U.S. antiwar activists join march against drones in Pakistan

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5) Reduce the workweek to 30 hours with no cut in pay, and cut the retirement age to 55. Provide unemployment and retirement payments at We propose an EMERGENCY CONGRESS OF LABOR to discuss and 6) To combat inflation: A sliding scale of wages and pensions that match­ 1) Bail out the people, not the bankers! Open the account books of the es the rises in comsumer prices. To combat high medical costs: A free, banks to full public inspection. Nationalize the banks to be supervised by 7) Immediate citizenship for all undocumented workers. No job discrimi­ 2) No foreclosures! No forced evictions! Cancel usurious debt payments, nation; equal pay for equal work — regardless of gender, sexual orienta­ and reduce mortgage payments in proportion to their capitalist-caused 8) Nationalize manufacturing, big agribusiness, energy, and transporta­ 3) Full employment at union wages! An emergency public works program tion corporations and place them under the control of elected committees to employ all jobless workers and youth! Employ people to build what we need — low-cost quality housing, efficient mass transportation, cheap and 9) To mobilize support for the demands it adopts, the EMERGENCY renewable sources of power, schools, clinics — and to conserve our water, CONGRESS should organize ACTION COMMITTEES in every workplace and neighborhood threatened by the crisis. These committees can draw up 4) Immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops and mercenaries from Iraq & Afghanistan! No war on Iran! Close all U.S. bases abroad! No money for 10) To put all these measures into effect, we need a LABOR PARTY — the military — use funds instead for public works! Convert the war indus­ based on a fighting union movement and all people who are oppressed tries to making products for people’s needs and to combat global warming.

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For a week, beginning on Oct. 3, Code Pink sponsored an antiwar delegation of 31 activists from the United States to re­ search the impact of drone attacks by the U.S. military on Pakistani soil, concentrat­ ed mainly in Pakistan’s Federally Admin­ istered Tribal Areas (FATA), and to meet with survivors and families of victims.

The peace delegation also participated in a massive march from Islamabad to South Waziristan, the southernmost agency in FATA and a hub for airstrikes, incursions by the Pakistani military, and various Is­ lamic militant groups that operate in the region. The march was organized by the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf party (PTI), Imran Khan.

The march, beginning on Oct. 7, man­ aged to reach the FATA border, where they were finally turned back by the Pakistani armed forces. The reason given was, as always, security, despite the fact that all along the route, they were met and welcomed with ex­ pressions of solidarity for justice and peace by local Pakistanis. Upon returning to Islamabad, the activists participated in a symbolic fast in front of the Islam­ abad Press Club to protest drone strikes.

Drone warfare, since its first large-scale military use in Afghanistan in 2001, has quickly become the weapon of choice for American military intervention abroad; they are currently being used in several other countries, including Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and the Philippines. Drones provide a quick, lethal, and low-cost means of enforcing American military might; there is little threat of retaliation, no chance of U.S.

Editor: Michael Schreiber Canada Editor: Barry Weisleder — $5 for five months — $10 for 12 months ­ Name Address City State Phone E-mail deaths, and at-will attack and surveillance. The Ameri­ can military and corporate media hails the drone pro­ gram as a solution to all of the problems its own impe­ rialist agenda has created abroad, allowing precision strikes with a minimum of collateral damage.

The story on the ground, however, is different. A recently released report by the law schools of New York University and Stanford, entitled “Living Under Drones,” reveals the extent of the terror that those ci­ vilians living in the targeted areas live under. Although official statistics on civilian deaths from drone strikes is difficult, as the drone program is officially secret, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates that 474884 civilians have been killed in attacks in Pakistan, Zip • Ashland, Ore.: [email protected] • Boston: [email protected] (781) 630-0250 • Carrboro, N.C.: (919) 967-2866, [email protected] • Chicago: P.O. Box 578428 Chicago, IL 60657, [email protected] • Connecticut: (860) 478-5300 • Duluth, Minn.: [email protected]. www.thenorthernworker.blogspot.com • GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.: [email protected] • Kansas City: [email protected] (816) 221-3638 • LOUISVILLE, KY.: [email protected], (502) 451-2193 • Madison, Wis.:

[email protected] • Mankato, Minn.:

[email protected] • Minneapolis/St. Paul: (612) 802-1482, [email protected] (Left) U.S. activists sit with families of drone victims in Islamabad.

including 176 children. Drone attacks have hit weddings, funerals, and those at­ tempting to provide aid to those wound­ ed in previous strikes.

Though the Obama administration has claimed that the vast majority of those killed are “militants,” the administration has also defined “militants” as “all males between the ages of 18 and 35.” The NYU/Stanford report estimates that only around 2% of those killed in these attacks are “high level” targets.

The result of U.S. drone policy for the people in FATA and in Pakistan is an at­ mosphere of terror. There is a massive psychological crisis underway in the trib­ al areas, as ordinary people are forced to go about their daily lives in fear that their homes, their families, and their lives might be destroyed from above without warning.

It is an atmosphere that provides right-wing Is­ lamist groups their most fertile ground for recruiting members and propagating their reactionary ideology, which in turn results in the violent repression of those in Pakistan and elsewhere genuinely fighting for peace and justice. The tragic shooting of 14-year-old feminist and socialist Malala Yusufzai by Islamic reactionaries is just the most recent example.

Malala was targeted because she stood up against the closing of girls’ schools in the region by the Taliban. But she has also spoken out against U.S. drone strikes. Two days after the Taliban shot her, a U.S. drone attack killed 18 people. n • New York City: (212) 781-5157 • Philadelphia: [email protected] • Portland, Ore.: (503) 233-1629 [email protected] • Providence: [email protected] (401) 592-5385 • Salem, Ore.: [email protected] • San Francisco Bay Area:

P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, Ca 94610 (510) 268-9429, [email protected] • WASHINGTON, DC: [email protected], (202) 286-5493 National Office

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