India’s economy overtakes France to become sixth largest in the world

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http://www.rt.com

11 Jul, 2018

Taj Mahal, India © Kamal Kishore / Reuters

India has become the world’s sixth-biggest economy, pushing France to seventh place, according to recent data from the World Bank.

The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) surged to $2.597 trillion at the end of 2017, compared to France’s $2.582 trillion. India has doubled its GDP in the last ten years, but with 1.34 billion people – a population 20 times higher than in France, the European country has better living standards.

With the growth forecast of 7.3 percent in the next two years, India is becoming the world’s fastest growing emerging economy. The World Bank predicts the growth will speed up to 7.5 percent for 2019-20.

“India’s economy (today) is robust, resilient and has potential to deliver sustained growth”, said Ayhan Kose, Director of the Development Prospects Group at the World Bank. The main drivers of the Indian economy are “robust private consumption and strengthening investment.”

London-based banking firm HSBC reported that the country can overtake Japan and Germany to become the third largest economy in the next decade. Consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) agrees with that forecast.

Last year, it predicted that over the next three decades, the global economy will be dominated by China, and the US economy will lose steam and fall behind India. Russia will become the leading European economy ahead of Germany, UK, and Italy with a GDP of $7 trillion, according to a PwC report.

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France: 30 workers in 2 years: Ex-Telecom execs face trial over wave of staff suicides

Company hit by wave of employee suicides beginning in 2008 that took the lives of over 30 workers in 2 years

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http://www.cbc.ca

Thomson Reuters 

Jun 16, 2018

Didier Lombard stepped down as CEO of the telecom company, now known as Orange, in early 2010 amid criticism of his handling of the workplace crisis involving multiple suicides. (Benoit Tessier/Reuters)

The former head of France Telecom Didier Lombard, six other executives and telecoms operator Orange have been ordered to stand trial over their alleged role in a wave of staff suicides.

They stand accused of engaging in or assisting psychological harassment, according to the court order, obtained by Reuters. Lombard, a former human resources head and a deputy CEO were 
placed under court supervision until trial.

“As it has always said, Orange rejects the accusations and will make its case during the public hearing which will be scheduled in the coming months,” an Orange spokesman said.

Jean Veil, Lombard’s lawyer, said the move was “absurd.”

The crime of “moral harassment” can be punished with two years in prison and 30,000 euros ($46,000 Cdn) in fines.

France Telecom, which has since become Orange, was hit by a wave of employee suicides beginning in 2008 that took the lives of over 30 workers in two years, including a man who stabbed 
himself in the stomach during a staff meeting and a woman who threw herself out of a window.

Suicides blamed on workplace stress

Blamed on workplace stress, the suicides continued in 2010, taking the lives of five workers in 10 days in one particularly difficult period.

A 2010 report by labour inspectors said management used “pathogenic” restructuring methods such as forcing people into new jobs and giving unattainable performance objectives.

Continue:

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Wind of Change: G7 Crumbles, SCO Rises Up

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geopolitics.co

June 11, 2018

The G7 Summit crumbles beneath Donald Trump’s feet, while the SCO Summit got bigger and better. Why not? Erstwhile geopolitical enemies, India and Pakistan, just got full memberships to the real gamechanger in the Eurasian continent and the world, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, making the latter the largest grouping of countries pursuing multipolarity around the globe.

The mood at the SCO Qingdao Summit was a very stark contrast to the contentious G7 meeting between Deep State controlled corporate governments.

Chinese President Xi Jinping gave the leaders of Pakistan and India a “special welcome” to their first SCO summit, while Russian leader Vladimir Putin said the new members made the alliance look as it should be. “Regarding the enlargement [of the body], we agreed that the current structure is optimal,” Putin said, as cited by TASS, adding, “we must see how the organization will work in an enlarged mode.”

“If we calculate… per capita, the seven countries are wealthier, but the size of the SCO economies [combined] is larger. And the population is of course much bigger – half of the planet,” Putin stated.

