|
End the War Threats and Sanctions Program Against Iran
Support the Struggle for Democracy Inside Iran
Campaign for Peace and Democracy
http://www.cpdweb.org/stmts/1015/stmt.shtml
End the War Threats and Sanctions Program Against Iran
Support the Struggle for Democracy Inside Iran
A Campaign for Peace and Democracy Statement - October 2010
We, the undersigned, oppose the U.S.-led campaign to impose
harsher sanctions on Iran, and the ongoing threat of war
against that country. Despite Washington's claims, its
policy is clearly not animated by a genuine concern for
protecting the world from the threat of nuclear war;
otherwise how could Washington support such nuclear-armed
states as India, Israel, and Pakistan, or maintain its own
huge nuclear arsenal? Nor is U.S. policy driven by the goal
of defending democracy. If it were, how could the United
States support brutally authoritarian regimes such as those
in Saudi Arabia and Egypt?
Months after it began its recent program to sanction Iran
for its nuclear activities, the United States, in a move
described by The New York Times as "more symbolic than
substantive," denied visas to and froze the foreign assets
of eight Iranian officials, citing their role in the post-
election crackdown. This symbolic gesture cannot obscure the
fact that Washington's fundamental motivation for imposing
the comprehensive sanctions aimed at Iran's nuclear program
is to neutralize or eliminate a major threat to its power in
the region.
In June 2009 people around the world were inspired by the
courageous protests in Iran, when hundreds of thousands,
possibly millions, took to the streets to demand their
democratic rights. Since then the Iranian government has
tried to repress the movement: hundreds of political
prisoners remain behind bars, often tortured, deprived of
medical care, and forced to live under dangerously unhealthy
conditions. We support those who struggle for democracy and
social justice inside Iran.
Far from helping the Iranian people, sanctions and war
threats strengthen Ahmadinejad's regime, helping it to shift
the blame for worsening economic conditions from itself
entirely onto the external enemy. In the past the Iranian
elite has proven able to circumvent sanctions, but if
Washington actually succeeds in preventing Tehran from
importing refined petroleum, exporting oil and other items,
and conducting normal trade and banking activities, over
time millions of ordinary Iranians will suffer.
We don't want Iran, or any other country, including our own,
to have nuclear weapons. But even the U.S. government admits
that Iran does not now possess nuclear weapons and has no
imminent prospect of acquiring them. Moreover, Iran has no
less right than any other nation to develop civilian nuclear
power. Many of us oppose the use of nuclear energy by any
country, both for environmental reasons and because of its
link to nuclear weapons -- but that is not the issue in the
present U.S.-Iran confrontation. The United States, a major
producer of nuclear energy and by far the leading nuclear
weapons nation, which continually upgrades its own
conventional and nuclear arsenal and tolerates the
possession of nuclear weapons by other reckless and
aggressive powers, has no moral legitimacy when it tries to
punish Iran for its nuclear activities.
U.S. belligerence -- its continual warnings that "all
options remain on the table," possibly including acceptance
of an Israeli attack -- only creates strong inducements for
Tehran to seek nuclear weapons for its defense, or to
become, like Japan, "nuclear-weapons capable," i.e.
possessing all the elements necessary to make a bomb without
actually manufacturing one. And it's not just Iran: U.S.
militarism has helped to create a Hobbesian world in which
more and more countries come to believe that their survival
depends on nuclear "deterrence."
The United States can best reduce the danger of nuclear war
by taking major steps to divest itself of nuclear weapons as
part of a new, democratic and socially just foreign policy.
This would include initiating both nuclear and conventional
disarmament, encompassing missile "defense" as well as more
obviously offensive weaponry; ending its predatory wars in
Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan; supporting a Nuclear-Weapon-
Free Zone in the Middle East; giving real support to
Palestinian rights rather than continuing one-sided support
to Israel; and dismantling its more than 1,000 military
bases around the world. Such steps would help undermine the
rationale for Iran and other countries developing their own
nuclear weapons. These actions would also be the most
effective way to strengthen women's, labor, and other
democratic movements in the Middle East, and to promote the
interests of ordinary Americans and real peace in the world.
==========
Please join in signing the statement. Your support can make
a difference.
