OntheWilderSide

• Greens condemn US aid to dictators like Mubarak — some of it used to suppress nonviolent protesters

• “Tunisia: African Greens Federation calls for Peace and Non-Violence” http://africangreens.org/spip.php?article53

Green Party leaders in the US announced the party’s support and encouragement for nonviolent protesters in Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, and other nations in the region who have taken to the streets in demand for an end to corrupt and oppressive regimes.

The Green Party of the United States supports democracy, here and throughout the world.  We hope that the protesters in Egypt succeed in deposing President Mubarak, and we’re thrilled to see so many young people stand up against dictators.  The best outcome would be for Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia to improve economic conditions for their populations and embrace democracy, equal rights and protections for women and for ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities, and freedom of the press.  We condemn the brutal responses to the protests, including police violence and the shutdown of the Internet.

Greens noted that the threatened regimes, especially Egyptian President Mubarak’s administration, were propped up by the US for the purpose of serving US interests such as access to oil and other resources, the maintenance of military bases on foreign soil, and unequivocal support for Israel’s brutal occupation and apartheid system.

“While the Obama Administration has offered some restrained rhetorical support for the demonstrations, the US continues to send the Egyptian government billions of dollars in military aid, some of it now being used by security forces to beat and teargas protesters,” said David Doonan, Mayor of Greenwich, New York, and a member of the Green Party.  “For true stability in the region, North African and Middle Eastern governments must serve the interests of their own people instead of the demands of the US State Department and western business.”

Egypt is the second largest recipient of US military and economic aid ($1.55 billion in 2010), after Israel ($3.175 billion).

“The young people marching for democracy and freedom in these nations are a model for people in the US.  We need a mass opposition movement in the US against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the gross violations of our Constitution in the name of ‘homeland security,’ and the reckless greed of Wall Street, the insurance industry, oil companies, and other corporations.  Let’s learn something from the Tunisian protesters: our outrage should not be directed at Wikileaks but at our own government’s secret policies and actions that were exposed by the Wikileaks cables, such as the US bombing of Yemen and the attempts to undermine the Copenhagen talks on global warming,” said Farheen Hakeem, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States.

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
• Green candidate database and campaign information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/ballotstatus
• Green Party Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

“President Obama, Say the ‘D-Word'”
By Mark LeVine, Al Jazeera, January 29, 2011
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/29-4

Egyptian Greens (in Arabic)
http://www.egyptiangreens.com/docs/firstpage/index.php

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the United States (Fall 2010 issue now online)
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog

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Filed under: Action Alert!, activism, grassroots democracy, Green Party, international politics, politics, US Politics Tagged: | David Doonan, Egypt, green, Hosni Mubarak, nonviolence, Tunisia, united states, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali