U.S. HANDS OFF SYRIA
An Urgent Message for Peace
on the Eve of Wider War

Please click here to add your name in support
of the Hands off Syria Coalition

Dear friends of International Action Center,

Please review this statement issued by the newly-formed Hands Off Syria Coalition. It follows a lengthy round of discussions among several antiwar and social justice organizations and leading individuals about the urgent need for a broad coalition to confront the escalating war in Syria. International Action Center- IACenter.org is supportive of this process and a signatory to this statement. We invite you to join the rapidly growing coalition and encourage others to join.

Solidarity, Sara Flounders for IAC

We raise our voices against the violence of war and the enormous pressure of war propaganda, lies and hidden agendas that are used to justify this war and every past U.S. war.

We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, endorse the following Points of Unity and will work together as an Ad Hoc Coalition to help put an end to the regime change intervention by the United States, NATO and their regional allies and the killing of innocent people in Syria:

1. The continuation of the war in Syria is the result of a U.S.-orchestrated intervention by the United States, NATO, their regional allies and reactionary forces, the goal of which is regime change in Syria.
2. This policy of regime change in Syria is illegal and in clear violation of the United Nations Charter, the letter and spirit of international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
3. This policy of forced regime change is threatening the security of the region and the world and has increased the danger of direct confrontation between the United States and Russia, with the potential of a nuclear catastrophe for the whole world.
4. War and U.S. and EU sanctions have destabilized every sector of Syria’s economy, transforming a once self-sufficient country into an aid-dependent nation. Half the Syrian population is now displaced. A UN ESCWA report reveals these U.S. sanctions on Syria are crippling aid work during one of the largest humanitarian emergency since World War II. The one third of Syrians refugees in surrounding Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey have been hit hard by U.S. cuts to UNICEF. This forces desperate refugees to struggle to reach Europe.
5. No foreign entity, be it a foreign government or an armed group, has the right to violate the fundamental rights of the Syrian people to independence, national sovereignty and self-determination. This includes the right of the Syrian government to request and accept military assistance from other countries, as even the U.S. government has admitted.
6. Only the people of Syria have the inalienable right to choose their leaders and determine the character of their government, free from foreign intervention. This right cannot be properly exercised under the conditions of U.S.-orchestrated foreign intervention against the Syrian people.
7. Our opposition is to forced regime change in Syria by U.S.-backed foreign powers and their mercenaries. It is not our business to support or oppose President Assad or the Syrian government. Only the Syrian people have the right to decide the legitimacy of their government.
8. The most urgent issue at present is peace and putting an end to the violence of foreign intervention that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and the displacement of millions of Syrians both internally or as refugees abroad.

Based on these Points of Unity, we, as individuals and organizations-in an Ad Hoc Coalition-agree on the following demands and commit ourselves to working together to help achieve them:

1. An immediate end to the U.S. policy of forced regime change in Syria and full recognition and compliance by the U.S., NATO and their allies with principles of international law and the U.N. Charter, including respect for the independence and territorial integrity of Syria.
2. An immediate end to all foreign aggression against Syria, and serious efforts toward a political resolution to the war.
3. An immediate end to all military, financial, logistical and intelligence support by the U.S., NATO and their regional allies to all foreign mercenaries and extremists in the Middle East region.
4. An immediate end to economic sanctions against Syria. Massive international aid for displaced people within Syria and Syrian refugees abroad.

Only in a peaceful and independent Syria, free of foreign aggression, can the people of Syria freely exercise their sovereign rights, express their free will and make free choices about their government and their country’s leadership.

We invite all supporters of peace and peoples’ right to self-determination around the world to join hands of cooperation in this effort to achieve these most humanitarian demands.

   We need jobs, healthcare, education and an  
     end to racist police violence here at home,  
   NOT U.S. WARS ABROAD!     
 
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in support of the Hands off Syria Coalition
and to see hundreds of other signers

Initial signers of the statement:
Organizational Signers (in alphabetical order):

Alliance for Global Justice
Al-Awda – Palestine National Right to Return Coalition
All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (GC)
American Party of Labor
ANSWER Coalition
Antiwar Committee – Chicago
Antiwar Committee – Minneapolis
Antiwar Committee – Tampa
Antiwar Committee – Tucson
Antiwar Committee – Utah
Arab Americans for Syria
Arab Women Progressive League
BAYAN – Philippine Coalition
Citizens of the World – Canada
Coalition of Arab Canadian Professionals and Community Associations
Columbus Campaign for Arms Control
Conselho Português para a Paz e Cooperação /
Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation
Dallas Left Alliance
Ecumenical Peace Institute Clergy and Laity Concerned
FLC-CGIL Trade Union University of Florence (Italy)
Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada)
Hands Off Syria (Australia)
Houston Peace Council
Houston Communist Party
International Action Center
International League of Peoples Struggle – U.S.
Los Alamos Study Group – AZ
Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice
Mobilization Against War & Occupation (MAWO) – Canada
New Jersey Peace Council
No Nukes No War – CT
Northeast Iowa Peace and Justice Committee
One State Assembly
Orange County Healthcare For All!
Peace Roots Alliance – Tennessee
Peoples Organization for Progress
Pittsburgh Anti-Imperialist League
Peoples Opposition to War, Imperialism & Racism – POWIR (Florida)
Popular Resistance
Popular Committee in Defense of Syria
Queers Without Borders – Hartford CT
Return Now Coalition
Socialist Action – Ligue pour l’Action Socialiste, Canada
South Asian Fund For Education, Scholarship & Training (SAFEST)
South Coast People For Peace and Justice
Southern Human Rights Organizers’ Conference – SHROC
Students for Democratic Society – SDS
Swedish Peace Council
Syria Solidarity Movement
Syrian American Forum
Syrian American Will Association – SAWA
Syrian Social Club Community in the UK (Dr. Issa Chaer, Co-founder)
The Expatriates Association of Syrians in Canada
United National Antiwar Coalition – UNAC
United Steelworkers Local 8751
Unleashed (Anarcho-Liberation)
Upstate New York Drone Action
U.S. Peace Council
Veterans For Peace Chapter 111, Bellingham, WA
Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality
Women Against Military Madness – WAMM

