Rhode Island Anti-War Committee

01/12/2026

OPPOSE U.S. HEGEMONY. Tuesday, January 13, 3 PM in Providence
Stand with the RI Anti-War Committee to demand that the current CEASEFIRE holds in Israel’s assault on Gaza. Call for a halt to U.S. aid to Israel and instead, provide sufficient humanitarian aid for the Palestinians. No more attacks on Lebanon, Venezuela and Iran. We meet every Tuesday and Friday at 3 PM (winter hours) at the intersection of Francis and Gaspee Streets across from the Providence Place Mall. Bring friends, signs and banners. Share our Facebook event page https://www.facebook.com/events/1171323868324013/1171323871657346.
Help spread the word.
“His own morality.” That was President Trump stating in an interview with NY Times reporters that the only constraint on his power as president was his own morality. Not Congress, the Supreme Court or the law. So much for the three co-equal branches of government. What Trump wants, he’s determined to get. Be it Venezuelan oil, the Panama Canal or Greenland. Latin American leaders are taking notice. Some of them are ready to make deals with the U.S. that will please Trump, others are keeping their heads down hoping that Trump won’t notice them.
There is some pushback, however. The European Union has made a deal with Brazil and three other South American countries to create a free trade zone. That may help stymie the U.S. a bit, but BRICS and the EU were not able to assist Venezuela and it’s looking unlikely that they will be able to help Cuba. Trump has already said that there will be no more oil for Cuba. How can that country continue?
We are living in the belly of the beast. It’s a transactional world, and the oligarchs are in control.

01/07/2026

Tonight with Wally at RI Statehouse
RI Antiwar Committee
Important to bring an antiwar message to protests

01/05/2026

NO TO U.S. WARS. Tuesday, January 6, 3 PM in Providence
Stand with the RI Anti-War Committee to demand that the current CEASEFIRE holds in Israel’s assault on Gaza. Call for a halt to U.S. aid to Israel and instead, provide sufficient humanitarian aid for the Palestinians. No more attacks on Lebanon, Venezuela and Iran. We meet every Tuesday and Friday at 3 PM (winter hours) at the intersection of Francis and Gaspee Streets across from the Providence Place Mall. Bring friends, signs and banners. Share our Facebook event page https://www.facebook.com/events/1543251136800039/1543251166800036.
Help spread the word.
Dark Times. For anti-war/peace activists it is beyond disheartening to watch
the Trump administration run roughshod over the rest of the world. Its policies have nothing to do with justice, human rights or equality. It is an immoral grab for wealth and power. There doesn’t seem to be anything that can stop them. Congress has abdicated. The Supreme Court bends its knee to Trump and does what he wants. The oligarchs are in ecstasy. Bank executives, freed from nearly all regulations put in place after the 2008 crisis, are pulling in $100 million compensation packages. We should have saw it coming. Trump made it plain from the beginning that he intended to expand America’s empire. And the world’s leaders made it plain that they would cave in to him. They fell over themselves rushing to Washington to accept Trump’s tariffs and even give gifts to him (remember Qatar’s jet?).
Lies together with brute force are a winning combination for the ruling elite. It worked for the N***s. It’s sad that we have to count on Russia and China to stand up to Trump. No one else seems willing to do so. Israel’s tactics against its enemies have been an inspiration to Trump. Lash out and crush your opponents before they even know what hit them. Israel’s intelligence apparatus and its influence on tactics inspired Washington’s dealing with Venezuela. Note that as recently as this Friday afternoon, Maduro offered to negotiate anything and everything to avoid military conflict. To no avail. Even releasing political prisoners didn’t help. Reports state that the CIA had a plant in Maduro’s inner circle so that they knew where he was at all times despite his changing where he slept every night.
Meanwhile domestically, unemployment tics up, prices increase, health care gets more expensive and millions will lose their health insurance coverage. And as long as Trump keeps up his war on the undocumented, his MAGA supporters are happy and see no reason to change course.

01/03/2026

Protest against war on Venezuela, 1-3-26. The US is a pirate, terror state that operates completely outside any semblance of legality.

12/30/2025

JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE. Tuesday, December 30, 3 PM in Providence
Stand with the RI Anti-War Committee to demand that the current CEASEFIRE holds in Israel’s assault on Gaza. Call for a halt to U.S. aid to Israel and instead, provide sufficient humanitarian aid for the Palestinians. No more attacks on Lebanon, Venezuela and Iran. We meet every Tuesday and Friday at 3 PM (winter hours) at the intersection of Francis and Gaspee Streets across from the Providence Place Mall. Bring friends, signs and banners. Share our Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1543251136800039/1543251163466703.
Help spread the word.
Somaliland. Can you find it on a map? It is a small country, population of 6 million, situated on the Gulf of Aden across the sea from Yemen. It is east of Ethiopia and south-east of Djibouti. The U.S. State Department recognizes the territorial integrity of Somalia which includes the territory of Somaliland. On Friday, Israel became only the second country besides Taiwan to recognize Somaliland as an independent state. International law only recognizes Somaliland as an autonomous district within Somalia. This has prevented Somaliland from engaging with international finance, including with the World Bank and the IMF.
In the late 1800s, Britain and Italy gained control over the Somali region. Britain’s sphere became Somaliland. In 1960, United Somaliland gained independence and became Somalia. In 1991, a civil war led Somaliland to break away from Somalia. In 2024, an Israeli think tank released a report that stated Somaliland could become a forward base for operations against the Houthis in Yemen. In March of 2024, reports indicated that Israel and the U.S. contacted three African nations (Sudan, Somalia and Somaliland) to gauge their interest in accepting Palestinians expelled from Gaza. Now, with Israel’s plan to annex the West Bank, Somaliland gains importance as a potential site to send expelled Palestinians.
In October 2024, Israel proposed to Somaliland that it would set up a military base there in exchange for formally recognizing Somaliland and making financial investments there. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) are mediating contacts between Israel and Somaliland. The UAE and Israel have established formal military cooperation and are reportedly building a joint military/intelligence base on an island off the coast of Somaliland.

