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Hands Off Venezuela!
Hands Off Venezuela!
Published September 4, 2025
The affiliated organizations of the Anti-War Action Network (AWAN) share our disgust at the Trump Administration’s deployment of U.S. warships and troops to the coast of Venezuela.
We demand that the U.S. remove its warships and troops from Venezuela’s coast and out of the Caribbean immediately. We want peace with our neighbors in the Western Hemisphere, not Monroe Doctrine 2.0! We are calling for those who support peace with justice to say: U.S. Hands Off Venezuela!
On 9/2, President Trump and Secretary Rubio shared a video on social media that they wanted us to believe was an alleged airstrike in the Caribbean on a boat of Venezuelan origin claimed to be running drugs to the U.S. However, these claims require validation and verification. As students of U.S. imperialism’s lies and propaganda, we approach official claims with critical thinking. We know the track record of U.S. imperialism manufacturing narratives like “War on Drugs” & “War on Terror” as cover for its goals of corporate profits and world domination. The crude oil reserves of Venezuela are known to be the largest in the world. In waters and territory with disputed ownership between Venezuela and its neighbor Guyana, ExxonMobil, a U.S. corporation, is pumping out oil that does not belong to them. Regardless of Trump and Rubio’s lies about Tuesday’s incident, we are here to say: this is a power play for oil and control of the region.
The increased military presence of the U.S. in the south Caribbean is a clear provocation to Venezuela and a setback for the sovereignty of all Latin American nations. The claim by the Trump administration that it has deployed multiple warships and strike forces to the region because President Nicolas Maduro is leading the criminal gang “Tren de Aragua” has absolutely no basis in fact. Declassified U.S. intelligence documents even debunk this. Let us recall that recently, Trump doubled the bounty for the arrest of Maduro to $50 million. This is slanderous and outrageous! Many years of international reports describe Venezuela’s successful efforts at combatting narcotrafficking. Most drugs make their way to the U.S. on the Pacific side, with Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico being the main producers and routes.
Trump’s bellicose threats are dangerous and violate Venezuelan sovereignty for the profits of multinational oil corporations, like ExxonMobil. In 1999, ExxonMobil bought the rights to explore for oil in Guyana in a sweetheart deal. As oil discoveries proceeded from 2015 and beyond, we must note that then-CEO of ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson, needed to step down in order to join the Trump administration as Secretary of State in 2017. It should be no surprise then, that the White House began intense attempts at “regime change” by asking Latin American leaders if they would support the U.S. invading Venezuela in 2017.
This led to the U.S. sponsoring opposition groups to be more confrontational and violent, to coordination of an assassination attempt on President Maduro in 2018 with a drone explosion, then declaring Juan Guaido to be the president, and later supporting a failed coup in 2019. The whole while, there were intensified U.S. economic sanctions to wreck the economy. There were also attempts by U.S. and other mercenaries to infiltrate and provoke a military coup in 2020, and again in 2025. Trump is back and escalating by trying a more full frontal approach, threatening the Venezuelan coastline with U.S. Navy ships that can launch hundreds of missiles, in addition to thousands of U.S. Marines for a beach invasion.
Since every other U.S. intervention in Venezuela has failed its goals, it is abundantly clear now that the dying empire is in desperation mode to try to rein in Latin America to keep it in its orbit. With Trump and Rubio at the helm, we must first expose their lies aimed at manipulating the U.S. public to approve Trump’s decision to escalate to an open military conflict against Venezuela. Then we organize in our cities to publicly demonstrate our demands against yet another U.S. intervention in a sovereign country!
AWAN stands in resolute solidarity with the people and government of Venezuela in mobilizing millions to defend their country from U.S. war and aggression.
U.S. Warships Go Home!
No War for Oil!
U.S. Hands Off Venezuela!
AWAN Condemns the Assassination of Anas Al-Sharif
8/12/2025
The Anti War Action Coalition (AWAN) deplores Israel’s targeting of the Al Jazeera team in Gaza on Sunday, the assassination of Anas Al-Sharif, and the occupation’s blockade of life-saving aid, humanitarian workers, and journalists. Exposing Genocide is not a crime! It is a necessary means of resistance and the responsibility of all people of conscience.
On Sunday, August 10th, Anas Al-Sharif was the target of an Israeli airstrike that killed him and four others on the Al-Jazeera team: Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Aliwa.
The Israeli military falsely claimed Anas Al-Sharif was a militant for months before this attack. But Israel only clings to a strategy of deceit and manipulation because the truth is not on their side. Anas Al-Sharif, who notably reported on the January ceasefire and the forced starvation of recent, has been a beloved voice from Gaza for the past 2 years. His assassination has been condemned by many news outlets and humanitarian organizations, and he will be remembered by the whole guilty world.
