  March 18 Protest in Washington, DC calls for an end to NATO and the US proxy war in Ukraine
More than 2,500 people participated in the rally, march and teach-in on March 18 on the 20th anniversary of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. The Washington, DC demonstration called for an end to the US/NATO proxy war in Ukraine, which is the center of world politics today, and is ushering in a new era where the United States, the main imperialist power in the world, is seeing its economic, political and military hegemony being eroded as other alliances are taking shape to challenge the US. This, however, is creating a dangerous situation where major nuclear powers are facing off against each other as the US and its NATO allies continually pump more weapons, money and mercenaries into Ukraine.
The protest
also called for and end to US and NATO interventions around the world and
demanded: Peace in Ukraine - No weapons, no money for the Ukraine War! Abolish NATO – End U.S. militarism & sanctions! Fund people’s needs, not the war machine! No war with China! End U.S. aid to racist apartheid Israel! Fight racism & bigotry at home! U.S. hands off Haiti! End AFRICOM! End the sanctions on Syria! The action
was organized by a broad coalition of antiwar groups including UNAC, ANSWER,
Black Alliance for Peace, Code Pink, Popular Resistance, the People’s Forum and
over 200 other antiwar and social justice groups. The cooperation between the main organizing
groups in building the actions was a big step forward for our movement and a
model of how we can build our movement in the future. Other UNAC groups that played a leading role
in organizing the actions include the International Action Center, BAYAN USA,
Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Uhuru movement, Veterans For Peace, the
World Beyond War, Socialist Action and more. The main
rally was held near the White House where a number of people spoke before the
demonstrators took to the streets. We
marched past the Washington Post, where we spoke about propaganda that the
corporate media is spreading to help build the case for more weapons, money and
war in Ukraine. On this 20th
anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, we all recall the lies about Iraq
having weapons of mass destruction that fueled that war and we see the same
kind of lies and propaganda from the corporate media today. From the
Washington Post, we marched to the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church where a
teach-in was held. At the rally and the teach-in,
a number of UNAC members spoke including UNAC coordinator Joe Lombardo and UNAC
administrative committee members, Margaret Kimberley from the Black Alliance
for Peace, Margaret Flowers from Popular Resistance, and Wyatt Miller from the
Freedom Road Socialist Organization.
Other speakers from UNAC affiliated groups including Richie Moreno from
the International Actions Center, Lee Siu Hin from the China USA Solidarity
Committee, Omali Yeshitela from the Uhuru movement, and Jacqueline Luqman from
the Black Alliance for Peace. Also,
speaking was Ann Wright from Code Pink and Veterans For Peace, Medea Benjamin from
Code Pink, and John Shipton, the brother of Julian Assange. Noam Chomsky also addressed
us by video link. In addition to the march and rally in Washington, DC, about 15 other local actions took place in areas that were too far away for people to travel to Washington. One of the biggest took place in San Francisco where 300 people rallied, other important actions took place in Atlanta, GA, Los Angeles, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, Maine and in other areas.
San Francisco
Maine
Los Angeles
What next? It is important that we keep up the momentum following this successful demonstration in Washington, DC. UNAC will be discussing with others who organized March 18 doing local and regional action in the spring. Lets get ready.
Click here for more pictures and videos of the March 18 demonstration.
The corporate
media has not told us, but twice as many Ukrainians fleeing the fighting have
gone to Russia than to any other country.
In Russia some Ukrainians have formed an organization called the Union
of Political Emigrants and Political Prisoners of Ukraine. This organization sent a message of support
to the March 18 protest in Washington, DC.
Part of that message was read at the demonstration. The entire text can be found here.
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