 that I don't recognize that faces that I saw 20 years ago and that's very telling and this moment is particularly more urgent than it ever was because things are getting progressively worse. We're talking about an endless war that is at home and is abroad. We're talking about 160 million people who live in poverty or close to poverty in the wealthiest country in the in the world. We're talking about the United States as the biggest polluter in the world. When we're talking about 800 and more military bases all around the world, we're talking about an urgent stake in this war. An urgent stake because this is for the defense of humanity and the defense of the planet. We cannot stand by and continue to watch the US government to continue to play with our lives because that is what they are doing. They do not about Ukraine or the Ukrainian people. Ukraine is the battleground for an imperialist war and so we need to be clear in defense of life that wants to take over, not surgeons. I'm honored to be here alongside you. I'm honored to be here alongside everybody who is here to say fund people's needs, not the war machine, to stand up when everyone says that you shouldn't stand up, to go against the lies, to go against the demonization, to go against the hatred. This is an event that they didn't even want to happen. They'd be in the White House, whether they'd be in the Washington Post, whether they'd be in the Congress, the Federal Reserve, the IMF, the Wallace in Paris, the White Hall in the UK. None of them want this to be out here. They want people to be confused. They want you to somehow think that it's progressive, that it's good, that it's morally right to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to fight to the last Ukrainian for what? Just for the ability of the United States government to control the whole globe. That's what it's all about. You just have to look at what they write in the national security strategy. Their own words, that American leadership, they say, is crucial to shape the future of the world. They are giving themselves the right to tell every single other person what to do, and if you don't, they'll sanction you, they'll bomb you, they'll destroy their country, they'll cripple your people, they will end people's dreams in hopes of a better future and a better life. But we are here today to say no, no, no, no more war machine, no more imperialist wars, and certainly no to the proxy war going on right now in Europe. I want to bring to the stage, and before I do, if you are one of the pre-approved individuals who will be speaking here today, make sure you're over here to the left of the stage so we can find you, but I want to bring here to the stage someone who's been a clarion call for peace in many different fora all across this country and has been willing to take it directly to the war makers at the ballot box, Dr. Jill Stein. Just a quick guide. So if you're standing towards my left, you won't be able to get as best, the best sound possible. So please move in so that you're able to hear the speakers. Thank you. This is what democracy looks like. I am just feasting my eyes. This is the energy that we need. We need to build a broad movement across all of our struggles for peace, justice, and democracy, because we are all up against the wall. We are all under attack. It will take all of us to fight back. And I'm so grateful to everyone who's here, because we are the ones we've been waiting for. And today is just our beginning. These crises that we are facing of crushing inequality, climate collapse, endless war that's going nuclear, the assault on our democracy, and a big shout out to those brave valiant protesters at Stop Cop City. That's another place where these crises are all converging. As Martin Luther King told us, these crises are all joined at the hip in what he called the triple evil of racism, militarism, and materialism. We can't fix one without fixing them all. That's why we need a big movement that joins us together, because divided we are conquered, but together we are unstoppable. Luther King also said 60 years ago, U.S. militarism is the greatest purveyor of violence that the world has ever known. Its wars abroad go hand in hand with its wars at home, targeting working people, the poor and marginalized. The war machine is impoverishing and endangering all of us. Everyone needs to know that. And it's up to us to help get the word out and educate people to overcome the 24-7 propaganda machine that has really just you know, numbed people's brains into where they are just sleepwalking. We need to help wake them up. That war machine is costing two-thirds of our discretionary budget when you include the war at home, like DHS and prisons and law enforcement. And we are all in the nuclear target hairs. The costs are off the charts, as you may know, 840 billion exceeding the next nine biggest national military spenders, combined our 250 military interventions in just the last 30 years, 68-plus regime changes since the Second World War, and a staggering 6 million lives lost and 38 million displaced to the U.S. War on Terror. And here we are complaining about Russia's war, which, yes, is a horrific war, but it pales in comparison to the war of the U.S. Empire, in which this provoked war with Russia. It is just one in a long, endless line of murderous regime change wars provoked by the USA. We must bring them all to a stop. Mention one term, which is very important for educating people. That is full spectrum dominance. Does that ring a bell to anybody? So say after me, full spectrum dominance, full spectrum dominance. This is the official military policy of the United States, made public going all the way back to 1992, which basically declares that any economic or military competitor will not be allowed to rise, not even to aspire to local prominence. This is what is generating our regime change wars, in particular the war against Russia, to prevent it from becoming even a regional threat. This is also dictating our war against China. And how idiotic can you be to think that we could take on two superpowers at once and be driving them together? That, plus the incredible nuclear game of chicken that our misleaders are playing, that are putting us all at risk of nuclear war. Did you know that it only takes a handful of these megaton nuclear bombs now? These are not like the Hiroshima bombs of decades ago. These are a thousand times stronger, and it only takes a handful to basically create nuclear winter that will starve billions of people. So anyone who thinks that the nuclear war happens over there, don't worry about it. You've got another thing to learn. The nuclear war happens to all of us. We need to stop it. We need to stop NATO. We need to stop the US militarism and empire. It's us to do it. As Alice Walker says, the biggest way people give up power is by not knowing that we have it to start it. We have it. We're going to use it. Let's start it today. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Joe, for reminding us that we have a responsibility to shut down all the instruments of war. We've got to shut down NATO. We've got to shut down AFRICOM. We've got to shut down the Southern Command. Stop Washington. We've got a little beautiful comrades in the crowd today. As mentioned before, my name is Jorge Rocha, and I'm on the steering committee for DSA's International Committee. I'm coming down from New York. Where are my New Yorkers at? The invasion of Iraq. Surreal, isn't it? 20 years. 20 years of this country whose response to an attack at home is to destroy the rest of the world. 20 years of illegal invasions like those of Iraq and Afghanistan. 20 years of special military operations, interventions, and assassinations throughout all of Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, East Asia, pretty much the rest of the world. 