And due to the Memorial Day holiday on Monday, May, 27, the Monday meeting has been moved to Tuesday, May 28, 7 PM

The May 2-3 and 4-5 nighttime bombings of Syria’s International Airport, military installations in a Damascus suburb and a military supply depot reportedly killed 300 people. The bombings were initially denied but then confirmed by Israel and soon after given the stamp of approval by the Obama Administration.

The previous week President Obama and Secretary of Defense Charles Hagel threatened to escalate U.S. intervention in Syria based on the unsubstantiated charge that Syria had employed weapons of mass destruction, in this case the deadly sarin gas. 

What is incontrovertible is that U.S. allies in the region – Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia – have supplied hundreds of millions of dollars in lethal military aid to destabilize the Syrian regime. The U.S. itself claims to have supplied some $400 million in “non-lethal aid.”  The U.S., which funds Israel’s multi-billion dollar “Iron Dome” missile program, is the chief military force in the region.

 No serious observers believe that Israel, the largest recipient of U.S. aid in the world, to the tune of $4 billion annually, acts without U.S. approval – the same is undeniable with regard to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. NATO ally, Turkey.

 In the case of Qatar, a nation without an army, the U.S.-established and privatized Blackwater military installation is used daily as an operational base for the U.S. war in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.

 The U.S. Machiavellian strategy in Syria is first and foremost to advance its economic, military and regional “interests.” The latter includes deepening the isolation of Iran, whose oil wealth the U.S. corporate elite seeks to regain.

 We recognize no rights among imperial nations to determine the future of any oppressed nation on earth, not to mention the modern day neo-colonial interveners. With regard to Syria, that right belongs to the Syrian people only.

 The U.S. government is presently restrained by the mass antiwar sentiment expressed in repeated polls over the past two years. The most recent Pew Research poll indicates that 62 percent are opposed to any U.S. intervention in Syria. We must add to this the fact the U.S. bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the decades long U.S. support to the Egyptian Mubarak dictatorship as well as the constant drone attacks on Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia have earned it the deep hatred of the peoples of the Middle East and beyond.

 The Iraq “weapons of mass destruction” justification for this still-raging war, that has taken the lives of 1.5 million Iraqis so far, and the ongoing war in Afghanistan, wherein the U.S. puppet Hamid Karzai regime is discredited around the world, has convinced social justice activists everywhere that the U.S. imperial rulers fight for oil and military-geographic advantage and not for peace and justice.

More than ever the U.S. and the worldwide antiwar and social justice movement must demand:

·       U.S./Israel Hands Off Syria!

·       Bring All U.S. Troops and Mercenaries Home Now!

·       Self-determination for the Syrian People!

·       No to U.S. Sanctions Anywhere!

·       End All U.S. Aid to Israel!

·       U.S. Out of the Middle East Now!

MECAWI is a member of the United Anti-war Coalition (UNACpeace.org)

April 2, 201

For a second month, tens of thousands of U.S. and south Korean troops are carrying out simulated assaults on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — north Korea.

For the first time during these annual “exercises,” designated as Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, nuclear-capable B-2 bombers flew from Missouri to south Korea and back in a simulated bombing of the north.

In February, other war “games” called Iron Fist teamed up U.S. and Japanese troops in a simulated attack on islands claimed by both Japan and China.

The Pentagon has announced it will spend a billion dollars on a “missile defense” system on the West Coast of the United States.

The Pentagon has also moved a Navy missile-defense ship from its home port in Japan to waters off the Korean peninsula.

At the same time, the U.S. propaganda machine declares all this is necessary to counter the “belligerence” of the DPRK.

As more and more U.S. ships, planes and military personnel are deployed to the area around the Korean peninsula, the possibility of yet another war is being floated.

War is something that is very real to the Korean people. They know from bitter experience that war “games” are not something that are just played on a computer — they are the prelude to mayhem and unspeakable destruction and human suffering.

Why DPRK says ‘armistice is dead’

For 60 years, the DPRK attempted to get the U.S. to sign a peace treaty that would end the state of war existing between the two countries since 1950. It also called for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

Neither ever happened. Washington refused to even discuss the matter. The DPRK has now declared that the armistice agreement ending the 1950-53 shooting war is dead and that it will respond with strength if attacked.

While all this military activity is going on, massive government cutbacks in the United States speak to the back-breaking cost of this country’s military spending for previous interventions around the world. The trillions of dollars spent on building the world’s most destructive military machine have imposed a colossal debt burden on the people at home.

The only ones to benefit from this unending warfare are the military-industrial complex and the banks. The capitalist ruling class as a whole, which more and more seeks super-profits from abroad, bears the responsibility for turning the U.S. into a garrison state at odds with most of the world.

From ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt to Obama

“Speak softly and carry a big stick,” said Theodore Roosevelt in 1901. He had led the charge in grabbing Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Philippines and Guam away from Spain, first as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and later as a grandstanding lieutenant colonel commanding U.S. troops in Cuba during the War of 1898.

Roosevelt’s role in gaining new territory for U.S. profiteers to exploit won him the presidency (1901-09).

