No to NATO, War and Racism!
Hands off Venezuela!
Hundreds march in Washington, DC and Oakland
A broad
coalition representing some 150 organizations mobilized on the weekend of March
30 to demand U.S. Hands Off Venezuela! No to NATO, War and Racism! Initiated by
the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), the main demonstration took place
in Washington, DC on March 30th, the Saturday before leaders of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) were to meet to “celebrate” their 70th
anniversary. Other actions and anti-NATO
meetings are scheduled to take place leading up to the NATO meeting on
Thursday, April 4. April 4th
is also the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the
anniversary of his famous speech against the Vietnam War that took place at
Riverside Church in New York City, exactly 1 year before his assassination. The meeting of the NATO war-makers on this
date is an afront to the memory of Dr. King.
Speakers at the DC rally included Ajamu Baraka of the Black Alliance for Peace, Media Benjamin of Code Pink, David Swanson of World Beyond War, Cassia Laham of the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), Ann Wright of Veterans for Peace and Code Pink, Loan Tran of the International Action Center, Joe Jamison of the US Peace Council, Rev. Grayland Hagler of Plymouth Cong. United Church of Christ, Margaret Flowers of Popular Resistance, Cheri Honkala of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, Representatives of the World Peace Council, No to War, No to NATO, Black is Back Coalition, Veterans for Peace as well as from Venezuela, Extinction Rebellion from Wales and others.
A large
visible march made its way past crowds of people in downtown Washington, DC and
past offices of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the
Organization of American States and other targets that support US imperialism
and the wars at home and abroad.
Several of
the speakers had just returned from a very important peace and solidarity tour
of Venezuela, which is fighting off the effects of harsh US imposed sanctions,
sabotage and war threats. The delegation
had the opportunity to meet with Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro who gave
his full support to the rally and tweeted pictures of it to his 3.9 million
twitter followers.
Maduro had
made clear to the delegation just how important a strong US antiwar movement
can be in staying the hand of the US and its allies as they try to dominate the
world and crush any country that tries to remain independent and use its
resources for the good of its own people.
Venezuela
will become more and more central to the US and world antiwar movements, and we
need to show steadfast solidarity with the people of Venezuela, and other
countries who struggle to maintain their sovereignty and to fight against the
economic wars and physical threats of the US and its NATO and other
allies. The action in DC, Oakland and
others that took place in Canada were an important step in that direction.
Hundreds
took part in the march and rally and thousands saw us as we marched through
Washington, DC but, as usual, the corporate media in the US pretended that the
protest did not happen. However we made important media of our own. We were covered by some alternative media
such as the Real News Network and RT and millions saw us on social media. Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro tweeted
picture of the protest to his 3.9 million followers. His tweet can be seen here: https://twitter.com/maduro_en/status/1112513970211094528.
Also, Jorge Arreaza, Venezuelan Minister
of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs with 1.57 million followers tweeted
pictures of the rally that can be found here: https://twitter.com/jaarreaza/status/1112154726206967808.
Telesur, RT
and TheRealNews, OrinacoTribune
all did great short pieces. RT promised a big story on Saturday night:
https://twitter.com/teleSURtv/status/1112323656510783488
https://twitter.com/AlinaTelesur/status/1112126776673820673
https://twitter.com/CarlosJRonVE/status/1112081904751259648
https://twitter.com/jaarreaza/status/1112154932420005889
https://twitter.com/CancilleriaVE/status/1112153417089208320
https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1112123588046479360
Dan Cohen, Max Blumenthal, Carlos Ron, Anya Parampil all sent tweets. Max has 139K Twitter followers.
https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1112073692878725120
https://twitter.com/HelenaVillarRT/status/1112064283498696704
https://twitter.com/HelenaVillarRT/status/1112075245970747394
https://twitter.com/dancohen3000/status/1112066464142557184
https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1112095283410886656
https://twitter.com/id_communism/status/1112295071699951617
https://twitter.com/workersworld
Other stories and tweets are still being sent to us.
Also there was a livesteam on Facebook that was viewed by 5.5 thousand people
and shared 28 thousands time.
Thanks to the International Action Center for the
livestream and compiling the coverage.