Workers Resistance

Category: Antiwar Movement

  • Anti-war activist runs for spot on Boeing board of directors

    Fight Back!: You’re running for the Board of Directors of the Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) on an anti-war platform. Your main goal is to stop them from building a new combat drone for the Pentagon. What’s that about?

    Kait McIntyre: Currently, Boeing is competing with other weapons manufacturers to win the Navy UCLASS combat drone contract. It is a larger drone that flies faster and farther, carries a greater payload of bombs and missiles, and can be launched and landed on an aircraft carrier. I oppose this because the U.S.’s use of drone warfare – targeted killing and attacks in countries where we have not declared war – violates international law. Furthermore, U.S. drones have led to the death of many innocent civilians, including children, and I stand in solidarity with those around the world whose lives have been lost and or devastated by drone warfare. While the Phantom Ray is Boeing’s first combat drone prototype, they have been and continue to make surveillance drones that are used to bully and help carry out assassinations overseas. I oppose this as well. We need to end wars, not build a new generation of deadly weapons.

    Fight Back!: What do you hope to accomplish through your candidacy and the anti-drone war campaign against Boeing?

    McIntyre: If we can help stop them from winning this contract, it will be a blow to the war machine. The Antiwar Committee Chicago’s Midwest Action Against Drones, one of the largest anti-drone marches in 2013, brought together 200 people representing six different states to rally around the demand that Boeing cease its pursuit of this Navy contract and end production and development of the Phantom Ray. What we hope to do with this campaign is to offer a model for other cities with weapons manufacturers to oppose U.S. drone warfare by focusing on a local target. In Chicago, where we have suffered austerity measures such as public school and mental health clinic closings while Boeing receives millions in tax breaks, we felt it was important to highlight how, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, “the bombs in Vietnam explode at home.”

    Fight Back!: You include an environmental plank in your platform. What is the environmental record of Boeing?

    McIntyre: To start with, depleted uranium (DU). Tens of thousands of pounds of micro particles of radioactive and highly toxic waste contaminate the Middle East, Central Asia and the Balkans from the use of DU by the U.S. military. Boeing added to this problem by providing to Israel the depleted uranium bombs that were dropped on Gaza in 2008 and 2012. The Palestinians who did not die as a result of these attacks will likely see the same sharp increases in birth defect rates as the people of Iraq. Israel has used Boeing bombs to poison the earth in Gaza for millions of years.

    Fight Back!: Your campaign video says you want an end to corporate warfare. Explain that.

    McIntyre: In January, Boeing forced workers in Washington state to accept historic concessions to keep their jobs, starting with elimination of their defined benefit pension. When current CEO James McNerney talked about cutting jobs across the country, he said he knew he was “beginning to sound like Darth Vader.” But, for the workers who lose their jobs, the consequences are in the here and now, not in a galaxy far away. Furthermore, after McNerney cut thousands of machinists’ pensions, he spent $7.2 million dollars on a home in Miami. This type of behavior is unacceptable. Boeing paid no federal income tax in 2013 and has used loopholes to dodge paying taxes in previous years. With Boeing’s enormous profits, it is morally reprehensible that they do not give back to the communities where they operate.

    View Kait McIntyre’s campaign video

  • University of South Florida students demand “Hands off Ukraine”

    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.

  • Minnesota SDS protest confronts war criminal Condoleezza Rice

    Minneapolis, MN – Hundreds of students and community members gathered outside of Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota (U of M), on the evening of April 17, to protest an appearance by Bush White House National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. Rice was speaking as an invited guest of the University’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

    The crowd of over 250 protesters, led by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), heard speakers including professors David Pellow and August Nimtz, AFSCME 3800 President Cherenne Horazuk, Welfare Rights Committee member Deb Howze, Anti-War Committee member Sabri Wazwaz and representatives from other student groups such as Whose Diversity and Students for Justice in Palestine.

    Speakers condemned Rice as a war criminal whose misconduct during the Bush administration included direct responsibility for the use of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques.’ This torture was systematically implemented by the CIA and used at Black Sites around the world as well as prisons like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.

    Protesters gathered in front of Northrop exercised their rights to ‘free speech’ by defying police orders banning the use of amplified sound.