20 years of imposing unilateral coercive measures against so-called enemies of democracy, which is just code for countries that oppose U.S. interests. And yes, 20 years of sowing discord in the world to where we are right now with this war. If this war continues to escalate, then I fear as everyone else has been bringing up, then we are heading right toward nuclear confrontation. Mr. President, we are here in front of the White House today to make sure you can hear us loud and clear. And this war. Mr. President, do you think we're fools? Do you think we're dumb when you talk, when you see this nonsense about a weather balloon in the sky, blowing it up over the Atlantic, making a whole media circus about it? Stop this nonsense cold war against China. And speaking about interests else in the world, Mr. President, listen to the people of Okinawa. Close the bases. They're everywhere and anywhere. Mr. President, listen, listen, listen to the people of all the countries and the suffering that they're going through. Leave the people of Venezuela and Korea alone. There's enough. Mr. President, tear down this embargo against Cuba. 60 years is too long. Finally, Mr. President, we have two words for you. Free Palestine. Free Palestine. Comrades in the words of a very wise man who we commemorate the 140th anniversary of their death this week. We have nothing to lose but our chains. We have a world to win. Only together can we win. If you are not in an organization, I'm for all of you to join one. We can only do it by being organized. The organization I'm part of, DSA, has been doing so much anti-war and international organizing from the very beginning we have been against this war. Despite what has been claimed to the contrary, I'm going to read directly from our statement. We said very clearly, first statement, the Democratic Socialist of America condemns Russia's invasion of Ukraine and demands immediate diplomacy and de-escalation to resolve this crisis. There is no solution through wars or further intervention. This crisis requires an immediate international anti-war response demanding de-escalation, international cooperation, and opposition to unilateral coercive measures, militarization in other forms of economic and military brinkmanship that will only exacerbate the human tolls of conflict. We have been campaigning against further military escalations and for diplomacy. Peace in Ukraine today. We have been doing so much work in terms of international diplomacy, sending delegations to countries like Venezuela. We've met with Maduro. We're proud of it. We've gone to delegations in Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, and we have had incredible success very recently this past week where the governor of Okinawa met with Alexandria Ocasio Cortez to discuss Okinawa's opposition to constructing a new military base in the prefecture. DSA was instrumental in making such meetings happen. Be sure to check out DSA at DSAUSA.org We must build a left and fight the right. No more but the cloth war. Thank you. War drives are also used as an excuse and as a cover for the attempt to brutally repress radical and revolutionary movements, transformative movements right here in this country. Under the guise of being for this or that person, they want to shut up voices that are telling the truth to millions of people around this country. And next I want to bring up one of the voices that this government has decided to target, not because he's doing the wrong thing, but because he's doing the right thing. Chairman Omal Yeshetela of the African People Socialist Party. My name is Omal Yeshetela. I'm chairman of the African People Socialist Party and chairman of the Blackest Black Coalition for Social Justice, Peace, and Reparations. On July 29th, this is identifying themselves and the most economically depressed sector because we say Africa must be free. An association. So this is where it gets its origin. This is what it's about. I'm talking about the people who live in these concentration camps, reservations, and to this layer to recapture what has been stolen from us. And that is why they're attacking us. So I'm saying, come to St. Louis. Take a look for yourself. Community there. Come to St. Petersburg and see what we've done to transform that. And I want to thank you so much for being here. Next I want to bring up to the stage another longtime fighter for peace who has been all over this country recently telling the truth about what's happening in Ukraine. They've tried to shut her down, but she won't be shut down or shut up. Suffering and the killing because we care about managing negotiation. Getting a piece of cord back. And the Americans say they want to send more weapons. Why? Almost every member of the White House are not representing us. Just like President Lula when he was pushed to send weapons to Ukraine. You know what he said? Photographers, right? They just sit there, take notes in regard to say everything that the elite want us to U.S. military occupy Iraq. He has been detained one way or another for the past 13 years in the United Kingdom. For the past four years, on the 11th of April, it'll be four years he's spent in a maximum security prison. He's not serving a sentence. He's convicted of no crime. He is solely there at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice. What did Julian do? He did what journalists should be doing. Publishing without fear or favor. He published the truth. The truth about 15,000 undocumented civilian deaths in Iraq. A lie that was hid from us so that we would believe that the war was going better than it was. He published the truth about two Reuters journalists who were killed by a helicopter gunship in Iraq. And then two good Samaritans who came to save them were also gunned down. He published the truth about a cable from the State Department that detailed the murder of an entire Iraqi family, including five children. And then after they were murdered, the soldiers called in an air strike to obliterate that family from the face of the earth to hide their crime. This cable led to the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq with the refusal of Iraq to re-sign the status of forces agreement. Governments do not willingly reveal their crimes. We need fearless publishers, fearless whistleblowers, fearless whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning, like Daniel Hale, fearless publishers like Julian Assange. What those who are pursuing Julian Assange, those who pursue Julian Assange with lust for revenge, those who pursue him in an effort to make an example of him so that the rest of the world will not publish this national security information. What they have unwillingly created, unwittingly created, is a worldwide movement for the freedom of Julian Assange, but also a worldwide movement for transparency in government, a worldwide movement for freedom of the press, and a worldwide movement for our right to know what governments do in our name. I'm going to leave you with some words from Julian. If war can be started by lies, then peace can be started by truth. Free Assange. We want to thank Gabriel Shipton who's traveling all over this country. Please look into what they're doing and do a number of different speaking engagements and please what you can and people you know around the country. Let them know about what is happening. And I also want to note that we are very honored to have as an endorser of this event the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. And we're also here on the 50th anniversary of Wounded Knee demanding the freedom of Leonard. We're also demanding the freedom of Mamiah Bujamal with the banning the freedom of all political prisoners who are held behind bars in this country. Free Amor. What's the call? Next we want to bring up a longtime struggleer from the city of Baltimore, Reverend Annie Chamber. United States of America. The United Snicks of America. Not since they're going to retire. I say when you can't talk to me no more, we support you. People in America color you off because they have done. They play racism. They play sexism on us. But we're going to stand together and be as one. We want justice in America. I sleep in jail telling other people about freedom and peace. And we're in the worst place in the world. We suffer. We get killed against injustice. And we're talking about peace all over