SF: Bay Area United Against War Meeting

Bay Area United Against War Meeting
Monday, January 14, 2008 at 7PM
474 Valencia St. #145, San Francisco
(To the left and all the way to the rear of the building then turn right.)

As the U.S. government continues to kill thousands and thousands of
Iraqi and Afghani people, and the politicians continue to vote for war
funding while pretending to be against the war, some very serious
demobilizing events have transpired in the national antiwar movement.

At the Oct. 27 Coalition meeting Sunday, January 6, there was
discussion of efforts of the government to destroy the anti-war
movement by utilizing the military groups to prevent
actions that significantly challenge the war and the right of the
United States to intervene anywhere in the world.

Specifically, the IVAW is exerting pressure on the larger antiwar
movement not to hold any national mass mobilizations against the war
during their "Winter Soldier" hearings, March 13-16, 2008. They are
putting a stranglehold on the larger antiwar movements' rights to
protest the war in their own way.

We applaud those veterans who will expose the crimes they have
committed against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan and the continued
brutality of the escalated war efforts by the U.S. government. These
hearings, exposing the brutality of the U.S. Government's war can help
to dissuade young people from joining the U.S. military. But, we
object to any segment of the antiwar movement demanding or pressuring
others to do as they say and place one activity over that of other
activities, including antiwar protests.

For all these reasons, we are calling for a meeting of the Bay Area
United Against the War on Monday, January 14, 7:00 P.M. to discuss how
we can redouble our efforts against the war.

We are reprinting below the UK Call to Action March 15; a letter by
Tiffany Burns, which has been circulating and is self-explanatory; and
two IVAW letters to the antiwar movement; which will shed light on the
current situation in the antiwar movement—especially for those who
were not at the Oct. 27 Coalition meeting. (Which was, by the way, the
last and final meeting of the coalition.)

In solidarity,

Cristina Gutierrez

Carole Seligman

Bonnie Weinstein