[van-announce] Oct.27 anti-war rally details and callout

[Derrick O'Keefe]

*Please forward widely* 

Not One More Dead, Bring the Troops Home Now

Pan-Canadian Day of Action against war: October 27 

In Vancouver, Gather 12 Noon at Waterfront Station
(Cordova & Howe), marching to 2pm rally at the
Vancouver Art Gallery (Georgia & Hornby). 
Featured speakers will include Malalai Joya. 

Organized by the StopWar.ca Coalition. Info:
contact at stopwar.ca. Posters/flyers available at
People's Coop Bookstore (1391 Commercial Dr.) Facebook
Page:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=5248357123. 

***

Call-out from Canadian Peace Alliance and Echec a la
Guerre

The war in Afghanistan is getting worse day by day.
The Government of Canada and its NATO allies tell us
that security and reconstruction are improving and
that the battle for the hearts and minds of the Afghan
people is being won by the west. In reality the
situation is much more dire. Reconstruction has been
proven to be a smokescreen and the resistance to the
occupation is growing. Violence increases every month
that our soldiers remain in Kanadhar. 

It is time to stop the bloodshed - not in 2009 as our
politicians suggest - but now. The Canadian Peace
Alliance and Collectif Échec à la guerre call on the
people of Canada and Quebec to demonstrate this
October 27, 2007 and call for the troops to be brought
home. 

On that day people from Canada and the United States
will be marching to end war. Our friends in the US
have put out a call for events to end the Iraq war on
same date; so we will be jointly marching to end the
violence that our governments are intent on
continuing. 

The state of reconstruction in Kandahar is a shambles.
The Senlis Council recently released a report that
investigated the reconstruction claims by the Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA). The Senlis
Council found little of the promised reconstruction in
Kandahar. The Afghan people are starving just outside
the gates of the Canadian base. Their local hospitals
have no medicine or equipment despite promises of
money from CIDA. These failures, coupled with the rise
in civilian casualties, have resulted in more people
joining the resistance. 

And what has been accomplished? Canadians have once
again lost the Panjwai district of Kandahar after
fighting four separate battles to hold it and being
pushed off of that land again and again. After more
than 18 months of fighting in the south which has
killed hundreds of civilians and dozens of Canadian
soldiers, the fight is still on for the same patch of
land that was "secured" more than a year ago. 

How many more will die on both sides to keep taking
and retaking a spot of land? 

The poppy trade is booming in Afghanistan with a
record crop worth more than $3 billion USD this year.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report showed
a 35 per cent increase in opium production from a year
ago. This will only get worse the longer NATO stays in
Afghanistan. The UNODC argues that more control from
the state of Afghanistan will reduce opium production.
More than 60 percent of the elected members of the
Afghan parliament are connected to warlords and drug
barons. To increase the control of the drug warlords
in the opium producing areas will not result in a
decrease in opium production. 

The irony is that opium production had been eradicated
by 2001. This increase in production is a direct
result of the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. 

The head of the Army in the UK, General Sir Richard
Dannatt stated that the war in Afghanistan could go on
for a generation. Thousands more civilians and
soldiers will die and the resistance to the NATO
occupation will grow. It is time to end this war. 

On October 27 people in Canada and the US will be
marching to call for peace in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Thousands will march in a pan-Canadian day of action.
Join us! 

Out of Afghanistan - Out of Iraq
Harper and Bush Bring the Troops back!



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