the world. But let's start right here in the belly of the beast. These brothers and sisters, you do know we for nothing but peace and justice. But you got to get to me. For I think I know you're not going to get to me. So we bout to take it. We're going to take peace. Yes, he definitely heard that. To this war machine, this endless war machine. And next, I want to bring to the stage, from life after release, Afidi Evans. If I back heads up and that is destroying people, the country where one intentions with countries like Iran and much for bringing that message. I'm sure many of you, the invasion of Iraq, warrant for Vladimir Putin saying he's a war criminal. To Clinton and Clinton and Obama and Trump and Biden. Afghanistan, Serbia, Libya, Somalia. You know, there's so many countries, right? But we want to end that. And it was for Ukraine to wage this proxy war against a nuclear powered nation. But as long as we have imperialism, as long as this is an imperialist country, that's why we fence budget. The two are entered. That is one gigantic war machine when we liberate ourselves from the oligarchy. The anti-war coalition as well for helping to build this demonstration and bring people from all across this country. And we really are from every single nook and cranny of the United States. People have come from so many different from Maine. I mean, people have come from hours and hours in Atlanta. You know, so I thank you all. And I'm not going to list them all. I know it's too many. And I'm sorry I forgot you. North Carolina, I saw some folks here. Detroit, LA, all of them. Philadelphia. Okay, I hear you, Sister Sancho. I know. Next, I want to bring up Brian Becker, the national director of the answer coalition. Sisters and brothers, I want to talk a little bit about what's going to happen the rest of today. Because what we're doing today will be remembered as something that's quite historic, something very profound. A determination on our part to build a new anti-war movement, the forces within the military industrial complex, the leadership of both the Republican and the Democratic Party. It has a consensus position that the U.S. should be prepared to prioritize major, which did not really begin simply with the Russian military intervention on February 24th, 2022. But many years earlier than that, including the fascist-led coup d'etat of February 2014 to bring Ukraine into NATO. This is a proxy war, but it's a dress rehearsal for a bigger war that the U.S. intends to wage, to weaken Russia, to topple its government, to go to war and have confrontation with China, to topple the Communist Party of China, inside of China, and just think about the dimensions of the madness here. The United States could not defeat the tennis stand after 20 years. This demonstration is the far left, or Russian apologists, or something like this. We're going to do this in a few minutes, so be prepared for this march. This is what's going to happen the rest of the day. We're going to take these Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Russia, Ukraine, Yemen, Syria, 1860 and 1861, and during the Civil War, Presbyterian Church, wretched capitalist system. Thank you, brothers and sisters. Much service, but it needs to be a revival. This is what I need y'all to do. Sit on your left and say like you. This one war in Ukraine and every other with its imperialist focus on, but let me explain something to you. This capitalist system is at the foundation of Appalachia, our poor nation, our different and unique oppression and exploitation, all this machine that exports war around the world. This one war in Ukraine. Yes, this war in Ukraine. I have a couple more speakers, and then don't forget on the second end of this, we're going to hear from Noam Chomsky to recover from this earthquake. So we have a lot more in addition to this march. I just want to know. Thank you, Margaret. Give it up for Margaret Flowers one more time. Very important speaker to close us out. A very important speaker to close us out from one of the critical struggles that is happening in this world today. That's the struggle of the Palestinian people against apartheid for their own every single day. Honored to have you with us from the Palestinian youth movement. Our brother Mohammed, to come speak to you about the struggle. We're honored to be here representing the Palestinian youth movement. We're an independent transnational grassroots movement, a Palestinian and Arab youth in the diaspora who are organizing for the liberation of our lands from imperialism and settler colonialism. And like many of my comrades in the PYM, the barbaric U.S. invasion of Iraq was a defining moment for me. As children, we all watched the horrors unfold in Iraq, a country that we knew had natural wealth, ancient history, and a steadfast people. The U.S. invasion of Iraq represented not only the ruthless violence of the U.S. empire, but also its imperialist thievery. With the U.S. using the invasion to rob Iraq of its resources, to amass profits for the U.S. empire, through the death and destruction of our lands and people. This is a cycle that continues today and will continue unless we, the people, can organize to put an end to the empire's endless wars. Not only did the U.S. intervention destroy Iraq under the false premises, which Iraqis are still reeling from today, but the U.S. global war on terror had its counterpart here too. In 2002, we saw the opening of Guantanamo Bay detention camp, which has held hundreds of prisoners since its opening, including several Iraqi prisoners, heavy surveillance on mosques and religious institutions crippled our communities here and eventually culminated into the CVE inspiring programs we see all around the country. And so many Muslims have been captured and thrown into the prison system as a result and now 20 years later, our people still are reeling from the impacts of the U.S. invasion. The effects of that centrist war are still rippling today, but why Iraq? Because Iraq did not fit into the U.S. imperialist designs for the region. It was strangled with crippling sanctions that left hundreds of thousands of civilians dead for 13 years before the invasion even began. Today, the U.S. is still strangling non-compliant nations across the world with sanctions, which are an act and in and of themselves, let's be clear, from Cuba to Syria to Iran to Venezuela and now Russia and China and the list goes on. Here we are two decades later, still fueling endless wars around the globe. The U.S. and proxy war with Russia has cost the Ukrainian people immeasurable suffering as the imperialist leaders in just ever closer to the third conflict, the delusional state containing U.S. hegemony on end forever. While the U.S. strangles our people with one billion dollars over the long period of time, collaborators walk into the bullets and bomb grain on Yemen and fall asleep as it comically claims a mantle of freedom's greatest defender. The Palestinian youth movement understands that our fight for the liberation of our land from Zionism is part of the fight against imperialism. Both U.S. parties support the Zionist state and give it $3 billion each year precisely because the Zionist state is central to U.S. and Western imperialism. Israel acts as a strategic ally for the U.S. in their pursuit of endless wars, death, and destruction. This relationship is no accident. The Zionist thinkers who established the colonial state of Israel were clear from the beginning that their project was a reflection of Western colonial interests. The Zionist state was made possible only through British imperialism and colonialism and continues today to be sustained through U.S. and Western imperialism. For more than 100 years, Palestinians have struggled against Zionist colonialism and Western imperialism. Yeah, when you're on the spot, yeah. And today we're here to continue the struggle. We call for an end to all U.S. wars, an end to armed sales to the Zionist regime, an end to the sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, and any other nation being punished for putting its people before imperialism. We