International Action Center Statement

STOP BOMBING AFGHANISTAN!

SAY NO TO WAR & RACISM!

As the U.S.-led bombing campaign against the people of
Afghanistan continues and civilian casualties mount, the
International Action Center condemns in the strongest terms
this latest terror bombing of a civilian population.

From the first hour of the bombing campaign, the
International Action Center (IAC) worked with a broad layer
of anti-war forces to mobilize an emergency response.
Statements by the right-wing Bush administration - of
widening the war to other countries; that the war will last
for years; that every weapon will be used - make it plain
that the movement must continue to mobilize every resource
against this imperialist war. Washington is preparing the
Pentagon's vast network in the region - bases and floating
bases in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean that have been
war-ready for years - for strikes against any country it
chooses.

It is past U.S. war policies that have created the chaos,
poverty and rage throughout this whole region. This anger
has now endangered working people right here in the U.S.
More of the same U.S. military terror will not create
security. War is not the answer.

What's Behind Washington's Latest War

The U.S. military-oil complex sees the World Trade Center
tragedy as a cynical opportunity in the race, against rivals
in Germany and Russia, for the oil resources of the former
Soviet Union. For years, Texaco, Chevron and ExxonMobil -
the world's biggest oil corporations with vast investments
in Central Asia - have been itching to build an oil and gas
pipeline from the Caspian Sea to the Indian Ocean. That is,
through Afghanistan.

Ten years of war and sanctions against Iraq that continue to
this day have given the U.S. an occupying force in the Gulf
Region, including aircraft carriers, bases and 30,000 U.S.
troops. The bombing of Yugoslavia anchored a similar
occupying force in the Balkans - the largest U.S. base since
the Viet Nam war is being built today in Kosovo.

This latest war campaign is a first step in securing a
permanent U.S. military presence in Central Asia -
completing an new, armed ring of bases stretching from
Yugoslavia to Afghanistan, and designed to give U.S.
companies the upper hand. As of this week, thousands of U.S.
troops and equipment have been stationed in Uzbekistan.

As in past wars, the Pentagon claims to bomb only military
installations. But those wars always targeted civilian areas
and infrastructure, and this time is no different. Using a
heavily racist campaign focused on demonizing one person,
Osama Bin Laden, Washington's warplanes are dropping bombs
on thousands. The results of this campaign will range from
outright murders to the dislocation of millions of Afghanis,
suffering now from extreme malnutrition after years of
drought and war. Afghanistan is a country already reduced to
rubble by 20 years of continuous warfare, fed incessantly by
U.S.-supplied weaponry.


Air-dropping 37,000 meals per day can't begin to replace the
interrupted food relief efforts, which had been feeding up
to 5 million people per day. Aid organizations like Doctors
Without Borders, GOAL, Concern and Trócaire have issued
statements criticizing U.S. actions as crippling the already
overburdened food relief efforts: "This situation is in
breach of international conventions governing the position
of refugees and of civilians in times of warfare," said
Trócaire's statement. Doctors Without Borders directly
attacked the Pentagon's food-drop publicity stunt, saying
the operation "isn't in any way a humanitarian aid
operation, but more a military propaganda operation,
destined to make international opinion accept the U.S.-led
military operation."

Against steady hype and massive propaganda, protests joined
by tens of thousands of U.S. citizens proved that the war
lacks the unanimous support claimed by the corporate media.
Before the bombs fell, 20,000 people in Washington D.C. and
San Francisco each, as well as thousands in Los Angeles,
rallied on September 29 under the slogan Act Now To Stop War
and End Racism (ANSWER).

On October 7, the first day of the bombing, 10,000 New
Yorkers marched from Union Square some 30 blocks to Times
Square, stopping traffic and shouting "U.S. Hands Off
Afghanistan!"  Five thousand jammed San Francisco's central
cable car stop, and over the next 48 hours, thousands more
collectively rallied again in New York, Buffalo, Washington,
D.C., Boston, Princeton, Cleveland, Atlanta, Houston,
Denver, Boulder, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Oakland, San Diego;
and dozens of other cities, including students from American
University, Princeton University, MIT, Harvard, Vassar
College, the University of Michigan, Wesleyan University, UC
Berkeley, San Francisco State, Mission High School, and
others.

It is becoming rapidly clear that workers here can't benefit
from supporting the war plans of the Bush administration and
the Pentagon, who are trying to organize support for a war
that could go on for years. Funds needed here at home for
jobs, education, healthcare and social security are being
sucked into the vortex of Washington's huge military
campaign. The civil liberties of immigrants and activists
are being sacrificed on the altar of "homeland security."
Racist profiling has become the law of the land.

A wide-ranging bombing spree will not bring security to the
people of the U.S., who are still reeling from the
after-affects of the horrendous loss of life on September
11. This war can only be seen by the hundreds of millions of
oppressed people of the world as an act of aggression,
arousing far greater anger and stimulating the broad
anti-U.S. protests raging from Palestine to Pakistan to
Egypt.

October 27 is the day called by activists to continue this
anti-war momentum on an worldwide scale. The International
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition - Act Now To Stop War and End Racism
- has set this date for internationally coordinated local
and regional marches, rallies, and teach-ins against war and
racism.

Please see the website - www.internationalanswer.org - for
more info on organizing efforts, or sign up to become an
organizer in your area.

posted 10/10/01