The SCO initially included China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan when in was formed in 2001. After India and Pakistan joined the SCO, it has become the largest regional body in the world in terms of geographical coverage and population, spanning across Eurasian continent and embracing over 3 billion people. “Thanks to joint effort by leaders of the member states, the biggest regional organization bearing global responsibility has appeared on the map,” said Rashid Alimov, the sitting SCO Secretary General, according to RIA Novosti.

• https://www.rt.com/news/429324-sco-expansion-summit-qingdao/

While Trump could not help but display his trumpous conflict strategy in tariff negotiation…

The US’s status as the biggest G7 economy has customarily allowed it to steer the agenda of the club’s summits from its place at the top, the other countries following its lead. But Donald Trump chose a different tactic.

Flouting protocol

There were too many flagrant deviations by the US delegation from established etiquette to consider it a simple sign of Trump’s erratic boorishness. Instead, it appeared that American president was in no mood to compromise, and had every intention to aggravate.

Arriving late to miss a face-to-face with Emmanuel Macron, snubbing Theresa May while leaking pointed comments about her “school mistress” tone, tardiness at the official breakfast on Saturday, and skipping a climate change discussion to leave early, only to give a casual press conference on the way out – all of these were extravagant diplomatic displays of disdain.

The body language says it all.
This pic added by Tales

While some have reported that Trump simply never wanted to go to Quebec, others believe he is following the well-known conflict strategy in negotiation, in which he scares his supposedly saner counterparts into granting him his wishes just to avoid the greater risks he is prepared to take. The only man with a counter-strategy to the man-with-the-bomb act appeared to be Emmanuel Macron who simply decided to death grip Donald Trump’s hand until it turned an alarming shade of white, though it remains uncertain if the move was effective.

• https://www.rt.com/usa/429286-trump-g7-rude-party/

Trump, of course, has every right and obligation to promote US interests when dealing with other countries. But what is alarming though is the incoherence in his geopolitical positions, i.e.:

Painting the US as a victim of its haplessness – “the piggy bank that everybody is robbing” including a “brutal” EU – as a result of asymmetrical tariffs, Trump announced his aluminum and steel levies in advance of the G7, and didn’t let the topic go, only to turn around at the last moment and suddenly suggest dropping tariffs altogether.

In one of the mostly tonally odd moments of the entire summit, Trump at one point announced out of nowhere – in a mix between a deadpan joke and a power move – that Canada had agreed to drop all tariffs, with Justin Trudeau standing next to him bemused (“we have a ten out of ten relationship,” Trump told the media).

• https://www.rt.com/usa/429286-trump-g7-rude-party/

Add to that is his trashing of the Iran Deal, the US Embassy move into Jerusalem, the recent US-UK-France bombing on Syria that was based on false “chemical attack” pretext and the continuing military support for Saudi Arabia in the latter’s genocidal operation in Yemen, all of which do not promote peace in the Middle East.

Whatever the case may be, it is very evident that it is still hard to deal with Western governments that continue to engage in doublespeak within themselves and against their Asian counterparts.

Putin is not amused and is definitely tired of it all…

Even the Philippines have already allowed the “refueling” of a Chinese warplane in the country. This has never happened before.

“The request for landing was received, processed and cleared by relevant Philippine Government agencies. The landing was requested for the specific purpose of refueling and was granted and given with specific conditions for compliance by the requesting party,” Duterte’s assistant said in a statement.

Philippine Air Force (PAF) Tactical Operations Group commanded, Lt. Col. Ritchie Pabilonia, said the request for landing was arranged by the Chinese attaché in Manila.

So, the question in everyone’s mind… is G7

Still relevant?
With Russia out, none of the BRICS countries were represented at Charlevoix, and economic data shows that with each annual summit the share of the seven keeps falling in relative terms, as the rest of the world catches up.

But libertarian economist Jeffrey Tucker believes the problems run deeper than that.

