GABRIELA’s Statement on US-Israel Bombing of Iran
GABRIELA Alliance of Filipino Women stands in firm solidarity with the people of Iran, West Asia, and the world in denouncing the United States as the single biggest threat to global peace and the most violent aggressor of our time. We condemn the recent, horrific US-Israeli joint strikes against Iran--the devastating "Operation Epic Fury," which has resulted in the deaths of civilians already by the hundreds. This latest campaign of pinpoint bombings and systematic targeting of civilian infrastructure, including a girls' elementary school at a Central District in Iran and another school in the Eastern part of the Capital, has claimed the lives of largely women and girls.
From the scorched lands of West Asia to the increasingly militarized waters of the Indo-Pacific, the US imperialist war machine continues to sow death, displacement, and destruction to maintain its waning global hegemony. The US does not bring democracy but rather a mounting death toll that targets the very future of entire nations. This pattern of blood-soaked aggression is most clearly seen in the US-funded and backed decimation of Palestine, where the Zionist regime—empowered by billions in American military aid and high-tech weaponry—has slaughtered over 70,000 Palestinians in defiance of all international laws and global outcries for a ceasefire. The genocide in Gaza is not an isolated event but a continuation of the same imperialist playbook used to shatter Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, among others, through decades of illegal invasions and proxy wars. Today, this brazenness extends to our own neighbors in Latin America, where the US recently executed a military invasion of Venezuela to abduct its leadership and seize control of its oil reserves. These overt military acts are coupled with murderous economic blockades and "quarantines" that weaponize hunger against the Venezuelan people, mirroring the decades-long strangulation of any nation that dares to assert its sovereignty against US intervention.
This global pattern of aggression finds a dangerous local manifestation in the Marcos Jr. administration’s blatant puppetry to US interests. By expanding the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) and facilitating the annually growing Balikatan war exercises, the Philippine government is effectively painting a bullseye on the backs of its own people. GABRIELA warns the Marcos administration that its subservience is a recipe for disaster; by allowing the US to use Philippine soil as a launching pad for provocations against its rivals, the government is dragging the nation into an imperialist war that is not ours to fight. We refuse to let the Filipino people be used as pawns in a geopolitical chess game where they are the first to be sacrificed for an overseas empire's agenda.
These imperialist interventions trigger long-term economic devastation, as war-driven disruptions lead to soaring oil prices in the Philippines which will in turn drive the already unreachable basic commodities. Most critically, these wars pose an actual threat to the lives and safety of millions of OFWs—majority of whom women—who are forced into the crossfire to sustain their families. We demand that the Philippine government cease its subservience to US warmongering and take immediate, concrete actions to ensure the safety and welfare of our OFWs in all conflict zones who will be affected and possibly displaced. We likewise demand that the government prepare for safe and immediate repatriation should tensions escalate further.
Because war thrives on the exploitation of the marginalized, women must be at the forefront of the struggle to dismantle the structures of foreign domination.
GABRIELA calls on all Filipino women to rise and fiercely oppose US imperialism, recognizing that the struggle for genuine national sovereignty is inseparable from the struggle for women’s liberation. We cannot be free in a country that serves as a colonial outpost for foreign warmongers who will abandon their "allies" the moment they are no longer useful. We must refuse to be fodder for their wars and demand the immediate abrogation of the VFA, EDCA, and the Mutual Defense Treaty. Now is the time to wage a collective struggle for a foreign policy based on peace and sovereignty rather than the dictates of a decaying empire.
US TROOPS OUT NOW!
US OUT OF WEST ASIA! US OUT OF ASIA-PACIFIC!
STOP THE US-LED WARS OF AGGRESSION!
STRUGGLE FOR SOVEREIGNTY AND WOMEN'S LIBERATION!#
#USTroopsOutNow #EndUSImperialism #USOutOfWestAsia #USOutOfAsiaPacific