Not In Our Name! Anti-War activists confront drones advocate

Not In Our Name! Anti-War activists confront drones advocate

By Meredith Aby

Minneapolis, MN - Activists from the MN Anti-War Committee, Students for a Democratic Society at the U of MN, Women Against Military Madness, Veterans for Peace, and the Coalition for Palestinian Rights protested the impact of the U.S. use of drones around the world, Feb.11, at the University of Minnesota Law School. Inside the Law School, Oren Gross, a former senior officer in the Israeli Defense Force's JAG Corps, the legal branch of the Israeli military, gave a presentation titled, "The New Way of War: Is There a Duty to Use Drones?" as a part of the Law School’s spring lecture series.

Sophia Hansen-Day, of the MN Anti-War Committee, explained, “In Israel, Oren Gross worked to give legal and political cover to human rights violations by the Israel Defense Forces in occupied Palestine. Today, as an advisory board member of the U of M Human Rights program, he is using his prestige to justify the U.S.’s ongoing drone killings abroad. Our action was organized to challenge Dr. Gross's absurd interpretation of international law.”

Before the speech by Gross, protesters held signs and passed out hundreds of flyers on the reality of drone warfare. Doors to the presentation were guarded by campus police, who refused to allow protesters to bring signs inside. Even so, a couple dozen community members joined the hundred or so people there for the lecture.

In a weak attempt to make himself more likeable, Gross opened with a few jokes and cartoons. His winding talk was full of quotes by politicians, largely void of concrete data and lacking in concern for human life. Finally getting to the point, he closed with the claim that drones are an advance in weapons technology, saying, “Drones offer a more accurate and therefore more humane warfare.”

At that point, questions were invited from the audience. Gross ducked many of them, limiting his comments to the use of drones by the U.S. Army in an active combat zone. He refused to answer questions about U.S. war policy, or the use of drones to carry out extrajudicial assassinations, or even domestic surveillance.

Jess Sundin, also of the Anti-War Committee, attended the talk. “It was a revolting attempt to sanitize the reality of war, by drones or any means. Most of the questions challenged him and his point of view – it was clear that Gross did not convince anyone that there is some ethical duty to use these remote control killing machines, on the battlefield or anywhere else. Drones are deadly weapons of war. U.S. wars for empire don’t need ‘more accurate’ weapons. They need to be stopped.”

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Obama administration faces drone attack debate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LZwjaB55b0


US looks to target American citizen with drone strike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD9aty0xPuw

Obama violated his own rules with Yemen drone strike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5I3SUEm9pA

Anti-war activist runs for spot on Boeing board of directors

Interview with Kait McIntyre

By staff

Fight Back!: You’re running for the Board of Directors of the Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) on an anti-war platform. Your main goal is to stop them from building a new combat drone for the Pentagon. What’s that about?

Kait McIntyre: Currently, Boeing is competing with other weapons manufacturers to win the Navy UCLASS combat drone contract. It is a larger drone that flies faster and farther, carries a greater payload of bombs and missiles, and can be launched and landed on an aircraft carrier. I oppose this because the U.S.’s use of drone warfare - targeted killing and attacks in countries where we have not declared war - violates international law. Furthermore, U.S. drones have led to the death of many innocent civilians, including children, and I stand in solidarity with those around the world whose lives have been lost and or devastated by drone warfare. While the Phantom Ray is Boeing’s first combat drone prototype, they have been and continue to make surveillance drones that are used to bully and help carry out assassinations overseas. I oppose this as well. We need to end wars, not build a new generation of deadly weapons.

Fight Back!: What do you hope to accomplish through your candidacy and the anti-drone war campaign against Boeing?

McIntyre: If we can help stop them from winning this contract, it will be a blow to the war machine. The Antiwar Committee Chicago’s Midwest Action Against Drones, one of the largest anti-drone marches in 2013, brought together 200 people representing six different states to rally around the demand that Boeing cease its pursuit of this Navy contract and end production and development of the Phantom Ray. What we hope to do with this campaign is to offer a model for other cities with weapons manufacturers to oppose U.S. drone warfare by focusing on a local target. In Chicago, where we have suffered austerity measures such as public school and mental health clinic closings while Boeing receives millions in tax breaks, we felt it was important to highlight how, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, “the bombs in Vietnam explode at home.”