Nevertheless, the Trumpian adventure continues in Singapore as the US president is slated to meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un to give his blessings to the Korean Reunification.

Another Nobel Peace prize is on the way.

If you think both sides are just playing with all of us, then let’s do something by ourselves. One way of defeating the Deep State is to bring down Big Pharma. Here’s how you do it.

France, Britain Sending Ships to Challenge Beijing’s Claims in South China Sea

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sputniknews.com

June 5, 2018

© AFP 2018 / GERARD JULIEN

The French and British navies are planning to follow in the footsteps of the US Navy with their own wayfinding mission through the disputed South China Sea, specifically, into areas London and Paris argue are illegally claimed by Beijing.

A seaborne task force comprising French and British ships and naval aircraft will make its way through the South China Sea next week, French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parley said Sunday. The force will go “into certain areas” where the world’s fastest growing navy — the People’s Liberation Army-Navy — is expected to be present.

CC0

US Warships Enter Disputed South China Sea Waters, Beijing Slams the Move as Infringement Upon Its Sovereignty

“At some point a stern voice intrudes into the transponder and tells us to sail away from supposedly ‘territorial waters.’ But our commander then calmly replies the he will sail forth, because these, under international law, are indeed international waters,” Parley said Sunday.

The South China Sea is notable for the trillions of dollars’ worth of commercial cargo passing through the waterway every year and for the possibility it contains large untapped oil and gas fields. A slew of nations in the region have overlapping claims on islets and sections of water, including China, Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines.

France does not have any conflicting territorial claims in the waterway, said Parley, but it intends to contribute to a “rules-based” order in the South China Sea “on a regular basis with allies and friends,” she noted, the South China Morning Post reported Monday.

“By exercising our freedom of navigation, we also place ourselves in the position of a persistent objector to the creation of any claim to de facto sovereignty on the islands,” the armed forces minister noted, adding that she believes the French Navy “should broaden this effort even further.”

© AP Photo / Xinhua

US Defense Secretary Mattis Slams China for Militarising South China Sea Islands

Parley’s announcement aligned with recent remarks from US Defense Secretary James Mattis, who issued a sharp rebuke of the Chinese military’s construction activities in the South China Sea last week. “Despite China’s claims to the contrary,” he said,” the placement of these weapon systems [on islets in the South China Sea] is tied to military use for the purposes of intimidation and coercion.”

He Lei, vice president of the Academy of Military Science of the People’s Liberation Army, disagreed with Mattis’ assessment. Building and deploying “defensive facilities” has “nothing to do with militarization and does not pose a threat to regional security,” he said, Xinhua reported Saturday.

How Democracy Ended

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http://www.strategic-culture.org

Eric ZUESSE

May 19, 2018

What killed democracy was constant lying to the public, by politicians whose only way to win national public office is to represent the interests of the super-rich at the same time as the given politician publicly promises to represent the interests of the public — “and may the better liar win!” — it’s a lying-contest. When democracy degenerates into that, it becomes dictatorship by the richest, the people who can fund the most lying. Such a government is an aristocracy, no democracy at all, because the aristocracy rule, the public don’t. It’s the type of government that the French Revolution was against and overthrew; and it’s the type of government that the American Revolution was against and overthrew; but it has been restored in both countries.

First here will be discussed France:

On 7 May 2017, Emmanuel Macron was elected President of France with 66.1% of the vote, compared to Marine Le Pen’s 33.9%. That was the second round of voting; the first round had been: Macron 24.0%, Le Pen 21.3% Fillon 20.0%, Melenchon 19.6%, and others 15%; so, the only clear dominator in that 11-candidate contest was Macron, who, in the second round, turned out to have been the second choice of most of the voters for the other candidates. Thus, whereas Le Pen rose from 21.3% to 33.9% in the second round (a 59% increase in her percentage of the vote), Macron rose from 24.0% to 66.1% in the second round (a 275% increase in his percentage of the vote). In other words: Macron didn’t just barely win the Presidency, but he clearly dominated both rounds; it was never at all close. But once in office he very quickly disappointed the French public:

On 11 August 2017, Le Figaro bannered (as autotranslated by Google Chrome) “A hundred days later, Macron confronted with the skepticism of the French”, and reported that 36% were “satisfied” and 64% were “dissatisfied” with the new President.

