FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jodie Evans | CODEPINK co-founder | [email protected] | (310) 621-5635
Madison Tang | CODEPINK China campaign coordinator | [email protected] | (714) 337-5375
Activists to Rally in 60 Cities Against Anti-Asian Violence, Petition Blinken to Stop U.S. Aggression Against China
March 26, 2021 — Tomorrow, March 27, in over 60 cities across America activists will rally against anti-Asian violence. The national day of action is co-sponsored by over 70 organizations.
The day of action coincides with a petition launched by the women-led peace group CODEPINK calling on Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and the Biden administration to stop the anti-Asian hate at home and abroad and at home by ceasing U.S. aggression against China.
See here for all the cities where rallies will be held.
In the wake of the horrific murders of six Asian women in Atlanta, Georgia on March 16th, as well as the rising wave of anti-Asian violence across the nation, the Biden administration claims to condemn these racist attacks while simultaneously increasing Cold War aggression towards China.
Such attacks, rooted in Sinophobia, are a direct result of U.S. foreign policy that includes bipartisan aggression towards China. Over the course of one year of the pandemic, there were over 3,795 Anti-Asian incidents, according to the Stop AAPI Hate reporting center, and Chinese was the largest ethnic group to report experiencing hate at 42% of all reported incidents.
“We see the shadow of U.S. foreign policy in the Georgia shooting, not only in the heinous attack itself but also in the inexcusable racist comments from the Cherokee County Sheriff spokesperson who refused to take this anti-Asian violence seriously,” said CODEPINK cofounder Jodie Evans. “Additionally, we must recognize that the existential threat of a global and nuclear conflict with China is too great for the U.S. to be engaging in anti-China rhetoric and military aggression.”
Madison Tang, coordinator of the China Is Not Our Enemy campaign, said, “Americans must demand that U.S. officials abandon their zero-sum mentality, in which a gain for one side means an equal loss for another, when it comes to U.S.-China relations. Imposing unilateral sanctions, increasing our military presence in the Pacific, and refusing to engage in international diplomacy with China will only endanger lives at home and abroad, particularly the lives of Asians and Pacific Islanders.”
On March 18th, two days after the massacre in Atlanta, top U.S. and Chinese officials met for the first time under the Biden administration. At the meeting, Secretary Blinken stated that China “threatens the rules-based order that maintains global stability.” This meeting came just one day after the U.S. sanctioned 24 Chinese and Hong Kong officials, and one day after Secretary Blinken traveled to Japan and South Korea alongside Secretary of Defense Austin to shore up U.S. alliances in preparation to encircle and contain China. This is in addition to the Biden administration’s plan to establish a network of precision-strike missiles along the islands surrounding Beijing over the next six years as part of $27.4 billion in spending to be considered under the Pacific Deterrence Initiative.
View details on our March 27th National Day of Action demanding an end to anti-Asian racist violence, an end to violence against women and end to white supremacy now here.
Read CODEPINK’s statement on the tragic Atlanta shootings here.
Endorsing organizations & individuals for the National Day of Action on the 27th:
ADDICTED To WAR — Alliance for Global Justice — ANSWER Coalition — Asian American Political Alliance, Third World Liberation Front — Asian Mosaic Fund — Asian Pacific Islander — American Public Affairs (APAPA) — Carol Lang, PSC Adjunct Professor — Change West — Covina — Chicago ALBA Solidarity — Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association — Christian Alliance For Peace — CODEPINK — Comfort Women Justice Coalition — Community Health for Asian Americans — Coop-Anti-War-Café Berlin — Danilo-Francois, Associate Professor, UT Austin — Downingtown Community Focus Project — Efia Nwangaza — Empire Files — Eth-Noh-Tec — Fannie Lou Hamer Institute — Feminist Uprising to Resist Inequality and Exploitation (FURIE) — Friends of Latin America — Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition — Global Women's Strike LA — Global Women's Strike LA — Green Party of Monmouth County NJ — Green Party of NJ — Ground Game LA — Haiti Action Committee — Harold Welton, Black August Los Angeles — Ina Martinez, UPWARD (Uniting Peace With Actions Respect and Dignity) — J CHEN PROJECT, Inc — Jim Lafferty, Executive Director Emeritus, National Lawyers Guild, L.A. — John Reiger, Peace and Freedom Party, also Veterans For Peace — Joint PR — Judy Vaughan, Alexandria House — Justice for Christian Hall — Labor Against Racism and War — Lancaster County Green Party — Latino and Latina Roundtable of the San Gabriel and Pomona Valley — Malcolm X Center for Human Rights - WMXP Community Radio — March and Rally LA — Meg Mathieson, Minister, SouthWest Unitarian Universalist Church — Metro-Detroit Chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women — Miriam Oppenheimer, Professor, Temple University — NWPC Sacramento — OWS Special Projects Affinity Group — Pivot to Peace — Pomona Protests — Poor People's Army — Popular Resistance — Prof. Eric Mar, Former San Francisco Board of Supervisors; Asian American Studies, San Francisco State University — Prof. Huachen Chen, University of California, Santa Barbara — Prof. Kenneth Hammond, New Mexico State University — Qiao Collective — Sandra Drake, Professor Emerita, Stanford University — San Francisco Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines — San Gabriel Valley Progressive Action — TLtC Justice & Peace Committee — Topanga Peace Alliance & MLK Coalition of Greater Los Angeles — U.S. Support Committee for Korean Prisoners of Conscience — UCLA Academic Advancement Program (AAP) — UFPJ (United for Peace and Justice) — United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) — Unite North Metro Denver — Verdant Square Radio — Veterans for Peace — Veterans For Peace, San Francisco chapter #69 — Wnc4 Peace
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