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National Days of Actions in August

From Larry Ross, July 26, 2006


This important day of action on Saturday August 5 organised by the International Action Centre in the U.S. could be supported by PANNZ and others in Christchurch, as well as elsewhere in NZ. It ties in with events organised for Hiroshima Day and Peace Week. The Israeli attack on the UN base in Lebanon and killing of 4 UN military personnel, in spite of Israeli assurances that it would not attack the base, caused Kofi Annan to condemn it as deliberate. It underlines Israeli arrogance (backed and financed by the Bush Administration) and attempts to force a UN withdrawal from the area. It is important that many people throughout the world, show disapproval of escalating Israeli-U.S. existing wars and planned wars against other middle eastern states such as Syria and Iran. Both Israel and the Bush Administration have no love for the UN and may wish to neutralise or completely destroy it. Thus the deliberate Israeli attack on the UN base, and their arrogant demand that Kofi Annan apologise for condemning it as deliberate.

A few suggestions for your consideration.

  1. Meet in Cathedral Square Saturday Aug 5 at 12 noon.
  2. Various people could be invited to speak on U.S. Israeli middle east, such as Mayor Gary Moore, The Cathedral Dean, Chch M.P.s, Middle East Professors, PANNZ, what it stands for, and what US-Israeli likely plans for the future and others. I think a talk on the need for NZ to step up it's peacemaking diplomacy at this crucial time would be appropriate, to help prevent many disastrous consequences that could result. Suggest about 3-5 minutes each.
  3. Invitation to people to join PANNZ, sign 'Stop War On Iran' petition and possibly form a specific Middle East Peace group to focus on the expanding conflicts.
  4. It is PANNZ chance to replenish our coffers by having people with donation buckets circulate among the crowd 20 minutes after talks begin.
  5. At approximately 12.45 walk with banners from Square to Cashel St; then to Bridge of Remembrance; A few short talks there; leave Bridge about 1.15 and walk up Oxford Terrace to Worcester St; then down Worcester to Square where we disburse around 1.30pm.


What do you think? If you approve, do we need a special organising meeting? Or should we complete the organising by email and phone?
Any other suggestions? If you think we should do something reply on the PANNZ network. Include your phone number to facilitate quick communication as we only have 2 weeks. If not on PANNZ network, email me at nuclearfreenz@lynx.co.nz or phone me at (03) 337-0118.


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Make the Weekend of August 5th National Days of Actions to Say:

No Justice, No Peace- U.S. OUT of the Middle East

From the International Action Center


Over the weekend of Saturday, August 5th, the International Action Center is proposing that activists across the country organize demonstrations, teach-ins and other events around the theme: “No Justice, No Peace, U.S. Out of the Middle East.”

  • Stand with the Palestinian and Lebanese Resistance
  • End the Occupation of Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon
  • Support the Palestinian People's Right to Return
  • U.S./Israeli Troops Out Now
  • No More Fighting and Dying for Oil Profits
  • STOP U.S. Aid to Israel

The expansion of U.S.-backed Israeli aggression in the Middle East and the widespread campaign of demonization against Hezbollah and Hamas, the movements of national resistance in Lebanon and Palestine, makes it urgent for those of us opposed to war and injustice to clarify for the people of the U.S. the reality--that the problems of the Middle East are not rooted in a struggle between religions, but in the drive by greedy imperialist policymakers in the U.S., like Bush and his super rich friends, to dominate, colonize, exploit and rob the natural resources (especially oil) of the people of the Middle East.
We must explain that the obstacles to peace in the Middle East are not Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria or Iran, but the U.S. government and its client, the Israeli settler state.

Republicans and Democrats alike have united to back the expansionist Israeli war against Palestine and Lebanon, a war that is really an extension of the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq. The Bush administration has given the Zionist rulers in Tel Aviv the green light to wage all-out war in Lebanon and Palestine, with full diplomatic, political and military support of Washington. Israeli soldiers and bomber pilots may be doing the killing in Lebanon, but this is fundamentally a U.S. war, and the Israeli army is a criminal surrogate for the Pentagon. Furthermore, Bush and Co. are dangerously laying the basis for a wider war against Syria and Iran and are ready to crush--by war, shock and awe, torture, mass murder, repression and terror--the dreams of the masses of the Middle East for self-determination and freedom from occupation and colonialism.

Together, we must intensify the struggle to get U.S. imperialism out of the Middle East and to free the thousands of Palestinian, Lebanese and Iraqi prisoners held in U.S. and Israeli jails, because this would serve the cause of peace and justice in that region and worldwide. We join with all the peace-loving people and organizations that are organizing locally, nationally and internationally around this struggle. Along with all the other important protests, we encourage everyone to make the weekend of August 5th days of action around the theme “No Justice, No Peace: U.S. Out of the Middle East.” We must support all local and emergency actions against this criminal war, along with the August 12 mobilization in Washington, D.C.

In organizing around the issue of justice and peace in the Middle East, we encourage activists to make the connections to other struggles. The racist nature of the U.S. war in the Middle East is part of the same racism behind the treatment of the primarily African American victims and survivors of Hurricane Katrina, and the racism behind the attacks on immigrant rights.

Now, more than ever, it’s vitally necessary for all of us in the U.S. who genuinely believe in peace and justice--whether we be Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Atheist, Black, Latin@, Native, Arab, Asian or White--to fully embrace the Palestinian freedom struggle and to forge new bonds of solidarity with all the peoples of the Middle East, so that all the world will know that Bush’s war is not our war. No justice no peace- U.S. out of the Middle East!

Please endorse the August 5th weekend of actions and plan local actions focusing on the U.S. role in the Middle East and full solidarity with the Palestinian and Lebanese people.

What you can do:

Endorse -
http://iacenter.org/aug5endorse.shtml

List your local ativity -
http://www.iacenter.org/aug5endorsede.shtml

Download flyers and help get the word out -
http://iacenter.org/aug5flyer.pdf

Donate -
http://www.iacenter.org/iacdonate.shtml

  

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