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

Damascus, Syria – Ten people from the U.S., Canada and Ireland have traveled to Syria to observe the presidential elections taking place here June 3. Our delegation is mainly anti-war and international solidarity activists who are members of organizations including the International Action Center, Syria Solidarity Committee, the Anti-War Committee-Chicago, the United National Antiwar Coalition and the International Solidarity Movement. We are hosted by a Iranian non-governmental organization, the International Union of Unified Ummah (Muslim community).

Since arriving in Damascus yesterday, we’ve had several meetings with officials and experts to get an understanding of the elections and what’s at stake. Our first meeting was with Dr. Bassam Abu Abdallah, a local member of the nationalist Baath Party and director of the Damascus Security Center. He talked about how this will be the first multi-party election for president. The rules of the election were established in a new constitution voted on last year.

The three candidates on the ballot were selected from an initial list of 24. The requirements to run include being Syrian, having lived in the country for at least the last ten years, and having the endorsement of 35 members of the national assembly. Previously, the Baath Party was constitutionally the only party that could lead the government. This change was a big concession to demands raised by the protests in the Arab Spring in 2011.

Dr. Abu Abdallah was asked if the elections would have an effect on the armies fighting the government. He answered yes, that it will demoralize them, saying, “First, they see that the U.S. won’t send troops. They’re tired of fighting and they have no vision, other than dying and going to paradise.”

As with the liberation of the Old City in Homs, the mercenaries can see the writing on the wall. “First we put them under siege. The foreign-backed armies previously had perhaps 500,000 with them. Now they have only 100,000. Our soldiers in the Syrian Arab Army [SAA] will continue to fight until the last centimeters of land,” Abdullah added.

Election commission

On the second day, we met with the election commission. Hasham Al Shaher, the commission head, told us we were free to go where we wanted to observe at the polling places. Some will go to Homs, or Atakia and others will stay in Damascus.

He explained that the commission is independent of the administration and appointed to four-year terms. People over 18 years of age (15 million people) are eligible to vote. All that is needed to vote is to be a citizen and to have an ID. No one is required to register in advance.

The Western media was stunned when hundreds of thousands of refugees turned out to vote in Beirut in neighboring Lebanon. It turns out that the commissioners were surprised by the turnout as well. As a result, many thousands were turned away. The Lebanese authorities told them if they returned to Syria to vote, they’d be denied re-entry into Lebanon.

The outpouring was overwhelmingly people wanting to vote for the current president, Bashar al Assad. Coming from people displaced by the war, this was a clear message of opposition to the so-called rebels. Commissioner Al Shaher said, “This shows the insistence and nationalist feelings of the Syrians. Over 95% of those eligible registered to vote.”

Speaker of the Parliament

Speaker of the Parliament Jihad Laham described the political situation they are facing with this war. “We take issue with the criminal American policy to Syria and Palestine. China and Russia have used their veto power to stop the criminal war, while the U.S. has used their veto power 60 times to shield Israel.”

“Unfortunately,” he continued, “we live in dog eat dog times, where the powerful eat the less powerful.” He explained that they had invited parliamentarians to see the truth, but U.S. and NATO governments pressured them not to. “The U.S. is partnered with Saudi Arabia, which has no elections.”

He told us, “Most of the organizations fighting have extreme Islamic orientation. Syria has survived because we are in the right.” The speaker related some of the features of the social program of the government. “Basic food is subsidized: two kilos of bread is less than 10 cents. Education is free. Health care is free. Fuel is subsidized.”

Returning to the countries behind the war, he continued, “Where did the rebels get their weapons? From neighbors with the support of the U.S. and NATO.”

Regarding the moment of the chemical weapon attack last summer that was President Obama’s ‘red line,’ upon which he threatened to hit Syria with hundreds of cruise missiles, the speaker said, “Syria had requested the U.N. to investigate a sarin gas attack in March 2013. It took three months for the inspection committee to arrive, and just then, there was another attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta.”

He denied the use of sarin by the government forces, noting, “The SAA is victorious daily; why would we need sarin?”

A question was asked about U.S. objectives and next steps after the election. Laham replied, “The U.S. plan is unchangeable, but sometimes they are forced to delay.” This helped make it clear to the anti-war forces in the room that we had to return to the U.S. and educate people about what we learn from the elections, in order to win people to taking a stand against the U.S. war which has already killed as many as 160,000 people.