12/22/2025

JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE. Tuesday, December 23, 3 PM in Providence
Stand with the RI Anti-War Committee to demand that the current CEASEFIRE holds in Israel’s assault on Gaza. Call for a halt to U.S. aid to Israel and instead, provide sufficient humanitarian aid for the Palestinians. No more attacks on Lebanon, Venezuela and Iran. We meet every Tuesday and Friday at 3 PM (winter hours) at the intersection of Francis and Gaspee Streets across from the Providence Place Mall. Bring friends, signs and banners. Share our Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1543251136800039/1543251160133370.
Help spread the word.
The West Bank. In one of the most detailed and documented articles ever about land seizures in the West Bank, the NY Times describes how Israeli settlers, backed by the Israeli military, destroyed farms, beat Palestinians and sometimes killed them in an effort to remove them from their homeland. In the last couple of years Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians have increased ten-fold. Sometimes the settlers come in the middle of the night, break into homes, beat and terrorize families, destroy their olive orchards and set fire to their cars and equipment. Then the Israeli army shows up to arrest Palestinians who haven’t fled and declares the village to be a closed military zone. Soon after Israeli settlers move in and begin the process of establishing a new Israeli settlement. The report, with maps, documentation and pictures, paints a horrific picture. The link to the report is: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/12/20/world/middleeast/west-bank-settlements.html?unlocked_article_code=1.-k8.HnL1.jZ8hclK335qf&smid=url-share . You should be able to read the article for free.
As the NYT article states, the idea of a two-state solution is all but dead. The Palestinian towns and villages are now virtually isolated from each other. There are Israeli roadblocks that prevent Palestinians from traveling between them. One town has a roadblock that prevents residents from accessing their own hospital. European leaders and the Trump administration tolerate this state of affairs and support the Israeli government while giving lip service to Palestinian rights. With the destruction and slaughter in Gaza and the theft of land and abuse of Palestinians in the West Bank, it’s hard to see how a diplomatic solution is possible.

Israeli seizure of Palestinian lands in the West Bank, often brutally, has accelerated, raising doubts about the prospects of a peaceful solution to the conflict.

12/16/2025

JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE. Tuesday, December 16, 3 PM in Providence
Stand with the RI Anti-War Committee to demand that the current CEASEFIRE holds in Israel’s assault on Gaza. Call for a halt to U.S. aid to Israel and instead, provide sufficient humanitarian aid for the Palestinians. No more attacks on Lebanon, Venezuela and Iran. We meet every Tuesday and Friday at 3 PM (winter hours) at the intersection of Francis and Gaspee Streets across from the Providence Place Mall. Bring friends, signs and banners. Share our Facebook event page https://www.facebook.com/events/1543251136800039/1543251156800037.
Help spread the word.
Full-spectrum dominance. What has it gained for Americans? The U.S. doctrine that has directed American military policy for the last two or three decades stipulates that the U.S. should be able to fight and win a major conflict and also a minor one at the same time. It has led to American military spending that now nears one trillion dollars a year and surpasses the combined total of the next nine countries with the largest militaries in the world. Has this policy made Americans any safer, or reduced the threat of more wars? On the contrary, other countries, rather than remain content as second-rate powers, have doubled down on building up their armed forces.
In addition, countries that the U.S. considers adversaries, are taking their cue from America and following their own self-interests rather global cooperation. Russia, for example, after failing to get the NATO alliance to take its concerns about NATO expansion seriously, decided to take matters into their own hands and invade Ukraine. China, after the U.S. surrounded it with dozens of bases in countries like South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore and Australia, embarked on a military build-up that brought its arsenal of missiles and naval forces up to and on par with the U.S. In computer simulated war games that the Pentagon conducts yearly, the red team (China) has defeated the blue team (the U.S.) each year since 2018.
In the battle to stay ahead, the U.S. has turned to its allies to ramp up expansion of their militaries. The hope is that with their allies the U.S. could defeat Russia and China. Already that plan is drawing push-back from American officials. The concern is that such a project will require the U.S. to share its military technology with other countries.
Notably, no one in the U.S. political class is talking about what would be the most sensible of all plans which would be to seek a path towards a reduction and eventual elimination of conventional and nuclear weapons. The wealthy, of course, would oppose such a venture because they profit so handsomely from weapons production and war.