A New Year's Message 2013

Writer :	Eleanor Ommani
2012/12/27

Iran, with its rich and beautiful culture, is home to one of the oldest civilizations. Throughout its long history, located at the crossroads of western, central and southern Asia, the Iranian people have warmly welcomed strangers into their arms while maintaining Iran's independent spirit and fiercely cherishing its own philosophy, literature, language, science and art. How painful it has been for Iranians raised in such a tolerant society to be portrayed negatively in the dominant international media, and cast as a 'danger to world peace'.

You who have supported AIFC know this false characterization to be untrue and to be a method to organize the American people against the government of Iran in order to de-stabilize Iran as they have done feverishly against the people of Libya and Syria. The cruel sanctions imposed by the United States on independent and sovereign nations beginning with Cuba, Libya, Iraq, Syria and Iran and others are threats against the economic well-being of millions of people. The U.S. exerts control on the United Nations and other countries by using financial black-mail, and its domination of major international institutions ranging from our own Treasury Department to the International Monetary Fund to NATO directs and controls their policies. This decadent system of imperialism punishes any nation or people who won't succumb. As these contradictions deepen here at home, we cringe when the National Rifle Association (NRA) calls for the total militarization of the schools, as we hear Congresspersons saying we need to have a 'dialogue' with the NRA before even considering legislation that curtails the proliferation of weapons of mass killing. This IS the American system of capitalism! The NRA and the Arms Industry direct Washington unless progressives and the sane public mount a huge outcry.

At the same time that AIFC opposes sanctions, aggression abroad, the drone industry, etc., we also strongly oppose the violence in our own backyard, violence connected directly to the increase in MILITARISM and decrease in CIVIL RIGHTS.


DO NOT WAIVER IN THE STRUGGLE FOR PEACE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE!!
ARDESHIR AND ELLIE OMMANI, ON BEHALF OF AIFC!