Statement of the U.S. Peace Council in 2020 U.S. Elections

Our Struggle for Peace and Social Justice
Must Be Intensified!

December 12, 2020

November 3^rd has passed and slightly more than a third of the eligible electorate chose the Democrat, slightly less than a third the Republican, and the remaining third chose none of the above by either not voting or casting a ballot for a third-party alternative. The threat of an October surprise did not materialize although Trump’s desperate attempts to nullify the results of the elections continue.

The important issues of war and peace facing humanity, especially for those of us in the belly of the beast with a special responsibility to address the actions of our own government were non-issues in most if not all U.S. election campaigns.

Regardless of who occupies the Oval Office, the decadent trajectory of neoliberalism continues imperialism abroad and austerity for working people at home. The permanent institutions of the state — the Pentagon and the national security and surveillance apparatus — endure.

Although Trump did not start any new wars, he did not end any of the now perpetual U.S. military engagements. The U.S. policy of sanctions against 39 countries, constituting a third of the world’s population, are a form of warfare that kills and maims similar to bombs. The wars abroad are increasingly mirrored by wars on the people at home, by the militarization of society — in particular the police — and by strangulation of the economy. The response by the major imperial powers to the pandemic of COVID-19, in particular in the U.S. and Europe, has exacerbated this war at home and exposed the social, political, and economic cracks in late-stage, monopoly capitalism.

Behind the ethnic and gender diversity of Joe Biden’s announced appointments is the continuity of the Obama-Biden administration’s engagement in permanent war and regime change and commitment to “full-spectrum dominance.” The promise of U.S. “leadership” means, in fact, U.S. dominance of billions of people who did not choose the American state to rule them. These scourges will be not exorcized with the defeat of Donald Trump.

This fundamental continuity, beneath a façade of bipartisan bickering, calls for an independent peace movement to promote these actions, among many others:

• Drastically cut the military budget.
• Return all troops from all war zones and close all the foreign military bases.
• End all unilateral coercive measures (blockades and sanctions).
• Stop supporting allied wars and stop U.S. and allied assassinations.
• End the nuclear weapons escalation and sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)
• Stop the cold war with China.
• Reestablish diplomatic relations with Cuba, end the blockade and return Guantánamo.
• Negotiate with Iran, not assassinate and threaten military attacks.
• End the asphyxiating sanctions on Venezuela and reestablish diplomatic relations.
• Recognize and respect the right of Palestinians to self-determination and end its financial and diplomatic support for the apartheid state of Israel.
• Repeal the Nicaragua Investment Conditionality Act (NICA Act).
• Fully abide by the UN Charter.
• Demilitarize the police.

Above all, we need to intensify our struggle for a just transition from a military to a peacetime economy to meet human and community needs and restore the environment, and join hands to build a world founded on cooperation, peace, and respect for the sovereignty of all nations.