join our people back home who, as we speak, are rising against Zionist the white blood that contains long-lived international solidarity. Free Palestine! Free Palestine! Then we're going to be at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church and we're going to hear from the struggle of the people of Guam who are machine-destroying their population. We're going to hear from the people of Guam. There are two ganners there. We're going to march straight down in this direction. We have the confidence that we're going to benefit from the war at the start of the 2000s. You want to stretch out? Stretch out. So line us up again. Let's see if we can flow out of it. It's clear to everyone who is marching. So stay tight. Stay strong. We're live on the close direction. I thank you. Let's take it to the streets. All right. April Shipton, who is the brother of Julian Assange and we're here as Code Pink supports Free Julian Assange. Free Julian Assange. Free Julian Assange. Free Julian Assange. Free Julian Assange. Free Julian Assange. Free Julian Assange. Free Julian Assange. Free Julian Assange. Free Julian Assange. Free Julian Assange. Free Julian Assange. Let's get the banner first and then we'll be behind it. Okay. At some point, what I'm going to do is give this to someone and then treat him like brother in law. That's perfect. As expected, we'll get here at the very end. All right. I'll go to house eventually. Yeah. Okay. Very much late to Amazon. And this is Patrick. Like, hello. I mean, thank you. You've been an activist in the world. Patrick's helping us with the live stream. Oh, you're Patrick. I've heard a lot about you. So nice to meet you. I'm Sam. Are you recording? Should I like? I'm on camera. I am Sam Carliner, Code Pink's social media manager and super, super hyped that so many people are here today. So many great speeches. Follow Code Pink on Twitter for live tweeting featuring the speakers, the contingents, the chants. And yeah, peace in Ukraine. Fun people's needs, not the war machine. Hey, Patrick. Hey. No. Thank you so much. Very welcome. Your video. Everything I'm good at, it's a cool dilemma. Hello. Can you take a look at this thing? No. You're going to be right out there. No, I'm going to be right out there. We're both going to be right out there. So that's your office, right? Oh, yeah. Are we getting our balloons? It's 27th of May. We're going to get some. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. This is my name. Actually, I'm just going to be able to just come over here. Oh, sorry. Here, my life left. You're all still here. Oh, she's the man for her. Oh, thank you so much. Where is it cut behind? Yeah, behind the wing one. Actually, yeah. You're 14. Ugh. You have to just simply summarize my whole novel. I'm just like, you're not. Yeah, the parking lot. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. No worries. No worries. No worries. Not the wearer. No worries. Thank you. It's just one basis after another. We need to be ready. With anti-war groups, environmental groups, racial and immigrant justice groups, here on the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. And we are in front of the White House right now delivering coffins that represent several of the many U.S.-backed wars that are happening. And we are here in support. We want the U.S., the war to end in Ukraine, the war to not start against China. I'm also commemorating people who have lost their lives to war in Afghanistan, to Iraq, Somalia, Palestine, and Yemen, and to stop the war machine and stop funding these endless wars and instead take care of the people's needs. We have people out here with signs for healthcare, childcare, housing, livable wages, climate justice. So yeah, we're headed to the White House now. In front of the Washington Post. Got a response that got. Let's see if they even cover this event, but we came right to their front doors. They don't have an excuse. But I think it's incredibly important for those who can't see, we have the coffins behind us to recognize that the Post, one of many perhaps, but one of the most significant has been one of the premier entities that has pushed this unbelievable war propaganda, not just around Ukraine, but on almost every issue, certainly around the issue of Iraq. Now, of course, the New York Times gets the worst sort of history there, but the Washington Post was right along with them. The Pentagon Post has been determined not to mention, this is one of the primary voices for gentrification and police terrorism and all of Washington, D.C. Any time the police in Washington, D.C. go to bring the war right here at home to oppress working class Black communities, no matter what the justification they offer, the Post makes sure that they echo it. We've just seen recently how the Post has been complicit in a two year long campaign to promote an unbelievable, they told lies then, they've told lies about Ukraine, they've told lies about Palestine. Now, I'm sure if they came out here, they tried to say, well, hey, we told the truth a few times too, but that's just a cover to make it easier to promote an agenda of war, an agenda of imperialism, an agenda of racism, an agenda of gentrification right here in Washington, D.C. The whole editorial board lives in Maryland, but they wouldn't tell people in D.C. how to live. When you look at these right-wingers and racist in Congress who just over read the laws here in Washington, D.C. to say that you can't have the laws you want, the Washington Post backed them from the Washington Post to be a war monger and to be a liar and to look for every possible reason to tell you something other than the truth. That's right. Why the problem? We're not going to stop struggling. We're not going to stop pushing. We're not going to stop fighting. That's exactly why we have our own independent media. You can see many of the journalists who have gathered here today because we're not going to wait on the photographers of empire to tell our stories. We're going to tell our own stories including this huge crowd that you see out here today, a crowd that we're apologizing for some other country. We're going to tell the real story that we're out here standing up for the people of every country that are under the boot of this U.S. military war machine. Interventions happening all across the African continent, the drone war in Niger and all across the Sahel. We're going to stand up to militarism, stand up for the military industrial complex, stand up to the war machine and keep fighting. Are you with us? We've spent on sending weapons to Ukraine this year, would have funded the NEA, the National Endowment for the Arts, for 500 years. So I'm here. It's calling for a diplomatic settlement to end the wars before they've already lost tens of thousands of soldiers suffered severe economic damage, severe goats worth remembering, nothing like the U.S. British shop-and-all style of war which goes straight for the jugular, demolishing, energy, transportation, communication, anything that keeps society functioning. The lower heads of state visit the Baghdad, wealthy United States, and bring the word demolishable. Minions are facing starvation as grain for less supplies like sea region food prices soar along the profits of the handful of multinationals that dominate the food system. All too easy to envision steps up the escalation ladder to terminate the war. Maybe most serious of all in the long term, the limited steps to address imminent environmental catastrophe have reversed, may turn out to be the death knell for organized human life on earth. It's hard to do the discussed but the U.S. British stance entails a ghastly gamble with the fate of Ukraine or beyond. The gamble is that if the demented madman Putin faces defeat, he will quietly back his bags, slink away through oblivion or worse, and will not use the conventional weapons that we all know he has to emulate the U.S. and Britain or Israel and Gaza and devastating Ukraine, including Kyiv and the western areas that have so far been mostly scared. A moment's thought should suffice to reveal how ghastly that gamble