Roosevelt’s prescription for how to camouflage imperialist aggression is still being followed by the public relations departments of the Pentagon, the White House and the State Department.

While pronouncing “caution” and “restraint” and their commitment to building a “peaceful and stable” world, they quietly go about the job of building up the world’s most fearsome arsenal of offensive weapons.

As the Pentagon winds down its military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, after reducing those countries to chaos and ashes, it is increasingly redeploying its troops and arsenal to the Pacific. Its target right now is north Korea, even as the U.S. also attempts to encircle China.

The leaders of the DPRK, however, have prepared for this moment and strengthened their defenses. They have successfully tested nuclear bombs and long-range missiles.

The north Koreans are sending a ringing message to the world that they will not bow down to the pressure of tens of thousands of U.S. troops carrying out a simulated war on their borders. For that, they are being branded in the capitalist media as war mongers.

The imperialist U.S., carrying on in Roosevelt’s footsteps, talks peace while waging war. The socialist DPRK tells the truth — to its own people and to the world.

• Atty. Jeff Edison of the National Conference of Black Lawyers.
• Dr. Rita Kiki Edozie, Director of African American and African Studies at Michigan State University in East Lansing.
• Cheick Oumar and Moussa Rimau, two graduate students at MSU from Mali.
• Tachae J. Davis of Workers World Youth Fraction and a student at Macomb Community College.
• Abayomi Azikywe, editor, Pan-African New Wire, and co-founder of the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI).

• PART 1: http://youtu.be/wSPXRV5YIHE
• PART 2:http://youtu.be/M97Yu_3aot4

The full conference video may be viewed at Conference on Africa & U.S. Imperialism 2013-05-18.

Keynote address:

Africa & U.S. Imperialism: Post-Colonial Crises and the Imperatives of the African Revolution

Left: African Union deliberations in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Date unknown.
Right: Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, with Dr. Rita Edozie of Michigan State University at the Dr. Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History on March 9, 2013. (Photo: Leona McElvene)

Africa and U.S. Imperialism: Post-Colonial Crises and the Imperatives of the African Revolution

Five decades since the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) while the Pentagon and NATO escalates its war drive on the continent

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Note: The following lecture was delivered at the Africa & U.S. Imperialism Conference held in Detroit on May 18, 2013.

May 25, 2013 represents the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the forerunner of the present African Union which formed in 2002. This conference today is taking place at a critical time within the history of Africa and the Diaspora.

continue reading>>

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Noon – 5:00 pm

5920 Second Ave., Detroit, MI (two blocks north of Wayne State U.)

May 25, 2013 will mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the continental organization formed by all of the heads of state to accelerate the liberation from colonialism and the political, economic and social unification of Africa.

After five decades of the OAU and its successor, the African Union, formed in 2002, it is necessary for a thorough assessment of the progress and challenges facing Africa and the Diaspora in light of the escalating imperialist militarism being carried out by the United States, France, Britain and other NATO countries.

Featured Speakers Include:

• Rita Kiki Edozie, Director of African and African American Studies at Michigan State University in Lansing

• Abayomi Azikwe, Editor of the Pan-African News

Left: African Union deliberations in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Date unknown.
Right: Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, with Dr. Rita Edozie of Michigan State University at the Dr. Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History on March 9, 2013. (Photo: Leona McElvene)

Initiator: Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI)
For Information Call: (313) 671-3715
E-mail: panafnewswire@yahoo.com

Download Africa & Imperialism Flyer

Photo at top of post : Madame Fathia, W.E.B. DuBois, President Kwame Nkrumah and Shirley Graham DuBois in Ghana in 1963 on the 95th Birthday of Dr. DuBois.

Despite the claims of western capitalist media, the US and its puppets are responsible for the escalating tensions with Korea and the region as a whole. The claims made by the enemies of the Korean people and the entire world’s oppressed try to project the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as an unpredictable, hyper-militarized, loose cannon threatening world stability and even all out nuclear war. The reality however, is that it is the US and its allies who pose a threat to peace wherever they are present. It is the 30,000 US troops on the DPRK border, the war maneuvers, and attempts to starve the Korean people through UN sanctions that are at the root of the current crisis in the region.

War in Korea will only lead to destruction and the substantial loss of human life that will have a deep impact on the entire world. US out of Korea! Peaceful Reunification NOW!

Information on Red Youth Detroit:  313-556-4966,  redyouthdetroit@gmail.com

Beginning on Saturday, May 11th – the anniversary weekend of the Poor Peoples Campaign, we will hold a civil rights walk and March from Baltimore to Washington D.C. and arrive in Washington on Sunday, May 12, 2013.

We are Marching because…

• Police Brutality & Mass Incarceration Are Growing

• Poverty Is Deepening and the People Need Jobs, Not Jails

• Workers Rights Are Under Attack

• Justice For All Is Needed

• Fund Education, Health Care & Human Needs, Not War & Occupation

MECAWI is organizing rides to Baltimore.  If you are interested in going or would like to support someone who is going with a donation, please call 313-680-5508.