Fight Back!: You include an environmental plank in your platform. What is the environmental record of Boeing?

McIntyre: To start with, depleted uranium (DU). Tens of thousands of pounds of micro particles of radioactive and highly toxic waste contaminate the Middle East, Central Asia and the Balkans from the use of DU by the U.S. military. Boeing added to this problem by providing to Israel the depleted uranium bombs that were dropped on Gaza in 2008 and 2012. The Palestinians who did not die as a result of these attacks will likely see the same sharp increases in birth defect rates as the people of Iraq. Israel has used Boeing bombs to poison the earth in Gaza for millions of years.

Fight Back!: Your campaign video says you want an end to corporate warfare. Explain that.

McIntyre: In January, Boeing forced workers in Washington state to accept historic concessions to keep their jobs, starting with elimination of their defined benefit pension. When current CEO James McNerney talked about cutting jobs across the country, he said he knew he was “beginning to sound like Darth Vader.” But, for the workers who lose their jobs, the consequences are in the here and now, not in a galaxy far away. Furthermore, after McNerney cut thousands of machinists’ pensions, he spent $7.2 million dollars on a home in Miami. This type of behavior is unacceptable. Boeing paid no federal income tax in 2013 and has used loopholes to dodge paying taxes in previous years. With Boeing’s enormous profits, it is morally reprehensible that they do not give back to the communities where they operate.

View Kait McIntyre's campaign video

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Minneapolis protests says: “Stop the wars - ground the drones”

By staff

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Minneapolis, MN - A highly visible anti-war protest was held in Minneapolis May 17, with over 120 people joining the demonstration.

The protest was called to be part of a national round of local anti-war and anti-drone protests during the months of April and May. The Minnesota Peace Action Coalition (MPAC) initiated planning for the event.

The May 17 protest was organized under the call of 'Stop the wars - Ground the drones', with the additional slogans of: Zero troops in Afghanistan; ground all military and surveillance drones; end drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia; for a full employment peace economy, not more war; no new wars – hot or cold; and U.S. hands off Syria, Ukraine, Korea, Venezuela, Palestine and everywhere.

In the final days before the protest, as the crisis in Ukraine reached a new and dangerous level, the International Action Center, United National Antiwar Coalition and other organizations issued a call for local protests May 9 – 26 against U.S. intervention in Ukraine.

MPAC, which in the initial call for the protest included the anti-intervention demand on Ukraine, endorsed the national call for anti-war actions on Ukraine and listed the May 17 event as one of the actions being held around the country to speak out against the danger of yet another war.

Signs and speakers at the protest spoke to the demand against intervention in Ukraine and against a new cold war with Russia.

The Minneapolis protest gathered at the very busy corner of Hiawatha Avenue and Lake Street. After 45 minutes of holding signs and banners, there was a march to Walker Community Church for an indoor rally.

A statement issued by organizers said in part, “Since 2004, over 2500 people have been killed by U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan. In Afghanistan, drone attacks are increasing and the U.S. government plans to keep thousands of troops and drones in Afghanistan for years to come. U.S. drone strikes are commonplace in Yemen and elsewhere.”

The statement goes on to say, “The endless series of U.S. wars and interventions continues, including increasing military aid, expanding U.S. bases around the world and internal meddling in other countries through economic pressures overseen by agencies such as International Monetary Fund and World Bank.”

At the rally a member of MPAC also warned that the U.S. was preparing military intervention in Nigeria in the name of saving kidnapped schoolgirls.

“The U.S. military does not intervene to help people, the U.S. military intervenes in the interests of corporations and profits, not people,” said the MPAC member.

The planning for the May 17 protest was initiated by MPAC and endorsed by a broad range of organizations, including, AFSCME Local 3800, Alliant Action, Anti-War Committee, Coalition for Palestinian Rights, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Mayday Books, Military Families Speak Out (MN chapter), Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, Peace and Justice Committee of Sacred Heart Church (St. Paul), Peacemakers of Carondelet Village, PeaceMakers of Macalester Plymouth United Church, St. Joan of Arc Church, Socialist Action, Students for a Democratic Society (UMN), Twin Cities Peace Campaign, Veterans for Peace, Welfare Rights Committee, Women Against Military Madness, Workers International League and others.

Read more News and Views from the Peoples Struggle at http://www.fightbacknews.org. You can write to us at [email protected]






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