Texas Longhorns with newborn calf in Bluebonnets

Texas Longhorns with newborn calf in Bluebonnets

Please note I have a new phone number...

512-517-2708

Alan Maki

Alan Maki
Doing research at the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas

It's time to claim our Peace Dividend

It's time to claim our Peace Dividend

We need to beat swords into plowshares.

We need to beat swords into plowshares.

A program for real change...

http://peaceandsocialjustice.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-progressive-program-for-real-change.html


What we need is a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" which would make it a mandatory requirement that the president and Congress attain and maintain full employment.


"Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens"

- Ben Franklin

Let's talk...

Let's talk...

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Let the bullets fly: War is a great business

Let the bullets fly: War is a great business
By Mike Krauss
Bucks County Courier Times

Defense contractors and Wall Street banks have been among the biggest winners in the nearly 12 years the United States has been at war in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and now Syria. Maybe the only winners.
And it seems the “Freedom Loving” peoples we support are not actually all that Freedom Loving; more like “Being-in-Control Loving.” All the American people and our armed forces have to show for the enormous sacrifice of blood and treasure is a tangle of vengeful ethnic, tribal and religious homicide and no really dependable allies.
We didn’t even get the oil in Iraq. China did. But maybe we’ll have a shot at the “rare earth” minerals that the Defense Department has mapped in Afghanistan. Or at least the Wall Street banks will get to launder the money from the opium trade.
The losers are more easily identified: the American dead and wounded and an estimated 220,000 men, women and children dead and several times that wounded , the overwhelming majority of whom were innocent of any aggression and posed no threat to the security of the United States. [Note: Counts of dead and wounded are contested. I selected the lower range of counts by the Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that I consider most trustworthy. U.S government counts are a widely disparaged undercount.]
Civilians continue to die under drone strikes and rules of engagement that label anybody, anywhere near one of our targets as an “enemy combatant,” to justify the deaths.
Great way to win hearts and minds.
The president has recently wrung his hands over these tactics and shared with the American people how troubled he is by the tough decisions he makes. But there is no indication that he will not go right on doing as he has.
So get ready, Syria, for help from the Freedom Loving U.S. administration and Congress. It is being carefully orchestrated. Sen. John McCain — who apparently never met a war he didn’t like — is leading the charge in the Congress, doing as he did in the run up to Libya, posing for photo ops with the Freedom Loving “rebels,” who included at least one known Al-Qaeda operative.
McCain’s valor and patriotism are beyond question. His judgment is not. You remember Al-Qaeda? Terrorists. The enemy.
But apparently not when they are on our side for the moment, as they were when the U.S. wanted to push the Soviets out of Afghanistan and we armed and trained them.
The politics of never ending war makes strange bedfellows.
The president seemed to be resisting the war drums. But this is the Obama hallmark, seeming to be doing one thing while actually doing another.
It is known American forces are on the ground in Syria: CIA and Special Forces. But in the recent White House announcement that the U.S. will be sending “direct military aid” to the Freedom Loving Syrians, the wording does not mention “troops.”
In fact, the statement offered almost no description of or limit to what that aid might be. There is suspicion that the White House is waiting for the right pretext to send in the troops; like maybe the day after our formerly evil but now allies in Syria tell us about some terrible things the Syrian “regime” is doing to innocent civilians.
We are told the Syrian government used a chemical weapon, and crossed a “red line.” Maybe they did. I have no idea anymore what information from our government can be trusted.
But other nations also have red lines. After the U.S. announcement, Iran announced it was sending 4,000 troops to support the Syrian government. Great.
War is a tough business. Supplying and financing war, on the other hand, is a great business and there is an army of patriotic lobbyists ready to man the barricades in Congress against the ruthless advocates of peace.
Let the bullets fly!
--
Circulated by:

Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell: 651-587-5541

Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Sometimes I feel like I'm caught in a huge web.

