No Wars! No Sanctions! No NATO!
CLICK HERE TO SIGN ON TO THE CALL TO ACTIO
Popular Resistance et al & CODEPINK
(February 25, 2022) — On Tuesday, Feb. 22, more than 900 people met virtually to discuss the escalation of aggression in Ukraine and issued the following call to action. Two days later, the Russian military entered Ukraine and began targeting Ukraine’s military infrastructure.
This current escalation and the West’s ongoing drumbeats for war, bring us to the brink of a major global conflict between nuclear states. The situation has changed since Tuesday, but the call for peace has not. Now, more than ever, we must make our opposition to wars visible by taking to the streets.
TAKE ACTION: Please read the call to action below
SUBMIT your action to info@popularresistance.org
SHARE this call to action widely.
The conflict in Ukraine has escalated to a dangerous level between two nuclear armed states. The United States and its allies continue to portray the current situation as one of Russian aggression without acknowledging that US-backed Ukrainian forces are attacking the Eastern region of the country and killing citizens of Russian ethnicity.
This current escalation is a serious threat to world peace and requires a unified and rapid response by anti-war organizations from around the globe to stop a major war.
To that end, we, the undersigned groups, have agreed to support a week of international action from March 1 to 7 with the following demands on our governments:
— No war with Russia
— Stop the NATO expansion
— No more weapons to Ukraine and the European Union
— Obey international laws and the UN Charter
— Resolve the current conflict within the United Nations Security Council
— Restore the Minsk Agreements
— De-escalate the threat of a nuclear war
Initial Signatories:
Alliance for Global Justice
ANSWER Coalition
CODEPINK
Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
International Action Center
Popular Resistance
Roots Action
United National Antiwar Coalition
US Peace Council
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom – US Section (WILPF-US)
World BEYOND War
Additional Signers:
Observatorio por los Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos (People’s Human Rights Observatory)
Communist Party of Catalunya
Comité Permanente de Derechos Humanos (Permanent Committee for Human Rights) – Colombia
Environmentalists Against War
New York Peace Council
Progressive Center for a Pan American Project
Coop Anti-War Cafe Berlin
Click here to add your organization.
President Biden: We Want Peace, Not War!
Russia’s decision to attack Ukraine militarily has created a horrific crisis and we must call for Russia to stop its attacks. We need an immediate ceasefire and a return to the negotiating table. The United States and NATO have played a major role in exacerbating this conflict and now President Biden must show true leadership not by imposing sanctions that will hurt ordinary Russians, but by engaging vigorous diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine.
Please sign the following statement.
THE LETTER
Dear President Biden,
We write to you as people concerned about the horrific situation right now in Ukraine and the real possibility that this military conflict could easily spiral out of control with either a nuclear accident or a nuclear war. We agree that Russia must withdraw its troops, but we also recognize the major role that the United States and NATO have played in exacerbating this conflict and we call on you to now promote vigorous diplomacy to end the war and achieve a peaceful agreement.
NATO expansion contributed greatly to the roots of the present crisis by violating the agreements that brought the original Cold War to an end and reunified Germany. NATO should have kept its promise not to expand eastward. Instead, it has added 11 member countries that were once either Soviet republics or members of the Warsaw Pact, creating legitimate security concerns for Russia.
Russia has always been opposed to Ukraine entering NATO.
In 2008, when Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko first applied for NATO membership, President Putin called Ukrainian membership “a direct threat” to Russia. NATO should clearly take the position that Ukraine should not enter NATO but should instead be a neutral country.
We also call on you to re-examine the Minsk II agreement. Unfortunately, all sides failed to fulfill their obligations under the agreement; now is the time to promote this framework in seeking a diplomatic solution.
Diplomacy, not sanctions, is where the solution lies. Sanctions on the entire Russian economy will only hurt ordinary Russians and will spread economic hardship to Europe and potentially, the global community — including here at home with energy prices rising ever higher than they are now.
We cannot risk a military confrontation between the world’s two most heavily armed nuclear states — the United States and Russia or the risk of a nuclear accident at one of Ukraine’s many nuclear power plant facilities. We cannot tolerate the senseless loss of Ukrainian and Russian lives, the mass suffering of refugees, and the economic hardship on ordinary people that sanctions will impose.
What we need instead is vigorous diplomacy to end the war, get Russia to withdraw its troops, achieve a negotiated solution, and advance the Minsk II diplomatic process. That will be in the best interest of all NATO nations, the Russian people, all the people of Ukraine and the world community.