is. One can easily see why outside the little western propaganda bubble, much of the world sees the war as a proxy war between the United States and Russia with Ukrainian bodies. Well, if Ukrainians choose to take the gamble, it's their business. But for the U.S. to insist on it, blocking diplomacy as it has been doing so as to severe a leap, we can rush it. That's very much Arabism. At one presidential assassination, the coalition lives on two American dollars a day. You can't remember something here. Let's commit to this act. It's just in the western hemisphere to be free. It's about hate. They want us to break our chains here that says, can be locked, say what you can be locked, say it. They're fighting hanging to the shore, going on to resistance. You want to make sure that people don't have important information and freedom to make it. So we're going to make a quick edit and film here. I want to bring up the combat building. I'm at Google Ogo to speak here on behalf of the people of Eritrea and all of Africa. Talking about how sanctions kill, we mentioned Iran, many of these other countries. But how many of you guys have western led that the history of Eritrea and the Eritrean people struggle is so important and often forgotten. When you look up Google Eritrea today or tomorrow, you'll probably see maybe something by the human rights watch or Amnesty International. But we know that those are what forms of soft people's liberation rights. Because we want to exercise our independence, our right to self-determination and our economic and political sanctions are a form of mass murder. Especially in the streets as we march today. It was a wonderful sight. We are the vanguard of new anti-imperialist anti-war movements. We're going to stop imperialism. The Thomas War in Ukraine has divided the left, has divided the anti-war movement, so that the censorship and the government's policies of not telling the truth about Syria divided the peace movement back then. But you know, there's lots of people in the Syrian community who protested anyway. I joined a thousand members of the Syrian community in a march in Washington, D.C. a couple of years ago to protest U.S. policy in Syria. Today we have with us Johnny Achi, who's worked from Syrians, Arab-Americans for Syria. He's going to tell us what that struggle is about. He's going to tell us how we can all join together and build this movement for all of us. A decision on Syria, which you probably have heard of, and this is the best crowd to know, this had been a regime-changed proxy war on Syria. If you don't believe it by now, then just ask Seymour Hirsch. Ask multiple people who, Hamid bin Jassim, and I need to tell you this, because this just been out, Hamid bin Jassim was the prime minister and the foreign minister of that tiny little nation of Qatar that had a lot to do with the destruction of Libya and then Syria. He lost his job in 2013, like General Petraeus lost his job, like everybody lost his job, they could have not overturned the government. So he just came on RT and literally said in the first year alone, $2 trillion was spent to house the Syrian government. $2 trillion paid for, we knew they were paying soldiers with the effects of their government on the Jazeera, but I didn't know the lowest paid was $15,000 in the future, a tiny little rank officer, $30,000 all the way to a million dollars. $2 trillion was spent in his own words flooding weapons into Syria, he said Qatar and Saudi paid for it, Turkey got into Syria with cooperation with the CIA. Weapons were flooding into Syria because they thought the biggest spray now is going to happen. Syria is the biggest spray. We all know General Welsi Clark, Syrians know that interview by heart. When he said he went into the Pentagon and they told him we're gonna attack, said in the country, you all know that, right? And then five of them are already done, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Lebanon, destabilized. And finally, we came to Libyan and it was supposed to be Syrian and Iran. Libya just a few months earlier, they called it the pretext for Libya. Who remembers what the pretext for Libya? I know you all know about the pretext for Iraq, one for the incubators or the children, the babies of the incubators, that's 91. And then obviously the world mass, the weapons of mass destruction. The Libyans was that Muhammad Qaddafi, and this is what was discussed at the United Nations. I don't know what PR firm is advising this, but to build public opinion, Muhammad Qaddafi gave payagra to his, all his soldiers and told them, give them orders to go rape all the women in Libya. And because of that, we went and bombed this country, killed 10,000 people and destroyed that country today. This is one of the richest African countries per capita. So Syria knew it was coming. We didn't know however though that it was coming also from our neighbors. The Gulf states, the Gulf state played a very dirty role in this war on Syria. The prey that they were fighting over, and that's how it been Jackson Finch and he said, every nation in you, that Syria is going to fall, so they want a piece of it. So the opposition started to have names of Paris opposition, London opposition, Istanbul oppositions. And we went to the peace conference or peace talks. Syrian government was not involved. It was all these oppositions from Delha, from Istanbul and from Riyadh trying to divide. And at the same time, they were sending weapons to their factions in Syria. And these factions end up fighting each other. And that's when they say that the prey got away. We got away, yes, but we paid a heavy price. 100,000 Syrians from just the Syrian army were fighting mercenaries, because Syrians refused to take a fight. They were living a great life, as any Syrian back in 2010. We were living a great life. We did not want that exported democracy and exported freedom that America was bringing to Iraq and Libya. It's all in our hands. 1979, 1979 sanctions, guys, because we dare to say no. We support the Palestinian freedom. We support India. Painful for us. Same earthquake hit two countries. One country got all the help and all the support and empathy and the cradle of civilization got none. Biden couldn't even lift the sanctions for one week so he can get equipment. We took people out. We hurt people. People tell stories about we left them to die because we couldn't get them out because we were taking them out with our bare hands. When we could have done better, but why are we now calling it a siege? Because the US is occupying one third of Syria where two-third of the resources are the oil and the wind. They're looting and stealing our oil and wind and the Syrians are left to die hungry. Syrians are asking for your help today. They're not asking for donations. They're not asking for handouts. And turn the climate here down that siege over. But also in the Ho Chiang land, a couple of our speakers today from Guam and Hawaii will be talking about some of the indigenous bloods fighting against the military bases and imperialism in their communities. And I also just want to draw those parallels to where we are right now. I also am so excited that we are here teaching each other but sometimes a lot of this information are things that we know. And we really want to take this beyond the walls of this church and bring in more and more people. As we have seen funding communities not war and funding the people's needs, a lot of the people who have two or three jobs can't make it out to things like this. Or folks who are fighting for housing and against incarceration and all of these things, can't make it out to here. So we really want to bring more people in and to talk with each other about how we can further take action leading up. So after this is all over, it's five o'clock. We're going to be meeting at busboys and poets for people to talk about what we can do more. But please follow the organizations, coaching, answer, people's forums, PSL, and so many other ones that are in this room to really take action in the streets with us moving forward. So yes, so please give it up for that. To