It's only a few people who profit from the existing state of affairs. For most people, the "status quo" means being trapped in a massive web and to them it seems like a hopeless task attempting to break free; but as people begin to seek out solutions to their predicament together they become empowered to take action together. It isn't as easy as it seems it would be to free ourselves from this web that has us trapped, but it isn't that difficult either once people are in motion and more and more people figure out what it takes--- united action--- to escape the clutches of these parasites waiting to suck the last drop of blood from us.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Kieth Ellison a friend and ally of labor? Don't make me puke.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1376723425876972/?fref=ts

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is the largest free trade agreement the US has ever attempted to negotiate. So called "free trade agreements" have been nothing more than one more tool by which corporations manipulate government to deregulate themselves and consolidate their power. Fortunately, we have a very strong ally in Congress in Rep. Keith Ellison. Unfortunately, very few people are even aware that TPP negotiations are expected to come to a head THIS YEAR. Help Keith get the word out by joining us for this public forum to learn what the TPP is, what it will do, and how we can fight back! Keith will be joined by Josh Wise of the MN Fair Trade Coalition, Jim Harkness of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, and Richard K Ryan of the International Association of Machinists.
-------------------------------------

I like the way Democrats said Ford Rangers would never be imported back into this country after they allowed the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant to be shut down after tax-payers subsidized the operation to the hilt only to learn they were subsidizing Ford building a state of the art plant in Thailand to produce the Ford Ranger and the Democrats and the UAW and the USW and Sierra Club along with the St. Paul Green Party tried to hide the fact Ford had built a new Ranger Plant in Thailand. Now along comes the Ford Motor Company as one of the major pushers to get Thailand included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Two-thousand good paying union jobs and a fully integrated workforce that took years of fighting the racist Ford management to achieve--- all flushed down the sewer into the Mississippi River because Democrats refused to support any efforts to save the plant and hydro dam as an industrial unit.

Where will two-thousand good paying union jobs ever come from in a state where the MN DFL has a super-majority and they leave the state's minimum wage at $6.25 an hour while refusing to enforce Affirmative Action on billion-dollar public works projects?

Come on Keith Ellison tell us about all those good jobs Democrats are going to bring to Minnesota.

This is obviously nothing but one more act under the big-top put on by a clown whose only intent is to continue hoodwinking people just like Obama has done--- with your unwavering support.

Now, like a circus clown, you are putting on a show to distract us from the next act which is--- war in Syria.

In case you missed the struggle to save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant like Keith Ellison and these other Democrats did; check this out:

http://capitalistglobalization.blogspot.com/

Working people don't have a "strong ally" in Kieth Ellison for anything. If we did, 44,000 Minnesotans wouldn't be working in the Indiana Gaming Industry's loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages and without any rights under state or federal labor laws while a bunch of rich white mobsters who own the slot machines run off with all the profits leaving Native American Indians drowning in poverty-causing debt... and two-thousand Ford workers would still have their jobs and workers would be protected from lockouts and scabbing and we would have a real living Minimum Wage and "At-Will Employment" would be a thing of the past and we wouldn't have a billion-dollar Viking Stadium and a billion-dollar bridge over the St. Croix River being built without the enforcement of Affirmative Action at a time when racist unemployment and its accompanying poverty is sky high.

"Obama will understand protests against his visit."

"Obama will understand protests against his visit," says South African President Jacob Zuma.

But, the real question is:

Will the American people understand that these protests are anti-imperialist protests taking place because Obama is the major proponent of Wall Street's imperialist agenda?

Here is how one publication has pitched this story but how many people in the United States will ever see what is transpiring in South Africa reported in this straightforward manner:

COMING from one of the oldest democratic states, US President Barack Obama will not be surprised to see protests in South Africa against his visit, President Jacob Zuma said on Monday, defending the right of dissenting voices within the country’s diverse political spectrum, including his party’s alliance partners.

Some trade unions, political parties and civil society bodies on Sunday condemned Mr Obama’s upcoming visit to South Africa in a joint statement.

The organisations said: "We categorically make it known that the visit of the US president to South Africa is an unwelcome visit that will be protested, picketed and resisted by all justice and peace-loving peoples of this country."