    In the weeks before Rice’s appearance, SDS worked with several professors on a University Senate resolution, modeled after a similar one passed at Rutgers University, condemning the visit of Rice. Though the resolution failed, over 200 professors signed a petition opposing her visit, her receiving of $150,000 to speak, and condemning her role in the Bush administration.

    Speaking to the rally, Stephanie Taylor of SDS stated, “Condoleezza is advocating for the erasure of history and the covering up of crimes committed.” Sociology Professor David Pellow spoke about how Rice’s ‘humanitarian’ work was done in places like Iraq with F-16 jets. He reminded the crowd that Rice was a board member for the Chevron Corporation which has been responsible for a long list of environmental disasters around the world. For her efforts, Rice had an oil tanker named after her. The name of the tanker was changed in the run up to the war on Iraq. Speaker Maggie Kilgo pointed out, “The illegal invasion of Iraq was predicated on the lie that Iraq had WMDs to disguise the fact that a great economic incentives provided a lucrative bounty to the American invaders and the private corporations that they brought with them.”

    In addition the record of illegal wars, occupation and systematic torture under the leadership of Rice and the Bush administration, SDS and other protesters highlighted that Rice, who was to speak about the Civil Rights Act of 1964, was bad choice to speak on the subject. In his open letter to Condoleezza Rice, U of M Humphrey School Roy Wilkins Professor of Human Relations and Social Justice Samuel Meyers, Jr. stated, “the argument is that you are black and a woman and even though you have expressed opposing views long held by the mainstream supporters of equal opportunity and fairness, and you are not an academic expert on the topic, your visit should be supported because, well, you are black and a woman!”

    Professor August Nimtz stated, “Hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of others” could have spoken to the “narrative about how a particular black family coped with, and refused to be broken by, that system” of white supremacy in the Jim Crow south. Nimtz himself grew up in the Jim Crow south in New Orleans and highlighted the fact that Rice was “missing in action” while some “90% of her cohorts made the decisive contributions for the victory, the Children’s Crusade, when the masses took to the streets.” Nimtz also highlighted her absence from struggles against apartheid in South Africa.

    Deb Howze of the Welfare Rights Committee told of the hypocrisy of Rice speaking on behalf of Civil Rights when Rice oversaw wars abroad that took billions of dollars to murder Iraqi’s including women and children while the women and children of the U.S. suffered and starved at home.

    After speaking in front of the auditorium, hundreds of protesters marched around the building and across campus. They returned to the side entry of Northrop where guests entered and were expected to exit from. Inside, during Rice’s speech several members of the audience wore orange jump suits and black hoods to protest her contributions of torture and crimes against humanity.

    Upon exiting the speech from Rice, hundreds of people were confronted by the protesters waiting outside the doors. Exiting guests had to walk through a canyon of loud protesters chanting slogans like “This is what democracy looks like, Rice is what hypocrisy looks like!”

    The protest led by SDS made it clear to Rice and the University of Minnesota that “War criminals are not welcome on our campus.”

     

  • Anti-war activist proudly pleads guilty to ‘disturbing’ U.S. war criminal General Petraeus

    Grand Rapids, MI – Anti-war activist Deb Van Poolen appeared in the 61st District Court here, April 15, with a group of supporters. Van Poolen pled guilty to the charge of creating a disturbance on Jan. 31 at the DeVos Place Convention Center.

    With great interest, Judge Kim Schaefer asked the defendant if she had created a disturbance that day. Van Poolen proudly said, “Yes, I stood up and spoke in front of several hundred people, and I said, ‘General David Petraeus you are a war criminal responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent men, women and children. I am a graduate of Calvin College and a follower of Jesus Christ and I am here to speak out.’”

    Judge Schaefer interrupted and asked what the effect was. Van Poolen responded, “Petraeus stopped speaking and then two men brought me outside.”

    Next Van Poolen’s lawyer David LeGrande spoke in her defense, saying, “It was an intentional act of civil disobedience. The tradition sees it as appropriate to break laws and deal with the consequences…to right injustice.” Defense attorney LeGrande continued, “She performed a public service by challenging militarism and the often unchallenged acts of aggression by the U.S. She is a full-time ideologue and I mean that in the best sense of the word. She has the support of local activists in court today and the support of communities in other parts of our country and the world.”

    Judge Schaefer, appreciating this exceptional plea in her court. asked if Van Poolen had any final comments.