someone who came all the way from Guam, Nick Floris. And I flew 24 hours from Guam across the international date line to be here with you all today because what's happening in Guam is the future. I'm just kidding. The southernmost island in the Mariana is Archipelago and all of the Mariana islands are extremely vulnerable right now to war. If the United States enters into conflict with China, our islands will once again be forcefully occupied and destroyed by war. I don't know if many of you know that during World War II, our island was occupied by Japanese forces and then violently recaptured by the United States. Our island was carpet bombed and we are still finding munitions from World War II all over the island, including land that's outside of the bases. We are looking at contamination from nuclear radiation fallout from the Marshall Islands. We are looking at Agent Orange contamination from the Vietnam War era. We are looking at PFAS and PFAS contamination. Right now, every single well that the Navy has returned for our waterworks cannot be used because of PFAS contamination. They are poisoning us. They are desecrating our ancestral burials. They have taken away land after the war. My family lost hundreds of acres of land. So Chamorro families lost thousands of acres, including land at this ancient village in the Texan. Our land was created, that our creation story were two brothers, or a brother and a sister. And when the brother was this ancient spirit, Ponsen was going to go to the next round. His sister, Flotna, took his eyes and made the sun and the moon, his eyebrows and made the rainbows, his back to make the land, his chest to make the sky. And Flotna, when she was about to go to the next round, turned her body into a rock and broke open and the first people emerged and went to canoes to go all over the earth. All over the earth. So in essence, we are all lost Chamorros. We are all tatsatano. We are all people of the land. I'd like to invite all of you. This is such a beautiful day and we want to see some of you come to Gohan to stand in solidarity with us. We need you. We will be needing you because in the next year, the United States is bringing the Marines from Okinawa to Wong. They have cleared over a thousand acres of limestone for us to build a new marine base and a live fire training range complex where they will release seven million ammunitions a year over our sole source aquifer that provides our island 80 to 90 percent of our fresh drinking water. They have applied to open burning and opened that nation on ancestral land and over our aquifer. They are promising our coastlines, bringing our fisher folks, our fighting fish with tumors in them at contamination sites. And culturally, we do not waste the fish we catch. We eat them. So we are eating contaminated fish. It can go on and on and on. I can go on and on and on. But I need you all to think about this. Really, we need you all to think about Wong, to think about Gohan, to think about the Medianus. Please don't forget us. And we need you to come and stand in solidarity with us. Sign off. Introduces from the Odessa Solidarity Committee. But before that, I want to read a little message that was sent to us from some friends in Ukraine. Although you probably don't know because the US media won't tell you this, that the majority of people who left Ukraine for another country as refugees to escape the war and the fighting have gone to Russia. Twice as many have gone to Russia as have gone to Poland. And just about as many that have gone to Russia have gone to all other European countries. But you won't learn that. In Russia, some of the people have put together, some of the Ukrainians have put together an organization. And they oppose the key of government. And they sent us a message. I'm only going to read a couple of lines of it because it's long, but we'll go up online and we'll be able to see it. Here, comrades, the union of political immigrants and political prisoners of Ukraine endorses your grave efforts for peace in Ukraine. We wholeheartedly welcome and support the launch of a major campaign by the public of the United States and other countries for peace in Ukraine. In particular, we support your great event of March 18th. Our great and warmest wishes for success in your struggle and with great wish for peace, the union of political immigrants and political prisoners of Ukraine was formed before the most recent actions and fighting that have gone on in Ukraine to go to Odessa on May when the right-wing fascists burnt and killed about 50 people and wounded over 100 at the House of Trade Unions in Odessa. These people were protesting the coup that took place in 2014 in Kiev and they were killed in these fascists that came from all over the country through Odessa to fight to do this. And so a number of us went to Odessa to support the people who each year come out and honor those that were killed and large numbers, thousands of people come out and the fascists mobilized to try to intimidate them in March. And we've seen both ends, some of us have been there as international observers to protect them and the Odessa Solidarity movement was formed. Thulito is its chair. He is also one of the leaders of Virginia offenders for freedom, justice and equality. Sound off, a very sharp schedule. So I'm going to make this quick. What you have heard about Ukraine and I'm also going to time it because it's always the old white guys who talk to me. It's been to Odessa on the second anniversary of the Odessa Massacre for at least 42 people were killed when a mob led by openly fascist organizations drove them into the House of Trade Unions at Thulito Square and Odessa set the building on fire. And the police stood by and the Ukrainian government is never allowed in international investigation. And three of us went there from the US as part of a team of international observers and when we came back we formed the Odessa Solidarity Campaign which you can read about at OdessaSolidarityCampaign.org I did, my point today was to try to tell you about the repression that has been taking place since the right wing coup of 2014 and that was one of the three elements that led to the Russian intervention along with the steady expansion of NATO and the attacks on the people in Donbass who declared independence because they didn't want to live under a right wing anti-Russian pro-fascist government. Since our visit to Odessa in May of 2016 thousands and thousands of people have been arrested menu them simply for expressing opposition to the government on social media A editor of a local newspaper Yuri Chukov who I met in Kulikovo, Poltava Square was arrested in charge with terrorism charges they're completely bogus and I wish I had time to go in to just explain to you but we saw the fascist organization we saw the ads all the time we saw the right sector and these are the groups that came forward to fight the people in Donbass and are now being hailed as heroes people who honor Stefan Banderas the head of the organization of Ukrainian nationalists who collaborated with the Nazi occupation and is now a national hero with a stamp a national stamp dedicated to his honor and is in birthday as a national holiday please you're here today because you don't believe the lies but we are going to try to keep pumping out information that you can find in Odessa's solidarity campaign we demand stop funding fascists in Ukraine to make with the Virginia Defender which has been coming up for 19 years with an all volunteer staff of a group that has two papers in Ukraine and the government repression that's going on thank you very much stay together and be real with this I just wanted to hold this up because unfortunately freedom is not free we have to do what we have to do to make this possible a lot of very generous people put money forward to make it possible for us to be here today to have this video to have these signs to be able to have all the equipment we needed to live stream to bring some people from different parts of the country who weren't able to make it because they're just working class folks trying