Rally against attack on Iran, Friday in Raleigh

From Stop War on Iran:

 

"Rally to say "US Imperialism Hands of Iran!"

Raleigh, Friday, July 31st 4-6pm

State Capital buiding in downtown Raleigh, corner of Morgan St and Fayeteville St.

Stop War on Iran says: Clarity needed

Why the U.S. anti-war movement should stand firmly against any military attack, sanctions or demonization of Iran.
Boycott the Phony State Department/NED pro-war events on July 25
Nationally-coordinated actions on August 1 to say "U.S. Hands Off Iran!"

U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden's new public threat against Iran underlines the dangers of a new war in the Middle East and the desperate need for political clarity within the anti-war movement concerning Iran.

With his June 6 comments on ABC's This Week, Biden opened the door to a military attack when he said that the U.S. would not stand in the way of an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, calling such an attack is Israel's "sovereign right." Israel, he said, was "free to do what it needed to do." 
 
The Geneva Conventions call it a war crime even to threaten to attack another state. This is not just rhetoric. Only with U.S. satellite, radar and the use of air space over U.S.-occupied Iraq could the Israeli bombing raid take place. Biden should be denounced as a war criminal for making such a reckless and dangerous encouragement of unprovoked war against Iran.
 
A U.S.-funded Israeli attack would immediately unleash a wider war. It would have catastrophic results for the whole Middle East and the Iranian people, even beyond what has already been done to the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Palestine.

Biden's new threat comes during a full corporate media offensive against Iran. Its timing should serve as an alert to the entire progressive and anti-war movement. U.S. aircraft carriers, destroyers, nuclear submarines, jet aircraft and drones clog the seas that wash up on Iranian shores.

Subversion, media lies target Tehran 

In this dangerous war climate the entire U.S. and Western corporate media is again demonizing the Iranian government. It is using the media and well-funded, subversive organizations in a massive effort of destabilization and sabotage. Too often in the past this same combination of phony "human rights" organizations, who are given endless coverage in a corporate media frenzy, have helped to create a war climate through demonization, frauds and fabricated charges. This has happened before every U.S. attack or invasion, along with a concerted campaign of psychological warfare and internal destabilization in the target country.
 
One such organization leading this effort is the newly formed "United 4 Iran," a fraudulent "left cover" for organizations funded by the U.S. government and big corporations. It is designed to use "human rights" and "democracy" to justify U.S. threats to attack Iran. This group has called phony "human rights" internationally coordinated protests for July 25. United 4 Iran is a front for organizations awash in money from the National Endowment for Democracy, a CIA cover organization for intervention, subversion, covert action in countries around the world. These same groups are supported by funds from Rockefeller, Soros, and Mellon foundations. 
 
It is telling that United 4 Iran makes NO mention of the U.S. wars currently ripping apart the entire region. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops along with an army of private military contractors and mercenaries have created havoc in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Pakistan. U.S. funds and equipment have supported Israeli occupation and war on Palestine, Lebanon and Syria. Nor does this group mention the decades of U.S. military encirclement, sanctions, sabotage, attempted and actual coups against the people of Iran. 

If these organizations were genuinely concerned with democracy, human rights and respect for elections why have they not called emergency actions in defense and support of the democratic elections in Gaza? In Gaza there was a democratic election overseen by Western international monitors. Hamas won overwhelmingly. The U.S. funded Israeli response was blockade and starvation against an entire people. Thousands of Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli bombardment.

Why the movement must reject anti-Iran provocations -
UFPJ should withdraw support of anti-Iran actions.

How we respond to these actions is a crucial question for the movement.  Are we for another brutal U.S. war or against it?
 
It is profoundly disturbing that United for Peace and Justice UFPJ and other anti-war organizations have chosen to add their endorsement to these actions targeting the Iranian government. These anti-war groups should be in the forefront of opposing current U.S. wars and threats of wider war.

Stop War On Iran urges them and other honest anti-war forces to reconsider their endorsement of the anti-Iran actions.  Anti-war activists in the United States, while demanding an end to the occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine, have an additional responsibility to oppose any military moves by the Pentagon or its allies against Iran and to oppose any moves by the former colonial powers to weaken Iran's sovereignty. 

Why U.S. imperialism targets Iran

 The U.S. imperialist wars throughout the region are an effort by U.S. corporations to gain strategic domination of the vast oil and energy resources.

Since its 1979 revolution, Iran's independence has been a thorn in the side of corporate billionaires in the U.S. and Britain and of the U.S.-funded Israeli settler state. When the Iranian people overthrew the brutal U.S.-backed shah dictatorship they finally regained control of their rich oil and gas resources. In 30 years time Iran developed industrially and vastly improved the educational and health level of the entire population.
 
Any intervention by the imperialist powers in Iran and any weakening of Iranian sovereignty will only diminish the rights of women, workers, and the access to democratic institutions there, just as it has happened in the rest of the region. Any intervention by the imperialists in Iran's internal struggles is aimed either at aiding the side the imperialists see as more conciliatory to their plans, or to exacerbate the internal conflict in order to compromise and weaken the Iranian government.