The fact that this attack was orchestrated just hours after Prime Minister Netanyahu’s public commitment to admit “a lot” of foreign journalists into the Gaza Strip is a clear tactic of repression. Once again, Israel has flagrantly breached international humanitarian law and faced no immediate material consequences from the international community. Israel means to threaten anyone who dares witness and document the atrocities of their genocide campaign.
Journalists –over 270 now since October 7th, 2023–are being killed because Israel is targeting them. Palestinians are starving to death because Israel has maintained an illegal siege for almost two decades now. And indisputably, Israel has the means to commit these crimes because of the support of the United States of America and the complicity of our elected officials.
Israel will not stop at some number of journalists assassinated or civilians forcibly starved to death. The white supremacist, apartheid regime has no limits because its goal is to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their homeland. We must be the ones to draw a red line.
We ask our supporters in the U.S. to participate in AWAN’s national week of action to Break the Siege of Gaza. Use our events to honor Anas Al-Sharif and demand an end to Israel’s deadly siege.
Killing Journalists is a Crime!
Arms Embargo Now!
End the Siege!
Let Gaza Live and Free Palestine!
US Out of Korea!
US Out of Korea!
July 2025
Anti-War Action Network (AWAN) was a co-convener of the People’s Summit for Korea on July 25-26 in New York City. This conference played a critical role in educating the anti-war movement of the geopolitical importance of the Korean peninsula to U.S. imperialism and our solidarity. As the U.S. intensifies its efforts to attack China, U.S. occupation of South Korea plays a critical role, effectively being the front line of U.S. imperialism in Asia. The South Korean military is the one of the largest standing armies in the world, of which the U.S. retains command and control.
During the U.S.-Korean war, the U.S. resorted to deliberate bombing of civilian centers in order to have any military success against the Korean People’s Army and allies. This resulted in the deaths of 4 to 5 million Korean people (nearly 30 percent of the population) and most of the North leveled — to the point that U.S. bomber pilots complained that there was nothing left to bomb. From the U.S. point of view, this conflict is over, but to many Koreans, it has continued since 1953.
The U.S. and North Korea never officially ended the war (nor was it ever officially declared or authorized by Congress), and the U.S. has never left the peninsula. The U.S. has maintained a standing occupation force of about 30,000 soldiers in South Korea at 15 U.S. bases, with full access to dozens of South Korean military bases to threaten both North Korea and China. Every year the U.S. conducts joint military exercises with South Korea on the border, in the supposedly Demilitarized Zone, brandishing military might at North Korea. Every year the U.S. and its command of South Korean forces conducts large-scale joint military drills in March and August and smaller scale drills which have included “decapitation exercises” practicing the forcible removal of the leadership of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. While the U.S. characterizes these drills as a “routine defensive training event,” to North Korea and China they are clearly threatening provocations that practice a future reality desirable to U.S. imperialism.
Recently, in a thuggish extortion move, President Trump told South Korea that they needed to pay $10 billion this year for their own occupation and roles as a staging ground and cannon fodder in the U.S.’s efforts to provoke China into an active military conflict. The U.S. government and its corporate media lackeys persist in demonizing North Korea with propaganda of framing and selected images and a distorted, racist mythology of North Korean leaders. This is a particularly hypocritical stance to take for the world’s first and most unrepentant nuclear power, currently led by the unstable President Trump who has repeatedly threatened to use nukes on the North to “totally destroy" them.
While solidarity with Palestine so far has been the focus of the Anti-War Action Network, we agreed at our founding conference that “AWAN is founded on the belief that the U.S. is the greatest purveyor of violence and injustice in the world today.” As anti-imperialists, we need to understand and respond to how U.S. imperialism affects the people of the world. We know that South Korea has sold arms and munitions to Israel as it carries out its genocide in Gaza. But would South Korea do this if it wasn’t occupied by the largest arms supplier to Israel? It’s up to us in the U.S. to build a movement that not only stops arming Israel, but also builds solidarity with the international efforts to close all U.S. bases around the world.
We support the People’s Summit for Knorea’s call for actions on August 15 to say NO to Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises and the US- South Korea (Republic of Korea) military alliance. We encourage our supporters to participate in local actions and to call their members of Congress to say NO to U.S. military exercises in South Korea.
Anti-War Activism is Not a Crime!
Go to https://tinyurl.com/handsoffantiwar to sign on
In April 2025, San Jose anti-war activist Alex Dillard was subjected to the execution of a federal search warrant. FBI agents raided his home and seized his personal electronic devices, seeking evidence of alleged ties to Russia and implying that he may have been acting as a foreign agent.
We, as members of the San Jose community as well as the broad progressive people's movements in the U.S. and around the world, stand in solidarity with Alex against these attacks. We assert that these accusations are entirely baseless. They constitute a clear act of political retaliation against Alex's First Amendment-protected beliefs, activities, and associations.