    Van Poolen responded, “I was practicing free speech in a non-violent way. I did so with the sincere belief that, to call attention to the outrageous and immoral acts of U.S. leaders, civil disobedience is required. I hope my actions followed in the footsteps of other great and inspiring leaders.”

    Van Poolen is required to pay $160 in restitution as requested by the prosecution and about $300 in court costs and fees for a total near $460. She plans to enter a work program with other low-income women doing physical labor to pay off their debts to the justice system. Anti-war activists in Grand Rapids are also raising funds in solidarity with her bold action.

     

  • Chicago forum on U.S. role in Ukraine: fascists attempt disruption

    Chicago, IL – Under attack from aggressive Ukrainian fascists, 40 anti-war activists held a teach-in here on the unfolding Ukraine crisis and NATO expansion, April 12. An equal sized crowd of Ukrainian reactionaries, one carrying the battle flag of the fascist Ukrainian Insurgent Army and another man wearing a scarf bearing the insignia of the violent neo-Nazi Right Sector, attempted to push their way into the door of the union hall during the speakers’ presentations.

    When they failed to get inside, one of them slipped a Right Sector leaflet through the door. It included language used in Hitler’s Mein Kampf, such as the need for “living space” for Ukrainians. The flyer defines Ukrainians as a “genetic community,” meaning that the Russians and Jews that live there aren’t part of their nation.

    Delivering his remarks over the muffled chanting from outside, Rick Rozoff from the Stop NATO Network detailed the U.S.’s imperialist maneuvers in Ukraine, emphasizing the role of NATO as a vehicle for American foreign policy. Rozoff explained the State Department intervention in Ukraine and arms build up in Eastern Europe as part of a long-term strategy to besiege Russia.

    Speakers from the Anti-War Committee-Chicago included Kait McIntyre, who is running as an anti-war candidate for Boeing’s Board of Directors. McIntyre’s campaign targets the world’s second largest weapons manufacturer, headquartered here in Chicago, which profits off the billions poured into drone warfare and NATO expansion by the U.S. defense budget.

    Sara Flounders of the International Action Center in New York outlined the historical cooperation between the U.S. and fascist forces in Europe. The U.S. propelled these forces into power during the violent breakup of Yugoslavia, aided by the NATO bombardment. She stated that the U.S. actively maintains right-wing opposition movements around the world in order to eliminate governments that assert their national independence.

    With the fascist Svoboda party now occupying prominent positions in the new Ukrainian regime, the anti-war movement must take a strong stand against U.S.-funding of the Kiev junta, whose rise to power, as Rozoff noted, echoed Mussolini’s March on Rome. Alfonso Casal of the American Party of Labor (APL) told attendees about the history of fascism in the Ukraine. The panel was organized by Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Workers World Party (WWP) and APL, with Erich Struch of WWP as chair of the event.

    Many young people attended and contributed to the engaging discussion.

    The participants bravely defied right-wing intimidation to stage this important teach-in, refusing to allow the fascists to shut down the meeting.

  • Chicago protest says: ‘Turkey, NATO, hands off Syria!’

    Chicago, IL – 100 Syrians gathered here, April 5, in front of the Turkish consulate to demand “Turkey, NATO, hands off Syria!” The group also called out their love for their homeland in Arabic, chanting “Tahya Suria!” Long live Syria!

    The incident that caused this international day of protest in places with Syrian and Armenian immigrant communities is an attack on the village of Kessab in northwestern Syria. Kessab is a mainly Armenian Christian community, which was attacked by the Turkish-backed terrorist group Al Nusra Front in late March. Thousands have fled Kessab, and the fear of a repeat of the Armenian genocide has caused even Armenian American Kim Kardashian to speak out.

    Mark Ahmad of the Syrian American Forum addressed the protest. “We want Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey to stop supporting and sending the terrorists to attack our motherland. Every one of you must inform your neighbors and coworkers and contact their legislators with the message that our U.S. policy should not support repeated aggression against Syria by the government of Turkey.”

    Joe Iosbaker of the Anti-war Committee-Chicago addressed the crowd. “We have to oppose the U.S. and its junior partners in NATO, which include Turkey; the U.S. puppets in the Gulf States; and of course Israel, the main provocateur and biggest cheerleader for war in Syria.” Iosbaker also called for the Syrians to support the Palestinian activist Rasmea Odeh, who is facing charges by the U.S. Attorney in Detroit for her work in the Palestinian community in Chicago.

