Peace

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s much touted Disengagement Plan from Gaza and small portions of the West Bank focuses the world’s attention on the tug-of-war between the Israeli army and the Israeli settler movement. At the same time it obscures the absence of any meaningful peace process in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

President George W. Bush said today that he understands and respects the views of those who are calling for him to cut short his summer vacation, but warned that an immediate withdrawal from Crawford, Texas, would “send a terrible signal to the enemy.”

The phones at the national offices of United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), a coalition of 1,300 national and local groups that oppose the Bush administration’s policy of permanent warfare and empire building, are ringing off the hook.

Thirty-five years ago, on Aug. 29, 1970, some 25,000-30,000 people, mostly Mexican Americans, marched through the heart of the East Los Angeles barrios protesting the war in Vietnam. It was the largest Mexican American political demonstration ever until Cesar Chavez’s funeral in 1993. It was a time when young working-class Chicanos and Latinos were beginning to refuse to go to Vietnam, and those on the front lines, along with African American and white soldiers, began to resist the Pentagon’s orders.

NEW YORK — The worldwide movement to end nuclear weapons, energized and united with the antiwar movement, is converging here for a month of actions. Kicking it off is a May 1 mass “No Nukes! No Wars!” march. On May 2, the United Nations opens a review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which aims to curb and eventually eliminate these weapons of mass destruction.click here for Spanish text

NEW YORK — U.S. peace activists will have a chance to interact with their counterparts from around the world at a May Day friendship and solidarity reception here sponsored by the Communist Party USA and the People’s Weekly World newspaper. The reception will take place after the May 1 nuclear disarmament rally in Central Park.

The death toll in Iraq continues to grow. Associated Press announced March 3 that American deaths had reached the 1,500 mark when a soldier was killed in action south of Baghdad. The number of Iraqi civilians killed is more than 107,000.

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil — Calls for worldwide, coordinated peace actions were a hallmark of this year’s World Social Forum, which reaffirmed its commitment to peace and its opposition to “any form of imperialism.” The 155,000 participants from 135 countries who gathered here Jan. 26-31 heard plans for both a Day of Action against the U.S. occupation of Iraq on March 19 and demonstrations against nuclear weapons on May 1. click here for Spanish text

WASHINGTON — Citing soaring costs in lives and tax dollars, lawmakers, peace leaders and military families demanded this week that President George W. Bush bring the troops home from Iraq.
They rejected Bush’s boast in his State of the Union address that the Jan. 30 election in Iraq vindicates his war policy.

CUBA NEWS

Five Cuban men, in U.S. jails for six years, have gained support throughout the world because of the justice of their cause — defending Cuba against terrorism. The enormity of their sentences — life sentences for three of them — and the hideous irregularities in their trial have focused necessary attention on their appeals as well as easing their lives in jail and helping family members. But increasingly the men themselves are becoming the story.