Protest the Chicago Air & Water Show!

Why protest the Chicago Air and Water Show? We can think of many reasons! First, right now the U.S. is financially backing and providing the weapons Saudi Arabia is using against the people of Yemen. Thousands of civilians have died as either a direct result of the bombings or of starvation due to the destruction of their country.

This comes on top of thirteen years of U.S. wars for empire and occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and on and on. At our protest, we will challenge this attempt to turn war weapons into “entertainment” and a recruitment tool for another generation to kill and die for empire. We will expose the true costs of these wars – in human suffering, in devastated infrastructure that can no longer provide water or power to whole countries, and in financial resources devoted to destruction rather than meeting human needs.

This August also marks the 70th Anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the first and only time a nuclear weapon has been used… and by the U.S. no less! Fast forward 70 years, and the U.S. has entered into an agreement with Iran under which the US and other powers agree to lift economic sanctions against Iran if it cuts its uranium enrichment by nearly 40% and complies with continuous monitoring of its nuclear sites. But as Larry Everest, writer for “Revolution” newspaper, points out, “This deal is not about ending the danger of nuclear weapons or nuclear conflict, and it won’t do so. Iran has no nuclear weapons. But the U.S. imperialists do—thousands of them—and its close ally Israel has hundreds. Is either of them giving up a single nuke? No. Is either submitting to intrusive inspections? No. In fact, unlike Iran, Israel has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or submit to any international inspection or control. Both the U.S. and Israel have repeatedly declared their right to use military force anywhere they see fit. In fact, after the agreement was announced, Obama made a point of threatening military force against Iran in the event the U.S. decides it hasn’t abided by the deal.”

All these are reasons enough to protest the Air and Water Show, which is intended to celebrate the might of the U.S. military. What spectators won’t see is the terrors the U.S. military brings upon the people of the world. Our protest is an opportunity to present this reality to thousands of people who are mainly unaware of it and challenge them to demand an end to these wars and an end to the recruitment of our youth to kill and die in them.