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

The Ukraine Crisis and the New Cold War

On February 22, the elected president of Ukraine was overthrown in a coup which was supported by the Obama administration. Since then, the country has been torn apart and violence has escalated. On May 2 in the southern city of Odessa, supporters of the new unelected Kiev government, including members of the violent extremist Right Sector party, surrounded peaceful, unarmed anti-government protestors who had taken refuge in the city’s main union hall. The right-wing crowd then set the union hall on fire, and 46 people died by being burned alive or jumping to their deaths trying to escape.

We are troubled by this horrific atrocity, and by the fact that mass murder was committed by burning a union hall. We are concerned about the conflict in Ukraine, by the massing of Russian troops near Ukraine’s eastern border and U.S. and NATO troops and planes in neighboring Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which signal the return of the Cold War and the threat of a much hotter war.

A defining period in the history of UE was our union’s courageous opposition to the Cold War. At the end of World War II there was great hope among union members and other Americans for a continuation of FDR’s New Deal, with progressive social and economic policies including national healthcare, expanded Social Security, and progress against racial discrimination in employment. What we got instead was the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act and the Cold War. Military spending, including the nuclear arms race, continued to trump all other priorities. Local conflicts all over the world were treated as global showdowns between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. In the name of “fighting communism,” the U.S. sided with the French and British colonial empires against independence movements, and backed many brutal dictators against their own people. The 40-year-long Cold War included some very hot wars – notably Korea and Vietnam. The CIA organized coups that overthrew democratic governments that dared to disagree with the U.S. government or corporations. On the domestic front, the Cold War was a massive attack on civil liberties and an effort to wipe out organizations, including UE, that refused to enlist in the Cold War.

UE said the U.S. government should direct its resources toward making life better for its own people. UE favored negotiations to resolve differences between the U.S. and the Soviets, and to end conflicts such as Vietnam. UE said the arms race robbed human needs on both sides of the Cold War divide. As UE President Albert Fitzgerald often said, “You can’t have guns and butter.”

The Cold War supposedly ended with 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, which had been composed of the USSR and its Eastern European allies. A key event was the 1990 agreement between the U.S., West Germany and the Soviet Union allowing the reunification of Germany. In those negotiations, President George H.W. Bush promised Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO – the U.S.-led anti-Soviet military alliance – would not expand any further east than Germany.

Yet despite that promise, and despite Russia and its former allies no longer having communist governments, NATO has moved steadily eastward toward Russia. NATO now includes the former socialist states of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria, as well as three former republics of the U.S.S.R. which border Russia – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Two more former Soviet republics, Ukraine and Georgia, have been promised eventual NATO membership. NATO is now clearly an alliance against Russia, sitting on Russia’s doorstep.

In late 2013 the U.S. began expressing hostility toward Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, and sympathy with the often violent anti-government protestors in Kiev. Yanukovych was not an exemplary leader – we now know that he’d been feathering his own nest – but he was elected in a fair election, and the U.S. supports many governments that are more corrupt and undemocratic than his.

What made Yanukovych a target for regime change was his decision in November to reject harsh loan terms from the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) – including the kind of pension cuts and austerity that have driven Greece into poverty. Yanukovych instead accepted a more favorable offer of economic aid from Russia. His proposal that Ukraine have good economic relations with both Russia and the EU was rejected by the EU and the U.S., which wanted a Ukrainian government hostile to Russia.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland met in December 2013 with Oleh Tyahnybok, head of the far-right Svoboda Party. In a 2012 resolution the European Parliament had called Svoboda “racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic” and appealed to democratic parties in Ukraine “not to associate with, endorse or form coalitions with this party.” In May 2013 the World Jewish Congress labeled Svoboda “neo-Nazi” and called for the party to be banned. Svoboada leader Tyahnybok has called for ridding Ukraine of the influence of “the Moscow-Jewish mafia.” Svoboda is also anti-gay, anti-black, and hostile to equal rights for women.

But since the overthrow of Yanukovych, Svoboda holds four cabinet ministries in Ukraine’s “provisional government” (including deputy prime minister.) In a Feb. 4 conversation caught on tape, Nuland and the U.S. ambassador to Kiev discussed who would get which positions in the new government, including cabinet seats for Svoboda.

