email [email protected]

Antiwar, US Politics and Labor

Demonstration Against Obama’s FBI Raids

By Bonnie Weinstein

About one hundred people showed up at the Federal Building in San Francisco at 7th and Mission Streets, on barely 24 hour’s notice, to protest Obama’s FBI raids against peace and social justice activists. It was called by the United National Antiwar Committee and attended by the major antiwar, social justice groups and labor unions. Speaker after speaker spoke against the raids as a threat to all who protest injustice carried out by the U.S. government here and abroad. At least 61 other protests took place across the country.

But the raids have not stopped! The only way to stop them is to stand united behind all those who have and will be persecuted by Obama’s administration. We have a right to protest injustice wherever we perceive it—especially if the crimes are being funded by the U.S. government (our tax dollars) as in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Colombia and Palestine and numerous other places around the globe. An injury to one is an injury to all! We are only as strong as our weakest link. That is why we must stand together. Together, the weakest link becomes unbreakable.

The antiwar movement is obviously central to the defense of civil liberties and civil rights. That’s why it’s more important than ever for us to unite and call national and international actions against the wars, occupations and illegal military and police actions by our government here and everywhere—including these raids!

It’s important first, to let the Obama administration know that this will not stop us from protesting, and second, to let this government know that we, the majority of people against the wars, being in the majority, have the right to dictate to them how our tax dollars should be spent.

We have the right to demand money for jobs, housing, healthcare, education and to life, liberty and peace of mind and body, and to soundly reject never-ending wars, occupations and prisons to preserve the wealth of the power elite. All human beings everywhere have these inalienable rights! We are citizens of the world and we all have these same common interests, human needs and wants.

If we don’t stand together and demand them, we will not have them. More importantly, they are within our grasp if we stand united.