The statement was issued by the National Unions of Metalworkers of South Africa, the South African Communist Party, the Young Communist League of South Africa, the South African Students’ Congress, the Muslim Students’ Association, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the Friends of Cuba Society, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel in South Africa, and the World Federation of Trade Unions.

"Friendship with South Africa must be based on values of justice, freedom and equality, and these the US has offended, undermined and ridiculed through its actions in the global front," they said.

Mr Zuma was addressing the South African National Editors’ Forum as president of the African National Congress in a series of monthly briefings organised by the party. He said that although it was unfortunate to welcome a guest in this manner, peaceful protests were allowed and were a legitimate way, in a democracy, to express people’s different views.

Will we hear about these protests against Obama in South Africa from our mainstream media?

 
June 20, 2013
 
COSATU joins the millions of people and workers the world over, particularly on the African continent and in South Africa, who are outraged at the horrifying record of US foreign policy in the world. We are particularly disappointed by the Obama administration`s record in continuing the appalling US foreign policy performance as per the following indicators, amongst others;
 
  • The militarisation of international relations for the multinational companies and their profit-seeking classes in the US, as evidently manifested in the role of the US in world affairs. For instance, just before the April 14 Presidential elections in Venezuela, RT News reported on a Wikileaks Cable from 2006 in which, in the words of RT, then "ambassador to Venezuela, William Brownfield, outlines a comprehensive plan to infiltrate and destabilize former President Hugo Chavez` government," including through programs of the USAID and its Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI). On May Day, Bolivian President Evo Morales informed the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia that he wanted USAID to leave Bolivia because he (quite reasonably) suspected USAID of trying to subvert his own government as well.
  • Linda J. Bilmes and Michael D. Intriligator, ask in a recent paper, "How many wars is the US fighting today?" they then proceed to answer the question by saying that, "today US military operations are involved in scores of countries across all the five continents. The US military is the world`s largest landlord, with massive military facilities in nations around the world, and with a significant presence in Bahrain, Djibouti,Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Kyrgyzstan, in addition to long-established bases in Germany, Japan, South Korea, Italy, and the UK. Some of these are vast, such as the Al Udeid Air Force Base in Qatar, the forward headquarters of the United States Central Command, which has recently been expanded to accommodate up to 10,000 troops and 120 aircraft".
  • It must also be further noted that, there are Special Operations forces in different countries, which are largely responsible for the destabilisation of various countries and communities. Jeremy Scahill in Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield, writes, "By mid-2010, the Obama administration had increased the presence of Special Operations forces from 60 countries to 74 countries". The world is literally a battlefield with conflicts being waged by the US (or with the "help" of the US). And, no country is off-limits to US military forces.
  • US Africa Command (AFRICOM) is said to be involved in direct or indirect military-to-military relationships with 54 African countries.
 
The devastating result of all these is that we see the intensification of;
 
  • The Brutal occupation of Palestine by the Israeli apartheid state, with the full support of the US and the EU, together with their Middle East puppet regimes
  • The Continued jailing of the 5 (now 4) Cuban heroes in US jails for their role in fighting terrorism against the Cuban people
  • The Continued existence of the Guantanamo Bay prison, which has been condemned by various international bodies, including Amnesty International and Nobel laureates as very inhumane and in contravention of international law
  • The ruthless and savage looting of our natural resources by US and other multinational companies in close collaboration with corrupt elites in various countries
  • The US support for oppressive regimes that benefit US narrow interests
  • US aggressive opposition to climate justice and ways to end global warming and destruction of our environment, in pursuit of narrow profit interests
  • US policies that perpetuate unequal and exploitative trade relations and underdevelopment in Africa and the rest of the developing world
  • US policies of nuclear proliferation and arming of space to the detriment of peace, justice, democracy and human rights.
 
In this regard, COSATU fully supports and actively participate in the growing global and national movement for peace, justice, human rights, environmental justice and the right to development for all.
 
We call on all workers, communities and activists, particularly working with our alliance partners, the SACP and the ANC, as well as the various progressive civil society formations, to join the announced activities throughout the country, to demand an end to US warmongering and for a new foreign policy based on respect for human dignity and justice for the people of the world, including the people of the US itself.
 
