| People's Coalition Against War (PCAW) - Los Angeles In solidarity with the April 20, 2002 National Rally Against War and Racism April 18, 2002 NO TO U.S. "WAR ON TERRORISM"! Eight months have passed since September 11th, and Bush's agenda with his so-called "war on terrorism" is blatantly obvious. After occupying Afghanistan in Central Asia, U.S. troops and Special Forces are now deployed in the Philippines, a neo-colony of the United States, which is in direct violation to the Constitution of the Philippines. The Bush Administration has also disclosed plans to budget a $98 million increase in the creation of an army brigade in Colombia to defend U.S. based energy corporations. In his State of the Union Address, Bush maintained that the U.S. will go after his so-called "Axis of Evil"- namely the nations of Iraq, Iran and North Korea. With his blind battle cries for more bloodshed, he has pushed aside the real issues of our nation by proposing an increase in U.S. military spending to $2.13 Trillion and a slashing of monies for public safety, health care, education, employment, housing and the environment. The U.S. "war on terrorism" shows no end and no boundaries, and its negative effects will come at the cost of the people in and outside of this nation. We say NO TO A WAR THAT HAS NO CLEAR DIRECTION & TIME LIMITS! VIETNAM WAR NEVER AGAIN! NO WAR FOR OIL! NO WAR FOR CORPORATE PROFITS! We are against a war based on the policy that the United States can act as a "Global Policeman" for the sake of making the world safe for their corporate and profit-making interests. We say no to a war that is waged for the interest of big multinational corporations. It is clear that U.S. corporations that have links to Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield and others, are after Central Asia and Southeast Asian oil, mineral and other natural resources. They are not out for the American peoples interests. The U.S. has been using S11 as a cover to wage an all out war to suppress the people's movements around the world who are merely rising against the U.S.' motto of corporate greed over people's needs. We denounce the U.S. for coddling the Zionist state of Israel while it butchers the Palestinian people and watches the violence in the Middle East escalate. We protest the direct U.S. intervention in the Philippines that will turn this Southeast Asian country into another Vietnam and a huge military base against the U.S. enemies it named like the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, Iran and Iraq. WE DO NOT WANT A REPEAT OF VIETNAM, LEBANON OR SOMALIA! STOP STATE TERRORISM! STOP U.S. USE OF COUNTRIES FOR MILITARY EXERCISES! We condemn the U.S. carpet-bombing in Afghanistan. We raise our voice against such carnage as we do against the bombing of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Are we not practicing double standards if we let bombs fall and kill 5,000 defenseless civilians while we are angered by the death of more than 2,000 caused by the WTC bombings? We call on the U.S. to stop using other countries for military exercises. The presence of U.S. military bases and forces in Japan and Puerto Rico and eight other countries all over the world, poses great dangers to the civilians living in the areas. As the US military engages in live-fire artillery training, bombing exercises, criminal activities and destroys the environment by contaminating the soil and surrounding bodies of water. U.S. MILITARY OUT OF VIEQUES, OKINAWA, AND THE PHILIPPINES! STOP THE RACIST AND DISCRIMINATIVE ATTACKS ON OUR COMMUNITIES! We protest the increasing racist and discriminative attacks against our Muslim brothers and sisters, South Asians and immigrants. More than 1,200 racist attacks have been recorded since September 11. We are against the anti-immigrant backlash and the scapegoating of people based of their race, immigrant status, religious and political beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity and others. More than 28 million undocumented immigrants (especially people of color) were affected when the U.S. Congress deferred actions on the legalization of immigrants and the non-extension of the family reunification law or the LIFE Act. We ask the U.S. Congress to act on the legalization of undocumented immigrants and enact the law with dispatch. Let immigrant families be reunited and do not make the citizenship process hard for the immigrants especially the people of color. UPHOLD FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY AND FIGHT FOR OUR CIVIL RIGHTS! We are appalled at the stand and the treatment of the Bush administration of the more than 1,500 prisoners taken in Afghanistan. At the same time they do not consider these captured prisoners as Prisoners of War, the same stance they have been taking against political prisoners like Mumia Abu Jamal and Leonard Peltier in the United States. We condemn the "legalization" of secret military tribunals that will try the so-called "terrorists" now detained in the U.S bases. They are copycats of the military tribunals of U.S. supported dictatorships like the Marcos regime in the Philippines from 1972-86, the Pinochet regime in Chile, Fujomiri in Peru and other countries. They treat prisoners inhumanely and in disaccord with their international human rights. Just look at the facts: Of the 2,000 Middle Eastern and South Asians arrested and detained against their constitutional rights in the "crackdown on terror" of 9/11, none have been charged with terrorism. We also condemn the INS raids in Los Angeles against the immigrants and other parts of the U.S. We call for justice for those who have "disappeared" since 9/11 and the 2.000 who have been detained without trial or charge or even legal rights! We now can see a pattern of repression. We express alarm and apprehension over the unknown powers of the Office for Homeland Security that will play "Big Brothers" above us. Thus, we are alarmed at the provisions of the PATRIOT Act. It infringes on our hard won freedoms that some reactionaries want to take back. WE MUST EDUCATE, ORGANIZE AND MOBILIZE TO FIGHT SUCH INFRINGEMENTS ON OUR HUMAN AND DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS! STOP U.S. WARS OF AGGRESSION!! NO TO WAR! NO TO STATE TERRORISM! ALTO LA GUERRA!! TRABAJO SI, GUERRA NO! Back to Main Page � Email: [email protected] � Website: www.geocities.com/pcaw_usa |