     

  • U of M SDS plans protest against war criminal Condoleezza Rice

    Minneapolis, MN – The University of Minnesota Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) are organizing an April 17 protest to coincide with a speech by Condoleezza Rice – a close aide of George Bush and a war criminal to boot.

    Former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice will be speaking as the 2014 Distinguished Carlson Lecturer at the University of Minnesota. The Carlson Foundation, a private donor to the University of Minnesota, is fronting the $150,000 honorarium to host Rice. The university planned her speech, on the subject of civil rights, to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The University of Minnesota describes her speech as recognition towards “her effort to foster freedom and democracy.”

    This invitation and “distinguished” lecture has disgusted students, staff, faculty and community members. The Twin Cites anti-war movement, heeding a call from SDS, will join a large rally to highlight Dr. Rice’s criminal conduct and to underscore the massive violations of human rights she was responsible for during the Bush administration.

    The choice of Dr. Rice to speak on civil rights or “freedom and democracy” is outrageous. In fact, her crimes stand in direct opposition to the great contributions made by leaders of the civil rights movement like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King had no problem connecting poverty, racism and injustice at home with the imperialist war in Vietnam. Dr. King noted that “every time we kill one [Vietnamese] we spend about $500,000 while we spend only $53 a year for every person characterized as poverty-stricken in the so-called poverty program.” For Dr. King and other civil rights leaders, the war was a disgrace that “played havoc with our domestic destinies” and put the U.S. “in a position of appearing to the world as an arrogant nation.”

    Recall that under Rice’s leadership as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, the U.S. openly committed well-documented and widespread crimes against humanity. These crimes included but are not limited to an illegal invasion of Iraq on pretenses of ‘weapons of mass destruction’ – which were never found. The years of occupation that followed the invasion of Iraq left, by conservative estimates, over half of a million people dead. This invasion and occupation was accompanied by widespread use of terror, in the systematic torture of prisoners as documented at Abu Ghraib and the long-standing torture prison known as Guantanamo Bay.

    While this torture was documented, much more remains less documented. White House reports have long cited legal memos dispersed by Rice not only tolerating torture but suggesting that the Geneva Convention does not apply to the U.S. while engaged in its terroristic war, ‘The War on Terror.’

    It is with these facts and with many others that Students for a Democratic Society and other student and anti-war groups will rally against Rice’s visit to the University of Minnesota. While administrators of the university have said that their invitation of Dr. Rice was on the grounds of “freedom of speech,” her “free speech” should be seen as nothing more than promoting the annihilation of sovereign countries via barbaric means of torture and criminal activity.

    Like students and staff at Stanford, and most recently at Rutgers, Dr. Rice will be greeted upon her arrival with a reminder that her mark of distinction is that of a war criminal. In the name of the millions of Iraqis who saw their country ripped apart by the U.S. invasion – overseen in part by Condoleezza Rice, we urge you to join us at this protest. And in the names of thousands of young Americans sent to war only to return home without jobs, without proper healthcare – and the many who never returned at all – join SDS on April 17 at 4:00 p.m. at the University of Minnesota to condemn war criminals speaking on our campus.

     

  • Minneapolis forum on Ukraine crisis and U.S. intervention

    Minneapolis, MN – Over 30 people attended an educational forum on the current crisis in Ukraine on March 28 at Mayday Books.

    The forum, entitled “What’s Behind the Crisis in Ukraine?” attracted longtime peace activists as well as people new to anti-war activities.

    Speakers included Gerald Erickson, Professor Emeritus, Classical/Near Eastern Studies at the University of Minnesota; Dean Gunderson, chair of the Minnesota chapter of U.S. Friends of the Soviet People; Linda Hoover of Women Against Military Madness and longtime peace, labor and anti-racist activist; and Meredith Aby-Keirstead of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee.

    Erickson started the program by drawing attention to the similarities between U.S. and NATO policies that exasperated the breakup of former Yugoslavia and the current crisis in Ukraine.