This incident is not isolated. It reflects a broader pattern of repression by federal agencies against activists, journalists, and organizers who speak out against U.S. imperialism, war, and systemic injustice. From the surveillance and harassment of the Black liberation movement to the targeting of Palestinian solidarity organizers, the U.S. government has repeatedly sought to silence dissent through intimidation and legal persecution.
We condemn this latest act of state repression in the strongest terms. Such tactics are designed to instill fear, disrupt organizing efforts, and criminalize activism. But we refuse to be intimidated. Our community stands united in defense of the right to dissent and to challenge U.S. militarism, corporate greed, and state violence—no matter how aggressively the government attempts to suppress these voices.
We call on all allies, activists, and organizations committed to justice to sign onto this solidarity statement and to remain vigilant and to push back against these escalating attacks. The government’s efforts to conflate activism with "foreign influence" are a transparent attempt to justify repression—but we will not allow these tactics to silence us. We will continue to speak out, organize, and resist. Solidarity, not silence, is our answer to repression.
Activism is not a crime. Opposing war and genocide is not a crime. Hands off our movements!
Solidarity with Alejandro Orellana!
Solidarity with Alejandro Orellana!
June 26, 2025
The Anti War Action Network (AWAN) joins with organizations from around the country to demand that the U.S. attorney’s office drop charges against Alejandro Orellana at once.
AWAN sees solidarity with the immigrant rights movement in the U.S. as critical right now. The Trump administration has targeted immigrant students with deportation in retaliation for speaking out against U.S. support for Israel’s genocidal policies on Palestinians. The immigrant rights, anti-war and Palestine solidarity movements must defend each other in order to beat back attacks on our right to dissent in this country.
Alejandro Orellana is an activist in the Chicano-led organization Centro CSO and was raided by the FBI for protesting deportations in Los Angeles. He faces two bogus federal charges: conspiracy to commit disorder which carries up to 5 years in prison, and a charge of aiding and abetting civil disorder. On June 27, Alejandro Orellana, an immigrant rights activist and leader in Centro Community Service Organization, of East Los Angeles, will have his preliminary hearing and first court appearance.
Orellana has done nothing wrong. Protesting ICE raids and deportations is NOT a crime. Orellana has been a leading member of the Chicano-led organization Centro Community Service Organization, or Centro CSO, for over 10 years. He has been public and forthright in organizing against ICE raids and the Trump administrations. His activism and visible resistance to Trump and ICE serves as a model and inspiration for us all.
It is for this reason and no other that he is being targeted. To protect our First Amendment rights, our freedom of speech, and our right to say no to the ICE operations and the Trump administration,it is critical for all the people’s movements to defend Alejandro Orellana.
Call U.S. Attorney Bilal Essayli on June 27 at 213-894-2400 and demand that the charges be dropped.
Donate to the legal fund: Venmo @CentroCSO or Zelle CSO at: +1 (323) 580-3764
Follow his case and find flyers and more for Alejandro Orellana at www.stopfbi.org.
From Palestine to Mexico,
all border walls have got to go!
Hands Off Iran
Hands Off Iran
June 13, 2025
The Anti War Action Network (AWAN) condemns the bombing by apartheid Israel on Iran. The genocidal Zionist state is once again escalating the situation with missile strikes that could provoke a wider war across the region. From violating numerous ceasefire agreements with Lebanon and the Palestinian Resistance, to bombing and annexing Syrian lands and bombing Yemeni civilians, Israel is now turning to military attacks on a key player in the axis of resistance: Iran.
With Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian, and once again Iranian blood on its hands, it is clear that Israel knows its days are numbered and continues to lash out as international opinion against its genocide grows and its so-called pre-emptive strikes increase tension.
Despite Marco Rubio’s blatant lies, we know that the U.S. holds responsibility in Israel’s most recent aggression. After 20 months of direct material and financial support, political cover, and approval by the U.S. government of Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, Israel is now emboldened to act with more agression, further endangering the entire region.
Moreover, the U.S. has long sought to ruin the Iranian government through numerous interventions, proxy wars, sanctions, assassinations, and Israeli airstrikes. A weakening U.S. imperialism is using its rabid dog Israel to do its dirty work.
The joint attempts by the U.S. and Israel to center media focus on Iran’s potential future nuclear programs are worn out and clearly aim to provide cover for Israel’s first military strike and escalation. We refuse to entertain any attempt to shift the focus away from Israel’s military escalation, or from its ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people .
AWAN firmly opposes any U.S. military involvement in the Middle East, both direct or indirect, and stands in solidarity with all those facing the brutal violence of Israel and U.S. imperialism.
Stop Israeli attacks on Iran!
No to a wider war in the Middle East!
End all U.S. aid to Israel!
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