On 23 March 2018, Politico bannered “Macron’s approval ratings hit record low: poll” and reported that, “Only 40 percent of the French population said they have a favorable opinion of Macron, a drop of 3 percentage points from last month and 12 percentage points from December, while 57 percent said they hold a negative opinion of the president.”

On 22 April 2018, Europe 1 reported that 44% were “satisfied” with Macron, and 55% were “dissatisfied” with him; and that — even worse — while 23% were “very dissatisfied” with him, only 5% were “very satisfied” with him.

So, clearly — and this had happened very quickly — the French public didn’t think that they were getting policies that Macron had promised to them during his campaign. He was very different from what they had expected — even though he had won the Presidency in a landslide and clearly dominated both rounds. That plunge in support after being elected President required a lot of deceit during his campaign.

Second, is US:

The situation in the US was very different in its means, but similar in its outcome: it was a close election between two candidates, each of whom had far more of the electorate despising him or her than admiring him or her. Neither of the two candidates in the second round was viewed net-favorably by the public. The key round of elimination of the more-attractive candidates, was in the primaries; and, after that, it became merely a choice between uglies in the general election. Any decent (or even nearly decent) person had already been eliminated, by that time. Consequently, the ultimate winner never had the high net-favorable rating from the US public, that Macron did from the French public.

America’s system of ‘democracy’ is very different than France’s: Throughout the primaries-season — America’s first round — the most-preferred of all candidates in the race was Bernie Sanders, who, in the numerous one-on-one polled hypothetical choices versus any of the opposite Party’s contending candidates, crushed each one of them except John Kasich, who, throughout the primaries, was the second-most preferred of all of the candidates (and who performed far better than did Trump did in the hypothetical match-ups against Clinton). In the hypothetical match-ups, Sanders beat Kasich by 3.3%, whereas Kasich beat Clinton by 7.4% — that spread between +3.3% and -7.4% is 10.8%, and gives a pretty reliable indication of what the Democratic National Committee threw away when rigging the primaries and vote-counts for Hillary Clinton to win the Party’s nomination. Sanders beat Trump by 10.4%, whereas Clinton beat Trump by 3.2%. That spread was only 7.2% in favor of Sanders over Clinton; but, in any case, the DNC cared lots more about satisfying its mega-donors than about winning, when they picked Clinton to be the Party’s nominee. (Ms. Clinton’s actual victory over Mr. Trump in the final election between those two nominees turned out to be by only 2.1% — close enough a spread so as to enable Trump to win in the Electoral College (which is all that counts), which counts not individual voters but a formula that represents both the states and the voters. Sanders would have beaten Trump in a landslide — far too big a margin for the Electoral College to have been able to go the opposite way, such as did happen with Clinton. This fact was also shown here and here. That’s what the DNC threw away.)

Hillary Clinton received by far the biggest support from billionaires, of all of the candidates; Sanders received by far the least; and this is why the Democratic Party, which Clinton and Barack Obama (two thoroughly billionaire-controlled politicians) effectively controlled, handed its nomination to Clinton. On 7 June 2016, the great investigative journalist Greg Palast headlined and documented “How California is being stolen from Sanders right now”, and four days later a retired statistician’s review of other statisticians’ statistical analysis of data from all of the primaries and caucuses, reaffirmed their findings, that the Democratic nomination had been stolen by the Democratic National Committee, and he concluded that “the whole process has been rigged against Bernie at every level and that is devastating even though I don’t agree [politically] with him.” A more detailed study was published on 1 August 2016, titled “Democracy Lost: A Report on the Fatally Flawed 2016 Democratic Primaries”. Basically, what had happened is that the most-preferred of all the candidates got deep-sixed by Democratic Party billionaires, who ultimately control the DNC, just as Republican billionaires control the RNC. The US Government is squabbles between billionaires, and that’s all. That’s what’s left of American ‘democracy’, now.