    Aby stated, “Most Americans don’t understand that the U.S. helped promote instability in Ukraine and supported the coup. And the mainstream media is not explaining this to people. An important role for the anti-war movement is to be clear that the debate is not about whether the U.S. should intervene in the Ukraine – because the U.S. already is. We need to be focused on ending and not escalating U.S. intervention. “

    She continued, “We have done a good job in the Twin Cities of building a movement against drones and likewise we need to organize against the U.S. tactic of destabilization. At our protests it is critical that we focus on the main slogans of ‘U.S./West hands off Ukraine’ and ‘No sanctions/no threats against Russia.’”

    Mayday Books, the sponsor of the program, is an all volunteer, independent progressive bookstore located in the West Bank neighborhood of Minneapolis.

  • Twin Cites Anti-War Committee exposes U.S. war on Colombia

    Minneapolis, MN – The Twin Cities-based Anti-War Committee (AWC) held a program called “The War Next Door: U.S. Role in Colombia’s Civil War,” March 22 here at May Day Bookstore. Speakers included Eden Yosief, of SEIU Healthcare, who recently traveled to Colombia, along with AWC organizers Jess Sundin and Meredith Aby-Keirstead.

    After explaining how the U.S. backs its puppet government in Colombia, Jess Sundin of the Anti-War Committee stated, “The U.S. government has also taken a very hands-on role by criminalizing Colombia’s insurgency, as well as leaders of its social movements, and those who work in solidarity with them here in the U.S.”

    “In particular, we know that the U.S. has imprisoned two Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) members. The most well known is Ricardo Palmera, AKA ‘Simon Trinidad.’ He was one of the peace negotiators when I was in Colombia. In 2004, he was captured by the CIA while he was in Ecuador to meet with UN representatives. Palmera is held in solitary confinement in a high security federal prison, not allowed to receive letters or communicate freely with his lawyer,” said Sundin

    Sundin continued, “Another FARC member Anayibe Rojas Valderama, known as ‘Sonia’, was extradited to the U.S., then, in 2007, sentenced to nearly 17 years in federal prison here. And of course, there is our own case with the Anti-War Committee. The FBI investigation of us included ‘Daniela,’ an undercover agent who claimed to be of Colombian descent, and who took a special interest in our work in solidarity with Colombia. This work included organizing protests against U.S. military aid, hosting speakers from Colombian trade unionists and participating in solidarity delegations to witness firsthand the civil war fueled by our tax dollars. Though we only hosted speakers granted visas by the U.S. State Department, the government treats some of these union leaders as criminal terrorists, and we were investigated because our hosting them was seen as the crime of aiding terrorists.”

     

  • Twin Cites Anti-War Committee exposes U.S. war on Colombia

    Minneapolis, MN – The Twin Cities-based Anti-War Committee (AWC) held a program called “The War Next Door: U.S. Role in Colombia’s Civil War,” March 22 here at May Day Bookstore. Speakers included Eden Yosief, of SEIU Healthcare, who recently traveled to Colombia, along with AWC organizers Jess Sundin and Meredith Aby-Keirstead.

    After explaining how the U.S. backs its puppet government in Colombia, Jess Sundin of the Anti-War Committee stated, “The U.S. government has also taken a very hands-on role by criminalizing Colombia’s insurgency, as well as leaders of its social movements, and those who work in solidarity with them here in the U.S.”

    “In particular, we know that the U.S. has imprisoned two Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) members. The most well known is Ricardo Palmera, AKA ‘Simon Trinidad.’ He was one of the peace negotiators when I was in Colombia. In 2004, he was captured by the CIA while he was in Ecuador to meet with UN representatives. Palmera is held in solitary confinement in a high security federal prison, not allowed to receive letters or communicate freely with his lawyer,” said Sundin

    Sundin continued, “Another FARC member Anayibe Rojas Valderama, known as ‘Sonia’, was extradited to the U.S., then, in 2007, sentenced to nearly 17 years in federal prison here. And of course, there is our own case with the Anti-War Committee. The FBI investigation of us included ‘Daniela,’ an undercover agent who claimed to be of Colombian descent, and who took a special interest in our work in solidarity with Colombia. This work included organizing protests against U.S. military aid, hosting speakers from Colombian trade unionists and participating in solidarity delegations to witness firsthand the civil war fueled by our tax dollars. Though we only hosted speakers granted visas by the U.S. State Department, the government treats some of these union leaders as criminal terrorists, and we were investigated because our hosting them was seen as the crime of aiding terrorists.”