For more info, please visit peoplespowerassemblies.org

Initiator: Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI)
Date: Saturday, May 18, 2013
Location: Detroit, Michigan (USA)

May 25, 2013 will mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the continental organization formed by all of the heads of state to accelerate the liberation from colonialism and the political, economic and social unification of Africa. The OAU was formed by 33 independent states including some of the leading figures in the Pan-African struggle such as Presidents Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ahmed Sekou Toure, Modibo Kieta, Julius Nyerere, Gamal Abdel Nassar, H.I.M Haile Selassie, among others.

After five decades of the OAU and its successor, the African Union, formed in 2002, it is necessary for a thorough assessment of the progress and challenges facing Africa and the Diaspora in light of the escalating imperialist militarism being carried out by the United States, France, Britain and other NATO countries. Today in 2013, African states are being invaded once again by troops from the Pentagon, various NATO forces, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives and other intelligence organizations from throughout North America and Europe as well as transnational corporations and banks determined to maintain western hegemony over the continent, its people and resources.

Five years ago in 2008, the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) held a similar conference in the wake of the formation of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). In 2008 we predicted that the formation of this Pentagon command specifically geared toward Africa would prove disastrous for the continent. Unfortunately what we anticipated has been proven correct.

AFRICOM coordinated the overthrow of the government in Libya under the martyred Col. Muammar Gaddafi, a longtime leader of his country who served as a co-founder of the AU and its chairman in 2009-2010. Although the headquarters of AFRICOM remains in Stuttgart, Germany, the U.S. has established a military base in Djibouti along with drone and CIA stations in Somalia, Niger and other countries across the continent.

The current war in Mali, although said to be waged by France for humanitarian reasons, is merely designed to penetrate the continent and exploit its oil, uranium and gold. Africa is playing a greater role in supplying oil, platinum, natural gas and other strategic resources to the western industrialized capitalist states.

Therefore we believe that a renewed anti-imperialist campaign aimed at enhancing solidarity with Africa and its people is necessary during this period. This conference will take up some of the most important aspects of the struggle for the total liberation and unification of the continent and the Diaspora.

Some of the issues that will be thoroughly discussed at the Africa & U.S. Imperialism Conference will include:

–Historical review of the OAU and the AU from 1963-2013

–The role of AFRICOM, the CIA, NATO and other intelligence and military groups

–African Decade of Women (2010-2020): the need for full gender equality and empowerment

–Youth and development in Africa and the Diaspora

—The impact of the global economic crisis on Africa and the Diaspora

–Africa and the global class struggle against imperialism

–Africa in solidarity with Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and all struggling peoples

–China’s role in Africa and its implications for the worldwide struggle against imperialism

This conference will seek the support and participation of all genuine anti-imperialist, left, Pan-African, social justice, women, anti-war, peace, environmental, community and social justice organizations. The Conference will be self-financed and organized.

If you or your organization is interested in contributing to this cause please contact us as soon as possible. The Conference will draft a program of action and publish many of the papers and talks presented during the proceedings.

For more information on the Africa & U.S. Imperialism Conference contact us at the addresses below:

MECAWI
c/o Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor of the Pan-African News Wire
5920 Second Ave.
Detroit, MI 48202
313-671-3715

http://mecawi.org

http://panafricannews.blogspot.com

panafnewswire@yahoo.com

Jorge Parra of the Colombian General Motors injured workers struggle and Jerome Jackson who is fighting foreclosure against PNC Bank. This demonstration was held in Ann Arbor on December 1, 2012. (Photo: Abayomi Azikiwe)

Hear from Jorge Parra, President of the Association of Injured Workers and Ex-workers of GM Colmotores (Asotrecol), who recently ended a 72-day hunger strike to draw attention to GM’s abuses of workers in Colombia

Moratorium Now!/ MECAWI weekly meeting

7:00 PM, Monday, February 25

5920 Second Ave., Detroit, 48202

We also will have updates on the anti-foreclosure struggle, fighting the banks for causing Detroit’s so-called financial crisis, and other struggles.

For more info on the Colombian workers struggle, please call 216-534-6435.

Jesus Rodriguez-Espinoza

Consul General of Venezuela in Chicago

Thursday – Jan. 31 – 7 P.M.

Garage Cultural – Center of Art & Creativity
3439 Livernois Ave., Detroit
(3 blocks south of Michigan Ave.)

For more info, call:313-680 –5508

With Pres. Hugo Chavez ill, the United States government is working with right wing forces in Venezuela to promote division and destabilize that country. Show your support for the people of Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution.

Sponsors: Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI.org); Justice for Cuba Committee; Green Party-Detroit; Michigan Welfare Rights Organization; Elena Herrada, Centro Obrero; Moratorium NOW! Coalition Against Foreclosures; Workers World Party-Detroit; Judge Claudia House Morcom (retired) – Michigan Campaign to Free the Cuban 5

The Detroit event is part of National Days of Solidarity with Venezuela – visit iacenter.org/venezuela/jan-2013-actions/   for more information.