On 12 August 2016, Julian Assange noted: “MSNBC on its most influential morning program, Morning Joe, was defending Bernie Sanders. Then Debbie Wasserman Schultz [head of the DNC] called up the president of MSNBC. Amazingly, this is not reported in the US media. It is reported in the US media that they called up Chuck Todd who’s the host of Meet The Press. Something much more serious is not reported — that Debbie Wasserman Schultz herself personally called up the president of MSNBC to apply pressure in relation to positive coverage about Bernie Sanders on Morning Joe.” That was typical of what went on.

Hillary Clinton’s favorable rating, by Election Day, was 40.3%, her unfavorable was 55.3%. Donald Trump’s favorable was 39.8%, unfavorable was 53.4%. Bernie Sanders, as of the end of the primaries on 29 June 2016, was 50.8% favorable, 39.6% unfavorable, and it has been getting steadily better afterward. But the suckered Democratic Party voters (the ones who were counted, at any rate) voted slightly more for Hillary than for Bernie. Even despite Sanders’s having had support from few if any billionaires, he almost won the Democratic nomination, and that’s remarkable. He might actually have received more votes during the primaries than Hillary did, but we’ll never know.

So: America is a dictatorship by the billionaires. And this means that it operates by fooling the public. France is similar, though it achieves this via a different way. And, in both countries, deceit is essential, in order to achieve its dictatorship. Fooling the public is now what it’s all about, in either case. Democracy can never be won by fooling the public; because fooling the public means removing the public’s ability to control the government. So, calling such a nation a ‘democracy’, is, itself, deceiving the public — it’s part of the dictatorship, or else support of the dictatorship.

In former times, this system was rationalized as ‘the divine right of kings’. Now it’s rationalized as ‘the divine right of capital’. But it’s also become covered-over by yet another lie: ‘democracy’. This is a ‘democratic’ aristocracy; it is an ‘equal opportunity’ aristocracy. In it, each citizen has ‘equal rights’ as every other citizen, no matter how wealthy. It’s just a castle of lies. And its doors are actually open only to the few richest-and-well-connected.

Here, a former CIA official tries to describe how the American dictatorship works — the enforcement-part of the system, and he does (even if only by implication) also touch upon the financial sources of it. Starting at 1:07:35 in that video, he discusses his personal case: why he could no longer tolerate working for the CIA. But his description of how he, as an Agency official, saw the system to function, starts at 3:45 in the video. Key passages start at 12:45, and at 20:15. Maybe any American who would email this article to friends who don’t understand how the system functions, will come under increased US surveillance, but that CIA official’s career and family were destroyed by what the system did to him, which was lots worse than just surveillance. Remarkably, he nonetheless had the courage to persist (and thus did that video). However, when one sees how politically partisan (and so obtuse) the viewer-comments to that video are, one might be even more depressed than by the account this former CIA official presents. But, even if the situation is hopeless, everyone should at least have the opportunity to understand it. Because, if the aristocracy are the only people who understand it, there can’t be any hope for democracy, at all.

Pepe Escobar On Syria, Iran, and “Chaos In International Relations”

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http://www.zerohedge.com

by Tyler Durden

Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Asia Times,

 04/20/2018

Any meaningful political resolution to the turmoil in the Middle East now seems more elusive than ever…

Even in the context of a post-truth geopolitical environment run amok, Russian President Vladimir Putin telling his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani over the phone that any further Western strikes against Syria may “lead to chaos in international relations” should at least be seen for what it is; a massive understatement.

