Sunday, September 08, 2013

Anti-war rallies Monday, Petraeus at Duke, etc.

Reject aggression against Syria:

There will be at least two rallies against attacking Syria Monday in central NC. You can see how your representative is leaning at: http://firedoglake.com/syria-war-whip/ As of now, it looks like David Price and Mel Watt lean toward approval of a war that would violate international law. G.K. Butterfield has not made a statement. Walter Jones plans to vote against war, and George Holding leans towards a no vote.  Many Republicans are cool to Obama's war plans, but it would be a mistake to call the Republican or Democratic parties anti-war, since that usually means or should mean principled rejection of imperialist wars or war in general, not temporary opposition to wars that are unpopular or launched by a president from the other party.   


Chapel Hill (Orange County Peace Coalition):


Vigil for US Diplomatic Response to Crisis in Syria
Monday, September 9th, 6-7 pm at Peace and Justice Plaza (in front of the Chapel Hill Post Office, at the corner of East Franklin and Henderson streets. They say to bring signs.

As always, there is a separate vigil Friday 5-6pm at East Franklin and Elliot streets, near University Mall.


Greensboro (World Can't Wait):


What: NO WAR ON SYRIA rally

When: Monday, Sept. 9, 2013, 5-6pm

Where: Federal Building, corner of W. Market and Eugene St.

With or without Congressional approval, an attack by the U.S. military can only mean more suffering for the Syrian people. History shows this very clearly: more than a decade of war for US empire in Iraq and Afghanistan has brought devastation to those countries that will take decades to undo. A widespread campaign of drone bombing and US-led air-strikes across the Middle East and North Africa has brought instability and massive suffering to millions of people. The US-led wars have resulted in hundreds of thousandsof civilian deaths, all for the benefit of strategic economic interests of US elites, whose concerns about Syria are anything but “humanitarian.”

Our empathy with the Syrian people and the people throughout the region leads us to stand against US military strikes. We will not let our empathy be twisted into a cry for war for empire!

We are not taking sides in the Syrian civil war. We are taking responsibility for the actions of the U.S. government! Our empathy with the Syrian people is NOT a cry for war!

Monday, Sept. 9, 2013, 5-6pm: Rally at the Federal Building, corner of W. Market and Eugene St.”



General Petraeus Speaking at Duke:

Retired general and alleged war criminal David Petraeus will be speaking at Duke's Page Auditorium 6 to 7:15 pm on the 11th, as part of Duke's Program in American Grand Strategy (see http://sites.duke.edu/agsp/2013/08/07/ambassador-dave-and-kay-phillips-family-international-lecture/ ).

Here is how they plan to greet Petraeus Monday at the City University of New York, where he will be teaching a course:
 
Protest Petraeus’s first day of class

Monday, Sept. 9th, 2:30 p.m.

CUNY Must Not Be A War College!

War Criminal Petraeus, ROTC, Military Contracts, and Military Recruiters: Out of CUNY!


Protest Petraeus’s first day of class

When: Monday, September 9th, 2:30 p.m.

Where: Macaulay Honors College, 35 West 67th St.
(between Central Park West and Columbus Ave.)

CUNY has signed up a war criminal to “teach” at the Macaulay Honors College. Join with us in protesting this outrage.

The Board of Trustees has appointed former CIA chief David Petraeus – ex-commander of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars – to give a course titled “Are We On the Threshold of the North American Decade?” at the Macaulay Honors College. Whether being paid $200,000 or $1 (the amount his pay has been reduced to following widespread indignation at his salary), this mass murderer must not be allowed to teach at CUNY. The importance of mass protest is highlighted by the fact that many CUNY students and their families come from countries targeted by the U.S. military and dominated by U.S. imperialism.

As commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Petraeus rained death on Afghan civilians. As commander of “coalition” forces in Iraq, he ran the imperialist slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Petraeus brought Col. James Steele – who commanded death squads in Vietnam and Central America – to Iraq to organize and train death squads which carried out “the worst acts of torture” during the U.S. occupation (London Guardian, 6 March).

As CIA chief, Petraeus was the architect of almost 3,000 “targeted killings” by drones.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program is being revived at CCNY, York, Medgar Evers and the College of Staten Island. ROTC was ousted from CUNY in 1971 after widespread protests against its role recruiting and training officers for the U.S. war in Vietnam that killed an estimated 3 million Vietnamese.

The appointment of Petraeus follows CCNY’s recent establishment of the Colin Powell Center, named after the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the U.S. invasion of Panama (1989) and the first Persian Gulf War (1991).

The increasing militarization of CUNY is also reflected in military recruiters; Army and Navy “missile command” and “air warfare” representatives’ participation in a CCNY conference on “Automatic Target Sensing”; arms manufacturers Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin’s backing for CCNY’s $198 million Advanced Science Research Center, etc.

CUNY security’s relationship with the NYPD has expanded in recent years. While campus cops work closely with the NYPD to repress student and worker protests, business-as-usual for the NYPD includes spying on Muslim students on campus. CUNY campus “peace officers” are able to make arrests and to use deadly force (included in the CUNY administration’s arsenal are hollow-point bullets, which even the NYPD is not supposed to use (New York Post, 6 May 1999).

Against this growing militarization of CUNY, the time for massive protest is now!

Ad Hoc Committee Against the Militarization of CUNY

The September 9 protests demanding “CUNY Must Not Be a War College” and “War Criminal Petraeus, ROTC, Military Contracts and Military Recruiters: Out of CUNY!” have been endorsed by the following organizations and individuals (list in formation): Internationalist Group, CUNY Internationalist Clubs, Revolutionary Student Coordinating Committee, Students Without Borders at Queens College, Class Struggle Education Workers, Workers Power-US, IGNITE, Movimiento Socialista de Trabajadores-NYC, Asociación de Estudiantes Latinas/os y Latinoamericanas/os of CUNY, Sister Circle Collective, Dr. Hester Eisenstein of Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, Carmelina Cartei, Anakbayan-NY.


Communist Voice for September:

Last Tuesday was the last airing of the August programs (Manchuria 1945... & The War on Freedom on TPC and Truth & Politics, a David Ray Griffiths lecture on DCM, and the difference is because there was a disc problem). This Tuesday Loose Change: Final Cut, a 9/11 truth documentary, should begin airing on both cable access stations at 6pm on Tuesdays.




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