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

Tampa, FL – UPS announced April 27 that the company would begin drone deliveries in early May. The drones would deliver medications from a local CVS pharmacy to the largest retirement community in the U.S. Experimenting with drone delivery is only the latest development in automation at UPS. While good for shareholders, automating deliveries through drones will be disastrous for UPS workers.

Drone deliveries will be limited to The Villages, a retirement community in central Florida. At first, the drones will be shuttling prescription medications from a local CVS pharmacy to a meet point where a package car driver will then deliver the medications. Eventually, however, the drones will be able to deliver the medications directly from CVS to the customer.

The drone will deliver packages to customers by hovering about 20 feet in the air and slowly lowering the medications using a cable and winch system. Previously, drone deliveries were limited to hospital campuses but now are being expanded to residential customers. UPS and CVS partnered in October of last year to explore drone delivery options for medications.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) which represents over 400,000 UPS workers, has not released any statement on this. The concessionary 2018 UPS Teamsters contract, which was passed despite a historic majority ‘No’ vote, has no language protecting Teamster jobs from automation. The contract instead allows the company to automate as long as the company meets with the union to discuss the changes.

Given the sell-out leadership of James Hoffa Jr., this contract provision amounts to nothing more than a blank check for the boss. Teamsters wanting to fight automation should support the O’Brien-Zuckerman Teamsters United slate in the 2021 IBT elections, a slate that is willing to fight against UPS and corporate greed and take back the Teamsters union for the members.

#TampaFL #Healthcare #PeoplesStruggles #Teamsters #drones #UnitedParcelService

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.

#TucsonAZ #AntiwarMovement #drones #TucsonAntiWarCommittee

“It is likely that the enemy drone was conducting reconnaissance, like a lot of reconnaissance sorties carried out by the Zionist air force,” stated Al-Manar

Israel regularly violates the airspace of neighboring countries, particularly in Lebanon and Syria.

#Lebanon #Syria #drones #MiddleEast

A statement from the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps noted that the IRGC “preserves the right of response and retaliation for itself.”

Israel often violates its neighbors’ airspace with spy drones. Earlier this week, Lebanon’s military reported sighting Israeli drones over its territory.

In recent years, Iran has captured a number of U.S. spy drones. For example in 2011, Iran captured an unmanned U.S. RQ-170 aircraft.

#WashingtonDC #Iran #drones #MiddleEast

Minneapolis, MN – A highly visible anti-war protest was held in Minneapolis May 17, with over 120 people joining the demonstration.

The protest was called to be part of a national round of local anti-war and anti-drone protests during the months of April and May. The Minnesota Peace Action Coalition (MPAC) initiated planning for the event.

The May 17 protest was organized under the call of 'Stop the wars – Ground the drones', with the additional slogans of: Zero troops in Afghanistan; ground all military and surveillance drones; end drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia; for a full employment peace economy, not more war; no new wars – hot or cold; and U.S. hands off Syria, Ukraine, Korea, Venezuela, Palestine and everywhere.

In the final days before the protest, as the crisis in Ukraine reached a new and dangerous level, the International Action Center, United National Antiwar Coalition and other organizations issued a call for local protests May 9 – 26 against U.S. intervention in Ukraine.

MPAC, which in the initial call for the protest included the anti-intervention demand on Ukraine, endorsed the national call for anti-war actions on Ukraine and listed the May 17 event as one of the actions being held around the country to speak out against the danger of yet another war.

Signs and speakers at the protest spoke to the demand against intervention in Ukraine and against a new cold war with Russia.

The Minneapolis protest gathered at the very busy corner of Hiawatha Avenue and Lake Street. After 45 minutes of holding signs and banners, there was a march to Walker Community Church for an indoor rally.

A statement issued by organizers said in part, “Since 2004, over 2500 people have been killed by U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan. In Afghanistan, drone attacks are increasing and the U.S. government plans to keep thousands of troops and drones in Afghanistan for years to come. U.S. drone strikes are commonplace in Yemen and elsewhere.”

The statement goes on to say, “The endless series of U.S. wars and interventions continues, including increasing military aid, expanding U.S. bases around the world and internal meddling in other countries through economic pressures overseen by agencies such as International Monetary Fund and World Bank.”

At the rally a member of MPAC also warned that the U.S. was preparing military intervention in Nigeria in the name of saving kidnapped schoolgirls.

“The U.S. military does not intervene to help people, the U.S. military intervenes in the interests of corporations and profits, not people,” said the MPAC member.

The planning for the May 17 protest was initiated by MPAC and endorsed by a broad range of organizations, including, AFSCME Local 3800, Alliant Action, Anti-War Committee, Coalition for Palestinian Rights, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Mayday Books, Military Families Speak Out (MN chapter), Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, Peace and Justice Committee of Sacred Heart Church (St. Paul), Peacemakers of Carondelet Village, PeaceMakers of Macalester Plymouth United Church, St. Joan of Arc Church, Socialist Action, Students for a Democratic Society (UMN), Twin Cities Peace Campaign, Veterans for Peace, Welfare Rights Committee, Women Against Military Madness, Workers International League and others.

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #Afghanistan #Ukraine #USImperialism #MinnesotaPeaceActionCoalition #drones #AntiImperialismDrones #Nigeria

Chicago, IL – The Boeing Company annual stockholders’ meeting took place at the Field Museum, April 28, and 25 activists protested, both inside and outside. Braving a cold downpour, they first gathered on the steps of the museum for a press conference in opposition to Boeing’s plan to build the next combat drone for the Pentagon. Then several of the protesters that had purchased stock in Boeing for this purpose went to make statements to the board of directors

Before going in Kait McIntyre from the Chicago Anti-War Committee (AWC) explained that she was presenting herself as a candidate for the board, because, “Time and time again AWC has addressed Boeing, in the media, outside their board meetings and at their headquarters. Boeing has either responded with ‘no comment’ or they bring out their guard dogs and call the Chicago police department. This time, we decided to nominate someone for the board in order to address them directly: me.”

She continued, “Boeing has already used a bureaucratic technicality to say I am ineligible but we all know the real reason they find me unqualified: Because I stand up to and defy the masters of war, not take and fill their orders.”

The AWC activists were joined inside by faith-based activists, including Sister Gwen Farry of the 8th Day Center for Justice. Meanwhile, other 8th Day activists, Sisters Dorothy Pagosa and Kathleen Desautels, spoke at the press conference. Speaking to the group on the steps, Pagosa addressed herself to the Boeing stockholders. “Your profits are not sustainable because it’s blood money used to destroy, rather than to build up the human community.”

Also at the press conference were Michael James, a long time peace activist in Chicago, and a veteran of the Vietnam War-era Students for a Democratic Society. Standing alongside James was another SDSer, Bernardine Dohrn. James said, “On the planet, there are few places with as diverse a population as Chicago. What we do rings out.” He added, “We don’t want anyone based in our home bringing destruction on the world.”

Brian Terrell of Voices for Creative Non-Violence, who had spent six months in prison in 2013 for protesting drone war at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, added his voice to the press conference as well. “We have not been simply protesting drones as they are now, horrific as they are. We also protest the next levels of development that logically follow. The Phantom Ray drone that Boeing is bidding to build would be a drone with the speed and killing capacity of a fighter plane and be another large step toward totally autonomous robotic warfare,” said Terrell

Once inside, Newland Smith of AWC rose to tell the meeting, “Drone strikes as conducted by our government, according to the Geneva conventions, are illegal and immoral and inflict terror on civilian populations.” Smith, McIntyre, and Richard Berg all succeeded in making their voices heard at the meeting.

When the delegation returned from speaking to the stockholders, AWC’s Berg told the waiting group, “Our statements caused a stir in there because there were protesters outside.” Berg urged the group to continue its efforts, “We are building the movement against war, and that’s what scares Boeing the most.”

#ChicagoIL #AntiwarMovement #AntiwarCommittee #USImperialism #BoeingCorporation #drones #stockholder

Minneapolis, MN – Activists from the MN Anti-War Committee, Students for a Democratic Society at the U of MN, Women Against Military Madness, Veterans for Peace, and the Coalition for Palestinian Rights protested the impact of the U.S. use of drones around the world, Feb.11, at the University of Minnesota Law School. Inside the Law School, Oren Gross, a former senior officer in the Israeli Defense Force's JAG Corps, the legal branch of the Israeli military, gave a presentation titled, “The New Way of War: Is There a Duty to Use Drones?” as a part of the Law School’s spring lecture series.

Sophia Hansen-Day, of the MN Anti-War Committee, explained, “In Israel, Oren Gross worked to give legal and political cover to human rights violations by the Israel Defense Forces in occupied Palestine. Today, as an advisory board member of the U of M Human Rights program, he is using his prestige to justify the U.S.’s ongoing drone killings abroad. Our action was organized to challenge Dr. Gross's absurd interpretation of international law.”