In Europe since the end of World War II, there has been a political taboo against allowing fascist and neo-Nazi parties into any government. The Obama administration has now broken that taboo and allied our country with fascists in Ukraine. According to German media reports, about 400 elite mercenaries from the notorious U.S. private security firm Academi (formerly Blackwater) are taking part in Ukrainian military operations against anti-government protesters in southeastern Ukraine. News that Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden has joined the board of directors of Ukraine’s largest private gas company adds the element of conflict of interest. Obama’s policies toward Ukraine and Russia have significantly increased the chances of military confrontation between the U.S. and Russia, the world’s two nuclear superpowers. This threatens world peace.

It is unclear whether the presidential election conducted on May 25, under conditions of near-civil war, will help to defuse the crisis in Ukraine.

We reaffirm UE’s historic position. We favor peace and friendly, equitable economic relations between nations. We favor negotiations rather than military confrontation to resolve disputes, including this one. We believe the countries that defeated Nazism in World War II, including the U.S. and Russia, should work together against any resurgence of racism, anti-semitism and fascism in Europe.

Bruce Klipple, General President

Andrew Dinkelaker, General Secretary-Treasurer

Bob Kingsley, Director of Organization

May 27, 2014

#Ukraine #AntiwarMovement #UnitedElectricalWorkers #USImperialism #Europe

Salt Lake City, UT – Over 200 activists and community members gathered at the state capitol, May 24, to join with cities across the country by rallying against the Monsanto Corporation. People assembled on the steps of the capitol despite the rain to listen to a number of speakers including Craig Bowden, Melanie Widerburg-Zucker, Justin Danneman, Lorena Apgar Hansen and Jonathan Hansen. People spoke of the effects that Monsanto has across the globe and locally on families and communities.

The keynote speaker for the event was former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson. Anderson gave a fiery speech on the effects of corporate interests in the U.S. and nailed former Monsanto VP and lobbyist Michael Taylor who is now head of the FDA. Anderson stated, “We don’t need a government of the rich, we need a government of the people, by the people and for the people.” Musicians Michael Cundick and Josh Blakesley also performed for the crowd.

Gregory Lucero of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization was passing out a Fight Back! commentary describing Monsanto’s role in the U.S. dirty war in Colombia. Lucero said, “The U.S. government has spent over $8 billion since the year 2000 on war in Colombia. Monsanto is the company contracted by the U.S. military to spray Roundup chemicals on Colombian peasants’ crops under the guise of a 'war on drugs', decimating the countryside. This contributes to hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Colombia. We need to support Colombian farmers and say, 'No more Monsanto fumigations. No to U.S. war in Colombia!' We’re out here to show our solidarity with the Colombian people.”

The crowd then took to the streets in a militant manner, despite a police presence, marching from the capitol to the County Building. The large group raised their signs and banners as they walked through traffic chanting “Monsanto against the wall, no more GMO’s at all” and “Monsanto no more, we won’t fund your secret war!” Protest leaders ended the protest with calls for the people of Salt Lake City to continue organizing and fighting back.

#SaltLakeCityUT #Colombia #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #USImperialism #Monsanto #MarchAgainstMonsanto #GMO

It is also important to know that Monsanto makes war in Colombia and it needs to stop. Monsanto is making the lives of poor peasant farmers in Colombia miserable, forcing hundreds of thousands to abandon their small plots of land by killing the crops on which they survive. Monsanto participates directly in the U.S. war on Colombia’s poor peasant farmers by providing the deadly “Ultra” versions of Roundup that is used to destroy their crops.

The U.S. government is conducting a war in Colombia and has spent over $8 billion on it since year 2000. Started under Clinton and Gore, the U.S. Southern Command directs the war against left-wing rebel groups and is in charge of the Colombian Armed Forces. However the involvement of Monsanto is less well known. The U.S. counterinsurgency war includes chemical warfare, in the form of private military companies like DynCorp International flying over and spraying the crops and fields of poor peasant farmers in areas where the rebel insurgency is strongest. Farmers living in areas where the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia are well organized are way more likely to have their crops sprayed with Monsanto products than the areas under the control of large landowners, narco-traffickers, or multi-national mineral corporations.

Monsanto is a war profiteer. Monsanto is the company contracted by the U.S. military for the glyphosate sprayed on Colombian peasants’ crops. It is the same chemical as Roundup in much, much stronger concentrations. Monsanto makes huge profits from these U.S. military contracts. It has been going on since at least 1978.