Individual Signers (in alphabetical order):

Christopher Assad, The Expatriates Association of Syrians in Canada
Abayomi Azikiwe, Pan Africa News Wire
Ajama Baraka, Human Rights Defender
Judith Bello, Member of Admin Committee, UNAC
Vanessa Beeley, Independent Journalist and Photographer
Bob Brown, Organizer, All-African People’s Revolutionary Party
(GC) – USA
Mark Burton, Member of the Board, Alliance for Global Justice
Alfonse Casal, National Spokesperson, American Party of Labor
Frank Chapman, Field organizer, Chicago Alliance Against Racist
and Political Repression*
Ramsey Clark, Former U.S. Attorney General & Human Rights Attorney
Gerry Condon, National Board Vice President, Veterans For Peace*
Cheryl Curtis, Ct 9/11 Truth*
Kenneth Dalton, Veterans For Peace, Chapter 21,* New Jersey, U.S.A.
Henry Duke, M.D., Medical Director, Orange County Healthcare For All!
Maria Ilda Figueiredo, Chairperson, Conselho Português para a Paz e
Cooperação / Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation
Margaret Flowers, M.D., Green Party Candidate for Senate;
Co-Director, It’s Our Economy*
Bruce Gagnon, Global Network Against Weapons
& Nuclear Power in Space*
John Gilbert, Secretary, FLC-CGIL Trade Union University
of Florence (Italy)
Steven Gillis, Financial Secretary, United Steelworkers Local 8751
Daniel Gilman, President, Veterans For Peace Chapter 92,*
Greater Seattle
Greg Godels, Co-Director, Pittsburgh Anti-Imperialist League
Trevor Goodger-Hill, Citizens of the World, Canada
Abbas Hamideh, al-Awda Steering Committee*
Joseph Hancock, Movement for People’s Democracy
Sue Harris, Peoples Video Network
Jaribu Hill, Human Rights Defender
Joe Iosbaker, Anti-War Committee – Chicago
Geraroid Kilgallen, Member of Steering Committee,
Irish Anti-War Movement*
Margaret Kimberly, Editor and Senior Columnist, Black Agenda Report
John Kiriakou, former CIA counterterrorism officer
and former senior investigator, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Cheryl Kozanitas, Board Member, Peace Action of San Mateo County,*
California
Ray Laforest, Haiti Support Network
John Laforge, Co-Director, NukeWatch
Ali Mallah, Steering Committee, Syria Solidarity Movement
Alfred Marder, President, U.S. Peace Council
George Martin, Liberty Tree
Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and Presidential briefer
Gregory Mello, Executive Director, Los Alamos Study Group
Monica Moorehead, U.S. Presidential Candidate
for Workers World Party
Nick Mottern, Knowdrones.com
Elizabeth Murray, Deputy Nat’l Intelligence Officer for the Near East,
Nat’l Intelligence Council (ret.)
Agneta Norberg, Chairwoman, Swedish Peace Council
Barry Ranger, Co-Chair, Northwest Iowa Peace and Justice Committee
Chris Robinson, Membership Secretary, Green Party of Philadelphia*
Coleen Rowley, retired FBI agent and former Minneapolis Division
Legal Counsel
Cindy Sheehan, Anti-War Gold Star Mother
Mark Stansbery, Co-Coordinator, Columbus Campaign for Arms Control
Steven Starr, Senior Scientist, Physicians for Social Responsibility,*
Missouri, USA
Jane Stillwater, President, Century of the Child
Jay Tharappel, Committee Member, Hands Off Syria, Sidney, Australia
Will Thomas, NH Veterans For Peace*
James Thompson, Chairperson, Houston Peace Council
Amal Wahda, Arab Women’s Progressive League
Joseph Wasserman, Co-Chair, No Nukes No War
Caroline Yacoub, County Council, Green Party of Santa Clara County*
Kevin Zeese, Co-Director, Popular Resistance
___________________________
[*] For identification purposes only.
List in formation

Please click here to add your name in support of the Hands off Syria Coalition