Before the speech by Gross, protesters held signs and passed out hundreds of flyers on the reality of drone warfare. Doors to the presentation were guarded by campus police, who refused to allow protesters to bring signs inside. Even so, a couple dozen community members joined the hundred or so people there for the lecture.

In a weak attempt to make himself more likeable, Gross opened with a few jokes and cartoons. His winding talk was full of quotes by politicians, largely void of concrete data and lacking in concern for human life. Finally getting to the point, he closed with the claim that drones are an advance in weapons technology, saying, “Drones offer a more accurate and therefore more humane warfare.”

At that point, questions were invited from the audience. Gross ducked many of them, limiting his comments to the use of drones by the U.S. Army in an active combat zone. He refused to answer questions about U.S. war policy, or the use of drones to carry out extrajudicial assassinations, or even domestic surveillance.

Jess Sundin, also of the Anti-War Committee, attended the talk. “It was a revolting attempt to sanitize the reality of war, by drones or any means. Most of the questions challenged him and his point of view – it was clear that Gross did not convince anyone that there is some ethical duty to use these remote control killing machines, on the battlefield or anywhere else. Drones are deadly weapons of war. U.S. wars for empire don’t need ‘more accurate’ weapons. They need to be stopped.”

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #AntiWarCommittee #Israel #USImperialism #drones #OrenGross

Protesters showed up outside the Naval Air Station commercial gate in the late morning on Oct. 26, carrying bullhorns and banners. Some protesters carried signs that read, “Down all drones” and “You can't make peace with bombs.” Others brought signs from last month's protests to stop the war in Syria, noting the proposed use of drones to carry out a strike on the war-torn Middle Eastern country.

The announcement that Jacksonville would host a major command center for surveillance drones came in February 2013 amid growing opposition by the community. According to the Pentagon, the center will cost an estimated $22 million to build.

“7.4% of workers in Jacksonville are unemployed right now because of an economic crisis brought on by a decade of war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Dave Schneider, a protester at the event. “The only class in this country that benefits from this policy is a small collection of banks and corporations at the top, while working people like us pay the price. We stand against drones because they terrorize our sisters and brothers overseas and destroy our future right here at home.”

Event organizers played anti-war protest songs through a megaphone, including the bluesy jams of Watermelon Slim, a strong VVAW supporter and Vietnam veteran. Soon after, the crowd heard from a few speakers who talked about the use of drones in the U.S. imperialist wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and other oppressed nations. They called for an end to drone use by the U.S. military and for immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan.

#JacksonvilleFL #AntiwarMovement #drones #VietnamVeteransAgainstTheWar #OccupyJacksonville

Hollywood, FL – A group of anti-war activists gathered downtown here, to mark 12 years of U.S. war and occupation in Afghanistan. At the busy intersection of Young Circle Park, protesters held signs to remind the public that the U.S. is still waging war on the people of Afghanistan. People’s Opposition to War, Imperialism, and Racism (POWIR), a local anti-war group, organized the event.

The activists braved the rain and winds to demand an end to U.S. occupation, the immediate return of all U.S. troops and an end to wasteful spending on U.S. wars. The organizers stressed that billions of taxpayer dollars are being spent on U.S. wars and occupations abroad, instead of on jobs, healthcare, and education at home.

Signs read, “12 years too long, U.S. out of Afghanistan,” “War is not the answer,” “Fund our schools, not your wars” and “Honk for peace.” As cars and buses drove by, they honked in solidarity and the passersby walking in the park made peace signs in support and engaged in discussion. The protesters sang, “All we are saying is give peace a chance,” as they waved the banner and signs.

Cassia Laham, lead organizer of POWIR, held 12 black balloons to mark the 12 terrible years endured by the Afghan people and for the lives lost in Afghanistan, including U.S. soldiers. She said in her speech, “Afghanistan and all other countries currently being occupied and dominated by the U.S. have the right to self-determination.”

Sandy Davies from Progressive Democrats of America said, “It’s much easier to start a war than to end one. There are still more than 50,000 U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, and the U.S. has increased the number of air strikes and continues to attack the Afghan people.”

Davies continued by stating how in 2013 alone, there have been over 2000 airstrikes in Afghanistan, which averages to about five to ten airstrikes per day.

The Obama White House more than doubled the number of drones in the air and intensified attacks in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, killing hundreds of civilians, with drone attacks on weddings, funerals and family homes.

The southern Florida protest was part of an international day of action opposing the war in Afghanistan.

#HollywoodFL #AntiwarMovement #Afghanistan #USImperialism #drones #POWIR