An Urgent Peace Rally Outside Congressman McGovern’s Office in Northampton -No War With Russia! Abolish NATO!

Community members from western Massachusetts gathered in Northampton on Wednesday February 2 to demand that the US government stop the march to war and take immediate measures to deescalate the military tension in Ukraine, support negotiations on the basis of the Minsk accords, stop sending weapons and personnel to Ukraine, abolish NATO, as well as support negotiations for a new, equitable security architecture in Europe, and globally.

The Rally was sponsored by Massachusetts Peace Action, Western Mass Regional Chapter of the Green-Rainbow Party, Peace and Justice Team from First Churches of Northampton, Anti-Imperialist Action Committee, WM Code Pink, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Latin America Solidarity Coalition of Western Massachusetts, Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution, Traprock Center for Peace & Justice.

The following statement was released by organizers of the rally:

As the Ukraine crisis has intensified, a confrontation between the world’s two most heavily armed nuclear powers has become an actual possibility.

This dangerous rush to war must stop! Instead of ratcheting up tensions, the US must work with all parties to de-escalate the situation and seek vigorous, sincere diplomatic paths out of the crisis.

The US has just managed to extract itself from a 20-year war in Afghanistan which cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, with tens of thousands wounded and millions of refugees. This war cost us, the US taxpayers, trillions of dollars, all going to enrich war profiteering CEOs and shareholders instead of using this money to improve the lives of working people here at home, and investing in health care, housing, and eliminating student debt.

The war drums in our country are summoning us again for a war, in a faraway land, and under questionable grounds. Unlike Afghanistan today’s threat of war is against Russia, a major nuclear power which will put the entire world in danger. Such a war must be and can be avoided by negotiations based on the Minsk II accords signed by Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine which guarantees the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Moreover, there is an urgent need to negotiate a new security architecture in Europe to replace the old system which existed prior to the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.

Since 2014, US taxpayers provided over $2.5 billion in military aid to Ukraine. Last year alone, the military aid amounted to $650 million. Recently the Biden administration decided to add $200 million more of military aid. Inside Ukraine there are armed conflicts between the ethnically Russian and non-Russian Ukrainians. Along the more than a thousand miles border between Russia and Ukraine there are hundreds of thousand troops of the opposing armies. US military advisors are active along the border. The threat of a military confrontation is extremely serious and potentially can lead to a full-scale war between the US and Russia and to World War III.

Does our government seriously want to embark on yet another war?