The world-wide struggle against imperialism must be intensified and the people of Africa must lead the struggle to reclaim their natural resources and rise against oppressive dictators of various kinds that undermine their developmental and democratic aspirations for a better world. This means building progressive and popular working class alternatives to the crisis and failures of capitalism and dictatorship.
 
A new and just world is not only possible, but necessary NOW!
 
 
 
 
    Cosatu backs `NObama' coalition's protests plan
 
By Karl Gernetzky
June 24, 2013   
 
Successive US presidents have presided over increasing militarisation of the country's foreign policy, and mass protests over US President Barack Obama's state visit this week will seek to "persuade and influence" the South African government to challenge how the US acts in the global community.
 
This is according to a coalition of groups planning mass protests against Mr Obama's state visit, part of a three-country African tour that includes Senegal and Tanzania.
 
Speaking in Johannesburg on Sunday, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) Gauteng chairman Phutas Tseki said "progressive forces" in South Africa would unite to reject the "unwelcome visit".
 
"Friendship with South Africa must be based on valued justice, freedom and equality and these the US has offended, undermined and ridiculed through its actions in the global front," said Mr Tseki.
 
The group, which also includes, among others, the South African Communist Party, student organisations, Friends of Cuba Society and Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions against Israel, has planned a "national day of action" on Friday, when Mr Obama lands in South Africa.
 
They will march from the Union Buildings to the US embassy in Pretoria. Other protests are planned for Friday outside the University of Johannesburg, and in Lenasia.
 
The group has cited, among other things, US economic sanctions on Cuba, failure by the US to act on climate change and the continued existence of the Guantanamo Bay prison. The group on Sunday demanded the disbanding of the US's African Command, which has about 5,000 personnel mostly based at its German headquarters and in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.
 
This is Mr Obama's second trip to sub-Saharan Africa having visited Ghana during his first term.
 
In a transcript of a briefing given on the visit last Friday, US deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said trade and investment as well as democracy and democratic institution building would be part of the agenda.
 
He said the trip "ultimately disproves the notion that we are somehow securitising the relationship with Africa" as the focus was on "broader agenda and the fundamental interconnection between democracy, development and security".
 
Deputy International Relations and Co-operation Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim said the strength of South Africa's political and economic relations with the US spoke of the importance of the visit, adding that in terms of the protests South Africa is a "democratic country and anyone who wants to protest for whatever reason can do so".
 
The visit was likely to focus on regional issues and continental issues, such as stimulating trade and investment, he said.
 
The Democratic Alliance has called on International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane to distance herself and the government from Cosatu's planned anti-Obama demonstrations, saying that the protests were "cheap political point scoring" and "an embarrassment".
 
The Muslim Lawyers Association had requested the National Prosecuting Authority issue an arrest warrant for Mr Obama, based on the use of drones for targeted killings, however this had been turned down and indication had also been given than an investigation would not be initiated during Mr Obama's visit.
 
 
 
June 19, 2013
 
 
 
We as South Africans in the form of the South African Communist Party (SACP), the Young Communist League of South Africa (YCL), the South African Students Congress (SASCO), the Muslim Students Association(MSA), the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU), the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), Friend of Cuba Society (FOCUS), Boycott, Divestment and Sanctionsagainst Israel in South Africa (BDS South African), and the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), declare our utmost rejection of visit of the United States of America President, Barak Obama to our country.
 
Our rejection is based the USA`s arrogant, selfish and oppressive foreignpolicies, treatment of workers and international trade relations that are rooted in war mongering, neo-liberal super-exploitation, colonial racism and the disregard and destruction of the environment, thus making the realisation of a just and peaceful world impossible.
 
The coming of President Barak Obama to South Africa is the first ever since he was elected head of state. The USA under his leadership has escalated its assault on human rights, militarisation of international relations and continuing galloping of world resources at the absolute expense of the environment and oppressed peoples of the world.
 
