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to act forcefully this page is at http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strate/Salz/2003-04-05.htm Subject: A call for the United Nations to act forcefully
Oaxaca, Saturday, April 5, 2003 Friends, In these terrible days of torment and frustration, we must try to find ways to act, to bring a stop to the slaughter of Iraqi people and to find a viable path to the future for ourselves and all the generations we hope will follow us. There are no simple magic prescriptions. Many efforts have thus far been unable to halt the murderous assault: massive demonstrations of resistance, appeals of all kinds to the holders of power in most or all nation-states, and to the United Nations, war-tax resistance in the U.S., limited work-stoppages, boycotts of U.S. products, praying and candlelight vigils, and so on -- all are being tried, but the war criminals at the apex of the power hierarchy in the U.S. continue their deadly course. If we, the overwhelming majority of the people of the world, who are clearly aghast at this unfolding human tragedy, are honest with ourselves, we must admit that we do not have in our hands the organized power to prevent such state terror as the U.S. government is now unleashing on the people of Iraq. We must admit that the institutional structures in place facilitate the actions of the mass murderers and inhibit the effectiveness of our opposition. Many of us in this global movement of the world’s authentic anti-terrorists believe that we know better than others among us which actions are likely to be effective. But while we are momentarily (in the sense of historic development) frustrated, we are in fact making enormous advances in our common understanding of the terrifying, unacceptable consequences of the way in which the world is now organized. We are revulsed by the crass unwillingness of most of the world’s politicians to stand up for what is good and decent, by their readiness to accept all the corruption that money can buy, by their devotion to the “game” of politics and their own private benefit rather than to the well-being of ordinary people. If, by critical thinking, we can succeed in radicalizing one another, that is, coming to understand the roots of the problems we are confronting, and then acting on that understanding, our efforts will ultimately be entirely frutiful. Nothing is more critical to these efforts than the growing global network of authentic news sources. We must break the hold of government/corporate-controlled media on people’s minds. We must replace the lies and false understanding that they perpetrate with truth, so that finally none of us is brainwashed, even to the slightest degree. The illegitimacy of the U.S. government is already widely recognized outside the U.S. That is a vital advance in understanding. While we can take some comfort in thinking about our long-term prospects, our immediate priority is to stop the murder of the Iraqi peoples. In this note I propose that we push on the United Nations to end its subservience to the most powerful nations, and to initiate international actions that can force the U.S. government to comply with the wishes of the world’s peoples. If we cannot make the UN be responsive to our enormous majority, instead of just representing the interests of the ruling elites of the member nation-states, then we will have to abandon the UN and turn our entire focus on organizing ourselves into a real United Peoples. In my view, the UN is by now almost completely discredited, and I regard this as a
to stop the U.S. assault One call to the UN came from MADRE, an excellent grassroots organization that has been working for almost 20 years with women’s groups in many countries. It issued a statement on March 24 that reads in part, “MADRE joins the recent call in New Delhi -- made by women’s organizations from over 35 countries -- condemning the Bush Administration’s war against Iraq and urging the General Assembly to challenge US aggression. MADRE further condemns the Bush Administration’s attempts to undermine the United Nations that have been reported in the Chilean newspaper, La Tercera, and other sources. According to those reports, the US has issued a warning to the 191 UN member states, demanding that the General Assembly not convene an emergency session to address the US attack on Iraq.” I recommend the MADRE website, http://www.madre.org/ My call for UN action, stronger than MADRE’s, begins,
A call for the United Nations to act forcefully I. That the United Nations (UN) declare the United States to be in violation of the fundamental principles of the UN by the attack on Iraq. II. That the UN expel the United States (U.S.) from the organization. III. That the UN demand an immediate halt to the attack against Iraq. Furthermore, that the UN initiate an international campaign to force the American government to stop, a campaign of diplomatic, juridical, military and economic actions, such as, for example, . . .
and I go on to list as examples 8 tough actions to rope in and halt U.S. aggression. The 8 suggested actions are listed at http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strate/Salz/2003-03-17.htm If you want to take part in this demand for action, you can get, in rich text format, files suitable for printing, 1) the call, 2) a supplementary page with UN e-mail addresses, and 3) a signature page. The three pages are available at
I am getting photocopies of 1) and 2) back-to-back, and of 3), and soliciting signers. I will then give copies of the signed call to newspapers, and e-mail the same information to various UN officials. You might wish to take similar actions. Sincerely,
from this "mass" mailing list, just let me know. All comments, corrections, criticisms are welcome. contact: <george.salzman@umb.edu> Return to the opening page of the Salz-mania sub-folder
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