They Had an Antiwar Press Conference and Nobody Came

What if they gave an antiwar press conference and nobody came? Well, that's what happened July 22 2017. Local Antiwar groups International Action Center, United National Antiwar Coalition and Peace Action & Education released the following press release:

                     International Action Center
                     rochester_iac@frontier.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRESS CONFERENCE TO OPPOSE THE U.S. DRIVE TOWARDS WAR
TUES., AUGUST 22, 2 PM, AT THE FLYING SQUIRREL COMMUNITY CENTER, 285 CLARISSA STREET, ROCHESTER, NY.

LOCAL ANTI-WAR ORGANIZATIONS AND THEIR SUPPORTERS WILL CALL ON PEOPLE TO RESIST THE U.S. DRIVE TOWARDS WAR. AMONG OUR DEMANDS:
HALT THE PROVOCATIVE JOINT MILITARY EXERCISES IN KOREA!

SIGN A PEACE TREATY WITH NORTH KOREA (IT'S NEVER BEEN DONE!)

STOP THE THREATS OF MILITARY INTERVENTION AND END THE SANCTIONS AGAINST VENEZUELA!

STOP THE U.S. BOMBING AND INVASION OF SYRIA; STOP SUPPORTING THE SAUDI ARABIAN TERROR WAR AGAINST YEMEN!
 

Donald Trump is threatening “fire and fury” against North Korea, military intervention in Venezuela, daily bombing in Syria, and supporting Saudi Arabia's murderous bombing campaign and blockade of Yemen which has caused one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent history. All of this is on top of continued wars of occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq and support for the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Crippling economic sanctions, which are in reality acts of war, are imposed on nations casually around the world with little regard for the suffering caused to the people of those nations. All of this is accompanied by a 696 billion dollar military budget, the largest in world history, and larger than those of the rest of the world combined.

Of particular concern are the hostile actions and threats being leveled against the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea because Trump has threatened a preemptive nuclear war.

This conference was called before, and happened the day after President Trump announced he was escalating the US war in Afghanistan. All of the local TV stations and newspapers were invited. Only Rochester Indymedia was in attendance.

Without anyone to ask questions the press conference became more of a speaker series providing insights and explanations of US international policy. Material was discussed that was never mentioned in the mainstream news and history that was never taught in school.

Maybe next time they have a war, no one will show up. We can only hope.

These videos are unedited. They contain a lot of material. The only place anything was cut was near the end to change the battery in the camera.