Rally: No U.S./NATO AND ISRAELI WAR ON SYRIA!
No more wars – U.S. out of the Middle East!

July 10 at 5:00pm
Wilshire Blvd and Western Ave
Los Angeles, Calif.
Contact: [email protected]

The following is the united statement endorsed by groups across the country calling for national days of action between June 28 and July 17 to oppose U.S./NATO and Israeli intervention in Syria. The ANSWER Coalition is an initiating member of this growing list of supporters, and is mobilizing based on the points of unity detailed below.

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 new U.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.

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 17, 2013, to demand:

• Stop the U.S./NATO/Israeli war and 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:

• ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism)
• United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)
• United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ)
• Arab Americans for Peace
• Arab Americans for Syria - AA4S
• Veterans For Peace
• World Can't Wait
• Syrian American Forum
• International Coalition to Free the Angola 3
• Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines
• March Forward!
• KmB Pro-People Youth
• Justice for Filipino American Veterans
• Green Party of the United States
• CRI-Panafricain
• AF3IRM
• All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (GC)
• Revival of Panafricanism Forum
• Ugnayan (Linking the Children of the Motherland)
• Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL)
• Socialist Action
• Pakistan USA Freedom Forum
• Alliance for Global Justice
• Campaign for Labor Rights
• Nicaragua Network
• Project Censored/Media Freedom Foundation
• Universal African Peoples Organization
• Voices for Justice in Palestine
• Women Against Military Madness
• Voices for Creative Nonviolence
• Freedom Road Socialist Organization
• U.S. Peace Council
• U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)
• International Action Center
• BAYAN USA
• May 1 Workers and Immigrant Rights Coalition
• Honduras Resistencia USA
• The Green Shadow Cabinet
• SI Solidarity with Iran
• Iran Working Group VFP
• Workers World Party
• Progressive Democrats of America
• American Party of Labor
• Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
• Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general
• Cynthia McKinney, former Congressperson
• Akbar Muhammad, International Representative, Nation of Islam
• Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild
• Ardeshir Ommani, President, American Iranian Friendship Committee (AIFC)
• Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala, candidates, Green Party
• Prof. Jared Ball, radio host
• Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report (organization for identification purpose only)
• Margaret Flowers & Kevin Zeese, PopularResistance
• Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report (organization for identification purpose only)
• David Swanson, RootsAction
• Sami Ramadani, journalist and scholar
• Jim Lafferty, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild/Los Angeles
• Nada Khader, WESPAC
• Ron Jacobs, journalist
• Kathy Kelly
• Fr. Bob Bossie, SCJ
• Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival
• Peoples Video Network
• LEF Foundation
• Community Futures Collective
• Bob Carter, Justice for Palestinians, Houston (organization for identification purpose only)
• ANAKBAYAN Los Angeles and San Diego
• Sabah Jawad, Iraqi Democrats Against Occupation
• SiGAw-GABRIELA USA
• Southern California Immigration Coalition (SCIC)
• Kevin Akin, California State Chair, Peace and Freedom Party
• Puerto Rican Alliance-LA
• Habi Arts
• Stop the War Machine, New Mexico
• Union of Progressive Iranians
• West County Toxics Coalition, Richmond, Calif.
• The Dream Team 2013, RI
• Teach Peace Foundation, Sacramento, Calif.
• Los Angeles Peace Council
• Maine Code Pink
• RI Peoples Assembly
• Peace and Freedom Party, Santa Cruz County
• RI SOS Save Our Schools Coalition
• RI Unemployed Council
• BAYAN-SOCAL
• Coalition to Stop $30 Billion to Israel
• Eugene E Ruyle, Peace and Freedom Party
• School of the Americas Watch - LA (SOA Watch-LA)
• United for Justice with Peace Coalition (Boston)
• Action LA Network
• Chelsea Uniting Against the War
• Take Back America for the People
• The St. Petersburg Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
• Columbus Campaign for Arms Control/For Mother Earth
• Idaho Peace Coalition
• Rev. Dr. Bruce Wright, Refuge Ministries
• Matahari Music
• Anarchy In Action, Buffalo, NY
• Antiwar (dot) com
• Information Bureau for Peace Work
• Philly Against War
• Centre for Cultural, Educational, Economics and Social Studies - India
• IWW - Madison GMB
• Ismael Hossein-zadeh, Professor Emeritus, Drake University
• Mary & Rev. Robert Reader
• Ann Arbor Coalition Against the War (AACAW)
• UFAA - United Front Against Austerity
• Connie Hogarth Center for Social Action
• Albertine Harris, AGDA/Arab German Development Association, New Arab Organization for International Peace (organizations for identification purpose only)
• Charles J. Briody, III Episcopalian human rights advocate
• Dave Smith, Managing Director, Fighting Fathers Ministries
• Ignacio Mendez, Mendez Political Society of Hamburg
• James Thring, Founder, Ministry of Peace
• Lon Eilders Sr, Bishop Visitor, Franciscans of the Holy Cross
• Rev. Matthew G. Hunter, Executive Director, Community Shares of Minnesota (organization for identification purpose only)
• Riad El-Taher, former chair of F.A.F. (Friendship Across Frontiers)
• S. Wolf, Human Rights and Civil Liberties Advocate, Wolf 's Enterprises Human and Civil Rights Advocacy
• Saab Lofton, author/activist, Share the Wealth Productions