The USA is deeply implicated in the oppression of the people of Western Sahara, the only remaining colonised country on the African continent,colonised by Morocco. And to this day, the release of the Cuban Five and a continuing baseless embargo against the country and peoples of Cuba still seems unmovable issues of commitment for the USA. The call for therelease of the Cuban Five has been an important international campaignsupported even by Nobel Prize winners who released a document calling on their freedom; Zhores Alferov (Nobel Prize for Physics, 2000), Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize, 1984), Nadine Gordimer (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1991), Rigoberta Menchú (Nobel Peace Prize, 1992), Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Nobel Peace Prize, 1980), Wole Soyinka (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1986), José Saramago (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1996), Günter Grass (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1999).
 
The criminal occupation of Palestine by the Apartheid State of Israel, as awell-known fact in our country, has only been made possible by the USA`s financial and political support for the Racist Israeli regime. This is expressed in the main, through both its open support and military donations that come to billions of dollars every year - with USA aid to Israel being more than that of Africa, Latin America and Asia combined.
 
In addition, the USA has for years been singlehandedly blocking any progress and is totally divorced and isolated from the consensus of the international community. In fact, the USA is the most frequent user of the UN veto: it has used its veto power over 40 times to defend Apartheid Israel. As South Africans, we painfully recall how the US used its veto power to defend Apartheid South Africa, particularly from UN resolutions imposing economic and military sanctions. The USA, under Regan and others, suported Apartheid South Africa and was on the wrong side of history. Why does the USA not learn from its history, and be on the right side of history this time?
 
Finally, the United States` policies on the environment, specifically the fact that it is one of the largest contributors to global warming, yet to this day continues to refuse the observing and singing of the Kyoto protocol, is simply unacceptable.
 
Progressive forces in South Africa have consistently been raising theseissues and many others regarding the role of the USA in the global community. We categorically make it known, that the visit of the USA President to South Africa is an unwelcomed visit that will be protested, picketed and resisted by all justice and peace-loving peoples of this country. Friendship with South Africa must be based on values of justice, freedom and equality and these the USA has offended, undermined and ridiculed through its actions in the global front.
 
The following issues will be highlighted in upcmoing protests of PresidentBarak Obama:
 
1. The championing and maintenance, by the USA, in the militarisation of international relations and co-operation. It is a well-known fact that the USA approaches conflicts in the world through inciting, encouraging as well and championing war, primarily driven by its business interests often masqueraded in the language of defence of human rights. The militarisation of international relations is in the main exemplified by institutions like Africom, NATO, and the continuing double standards around nuclear disarmament that the USA preaches when it comes to countries in the South, whilst continuing to collaborate with on nuclearweapones with Israel.
 
2. The continued greed in the guzzling of world resources by the USA epitomised by its encouragement and support of its multinational companies that have no regard for the environment, human rights,progressive labour laws etc.
 
3. The USA`s active support and defence of colonial and oppressive regimes. This is the one aspect of USA foreign policy that most exposes its hypocritical character where regimes that support its interest are never opposed; instead they are not only supported but maintained through amongst other things, the USA war machinery. Chief amongst these is Israel, which continues to serve as the USA`s frontline state in the Middle-East whilst suppressing and maintaining its racist apartheid policies on Palestinian people. Another example, is the USA`s support to Morrocco, that is oppressiing and colonialally occuppying Western Sahara, and increasingly the support of oppressive regimes like the onein Colombia.
 
4. The USA`s role maintaining the underdevelopment of the African continent and its imperialistinc trade realtions with African countries.
 
5. The unjustifiable bloacke on Cuba and unfair imprisonment of the Cuban 5.
 
6. The United States of America is the single largest contributor to global warming which is condemning the world into catastrophic environmental disasters.
 
Key Programs
 
Members of the public are invited to participate in a National Day of Actionon the 28th of June, with a primary event taking place in the form of a protestmarch from Union Building to the United States of America Embassy in Pretoria: Date: 28 June, 2013, Friday - 10h00

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Our future depends on full employment and raising the Minimum Wage to a real living wage.

