Thank you for telling President Obama, Secretary of State Kerry, Secretary-General Ban, Senator McCain, members of Congress and the media you want U.S. HANDS OFF RUSSIA AND THE UKRAINE!!
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U.S. HANDS OFF RUSSIA AND THE UKRAINE!
Please send email messages to President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Kerry, Senator McCain, Secretary-General Ban, Congress and the media saying: U.S. HANDS OFF RUSSIA AND THE UKRAINE!
SIGN the online petition at http://www.iacenter.org/ukrainepetition
TEXT of Petition:
TO: President Obama, Senator McCain, Secretary Kerry, Secretary-General Ban, Members of Congress, and Members of the Media:
The overwhelming majority of the population of the U.S. is against being dragged into another disastrous war. Nothing is more dangerous than the aggressive U.S./NATO troop movements right on the borders of Russia.
Sending U.S. destroyers into the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea; scheduling threatening U.S./NATO war games and troop movements in East Europe; and imposing sanctions on the Russian Federation is a threat to peace on a world scale. We have seen the cost of past and continuing U.S. wars, which enrich the military corporations while impoverishing the targeted countries as well as poor and working people here in the U.S.
The years of U.S. funding of fascist forces in Ukraine and the recognition of a government in Kiev that overthrew the elected government, seized power and appointed extreme right-wing groups to head the police, army and national guard in order to pull Ukraine into NATO membership makes the U.S. complicit in the complete denial of the rights of the Ukrainian people. It is also a provocation against the entire region.
People in East and South Ukraine, outraged by this coup government, have attempted to resist the illegal junta, have declared an independent People’s Republic of Donetsk, and have called for referendums. In response, the right-wing coup government has allowed its military forces and other fascists to terrorize the Ukrainian people. In the most recent incident, some 40 people were massacred in the city of Odessa on May 2 by fascist militants, loyal to the Kiev government, who set the Trades Union Building on fire. In addition, 23 people were killed at Slavyansk and in Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region in attacks by Ukrainian military forces from May 2-3.
Despite mass desertions by Ukrainian police and military personnel, so-called “anti-terrorist” campaigns against activists in southeastern Ukraine were launched immediately after visits to Kiev by U.S. officials. Washington has spent $5 billion to effect “regime change” in Ukraine, helping to bring into power a junta dominated by fascist, racist, anti-Semitic organizations like Svoboda, Fatherland and Right Sector. Meanwhile, the U.S. has pledged up to $10 billion in loans to the illegal coup regime, and Washington has been instrumental in securing a $17 billion aid and austerity package from the International Monetary Fund.
This massive U.S. intervention in the Ukraine and ever-increasing campaign to surround and isolate Russia must end. I therefore demand:
1. That the U.S. government and all its public, secret, official and unofficial agencies immediately cease all forms of intervention in Ukraine, including ceasing all material and political aid to fascist and right-wing organizations within the country;
2. That all sanctions and threats of sanctions against the Russian Federation be dropped — sanctions are an act of war;
3. That U.S. military forces immediately be withdrawn from the Eastern European region and that NATO’s expansion and provocative actions against Russia be ended.
Dear friends,
In the past few days a further dangerous escalation has taken place in Ukraine. While President Obama met with German Chancellor Merkel in Washington to further U.S.-NATO threats against Russia, a massacre took place in Ukraine’s third largest city, Odessa.
Neo-Nazis attacked an encampment of protesters opposed to the illegal coup regime in Kiev. Outnumbered and facing hardened goons hurling Molotov cocktails, the activists fled and were given refuge by union workers in the nearby Trade Union Building. The neo-Nazis then firebombed the building, killing some 40 people who were trapped inside. Survivors, some of whom jumped from high windows, were beaten or killed as they tried to escape.
Meanwhile, in the southeastern region of Donetsk, where the popular anti-fascist movement has seized government buildings and declared an independent People’s Republic, Ukraine military forces loyal to Kiev attacked checkpoints on the outskirts of Slavyansk, killing at least 13 unarmed activists. Overnight May 2-3, the National Guard (which includes many fascist gang members in uniform) attacked the city of Kramatorsk, killing 10 anti-fascists.
The U.S. government, Wall Street and the corporate media have turned events upside down. They blame Russia and the anti-fascist protesters as the source of the crisis. But it was the United States that, by the admission of Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, spent more than $5 billion to bring about “regime change” in Ukraine in its campaign to encircle and suffocate Russia. U.S. officials from both the Democratic and Republican parties were deeply involved in the coup that brought to power outright fascist elements like Svoboda, Fatherland and the Right Sector. And it is the U.S. that is carrying out a provocative military buildup in Eastern Europe.
We urge you to take the following actions:
1. SIGN the online petition to President Obama, Senator McCain, the media and Congressional representatives. Please forward widely to your contacts.
2. Prepare to take emergency action in your area. In the event of a further escalation of the crisis, we will call for united nationwide actions, including local protests, vigils, teach-ins and visits to representatives’ offices.
3. Come to the May 10 Teach-In at Riverside Church in New York City to learn more and find out about future actions. If you are unable to attend or live outside the New York area, you can watch a livestream of the meeting at CPRmetro.org.
