training of the ‘moderates’ in the FSA has two purposes. The main goal of everything the U.S. is doing in Syria is to get a government that is compliant with U.S. and Israeli wishes. They have decided that President Assad must go.

But the problems with the jihadists are something that the U.S. has to address. The imperialists have to be concerned that the fighters will move against targets other than Assad – Israel, for example. Or returning to the U.S. or the UK. This is a public relations problem, as well as a military matter.

But bad PR won’t stop the U.S. from their course: using any means necessary to achieve their objective in Syria. The anti-war movement must build the movement against the U.S. war of intervention in Syria. We have our work cut out for us.

#BeirutLebanon #Beirut #AntiwarMovement #Elections #AntiWarCommittee #Syria #JoeIosbaker #Lebanon #USImperialism #MiddleEast