Using the figure of $11.19 an hour to distinguish a poverty wage is an insult to all working people. Just as supporting a $10.10 an hour Minimum Wage is an insult to all working people.

This report is very typical of the foundation-funded outfits whose staff making these reports are very well compensated for pushing this kind of crap.

Why should any worker be forced to work for any less than a real living wage based on all "cost of living factors?"

People who write and publish these kinds of reports should be paid the Minimum Wage they advocate for poverty waged workers.

This report does not even include the wage and jobs situation of Native American Indians in Milwaukee because to report these facts would be an embarrassment to Milwaukee and the Nation.

The Minimum Wage should be legislatively tied to all cost of living factors as tracked by the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics and indexed to inflation.

There are good facts and figures in this report but the conclusions are intended to not ruffle the feathers of the philanthropists funding the foundations which finance these report--- the same philanthropists who reap fabulous super-profits from paying workers poverty wages and the racism involved in poverty wage jobs and racist unemployment.

We need to get rid of "At-will hiring and At-will firing" (At-will Employment enforced by corporate legislation) to help free workers to organize.

We need legislation prohibiting employer lockouts and we need anti-scabbing legislation.

We need national legislation that enforces full employment by making the President and Congress responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment which would push all wages up.

We need to see to it that Affirmative Action is enforced on all government funded and financed projects in order to create a level playing field in the area of employment.

We need to get rid of this thoroughly stupid idea that the "free market" and "private enterprise" system will create jobs when this very capitalist system is responsible for this massive unemployment in the first place with a government that refuses to create jobs by creating universal social programs intended to solve the problems of the people--- like creating National Public Health Care and Child Care Systems which, combined, would create some 18 million jobs... instead of paying for Wall Street's militarism and dirty imperialist wars.

Obviously this report which presents some of the harsh reality--- with much hidden--- is intended to be a slick attempt to back up the Democrats with their nice sounding "progressive policy directives" which never offer any specific solutions as has been suggested in my comment here.

In fact, it is fairly obvious to any thinking person with an ounce of common sense that working people are going to have to break free from Wall Street's two-party trap in order to get politicians who will tackle this issue of unemployment, underemployment, racism and poverty wages.

Obama came into office promising to raise the Minimum Wage just a miserly amount yet he has been in office one complete term, now well into his second term, and he hasn't raised the Minimum Wage one plug nickel.

Instead of jobs at real living wages and real universal social programs required to help working people cope with this collapsing capitalist economy we get dirty imperialist war after dirty imperialist war--- dirty imperialist wars that kill our jobs just like they kill people.

Any school child understands you can't eliminate poverty by forcing people to work in poverty wage paying jobs.

See the report here:

Future of Milwaukee Depends on Raising Poverty Wages

wisconsinjobsnow.org

Writing about how to improve the future of Milwaukee, the Center on Wisconsin Strategy took a straight-forward approach with their new report. Raise the Floor Milwaukee: Better Wages and Labor Standards for Low-Wage Workers, examines what led Milwaukee from its place a...

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Say "NO" to war on Syria.

United Statement and Call for Action to Oppose
U.S./NATO and Israeli War on Syria
No more wars – U.S. out of the Middle East!
(please see the links at the bottom of the page to endorse the call and provide information on actions)