U.S. wars don't bring democracy

U.S. wars and occupations from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan have never brought democracy or human rights. They have brought only oppressive military dictatorships, massive refugee crises, torture and millions of deaths.

Also, we cannot forget that it is U.S. troops, military equipment, and bases that keep corrupt feudal anti-woman monarchies in power in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan, as well as the brutal dictatorship in Egypt.

The hypocrisy of U.S. politicians is staggering, as they condemn the actions of the Iranian government while sweeping their own crimes under the rug. Iran's elections and disputes are an internal matter, to be resolved by the Iranian people and not the governments of imperialist countries with agendas of dominating Iran and a track record of using internal issues to justify military invasion.

Money for jobs and benefits, not for more war

In this time of global capitalist crisis, when millions are unemployed and millions more facing evictions and foreclosures, we must demand that the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on current U.S. wars and the trillions that would criminally wasted in a new war be spent for jobs, health care and housing for poor and working people in the U.S. and around the world.

We urge your endorsement and support of these simple demands.

1. We oppose military aggression by the U.S., Britain, or Israel against Iran.
 
2. We oppose economic, diplomatic or other sanctions against Iran whatever their excuse.
 
3. We demand an end to subversion, de-stabilization, covert actions instigated by the U.S. and its military or spy agencies directed at Iran.

Endorse here: http://stopwaroniran.org/iran2009endorse.shtml
 
We urge you NOT to march in the anti-Iran event, which is designed to give humanitarian cover to U.S. threats of war against Iran. Instead, come out AGAINST current U.S. wars and the threats of a new war on the following week in a National Day of Coordinated Actions on Saturday, August 1.
 
Contact Stop War On Iran if you are interested in organizing or supporting an action opposing U.S. threats on Iran on Saturday, August 1"

Local action against government giveaways to business

The power and taxes collected by the government are often used in ways that benefit large and politically connected businesses.  Recently Goldman-Sachs announced that it had a $3.44 million dollar net profit in the second quarter, much more than they projected.  In June they paid back their $10 billion TARP loan and a preferred dividened of about $426 million. Beides their bailout, they benefitted from the $13 billion bailout given to AIG, government backing of Goldman Sachs' bonds, overnight loans at an extremely low interest rate, etc (see www.epi.org/analysis_and_opinion/entry/behind_goldman_sachs_second_quarter_profit/).  Meanwhile, the small capitalists are "small enough to fail" (www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/snapshot_20090603/) and to the biggest companies go the spoils.  Talk of a second bailout has started already.  More locally, Federal money is funding a private toll road to be built in RTP, the first toll road in NC.       
 
Of course, this did not start with this recession and the Federal government.  This pdf (www.durhamcountync.gov/departments/bocc/Candidate_Guide/Documents/Update%20County%20Incentives%20Since%201997.pdf) lists some of Durham County's millions of dollars in business incentives for companies such as Merck.  Other parts of the Triangle probably have similar programs, as does the State.  Then they say they don't have enough money to fund public responsibilities, such as verifying where Jordan Lake's shoreline. 
 
The State corporate tax was changed to lure an Apple data center, in competition with Virginia and South Carolina.  Apple will save about $46 million in taxes over a decade, and they decided to locate in Catawba County after getting a projected $21 million dollar local tax break over a decade(www.newsobserver.com/business/story/1602003.html). 
 
The use of the government for the benefit of capital, and usually by the big capitalists against both the small capitalists and the working class, is the topic of the next non-partisan Triangle Socialist Forum meeting.  Hopefully the meeting will result in some concrete local actions this fall.  The meeting will be at the Durham Main Library, Wednesday, August 12th at 7pm in the third floor conference room (in the area opposite the elevator and at the back of the stacks on the right).

The Incomplete American Revolution

The Fourth of July is the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, during one of the first modern national liberation wars.  The War for Independence was also the USA's bourgeois democratic revolution, to replace feudal political structures, such as royalist government, with structures reflecting the growing economic power of the capitalist class.  It was a democratic and progressive step forward, although it still left slavery intact in most states and denied the rights of native peoples and women.  Today it is long past time for the second, socialist stage of the American Revolution, to overthrow the spent and dull hegemony of the finance capitalists and new industrial robber barons and put the exploited working class in charge.  The era of socialist revolution marks the beginning of the end for class exploitation and imperialism, the real change to believe in.

From Gaudeloupe to Greensboro, July 7th

Elie Domota, General Secretary of the General Union of Workers of Gaudeloupe, and Fignole Saint Cyr, General Secretary of the Autonomous Confederation of Haitian Workers wil be speaking about the struggle for democracy in UN-occupied Haiti and the recent victory in Guadeloupe that raised the wages of the poorest workers and reduced the prices of basic goods and stopped home foreclosures, at the Glenwood Community Center (2010 Coliseum Boulevard).  Meet and greet will be at 6:30, followed by presentations and discussion, 7 to 8:30.  For more information, cal Richard or Sandra at 336 272 2758.  The event was organized by NC Labor Against the War, People Power for Economic Justice, and the Piedmont Triad Labor Party.