May 20 Public Forum Report:

Indiscriminate US missile drone attacks and a massive US backed Pakistani military operation is currently how the US government has extended their war and occupation in Afghanistan to Pakistan, with the excuse of rooting out so called terrorists. On Wednesday May 20th, Mobilization Against War & Occupation (MAWO) organized a public forum titled “Civil War in Pakistan: The Roots, the Present and the Future” in order to discuss this escalating war drive and how the antiwar movement must respond.

MAWO co-chair Janine Solanki introduced the forum and welcomed the over 35 participants, and began the forum with a series of film clips on the current situation of military attacks in Pakistan. The film clips showed the extent of death and destruction that the US missile drone attacks had caused, along with clips of interviews with US President Obama and other politicians who gave their excuses for why the US army is attacking innocent people inside Pakistan and on the border of Afghanistan.

After the film clips, MAWO executive committee member and secretary Nita Palmer was invited up to speak on the current situation of US intervention in Pakistan. She opened this topic with the war in Pakistan in the context of the new era of war and occupation which began in Afghanistan, as well as the current global economic crisis that the ruling classes of imperialist countries have created.

After Nita, Ali Yerevani, the political editor of the Fire This Time Newspaper, spoke. Ali went into the strategy of the imperialist countries in their opening of war into Pakistan, and how this crisis of the new era of war and occupation has developed at the hands of imperialist nations in the last 10 years. He also opened the history and current situation of political forces within Pakistan, and the government of Pakistan’s collaboration with the US in conducting this bloody war against the Pakistani people.

The speakers were followed by a discussion, in which participants touched on many aspects of the war on Pakistan. At the end of the forum, the speakers emphasized that the antiwar movement needs to respond to and fight this growing new era of war and occupation, and MAWO secretary Nita Palmer affirmed the commitment of Mobilization Against War & Occupation (MAWO) to educate, mobilize and organize against this new extension of war in Pakistan.