to make ends meet so as you can imagine as you can imagine we need every dollar we can get every quarter we can get every $100 bill we can get every $1,000 donation on cash that we can get every $2 that you might have it'll reach down underneath the lint if it's more than five cents I'll take five cents too that's all right we'll put it all together and when we come together we can actually make a huge difference and it doesn't have everyone does have to have a lot of money for us to come together and have a little bit of money we're going to have buckets coming through here you'll see these buckets I don't know exactly what's on this sign you can see this there's a QR code there I'll push my knife it'll be close enough for you for pay now there's a cash out not a sign to go to war we'll put this somewhere I'll have somebody put this out you know maybe on the way out or something like that because I don't care if you can get this a period of time there's a phone number you can text 202-953-3531 that's 202-953-3531 please please please there's buckets coming around you're worth walking thank you so much there's a QR code there's cash out there it's a whole nine but all your generosity is greatly appreciated it's the various known would you know George Soros billionaire money he's fighting to my greed on the internet it's just people like you so we appreciate that a hundred percent so thank you everybody give yourselves a round of applause for doing this today thank you so much I want to bring up our next speaker and we're very honored to have him here you know we had Goli young speaker earlier the rich in American communities been doing a lot to promote the work that we've been doing you know around a lot of anti-imperialist issues and really is the country that is truly targeted in the same way many of the other countries you've heard here are and there are a lot of efforts going on to push back against the sanctions to push back against the isolation so from the rich in American public diplomacy group I want to bring up a name that will give them the same sort of way to do it I am here after you Goli young earlier came out and told you how Eritrea succeeded what Eritrea was able to achieve I would like to tell you why Eritrea was able to achieve that and in order to give you a brief in order to give you and understand me why I'm going to give you a little bit of history when the United States first came to Africa the first place that they came in is Eritrea the war of aggression Africa started in 1941 in Eritrea and this is something that a lot of people may not know and it continued until the government took over with the uprisings of the United States in 1962 I'm next to Eritrea the struggle for independence of Eritrea started in 1961 and the reason Eritrea was completely didn't have a chance to survive at all Eritrea was able that it is today for one reason and that is because of the people of Eritrea determined they said one thing hafaz yinqah yugudan yinqahadah which means hafaz means the masses yinqah means let it be informed educated and you what that means organized and the Eritrean people were organized and through that they were armed and they were able to persevere for 80 years up until now even after independence in 1991 the United States first with the Bush and later and after that with the Clinton administration continued their proxy wars against Eritrea Eritrea was sanctioned and because we believe in that self-realized because we believe on the victory for the masses because we believe and always being educated being informed organized and being won this is the only way we are going to be able to defeat anything that comes we have to be informed what's going on I can say a lot about everything that's happening right now and how it's affecting what Eritrea is doing but what we went through is simply a miracle that we were able to achieve this and that we are able to do it because we were united organized and we persevered and this is what's being asked from every one of you today how's it going? next few days it's the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq it's other anniversaries too it's the 25th anniversary of the U.S. bombing in Yugoslavia it's a very important anniversary because 20 years ago our next speaker who had been a colonel in the military and had been a diplomat I think she was the under ambassador to the outer manbola at the time looked at what the United States did and invading and occupying Iraq and said enough and she quit and since she's been an anti-war actor she's been an anti-war actor since again someone who after the catastrophic needle ships that leak and poison the water of over 100,000 people really making the intersections of the climate crisis environmental degradation and the war machine and here to talk more about that from shutdown Redhill Mutual Aid is Mikey I want to teach you something real quick that means water is like so Hola come by yeah so ready alright thanks so my name is Mikey I'm a Korean and Japanese settler in Occupy, Hawaii I'm a water protector and I'm so grateful to be with you all here today to tell you about a very special place on Oahu the island where I was born and raised it's a place called Kampu Kampi otherwise known as Redhill nearly 80 years ago the U.S. Navy constructed a massive underground facility in Redhill storing up to 250 million gallons of toxic fuel sitting less than 100 feet above our sole source aquifer that provides water to nearly half a million people on the island in 2021 the U.S. Navy leaked over 19,000 gallons of JP5 jet fuel from the Redhill facility and contaminated over 93,000 homes over the following weeks the Navy lied over and over and over again to the thousands of people falling violently ill from the toxic exposure to jet fuel in their water they lied to civilians native Hawaiians and their own service people as children and babies screamed in pain through the night their throats on fire their tiny bodies covered from head to toe in sores and rashes our community did not take this neo-colonial violence line down we rose up as one to demand the U.S. military shutdown Redhill immediately and after just three months adaptation we forced the Department of Defense to concede to our demands for our basic rights to clean water continues over one year later over 100 million gallons of toxic jet fuel still sit in these decrepit leaking worldwide to our storage tanks to make matters worse the Navy recently spilled 1,300 gallons of A-truple-F concentrate from Redhill A-truple-F is a fire suppressing foam containing enough of a forever chemical known as PFOS to contaminate tens of trillions of gallons of water for centuries the shutdown Redhill mutual aid collective is distributing 300 cases of water to families still being poisoned by jet fuel contaminated water more than a year after the Hawaii State Department of Health declared the water was once again safe to drink now so if you may be wondering what does any of this have to do with Russia and Ukraine right? the answer to that question is every every the decisions made in DC directly impact the ongoing legal US military occupation and active contamination of Hawaii's sovereign lands and waters every single one of those 113 billion dollars in USA going to fight the NATO fuel proxy war with Russia and Ukraine is used to justify every acre of land and every gallon of water being actively contaminated by the US military on Oahu the consent they manufacture here to fight the war over there maintains the illegal US occupation of Hawaii but you need our military to keep you safe they say right don't you understand? freedom freedom isn't free we're poisoning your children and contaminating your water to protect you from Russia so the capitalist class plays the role of our poorly disguised murderers and just like in every slash film the truth killers aren't separated by an ocean or a fence the call is coming from inside the haddles and some share struggle against a common enemy yes what happens here and in Ukraine affects what happens in Hawaii but it's a two-way street our anti-parallel struggle