The Roundup is sprayed from planes, often drifts wide of its target, kills all sorts of crops and pollutes the ponds, lakes and rivers of Colombia. The first plants to grow back are the hardy coca plants – the original excuse for spraying, but food crops and fruit trees are ruined and do not return so easily. Thousands of people suffer skin and respiratory problems, there are reports of asthmatic children dying and animals poisoned and killed. The lives of tens of thousands are ruined on a yearly basis.

The U.S. ‘war on drugs’ in Colombia is a lie. There is no change in drug production after decades. The aerial spraying is part of U.S. war strategy. Monsanto’s Roundup being sprayed targets and hurts the poor peasant farmers in rebellion. It harms the base of support of the rebels and gives Colombia the largest displaced person population in the world – more than in Iraq during most of the U.S. war and occupation. It also harms the ‘lungs of the world’ – the Amazon forests are being poisoned and forests are being cut down as farmers move to new land. Here at home, the phony war on drugs imprisons hundreds of thousands of African American, Chicano and working class youth, punishing instead of treating or rehabilitating, and making them second-class citizens for life.

Monsanto delivers nothing but poverty, misery, and death to Colombian farmers, children and their animals. We need to oppose Monsanto selling Roundup to be sprayed on a mass scale in Colombia. Currently, the Colombian government wants to end the program, because it does not work. The U.S. government demands it continue. We need to support Colombian farmers and say: “No more Monsanto fumigations! No to U.S. war in Colombia!”

#GrandRapidsMI #AntiwarMovement #Colombia #USImperialism #Monsanto #RoundupReady #glyphosate #Americas

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

Tucson, AZ – 20 anti-war protesters confronted the arrival of Colombian Air Force and Special Forces troops at a U.S- led military exercise near Tucson, May 4. The anti-war activists chanted, “Stop the U.S.-funded war in Colombia!” and “50 years of war is enough!”

The Colombian military came to practice under U.S. and NATO forces at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Outside the base, on a busy street corner, speakers denounced U.S. military intervention, the more than $8 billion spent by the U.S. government in repressing democracy and human rights, and the significance of the ongoing peace process between the revolutionary FARC and the Colombian government. In recent years Colombian officers, trained at Fort Benning in Georgia, were caught murdering civilian day laborers and claiming they were revolutionary fighters of the FARC. At least 1800 young men died this way.

Tucson anti-war activist Jim Byrne shared, “We are here to denounce the collaboration of the NATO militaries during their training – for maintaining war and violence. We oppose the disgusting trend of the militarization of state and local police, who more and more look like professional armies. These police-armies are used against Chicano, African-American, and other oppressed people here, so that Arizona feels like the Terrordome!”

Ana Maria Vasquez from Colombia explained, “I am 48 years old and I've never known peace in my country. We are all here today in solidarity to ensure the end of the war so that Colombians can live without war, murder, repression and fear.”

Protesters vowed to continue their international solidarity with the Colombian people. Jim Byrne said, “We in the U.S. must develop alliances with all those seeking peace and justice for the people of Colombia. Labor unions like the United Steel Workers, faith organizations and social justice groups must demand the U.S. government stop financing, arming and supporting the militarization of Latin America and the repression of its peoples.”

Video of the protest is being shared with unions, human rights organizations and the Colombian democratic movement Marcha Patriotica. The Alliance for Global Justice organized the protest to build solidarity between the U.S. and Colombian working people in struggling for peace and democracy. Tucson Students for a Democratic Society, Occupy Tucson and local churches endorsed the rally.

#TucsonAZ #AntiwarMovement #Colombia #FARCEP #USImperialism

In the wake of the secession of Crimea and its induction into the Russian Federation following a popular referendum in March, the crisis in Ukraine is intensifying. The fascist-dominated junta in Kiev, backed by the U.S. and NATO, is cracking down on ‘separatist elements’ in the east and now the south of the deteriorating country.

Within less than a month of Crimea’s secession, mass protests erupted in Eastern cities – Donetsk, Lugansk, Slavyansk and Kharkov and dozens of smaller towns. Occupying government, public and media buildings, the protesters declared their cities independent and issued a minimum demand: a referendum on the federalization of Ukraine in order to provide its heterogeneous population and ethnically varied regions choice in their official language and allegiance between Ukraine and Russia.