National Days of Action, June 28- July 17, 2013 
The White House’s June 13th announcement that it would begin directly supplying arms to the opposition in Syria is a dramatic escalation of the U.S./NATO war against that country.  Thousands of U.S. troops and intelligence personnel are training opposition forces and coordinating operations in Turkey and Jordan.  Israel, the recipient of more than $3 billion annually in U.S. military aid has carried out heavy bombing raids against Syria. The Pentagon has developed plans for a “no-fly” zone over Syria, threatening a newU.S. air war.
The pretext for this escalation is the assertion, presented without any actual evidence, that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons in the conflict that has been raging for more than two years.  Like their predecessors, President Obama and other top U.S. officials pretend to be concerned about “democracy” and “human rights” in Syria, but their closest allies in the campaign against Syria are police-state, absolute monarchies like Saudi Arabia and Qatar.  Once again the so-called ‘Responsibility to protect’, R2P, is used as a pretext for NATO to dominate this region.  
Just as the false claim of “weapons of mass destruction” was used as justification for the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, the allegations that chemical weapons were used by the Syrian military is meant to mask the real motives of Washington and its allies. Their aim is to carry out “regime change,” as part of the drive to create a “new Middle East.”
The invasion of Iraq in 2003, the U.S.-backed Israeli war in Lebanon in 2006, the 2011 NATO bombing of Libya, the now-escalating war in Syria and the growing threats against Iran are part of a coordinated regional effort by the United States, Britain and France to dominate this oil-rich and strategic region.
The U.S. government cuts basic services and has eliminated hundreds of thousands of public sector workers jobs in the last three years in the name of  a discredited austerity which has destroyed the economy, but has unlimited billions available for wars of aggression and NSA surveillance of almost every American.
We join together to call for National Days of Action, June 28- July 15, 2013, to demand:
StoStop the U.S./NATO/Israeli war and all forms of intervention against Syria!
·        Self-determination free from outside intervention for the Syrian people!
·        Fund people’s needs, not the military!
·        U.S. Out of the Middle East!
Endorsers:
  • United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)
  • ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism)
  • United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ)
  • AFI3RM
  • All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (GC)
  • Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines
  • Arab Americans for Peace
  • Arab Americans for Syria - AA4S
  • BAYAN USA
  • CRI-Panafricain
  • Freedom Road Socialist Organization
  • Global Network Against Nuclear Power in Space
  • Green Party of the United States
  • Honduras Resistencia USA
  • International Action Center
  • International Coalition to Free the Angola 3
  • Iran Working Group VFP
  • KmB Pro-People Youth
  • March Forward!
  • May 1 Workers and Immigrant Rights Coalition
  • Pakistan USA Freedom Forum
  • Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL)
  • Revival of Panafricanism Forum
  • SI Solidarity with Iran
  • Socialist Action
  • Syrian American Forum
  • The Green Shadow Cabinet
  • U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)
  • U.S. Peace Council
  • Ugnayan (Linking the Children of the Motherland)
  • Veterans For Peace
  • World Can't Wait
  • Akbar Muhammad, International Representative, Nation of Islam
  • Ardeshir Ommani, President, American Iranian Friendship Committee (AIFC)
  • David Swanson, RootsAction
  • Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report (organization for identification purpose only)
  • Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild
  • Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala, candidates, Green Party
  • Jim Lafferty, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild/Los Angeles
  • Margaret Flowers & Kevin Zeese, PopularResistance
  • Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report (organization for identification purpose only)
  • Nada Khader, WESPAC
  • Prof. Jared Ball, radio host
  • Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general
  • Ron Jacobs, journalist
  • Sami Ramadani, journalist and scholar
  • Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival
  • ANAKBAYAN Los Angeles and San Diego
  • BAYAN-SOCAL
  • Bob Carter, Justice for Palestinians, Houston (organization for identification purpose only)
  • Coalition to Stop $30 Billion to Israel
  • Community Futures Collective
  • Eugene E Ruyle, Peace and Freedom Party
  • Habi Arts
  • Kevin Akin, California State Chair, Peace and Freedom Party
  • LEF Foundation
  • Los Angeles Peace Council
  • Maine Code Pink
  • Peace and Freedom Party, Santa Cruz County
  • Peoples Video Network
  • Puerto Rican Alliance-LA
  • RI Peoples Assembly
  • RI SOS Save Our Schools Coalition
  • RI Unemployed Council
  • Sabah Jawad, Iraqi Democrats Against Occupation
  • School of the Americas Watch - LA (SOA Watch-LA)
  • SiGAw-GABRIELA USA
  • Southern California Immigration Coalition (SCIC)
  • Stop the War Machine, New Mexico
  • Teach Peace Foundation, Sacramento, Calif.
  • The Dream Team 2013, RI
  • Union of Progressive Iranians
  • West County Toxics Coalition, Richmond, Calif.