Resources: Statements and Commentaries

Statement on #Occupy from members of the WRL Organizing Network

Statement on #Occupy from members of the WRL Organizing Network*

Unemployment, foreclosures, businesses closing, millions hungry, the sick who cannot afford a doctor--this is what we have now, and for our children.

The economic disaster comes from greed and lust for power. All of us are susceptible to those feelings, but those with money and power have almost no restraints. The investment bankers with their fancy ways of making money through lies, the mortgage brokers who lied their way to wealth, none of them are going to jail.

WRL Endorses US Boat to Gaza

May 2011

From the US Boat to Gaza statement:

"This is an important moment in history. In the aftermath of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla massacre and increased world-wide scrutiny of Israel’s blockade of Gaza, the Israeli government has mounted a huge public relations campaign spreading the lie that by letting a few more items into Gaza the blockade has been lifted. This is not the reality. Gaza is still under siege, vital building materials and other supplies are banned, exports of goods from Gaza are denied and neither ships nor people can travel without permission from Israel, permission which Israel will not give. Gaza is essentially an open-air prison under a U.S.-backed Israeli blockade.

A Letter to the President on the Escalation of War in Afghanistan

June 2010

Dear President Obama,

With millions of U.S. people feeling the fear and desperation of no longer having a home; with millions feeling the terror and loss of dignity that comes with unemployment; with millions of our children slipping further into poverty and hunger, your decision to deploy thousands more troops and throw hundreds of billions more dollars into prolonging the profoundly tragic war in Afghanistan strikes us as utter folly.  We believe this decision represents a war against ordinary people, both here in the United States and in Afghanistan.  The war in Afghanistan, if continued, will result in the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of U.S. troops, and untold thousands of Afghans.

Act Now to Oppose Obama's Escalation in Afghanistan!

NOVEMBER 2009

Help President Obama Make the Right Decision about Afghanistan!

More than eight years since the War Resisters League rallied against invading Afghanistan and one month after a coalition of anti-war groups including WRL rallied in Washington DC to say “No to War in Afghanistan, No to Torture and Vengeance,” we are reaching out to you—our members—at a moment of national urgency. Any day now, we expect that President Obama will decide to escalate the war in Afghanistan, sending more troops to fight a battle that is costing us the lives of hundreds of American military personnel and tens of thousands of Afghan civilians, while domestic programs to benefit the poor and marginalized in the United States are defunded and deprioritized.

Beyond Afghanistan: Choosing Nonviolence

As we approach the April 4 anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s great 1967 “Beyond Vietnam” speech in New York City’s Riverside Church, the War Resisters League reiterates King’s urgent cry for nonviolence—and nonviolent resistance. The parallels between the war in Afghanistan and the U.S. war against Vietnam fill us with foreboding. While we adamantly oppose continued U.S.

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