According to the Kremlin, Putin and Rouhani agreed that what cynics are calling the F.U.K.U.S. – or France, UK, US – strikes have damaged the chances of achieving any meaningful political resolution in Syria.

That translates into Putin and Rouhani acknowledging that Washington, London and Paris are pulling no punches to be back in the game, directly clashing with the painstaking Astana peace process led by Russia, Iran and Turkey.

Significantly, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari reminded acting US Secretary of State John Sullivan, also over the phone, about “the necessity to prioritize finding a political solution and that the Syrian people alone should determine their own fate.”

This means essentially that the “4+1” – Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, plus Hezbollah – which were at the vanguard of destroying ISIS, or Islamic State, and other crypto-jihadi outfits in Syria, remain in synch. The counter-terror HQ of the “4+1” was in Baghdad. As much as Baghdad may harbor ideological divergences with Damascus, their common strategy is built upon the fight against Salafi-jihadis of all stripes.

United front

Iraq, alongside Lebanon, was one of the very few nations across the Middle East that condemned the US-UK-France strikes. The GCC petrodollar club – led by the House of Saud – predictably supported it, as their agenda never strayed away from regime change.

Moscow, Damascus, Tehran and Baghdad are showing a united front even as the alleged chemical attack in Douma – the reason for the strikes – is being forcefully debunked. Additionally, pesky questions remain unanswered on why more than 100 missiles were necessary to destroy only three largely empty state-run scientific centers in Damascus and Homs.

Even after Damascus and Baghdad declared victory, the Salafi-jihadi galaxy may be seriously wounded in both Syria and Iraq, but is not extinct. Turkey is still cultivating some nasty connections.

So the key variable in the Astana process – which involves complex economic and military trade offs – remains Ankara, which has no intention of abandoning its sprawling Syrian ops before subduing the Kurdish YPG all around.

Incidentally, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, unlike his partners, supported the strikes on Syria. At the same time, Erdogan is itching for the Russian S-400 missile system to be delivered to Turkey as soon as possible, much to the displeasure of NATO.

The real test for the Astana partners will be Idlib – which is already the subject of fierce negotiations. Iran’s special envoy for Syrian affairs, Ali Akbar Velayati, is on the record as saying the next war objective is in fact Idlib.

Moscow has prodded Erdogan to deliver the Kurdish canton of Afrin – now run by the Turkish military – to Damascus. There’s no evidence – yet – this will be accepted. Russian forces did leave Afrin before the Turkish offensive. So the Turks, in reciprocity, should abandon their bases across Idlib as well.

The key takeaway is that the US-UK-France troika – not to mention the House of Saud – has absolutely no means to influence these developing facts on the ground. 

Iran targeted by financial missiles

If the strikes on Syria have de facto added to the “chaos in international relations” alluded to by Putin, that may be just the opening compared to the main course; the fate of the JCPOA, aka the Iran nuclear deal, to be decided next month.

The European Union foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, ahead of the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg, was unequivocal: “The European Union has always made it clear that for us, keeping the agreement in place is vital. It is a strategic interest for the European Union and we will stick to it.”

Pointing to what, for all practical purposes, is a Trump administration May 12 deadline, Mogherini added: “We are doing all we can to work with our American friends to make sure that all parties stay fully committed to the full implementation of the agreement.”

Everyone in Brussels knows Tehran is fully complying with the JCPOA, as stated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 10 successive reports.

Still, France, Britain and Germany are dabbling with the notion of sanctions against Iranian “militias and commanders” fighting on the side of Damascus as a means to appease President Trump. Italy, backed by Austria, is vehemently against it.

The bottom line, as diplomats confirmed to Asia Times, is that Trump’s deadline to “fix” the JCPOA simply won’t be met. What really matters for individual EU nations, as discussed in diplomatic circles, is to increase lucrative business with Iran.

Restricted access to US dollars

All this is happening as Iranian central bank governor Valiollah Seif denounced what amounts to a financial missile strike: “Enemies outside of our borders, in various different guises, are fueling this issue and are going to some effort to make conditions tougher for the people.”

