Organize For Change

Sunday Jan. 15th 3:30pm at UNLV Student Union (MSU) Join with the people of Las Vegas to Organize for Change

A new year has just begun, and we continue to face many challenges to liberate ourselves from the oppressive society that we allow to continue.

War, occupation, and imperialism embody extreme examples of oppression. The occupations and continued wars of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine expose the degree to which imperialist forces are willing to go to control the world's resources. We must stop the systematic killing of innocents by imperialist expansion. People throughout the world are fighting back against this repression, and we are all responsible to join with this struggle for peace and liberation.

After September 11th, 2001, George W. Bush started a "War on Terrorism," with strong support from all branches of the Federal Government that would target the people of the Middle East. Despite the fact that people from around the world joined in the largest global protest in the history of the human race in an attempt to stop the invasion of Iraq before it began, the U.S. government went ahead with its plans anyway. On March 20th, 2003, the U.S. government started the campaign for the illegal invasion of Iraq dubbed "Shock and Awe."

Since that date, invading forces have toppled and replaced the Iraqi government and supplanted it with a multi-national occupying force of imperialist states lead by the U.S. Tens of thousands of (possibly hundreds of thousands) lives have been lost in this war. The U.S. forces the people of Iraq to live in a disorderly, chaotic state. The U.S. has used billions of working-class tax dollars to pay for the war, but the Iraqi people dont see any of the benefits of the occupationcorporations like Bechtel, Halliburton, and Lockhead Martin secure no-bid contracts to rebuild Iraq, making billions in the process. You pay for the war, they get the money.

The people of the U.S. are suffering from this social injustice with the lack of funding for public services such as housing, healthcare, education, and food. Our money should be spent on our needs, not on killing.

The fight we face is about more than just the war in Iraq. Iraq is a microcosm of oppressive policies generally. We see the oppression in Israels occupation of Palestine. Israel receives more aid from the U.S. than any other nation in the world. In Afghanistan, one oppressive regime replaced another. When democratically elected, Haitian officials disagreed with the U.S., the U.S. removed them. We are threatening Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Bolivia, Syria, and Iran. Theses are just a few examples making up a long list. Those that don't support U.S. imperialist policies will be forced to do so.

The division of the working and oppressed classes through racism, sexism, homophobia, and nationalistic pride continues this systematic oppression. These divisions only allow the repression to continue and deny the working and oppressed classes their natural rights to true liberty and freedom.

The problems that the world faces will not just go away, and states will not solve them. States are not moral actors; people are. The solution to these problems will only come through the collective action of the working and oppressed classes of the world.

Over the last year, the people of Las Vegas have been effectively organizing to fight against the oppressive system through public protest, direct action, and conscious-raising activities. The anti-war organization Peace Now was successful in organizing five major protests against the Iraq war and military recruiters. Peace Now was also successful in organizing workshops that addressed the issues of Palestine Right of Return and LGBT Liberation. Food Not Bombs has been providing food to those who are hungry with weekly feed-outs at Circle Park. Project Counter Recruitment has been running a continuous campaign against military recruiters in public schools. The Feminist Discussion Group (FDG) has found great success in galvanizing the feminist movement of Las Vegas through a weekly conscious-raising group. Through the FDG, feminists are organizing a Lady Fest, a festival celebrating women in the arts, which will take place in July of 2006. Another organization, The World Cant Wait, has organized the community to take on the oppressive Bush regime, which had a successful protest on November 2nd. The people have been fighting back and the work needs to continue.

National anti-war organizations are calling for anti-war actions to take place around the country on March 18th, 19th, and 20th. This statement is a call to the people of Las Vegas to begin to organize for these important dates. All individuals that seek to end the oppression of imperialist powers through collective action are welcome to join with this call. Let us join and start a discussion about the world we live in and work together to end oppression. All ideas are welcome, and the more diversity we have the more successful we will be.

Oppression continues because we allow it to. Its time to end it.