Midwest Action Against Drones

Midwest Action Against Drones (MAAD)
Saturday & Sunday, September 28-29, 2013

End Drone Warfare Abroad and Spying at Home!
No Killer Drone for Boeing!
No New Wars on Iran and Syria!
Money for Jobs, Healthcare, and Education-NOT FOR WAR!

Join us at the corner of Monroe & Columbus in Chicago on Saturday, September 28th at 3PM for a rally and march to Boeing Headquarters! On September 29th, from 9:30 AM-3 PM, we will have a conference featuring speakers & workshops from activists and organizers from across the Midwest region! 

For more information or to add you or your group to the list of endorsers, contact Kait McIntyre at kait.mcintyre@gmail.com
A project of the Antiwar Committee Chicago

Endorsed by:
Vets For Peace Chapter 27
MN Antiwar Committee
Twin Cities Peace Campaign
Women Against Military Madness (WAMM)
WAMM Ground All Drones Committee
MN Welfare Rights Committee
MN Coalition for Palestinian Rights
No Drones Ohio
No Drones Wisconsin
Milwaukee IVAW (Iraq Veterans Against the Wars)
UW-Milwaukee SDS (Students for a Democratic Society)
MN Committee to Stop FBI Repression
MN Peace Action Coalition
Grand Rapids Left Forum
Milwaukee Committee to Stop FBI Repression
University of MN SDS
ANSWER Chicago
March 19th Anti-War Coalition.
Said Kahn, president of Pakistan Federation of America
Syrian American Forum
Chicago IVAW
SDS National
NW Indiana Veterans For Peace
Bloomington Normal Coalition for Peace and Justice
Wisconsin Bail Out The People Movement
USPCN National
USPCN Chicago
Wisconsin Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars
Antiwar.com

Check out the conference schedule & pass it around!

drones conferences

Midwest Action Against Drones (MAAD) Conference: Workshop Updates

Conference: Building the Movement Against Drones
Sunday, September 29, 2013
9:45 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Kent College of Law, 525 W. Adams in Chicago

The conference will include a plenary with Medea Benjamin as keynote speaker as well as two tracks for workshops:

Workshop Slot #1 — 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

a.Protesting drone bases/command centers
b.Successful movement building
c.Local regulation of drones

Workshop Slot #2 – 12:45 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
d.Protesting drone manufacturers/contractors
e.Economics: What drones are costing our communities
f.Countering the “boots on the ground” argument

Registration: No one will be turned away for inability to pay.

For registration only, send an email to antiwarcommitteechicago@gmail.com and your spot will be reserved.

Register and pay for the conference here.

Make a donation to MAAD here.

Updated MAAD flier!

click to download the new MAAD flier!

MAAD 08-13

Chicago Anti-War Committee Attends BOEING Annual Stockholders Meeting In Chicago

Agenda for July 28th MAAD Planning Meeting

1:00 pm – Introductions: Name, city, group

1:15 pm – Reports on recent developments – anti-drone actions and campaigns in the Midwest region

1:45 pm – Presentation from Chicago Anti-War Committee about the campaign against Boeing and the call for September 28/29.

2:00 pm – Midwest Action Against Drones – ACTION COMPONENT
Questions for discussion include:

* What do you want to see from the regional action?

* Should we draft a statement for groups sign on to?

* Boeing Company HQ is where we plan to protest, but what do we want to do there?

* Who do we want to have speak at the protest?

2:40 pm – Midwest Action Against Drones – CONFERENCE COMPONENT
Questions for discussion include:

* Workshops?

* Speakers?

* Both?

3:00 pm – Midwest Action Against Drones – COORDINATION & LOGISTICS
Questions for discussion include:

* Order of the 9/28 & 9/29 weekend: Action then conference or conference then action?

* Housing for Sep. 28 & 29: Approximately how many from each city (with the understanding that this may change as the date becomes closer)

3:45 pm – Midwest Action Against Drones – OUTREACH
Questions for discussion include:

* There are conferences and events happening during the summer that we should get to.

* What other outreach efforts should we make?

4:30 pm – WRAP-UP AND AGREEMENT ON NEXT STEPS

Please RSVP for the planning meeting here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/N9TTG2Q

No Killer Drone For Boeing Flyer

No Killer Drone for Boeing flyer

Facts About Drones & Boeing

Boeing is competing for a $1.4 billion Navy contract to make the next combat drone

Drone Wars:  No Real Change in the Obama Doctrine

Spurred by mounting controversy over the U.S. drone wars, President Obama gave a speech on May 23^rd claiming that “the use of drones is heavily constrained.  America does not take strikes when we have the ability to capture individual terrorists; our preference is always to detain, interrogate, and prosecute.” However, in April, Yemeni activist Farea al-Muslimi testified before Congress about the drone strike which hit his village: the suspected terrorist was well known and could have been easily arrested.

President Obama insisted the only people targeted are “terrorists who pose a continuing and imminent threat to the American people.” This wasn’t true either:

–        The sixteen year old American citizen, the son of Anwar al-Awlaki, was killed by a drone strike as he sat having lunch with his cousins two weeks after his father’s assassination, ordered by President Obama. 

–        NBC reviewed classified intelligence reports on drone strikes in Pakistan over 14 months, and found the CIA did not know the identity of about a quarter of the casualties.

Code Pink activist Medea Benjamin bravely challenged Obama during his speech, asking if he can “stop the signature strikes killing people on the basis of suspicious activities?” The CIA doesn’t know exactly who it kills with signature strikes, which target people based on patterns of behavior without positive identification. A former CIA official revealed that at the height of the drone war in Pakistan, over half of the strikes were classified as signature strikes.

Pentagon Plan:  Increased Role of Drones

Obama emphasized the phasing out of drone warfare with the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, but the projected $89 billion market for drones over the next decade says otherwise. The budget for manned aircraft is declining in the Pentagon’s new strategy, but the money for drone warfare is increasing.  Boeing, the number two arms manufacturer, wants to keep the profits it makes from producing weapons, so the key element in its plans for capturing war spending is to build the Phantom Ray, its design for the upcoming contract with the U.S. Navy.

It’s time to end the drone wars, not prepare to build another generation of deadly weapons.