Valiollah was referring to the rial crisis. The Iranian currency was trading at 40,000 to the US dollar in 2017, but has just plunged to 60,000 rials to the dollar. Tehran hastily announced a plan to introduce a currency peg at 42,000 rials.

The widespread view in Tehran is that Wahhabi enemies Riyadh and the Emirates are restricting Tehran’s access to US dollars. Not to mention that some stiff Washington bank financing sanctions remain in effect.

Tehran is facing tough days ahead. Even with the EU remaining committed to the JCPOA, a new batch of Washington sanctions, enthusiastically pursued by John “Bomb Iran” Bolton, could eventually force as many as 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian crude out of the market.

If Washington withdraws – unilaterally – from the JCPOA, or insists on alterations Tehran deems unacceptable, Plan B is already on: Moscow and Beijing are willing and able to help Tehran reboot its civilian nuclear program.

That was discussed already in January by the Deputy Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Mohammad Ahmadian. China is actively considering the possibility of building small nuclear power plants in Iran.

All that points, once again, to the ongoing, massive Eurasia integration project – the cross-pollination of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Eurasia Economic Union (EEU) – featuring, not by accident, the three key nodes: China, Russia and Iran.

And to add it all up, in this case the European arm of NATO even turned off the “aggression” rhetoric; the dogs of war (“Real Men Go to Tehran”) may bark again, but even that won’t force the EU caravan to desist from doing business with Persia. 

Canada Anti-war Demonstration against US-UK-French Missile Attacks on Syria, Toronto, April 22

“Shamefully, the Trudeau government joined the western chorus – without a shred of proof – condemning the Syrian government for using chemical weapons and wholeheartedly endorsing the missile attacks.”

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The Hamilton Coalition To Stop The War is pleased to announce that it will demonstrate against the April 13 missile attacks on the part of the USA, UK, and France on Syria. The Coalition regards those attacks as outrageous and reckless acts of war, illegal under international law.

Having lost their proxy war for regime change in Syria, the three rogue states are becoming more reckless and desperate. Their missile strikes were intended to pre-empt an investigation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) that might exonerate the Syrian Arab Republic from the charge of using chemical weapons in the city of Douma. The strikes came a mere six hours after the OPCW announced it was deploying its fact-finding mission to Syria.

And the USA, UK, and France don’t seem to care that they run the risk of provoking Russia, Iran, and China into a wider Mideast war or even into a third world war.

Shamefully, the Trudeau government joined the western chorus – without a shred of proof – condemning the Syrian government for using chemical weapons and wholeheartedly endorsing the missile attacks.

At our demonstration this Sunday April 22, we will demand:

1. the Canadian government accept the will of the Syrian people to determine their own future without foreign interference, in accordance with the UN Charter, and formally withdraw from the US military coalition in Syria and Iraq;

2. the Canadian government end its illegal economic sanctions on Syria that punish ordinary Syrians by driving up the price of essentials and by blocking the flow of remittances to Syria. These brutal economic sanctions have turned millions of Syrians into refugees;

3. The Canadian government cut off its funding – believed to have been 12 million dollars so far – to the White Helmets organization, which is the propaganda arm of Al Qaeda in Syria and which is the group which staged the phony chemical incident in Douma;

4. the Canadian government re-establish normal diplomatic relations with the government in Damascus and commit funding to the reconstruction of that once-beautiful country which our government has helped to lay waste;

5. the US government end both its support for terrorist mercenaries in Syria and its occupation of the eastern third of Syria, east of Euphrates River, and get out of Syria now!

The demonstration will take place on Sunday, April 22, from 2 to 4 pm across from the US Consulate, 360 University Avenue, Toronto. Other sponsoring organizations include the Canadian Peace Congress and the Toronto Association for Peace and Solidarity.

The original source of this article is Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War

Copyright © Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War, Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War, 2018