Occupy 3rd & Howard Tuesday: Say NO! to Endless Wars for Empire!

-from the Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime (2005).

OBAMA’S COMING TO TOWN!
 
Occupy… Bring the Noise… Represent!
 
EXCLUSIVE SAN FRANCISCO LUNCHEON
TUESDAY OCTOBER 25
“W” HOTEL
 
$7500/plate fundraiser closed to the public
PROTEST ALL THE CRIMES THIS MONEY WILL BUY!
Meet up at 3rd & Howard Streets at 11:00 AM

 

Tens of thousands of people in the U.S., taking the lead from millions in the Middle East, are "occupying" public spaces, seeking change in the world as it is, standing up to authority, power, and blowing the ceiling off expectations that the vast disparity in global income "has to" be as it is. We’ve got to spread these occupations!

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of U.S. military, support staff and private contractors are "occupying" two countries in the Middle East, in a mission to enforce, with a vengeance, U.S. domination over the region, employing night raids, torture, and terror towards the civilian population. We’ve got to end those occupations!

FOR THE PAST TEN YEARS:

 

U.S. OCCUPATIONS, bombs, and secret operations have wreaked havoc in the Middle East since 2001, sold to the public on the basis of being in the "United States’ national interest." As just one example of the type of war being fought, in 2010 it was revealed the 5th Stryker Brigade’s "Kill Team" went on a shooting spree, hunting down and murdering unarmed Afghan civilians at random and mutilating corpses for fun. U.S. / NATO bombing raids kill even more civilians this year than last. The U.S. detains hundreds in Bagram prison in Afghanistan, without charges, lawyers, or rights… and Guantánamo remains open, in spite of Obama’s declaration almost three years ago that he would close it as a stain on America’s conscience.

THE U.S. OCCUPATION of Iraq caused the worst humanitarian crisis of our time: over 4.1 million refugees over the last 8 years; 1.2 million killed; the wholesale destruction of the infrastructure, agriculture, electrical, and educational systems. Still in Iraq are 50,000 troops re-branded from "combat" to "advisers" and tens of thousands of private mercenaries at 17 permanent bases. The very soonest the troops could be pulled out of Afghanistan isn’t until 2024, according to the Obama administration’s pact with Karzai.

OBAMA HAS INCREASED unmanned drone attacks and secret operations in Pakistan and Yemen, killing hundreds of civilians. The administration of the Nobel Peace Laureate continues to support repressive regimes in Yemen and Bahrain, against the demands of their people, but mounted a $1 billion bombing and secret operation in Libya, under cover of "humanitarianism" and with the collusion of the former colonial powers France and Britain, using the same weapons that could be used in an often-threatened attack on Iran. It’s an outrage that this government spent $2 trillion on military aggression, more than all the other countries combined while, officially, one in seven, live in poverty and the richest 1% increased their income during this recession.

Homelessness, criminal lack of healthcare, and 2.4 million poor people imprisoned are the "American way" as much as U.S. domination of other countries and the wanton exploitation of the earth’s resources. But, if the richest country in the world provided jobs, education, healthcare for all the people living here, would it be OK to kill people indiscriminately and in protracted occupations for empire?

It is right and just to occupy town squares across the country to declare we are the 99% who are NOT represented by this government and the culture of greed that surrounds us. Find an occupation near you at occupytogether.org and raise your voice in resistance against the most powerful empire in world history – and do it for the people of the world!

"The future is unwritten. Which one we get is up to us."