MN shows solidarity with Syria and Venezuela

MN shows solidarity with Syria and Venezuela

By Meredith Aby-Keirstead

Minneapolis, MN – On Sept. 13. Minneapolis peace groups held a protest to “send an urgent anti-war message” in response to the Trump administration’s threats to conduct new airstrikes in Syria and to plots of a military coup in Venezuela.

A statement issued by the MN Peace Action Coalition, which initiated the protest, said, “The U.S. appears to be preparing a new round of airstrikes in Syria. The New York Times reported last weekend that the U.S. government has been in discussions of a possible military coup in Venezuela. These are the latest manifestations of the never ending series of U.S. wars and interventions around the world. U.S. intervention is not intended to defend human rights, but to enforce U.S. economic and political interests.”

The protest featured two speakers who both focused on the real motivations for U.S. intervention and denounced the Trump administration’s excuses of democracy and starving people in Venezuela and a potential chemical weapons attack in Syria as excuses to justify an expanding U.S. presence in South America and the Middle East.

Gerardo Cajamarca, a Colombian trade unionists from SINALTRAINAL, addressed the crowd, “The U.S. says it’s concerned about democracy. What does it even mean by democracy? The real issue in Venezuela is the U.S. interests. Oil and war profits are the real motivations for the U.S. The Venezuelan people have decided that their natural resources – and the wealth that comes from their oil – are not for the rich oligarchy and elite. The people of Venezuela have decided that health, education and housing are not commodities and instead are services and rights for all people.”

Sarah Martin spoke for the Women Against Military Madness’ Middle East Committee, “Syria is a part of the block of resistance, with Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah in the Middle East – they are independent forces which are not puppets of the U.S., which stand in solidarity with Palestinians, and block the hegemony of the U.S. in that oil rich and geopolitically very important area, the Middle East.” Of the U.S. efforts she stated, “It’s all about destabilizing, dividing, weakening and overthrowing the governments of these sovereign countries.”

The MN Peace Action Committee announced that it will hold an emergency response protest if the U.S. bombs Syria and/or attempts to overthrow the government of Venezuela.