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Unfortunately the Los Angeles event had to be canceled. The Syrian American Council <https://www.facebook.com/SACouncil.LA> has only one part-time paid organizer in Southern CA and after leading in organizing the protests against the visit of Assad's nun to LA <http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2013/11/syrian-american-council-takes-on-la.html>, the visit by revolutionaries from Kafranbel <http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2013/12/kafranbel-is-coming-to-la-meet.html> and the very successful mass protest against Assad's UN ambassador Bashar Jaafari in Beverly Hills <https://www.facebook.com/events/575316019218860/?ref=22>, she was forced to take a 2nd job just to keep her family afloat. She was very involved in organizing this event globally but LA got left behind because no one stepped forward to organize it. They will take a picture with a banner to show solidarity with this world wide effort, but there is no planned mass event in Los Angeles. The Jaafari protest was an important breakthrough for the Syrian American community here in that it united five local Syrian organizations in a joint action for the first time. Frankly, all of us who have been supporting the Syrian people have had our hands full with the tasks this struggle has present us with and have noted the serious lack of concern by the so-called peace and justice community in the United States. Ironically, today's global event, with actions in Kolin, , Dublin, Berlin, Barcelona, Aachen, Buenos Aires, Freiburg, Antwerp, Hamburg, Montreal, Paris, Montpellier, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Hedelberg, Milan, Stuggart, Como, Genova, Bologna, Muchen, Ancona, Rome, Naples, Dortmund, Palermo, Lecce, Vienna, Nairobi, Mexico City, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Barcelona, Serville, Granada, Lausanne, London and even in Russian and many more, but not LA, had its inception right here in Los Angeles. It grew out of discussions in November on the SAC-LA Facebook page that was establish to promote protests against the Mother Agnes-Mariam speaking tour. Sadly, I have been advised by many of the local Syrian-American's I've been working with not to /"waste my time"/ appealing to the anti-war movement here. Their perception is that the so-called Left in the US is the most pro-Assad, anti-revolutionary segment of the US population and they have had more success appealing to ordinary Americans outside of the Peace and JustUs movement. It is a perception, I've found hard to argue with because while each of the events above have enjoyed support and participation from non-Arab Americans, it has seen little from LA's /'progressives.' /For example, as I looked over the packed room that greeted the courageous revolutionaries from Kafranbel recently, I saw many fellow Angelenos, but no one I recognized from LA's /"anti-war"/ movement. I'm afraid that today the perception that the LA Left could care less about the 130,000 killed, 185,000 in detection and the 7 million made homeless by Assad in his savage effort to maintain this 40 year old brutal dictatorship will only be reinforced because today, while people around the globe will be standing in solidarity with the Syrian people, the LA Left will be focused on the fate of 160 prisoners <http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2013/12/two-more-prisoners-leave-guantanamo-179696.html> still locked up in Guantanamo. ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
