Sunday Oct 7: March on the 11 Year Anniversary of the Afghan War

OAKLAND ANTI IMPERIALIST – ANTI COLONIAL – ANTI CAPITALIST RALLY & MARCH :
11TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WAR & OCCUPATION OF AFGHANISTAN

Rally: 6pm- March: 7pm- Oscar Grant Plaza (14th & Broadway Downtown Oakland)

Bay Area Autonomous Afghans & Allies calling on all Anti-colonialists, Anti-imperialists, Anti-capitalists! March & Rally in Oakland, CA, in response to AFP’s “Call Out for Solidarity” on the 11th anniversary of the War in Afghanistan.

“We call on the international community to join us on Sunday, October 7th in our actions across the globe. If we are not present in your city, we ask that you or your group organize an action to bring an end to not only this war, but every war. The impending war against Iran and Syria. The war on drugs. The war against women. The war against people of color and the poor. The war against indigenous peoples and their lands. The war against our environment. All WARS.”

Call Out – Full Text:

This Oct 7th marks the 11th anniversary of the US / NATO led War and Occupation of Afghanistan. In these 11 years we’ve seen the US and its allies burn hundreds of copies of the holy Quran, urinate on the bodies of dead Afghans and the CIA torture people to death. All of this happened with zero accountability and complete impunity. This has been proven by the US Justice Dept recent decision to not prosecute. The US military has shown its racism with “Kill Teams” who ran around killing civilians for sport and then collected body parts as trophies. In a particularly heinous so-called “incident” a soldier by the name of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales went house to house in several villages stalking and murdering men, women and children and attempted to destroy the evidence by burning the bodies. The US was quick to say this was isolated and that the attacker acted alone. The official Afghan investigation however, determined that up to 20 US military personnel were involved. Sgt. Bales was brought back to the US almost immediately and no Afghan official was ever allowed to interview him. The list of atrocities could go on forever. This is the justice that the US & NATO have given us with their occupation.

Over the past year, rumors have been circulating in the media about villagers taking up arms to defend themselves against the Taliban. Not only that, they have also stated that they are ready to fight the US & NATO forces. And they have little to no trust in the corrupt central Afghan government. The rebellion is growing and is said to be active in over 50 villages from recent reports. And thats only in the east. The facts about these groups are hard to find, but if these rebels are genuine in what they’re saying, then we support them. It must be said that historically, various rival political groups have been armed and funded by foreign interests, one of the worst offenders being the CIA. However, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, Russia, India and other regional powers are equally guilty of causing chaos. These groups were vicious and tore communities apart and that is not what we support. What we need is a true peoples resistance movement in Afghanistan dedicated to liberation.

Now we must ask ourselves “are we really in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan?”. And “what are we doing to support them?”

Afghans for Peace has taken the same stance as those who are said to be in rebellion. We are against the US/NATO occupation. We are against the Taliban and we are certainly opposed to the wildly corrupt Afghan puppet regime in place right now.

We want to see the resistance flourish! We support the resistance against imperialism! We support the resistance against Taliban and we want our people free from the criminals that comprise the central government! We want our people to have the right to self-determination! We want autonomy for our people! They have the right to defend themselves against ALL oppressors!

At this point it has become clear that the US cannot sustain this war. US generals are desperately trying to prop up an Afghan National Army and Afghan National police force. These same security forces have been in wide spread revolt! Attacking their US & NATO counterparts at an alarming rate. The most obvious sign of the occupations unsustainability is that the US is losing more active duty soldiers to suicide than they are in the battlefield.

To the troops we say:

GO AWOL!
Refuse to fight!
Start a revolt amongst your ranks!

To the Multi National Corporations and capitalists that are slowly plotting to rape our lands; the oil companies, the mining companies and the thousands upon thousands of contractors we say:

GET OUT NOW!
Get out and be happy you still have your lives!

This message of anger should especially be heard by our own people who leave the west only to return to Afghanistan to be contractors and translators for the occupying forces. These people are a disgrace to us all. This war would be impossible without them. They may be related to many of us, but they are still an intricate piece in the wests colonial aspirations. They’ve chosen sides already and therefore we’re against them too.

We are fed up with the inaction of US lawmakers in doing next to nothing to end this war. From them, we’ve come to expect this and we have no illusions that the state ever had the interests of the Afghan people in mind. After all, the US has been in a state of perpetual war since its inception. We are equally fed up with the inaction of the people living in west who have also done next to nothing to challenge their governments to end the wars. This includes our own people – the Afghan community and the US antiwar movement which continues with its played out tactics of singing and permitted marches. We DO NOT need permission to express our outrage! These types of demonstrations give people the illusion they’ve done something for the Afghan people, but in reality does absolutely nothing to stop the occupation. This cooptation sucks the energy out of any real meaningful actions and pacifies much needed resistance. To them we say: stop tokenizing us. Stop using us as a way to increase your membership base and a way to make yourselves relevant.

Afghans for Peace is launching a new campaign, ”MISSION: FAILURE – 11 years of War & Occupation”. This international campaign will take up many different forms; from forums, conferences and rallies to street demonstrations and direct actions. The launch of this latest campaign will start on the anniversary of the war. We call on the international community to join us on Sunday, October 7th in our actions across the globe. If we are not present in your city, we ask that you or your group organize an action to bring an end to not only this war, but every war. The impending war against Iran and Syria. The war on drugs. The war against women. The war against people of color and the poor. The war against indigenous peoples and their lands. The war against our environment. All WARS.

This year we say NO to ALL WARS, EXCEPT CLASS WAR!

* Afghans for Peace will not be bringing any group identifying banners or signs. We do not want any other group to bring signs identifying their groups either. We encourage everyone to come as individuals. Bring signs and banners with relevant messaging and lets keep our affiliations out it. We do not want any organizations or any endorsements. We want people to participate as individuals. Lets move forward in Solidarity.