Initial signers: Bashir Abu-Manneh, Michael Albert, Greg
Albo, Kevin B. Anderson, Stanley Aronowitz, Parvin Ashrafi,
Ed Asner, Rosalyn Baxandall, William O. Beeman, Judith
Bello, Medea Benjamin, Blase Bonpane, Eileen Boris, Sam
Bottone, Joan G. Botwinick, Laura Boylan, MD, Frank
Brodhead, Steve Burns, Leslie Cagan, Antonia Cedrone, Adam
Chmielewski, Noam Chomsky, Margaret W. Crane, Hamid Dabashi,
Gail Daneker, Bogdan Denitch, Manuela Dobos, Tina Dobsevage,
MD, Martin Duberman, Lisa Duggan, Stephen R. Early, Carolyn
Eisenberg, Michael Eisenscher, Mark Engler, Gertrude
Ezorsky, Sam Farber, Thomas M. Fasy, MD, Dianne Feeley, John
Feffer, Barry Finger, David Finkel, Bill Fletcher, Jr.,
Frances Fox Piven, Jean Fox, Dr. Harriet Fraad, David
Friedman, Robert Gabrielsky, Bruce Gagnon, Barbara Garson,
Irene Gendzier, Jack Gerson, Joeseph Gerson, Sam Gindin,
John Gorman, Greg Grandin, Arun Gupta, E. Haberkern, Thomas
Harrison, Nader Hashemi, Howie Hawkins, Bill Henning,
Michael Hirsch, Madelyn Hoffman, Iranian Centre for Peace,
Freedom and Social Justice-Vancouver, Doug Ireland, Marianne
Jackson, PhD, Melissa Jameson, Jan Kavan, Kathy Kelly, Tooba
Keshtkar, Assaf Kfoury, Mina Khanlarzadeh, Jack Kurzweil,
Dan La Botz, Micah Landau, Joanne Landy, Marc H. Lavietes,
MD, Roger E. Leisner, Jesse Lemisch, Nelson Lichtenstein,
Amy Littlefield, Martha Livingston, Robin Lloyd, Jan
Majicek, Betty Mandell, Marvin Mandell, Nasir A. Mansoor,
Dave Marsh, Don McCanne, MD, Scott McLemee, David
McReynolds, Debbie Meier, Martin Melkonian, Rabbi Michael
Lerner, Marilyn Morehead, Erika Munk, Ulla Neuburger, Mary
E. O'Brien, MD, Derrick O'Keefe, David Oakford, Rosemarie
Pace, Leo Panitch, Peace Action New York State, Christopher
Phelps, Charlotte Phillips, MD, Danny Postel, Judy Rebick,
Katie Robbins, Leonard Rodberg, Richard Roman, Elizabeth
Rosenthal, MD, Matthew Rothschild, Saffaar Saaed, John
Sanbonmatsu, Ajamu Sankofa, Jennifer Scarlott, Jay
Schaffner, Jason Schulman, Peter O. Schwartz, Lance Selfa,
Stephen R. Shalom, Cindy Sheehan, Stephen Soldz, Cheryl
Stevenson, Bhaskar Sunkara, David Swanson, William K. Tabb,
Hoshang Tareh Gol, Jonathan Tasini, Meredith Tax, Keeanga-
Yamahtta Taylor, Chris Toensing, Bernard Tuchman, Adaner
Usmani, Wilbert van der Zeijden, Steven VanBever, David S.
Vine, Lois Weiner, Suzi Weissman, Naomi Weisstein, Laurie
Wen, Cornel West, Billy Wharton, Sherry Wolf, and Julia
Wrigley
If you have difficulty signing on, please send an email with
your name and, if you wish, your affiliation or other
identification, to: [log in to unmask]
Thank you,
Joanne Landy and Thomas Harrison
Co-Directors, Campaign for Peace and Democracy
Campaign for Peace and Democracy
2790 Broadway #12
New York, NY 10025
[log in to unmask]
add your name
<
http://cpdweb.info:890/cgi-bin/db2www/cpdweb.org/signon.d2w/forms00?stmtid=1015>
view full list of signers
<http://www.cpdweb.org/stmts/1015/fulllist.shtml>
contribute to publicize the statement
<
http://cpdweb.info:890/cgi-
bin/db2www/cpdweb.org/signon.d2w/formc00?stmtid=1015>
_____________________________________________
Portside aims to provide material of interest
to people on the left that will help them to
interpret the world and to change it.
Submit via email: [log in to unmask]
Submit via the Web: portside.org/submit
Frequently asked questions: portside.org/faq
Subscribe: portside.org/subscribe
Unsubscribe: portside.org/unsubscribe
Account assistance: portside.org/contact
Search the archives: portside.org/archive
|
