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On April 14th, The United States, Britain, and France launched air strikes against Syria in retaliation for the suspected chemical weapons attack. The delegates to the EUFOR meeting held a silent circle in Turin's main square honoring the victims of war and making a stand for peace and nonviolence. They drafted and released the following statement in response to the air strikes:
Stacey Mitchell of IFOR's International Committee joined leaders from FOR-USA in Charlottesville this weekend as they gathered with thousands to send a message of love in opposition to the expressions of hatred and bigotry that permeated the U.S. city. White Supremacists and Neo-Nazis gathered in Charlottesville to demonstrate their opposition to the removal of a statue honoring the general that lead the army of the Southern States during the U.S. Civil War.
Several national and international media outlets covered the events in Charlottesville and FOR-USA posted several images and videos to it's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FORUSA/
Dr. Cornel West and Stacey Mitchell during an organizing meeting in Charlottesville Virginia
On April 8th, IFOR's branch in the United States issued a statement in response to U.S. military action in Syria. While acknowledging the horror of the chemical weapons attack on civilians, FOR called upon its members to contact the White House to express their disapproval of military response to the crisis in Syria. The statement calls upon the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. just days after the commemoration of his assassination and his famous statement against the Vietnam War one year earlier.
The statement says "The logic that a military strike, even a limited one, will deter and quell aggression from the Assad regime, or the armed resistance, or the movement of Al-Qaeda believed to be in Syria, is fundamentally flawed. In violent escalation, both sides respond in turn with their own escalation of use of arms and aggressive attacks. We are already seeing the rumbling of this in Russia’s pronouncement of the strike as “an act of aggression.” As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “For through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can't murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can't establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate through violence. Darkness cannot put out darkness; only light can do that.”
To read the full statement click here.