The uprisings in the east come on the heels of the U.S.-backed Maidan coup in February that ousted the Yanukovich government. The Yanukovich government turned down an EU deal on the grounds that EU integration would bankrupt and destabilize Ukraine.

The new coup government is comprised of several menacing parties that usurped power. The neo-Nazi Svoboda (Freedom) Party, which has promoted a campaign to “liquidate” the “Muscovites and Jewry” of Ukraine, holds key ministerial as well as judicial and military positions. The Right Sector party, whose leader has claimed that even Svoboda is “too liberal,” has claimed an equally significant number of military posts. The stubbornly right-wing Fatherland Party, led by the one of the most infamous, wealthiest and criminal oligarchs in Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, is the other newly ascended party in the regime. In tandem with the rise of these parties to power, the portrait of Stepan Bandera, the notorious Ukrainian Nazi-collaborator of World War II, is hanging in government buildings.

Virulently anti-Russian, the new government is hitting hard with its first political offensives that target a vast portion of the Ukrainian population. Such ‘reforms’ included the proposed ban on any official use of the Russian language, which was formerly respected as the second official language of 13 out of 27 regions.

The predominantly Russian east, frightened by the new coup government’s fascist ambitions, is being devastated by the austerity imposed by Kiev as a prerequisite measure to join the EU. Cut off from funding and suddenly faced with the menace of fascism, one city and region after another is rising in defiance of the right-wing government.

Protesters in the east surged out in mass numbers to demonstrate against the new government. After demonstrations changed little and an offensive on the part of Kiev was impending, occupiers soon declared autonomy, formed self-defense teams, and looked to Russia for aid. The most famous instances include the declaration of People’s Republics in Donetsk and Lugansk and requests by newly appointed governors for Putin to intervene on Russians’ behalf. The Ukrainian left, including the Borotba Union and the Communist Party of Ukraine, are organizing and leading protests.

In mid-April, the Kiev junta announced an ‘anti-terrorist’ and ‘anti-separatist’ military operation to clear protests in Eastern Ukraine by force. The Ukrainian military launched offensives against numerous eastern cities, deploying tanks, helicopters and heavily armed soldiers against protesters.

While peaceful protesters initially greeted tanks, intense fighting has since broken out as Kiev makes it clear that it is determined to suppress any resistance to its new order. Although defections, mutinies and executions of soldiers who refuse to fire on protesters plague the Ukrainian army, the Kiev coup government offensive continues and the number of civilian deaths is rapidly increasing.

With Ukraine facing civil war and the U.S. mobilizing and deploying troops throughout Eastern Europe, all progressive people should adamantly oppose U.S. intervention and declare: “Hands off Ukraine!”

#Ukraine #Russia #antiwar #USImperialism #Nazis #antifascism #Svoboda #RightSector #HouseOfTradeUnions #Europe

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

Tampa, FL – Tampa Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and anti-war activists from the community protested U.S. interference in Ukraine at Senator Marco Rubio's office, April 16. Marco Rubio supports efforts in the U.S. Senate to increase U.S. intervention and spend billions of taxpayer dollars in Ukraine. Students made three demands at Rubio’s office on the University of South Florida campus: No more U.S. intervention in Ukraine or Crimea; Stop U.S. aid to the illegitimate Ukrainian regime; and Oppose U.S. sanctions against Russia.

Students gave fiery speeches denouncing Rubio's support for U.S. intervention. Dani Leppo of Tampa SDS said, “For far too long, the imperialist aggression of the U.S. has caused bloodshed throughout the world. From Colombia to Venezuela, Iraq to Afghanistan, resources and lives are stolen in the name of spreading so-called ‘democracy.’ We must respect the people of Ukraine and Crimea.”

When they finished speaking, the protesters marched into Rubio's office to present their demands. The office was closed off and locked however, so protesters left a letter to Rubio listing their demands.

SDS pointed out that the U.S. spent trillions on wars and foreign interventions while people suffered at home. Tampa SDS member Bridget White noted, “It’s ridiculous that the U.S. is backing real life fascists in the Ukraine. Can’t they be using this money to lower tuition instead?”

SDS vows to continue the struggle against imperialism, fascism and Nazism wherever it appears.

#TampaFL #AntiwarMovement #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #Ukraine #USImperialism #UniversityOfSouthFlorida #SenatorRubio #antifascism