Say No to Star Wars
Sunday, June 22, 11am to ...
Piazza Navona, Roma, Italia
Dear peace activists,
This Sunday, June 22, there will be a one-day global hunger strike to protest the proposed U.S. military base in the Czech Republic, and what is seen as the first step in creation of the U.S. Missile Defense System in Europe, aka the new Star Wars. The Missile Defense System is destined to antagonize Russia (and other countries suspicious of U.S. motives) and ultimately create a dangerous new arms race. Its only beneficiaries will be defense contractors such as Boeing, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, as well as European weapons manufacturers. In February 2007, under the Prodi government, Italy secretly signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. to participate in the program.
In Rome, Italian activists of Mondo senza guerre are supporting the struggle in the Czech Republic, where there is tremendous opposition to the new base, with an all day
event in Piazza Navona, starting at 11am. They'll make use of everything they can -- from street theatre to flyers -- to inform Italians and tourists of the dangers of this multi-billion dollar program described as "a solution that technically does not work being applied to a problem that does not actually exist."
They will be collecting signatures for a petition against the new base, with the aim of reaching the goal of 200,000 signatures before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in Prague on July 10 to sign an agreement between the U.S. and the Czech Republic. Over 120,000 signatures have already been collected (http://petice.nenasili.cz/?lang=en). [see post of June 9, 2008, International Hunger Strike to Stop US Space Shield]
USC4P&J fully supports this initiative, and we plan to show our solidarity and lend a hand by joining them in the afternoon, from 4:30 on. Please do try to join us, even if only for a short while, and if only to add your name to the signatories of this important petition, in person!
Please note: You don´t have to participate in the hunger strike to take part in the activities! However, if you would like to join the hunger strike, you can sign up at: http://tinyurl.com/5mvqyn
For more information on the Missile Defense System, see:
US Pushes Pie-in-the-Sky Missile Defense in Europe
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=10593
US taps Lithuania as alternative to Poland for missile shield plan
http://tinyurl.com/5jygs7
Priceless propaganda video from the US Missile Defense Agency
http://tinyurl.com/3ova44 [too weird & too long to watch at work, but if you have 30 minutes, it’s probably worth watching – with friends, not alone – your brains might explode!]
Anna, Gene, Maria, Maria Chiara and Stephanie
---U.S. Citizens for Peace & Justice - Rome
info@peaceandjustice.it
http://www.peaceandjustice.it
No comments:
Post a Comment