in Hawaii affects what happens in Soledar in Batmoud in Sokol Danets in Okinawa in Guahan in Gaza in East Palestine in Kalijun in Flint, Michigan in Jackson, Mississippi I don't know because an injury to one is an injury to all and an injury to water is an injury to all of us because we are water and water is us and just like the water we protect are sacred we too are worthy of protection we are water protecting itself and when we join our waters together we can turn a light rain into a torrential downpour we can turn a tiny pond into a sea of solidarity we can turn a small stream into a river of revolution to contain us to the end I had the privilege in October to be in a demonstration led by the Bronx Anti-War Coalition in the Bronx, New York and I was really impressed with that demonstration because there were just a number of community groups that came forward and started making the connection between the struggles they have in the streets of the Bronx and the wars and the person that made the organizer of that demonstration from the Bronx Anti-War Coalition and from the International Action Center is Richie Moreno who's going to speak next favorite chant howdy spell racist fascist good afternoon everyone my name is Richie as Joe said I'm with the Bronx Anti-War Coalition I'm also representing the International Action Center United National Anti-War Coalition I write for workers world because I'm a member of workers world and I'm also a proud public school teacher in the South Bronx for just days after the Biden administration proposed their egregious $900 billion military budget the U.S. Federal Reserve printed $300 billion to bail out two banks that were too big to fail let me be this is a bailout for the rich a bailout for Silicon Valley tech companies venture capital firms and private private equity boo when we're struggling to pay for rent groceries gas and energy bills we need to start asking ourselves when will we the workers get a bailout when will we the people of the South Bronx of Flint Michigan of DC of East Palestine Ohio get the funding that we deserve for quality education safe transportation guaranteed jobs with benefits housing clean air and water so if the U.S. government can bail out billionaires and send $150 billion to fuel a proxy war in Ukraine then they sure as hell can bail out the people do y'all agree so the U.S. is also preparing for and provoking a hog war with China because China's peaceful economic rise is regarded as a threat to U.S. global hegemony such a war has the potential to destroy humanity China wants peace they want cooperation they want win-win development China is not our enemy do y'all agree for imperialism with NATO and the U.S. government running the agenda they use Russia and China as scapegoats to distract from their failures to provide us the people with the basic needs our enemies are the capitalist and imperialist warmongers in the U.S. government whose only purpose is to guarantee the profits of Wall Street and the military industrial complex the regime change and interventionist wars so if y'all agree I want to hear you make some noise no no more endless wars be the people not the U.S. war machine end the U.S. naval proxy war against Russia and the people of the Donbass carry provocations against China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea heading from Codepin talk about those extremely stark intersections between anti-militarism and the climate crisis when I say no war you say no warming no war a new friend of mine asked what I do and I answered I said I work with the intersection of military and climate and before I could ask what they do they said oh well what does military and climate have to do with each other what does military have to do with climate what do you think I said nothing something or everything nothing something or everything military has absolutely everything to do with the climate crisis and as we fight for peace we are fighting for a future on this planet a future system that we have been forced into that we are fighting is one that views our world and all the life on it human pain and animal as resources not relatives it's the other way around relatives not resources relatives not resources it is not a coincidence that cop city in atlanta boo to train up more killer cops across the united states will also be used to train israeli idea soldiers to enforce the occupation and how to find coincidence that is by design it is not a coincidence that over the course of the war in ukraine fossil fuel companies profited madly while they make consumers suffer and pay for it did you see those gas prices last year they said that was simply because of the war in ukraine they were price founcing every single one of us is that right and it's not a coincidence that after seeing those profits like a shark tasting blood but by the administration has signed the approval for the willow project willow project the most massive oil and gas extraction progress project ever proposed on federal land on indigenous land and traditional hunting grounds in alaska was disapproved by this administration this war longer president this dirty fuel president not a coincidence that last year's military budget total eight hundred and fifty eight billion dollars twenty eight times what might have managed to scrounge up for the climate that is not a coincidence so because we know war has everything to do with climate change let's make it our job to uplift that our fight for peace is a fight for climate justice and vice versa because of that as loud as we are we need to get even louder because if we win we won't just achieve peace we will have made a significant dent in environmental injustice the world over we just heard us out of guang us out of guang us out of guang us out of guang and we just heard from our friend from wahoo where redhill continues to poison communities us out of hawaii us out of hawaii us out of hawaii militarized police here in the united states are not keeping us safe they're here to protect capital and property that's it that's the same with our military abroad they are therefore extraction purposes only they do not keep us safe and as in after today you need another reason to call for peace in Ukraine the environmental catastrophes caused by this war are unprecedented farland will not be airable for decades to come and the fossil fuel emissions from the world alone is the same as if a new european mid-sized european country has spattered up out of nowhere and began emitting fossil fuels shame that's right so one month from now about a month from now it's going to be earth day and on earth day i hope everyone in this room can bring a message of peace to climate actions because we need to cut the lifeblood of the war machine we need to end fossil fuel use and extraction the world over our lives all of our lives depend on it both at the site of extraction and colonialism and because the climate crisis faces all of us in the near term so i want to say money for climate and education not for war and occupation thank you all so much for being here the next person is Wyatt Miller Wyatt is from the free world socialist organization and he's also a member of the administrative committee of UNAC he represented free number of socialist organization also with the UNAC AC and also here from Minneapolis where I organized with a group called the Minnesota Anti-War Committee where we've been organizing and saying no to the US NATO proxy war against Russia which uses Ukraine as its battlefield and Ukraine as its cannon fodder since day one and as far as so we believe the US empire is enemy number one to the people of the world who wish to live their lives in peace with dignity and free of economic and military domination don't let the unprecedented deltas are spending fool you this US imperialist system is in decline is that good? have received the US imperialist system lash out so recklessly against China, against Russia and all of its other targets as these contradictions in the world economy and the imperialist system sharpened so we need to stop it once and for all and sooner