(please forward widely) Please see the call for Spring Days of Action to End Drone Killing, Surveillance and Global Militarization.  As you can see, the call is initiated by leading anti-war activists and groups including UNAC.  Please start your plans today for actions during the months of April and May.  Add your name and your organization to the growing list of supporters by clicking on the link below.  There will be a page set up to let people know of activity in their area.  For now, please send any information on planned actions to UNACpeace@gmail.com and they will appear on the national list.  We want to make this campaign international.  For any groups outside of the US who are interested in endorsing this campaign and/or building actions in your own country, please let us know.                       CALL FOR SPRING DAYS OF ACTION – 2014 Today we issue an international call for Spring Days of Action – 2014, a coordinated campaign in April and May to:             End Drone Killing, Drone Surveillance and Global Militarization   The campaign will focus on drone bases, drone research facilities and test sites and drone manufacturers.   The campaign will provide information on:   1. The suffering of tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Gaza who are under drone attack, documenting the killing, the wounding and the devastating impact of constant drone surveillance on community life.   2. How attack and surveillance drones have become a key element in a massive wave of surveillance, clandestine military attacks and militarization generated by the United States to protect a global system of manufacture and oil and mineral exploitation that is creating unemployment and poverty, accelerating the waste of nonrenewable resources and contributing to environmental destruction and global warming.   In addition to cases in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia, we will examine President Obama's "pivot" into the Asia-Pacific, where the United States has already sold and deployed drones in the vanguard of a shift of 60% of its military forces to try to control China and to enforce the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership.  We will show, among other things, how this surge of "pivot" forces, greatly enabled by drones, and supported by the US military-industrial complex, will hit every American community with even deeper cuts in the already fragile social programs on which people rely for survival.  In short, we will connect drones and militarization with "austerity" in America.   3. How drone attacks have effectively destroyed international and domestic legal protection of the rights to life, privacy, freedom of assembly and free speech and have opened the way for new levels of surveillance and repression around the world, and how, in the United States, increasing drone surveillance, added to surveillance by the National Security Agency and police, provides a new weapon to repress black, Hispanic, immigrant and low-income communities and to intimidate Americans who are increasingly unsettled by lack of jobs, economic inequality, corporate control of politics and the prospect of endless war.   We will discuss how the United States government and corporations conspire secretly to monitor US citizens and particularly how the Administration is accelerating drone surveillance operations and surveillance inside the United States with the same disregard for transparency and law that it applies to other countries, all with the cooperation of the Congress.   The campaign will encourage activists around the world to win passage of local laws that prohibit weaponized drones and drone surveillance from being used in their communities as well as seeking national laws to bar the use of weaponized drones and drone surveillance.   The campaign will draw attention to the call for a ban on weaponized drones by RootsAction.org that has generated a petition with over 80,000 signers http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6180 and to efforts by the Granny Peace Brigade (New York City), KnowDrones.org and others to achieve an international ban on both weaponized drones and drone surveillance.   The campaign will also urge participation in the World Beyond War movement.   The following individuals and organizations endorse this Call:   Lyn Adamson – Co-chair, Canadian Voice of Women for Peace Dennis Apel – Guadalupe Catholic Worker, California Judy Bello – Upstate NY Coalition to Ground the Drones & End the Wars Medea Benjamin – Code Pink Leah Bolger – Former National President, Veterans for Peace Canadian Voice of Women for Peace Sung-Hee Choi – Gangjeong Village International Team, Jeju, Korea Chelsea C. Faria – Graduate student, Yale  Divinity School; Promoting Enduring Peace Sandy Fessler – Rochester (NY) Against War Joy First Bruce K. Gagnon - Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space Holly Gwinn Graham – Singer/songwriter, Olympia, WA. Regina Hagen - Darmstaedter Friedensforum, Germany Kathy Kelly – Voices for Creative Nonviolence Malachy Kilbride Marilyn Levin and Joe Lombardo – Co-Coordinators, United National Antiwar Coalition Tamara Lorincz – Halifax Peace Coalition, Canada Nick Mottern – KnowDrones.org Agneta Norberg – Swedish Peace Council Pepperwolf – Director, Women Against Military Madness Lindis Percy, Coordinator, Campaign for the Accountability of American   Bases  CAAB UK Mathias Quackenbush – San Francisco, CA Lisa Savage – Code Pink, State of Maine Janice Sevre-Duszynska Wolfgang Schlupp-Hauck- Friedenswerkstatt Mutlangen, Germany Cindy Sheehan Lucia Wilkes Smith – Convener, Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) – Ground    Military Drones Committee David Soumis – Veterans for Peace; No Drones Wisconsin Debra Sweet – World Can’t Wait David Swanson - WarisACrime.org Brian Terrell – Voices for Creative Nonviolence United National Antiwar Coalition Veterans for Peace  Dave Webb – Chair, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (UK) Curt Wechsler – Fire John Yoo! (a project of World Can’t Wait) – San Francisco, CA Paki Wieland, Northampton (MA) Committee to Stop War(s) Loring Wirbel – Citizens for Peace in Space (Colorado Springs, CO) Women Against Military Madness Ann Wright – Retired US Army colonel and former diplomat Leila Zand - Fellowship of Reconciliation click here to donate to UNAC Click here for the Facebook UNAC group. To add yourself to the UNAC listserv, please send an email to: UNAC-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

 

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