[image: Havaar] *Dearest friends and allies,*
Happy Persian new year! We hope youre enjoying the start of a new season and expecting a wonderful year ahead of you. As you may know, Havaar recently launched a campaign<http://havaar.org/medicine/statement/>to oppose the sanctions that have had such a devastating effect on average Iranians. As a starting point, we are focusing on pressuring banks to enable financial transactions that will help Iranians to acquire life-saving medicines, some of which have been unavailable or unaffordable in recent months. You may have already signed our petition <http://havaar.org/medicine>targeted at several banks, and if so thank you! If you haven't, please take a moment to sign <http://havaar.org/medicine> and help push us toward our goal of 5,000 signatories. Please help to spread the word about this campaign and petition via e-mail, Facebook <http://goo.gl/n21RO>, Twitter<http://goo.gl/dloYJ>, and other social media. Havaar will be providing updates in the weeks ahead over this e-mail list and at havaar.org. You can stay even more in touch by liking Havaar's Facebook page <http://www.facebook.com/HavaarForJustice>, which also helps us to spread the word about the campaign. Here are what some who have signed are saying about this campaign and about the sanctions against Iran generally: Kathy Kelly (founding member of anti-Iraq sanctions group Voices in the Wilderness): Campaigners dedicated to ending economic sanctions against Iraq learned from Iraqi mothers and children about how lethally punitive economic sanctions could be. The pediatrics wards of Iraqi hospitals were like death rows for infants. Now, ordinary Iranians with minimal capacity to control their government are nevertheless being punished by economic sanctions which forbid them access to life saving medicines. The Havaar campaign needs and deserves support from civil society around the world. Azadeh Shahshahani (President of the National Lawyers Guild): The U.S.-imposed sanctions regime has inflicted great suffering upon the Iranian people. As people of conscience, we have to speak out and act decisively to end the sanctions and to ensure that Iranians have adequate access to life saving medicine and other necessities. *Denis J. Halliday (UN Assistant Secretary-General 1994-98)*: Sanctions, "smart" or comprehensive, are a form of warfare and a blunt weapon of aggression on the most vulnerable citizens, including infants, children and the aged. When the Health Sector is endangered as in Iran today, loss of life results - demonstrating how sanctions constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Sanctions do not destroy governments, they destroy the basic human rights of human beings. Among the many people who have already signed on are Anthony C. Alessandrini, Tariq Ali, Stanley Aronowitz, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, Silvia Federici, Arun Gupta, Adam Hochschild, Zachary Lockman, David McReynolds, Molly Nolan, Vijay Prashad, Chris Toensing, Adaner Usmani, and Julia Wrigley. In solidarity, Havaar <http://havaar.org/> Iranian Initiative Against War, Sanctions and State Repression [image: powered by phpList2.10.17, © phpList ltd]<http://www.phplist.com> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:la...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: laamn-dig...@yahoogroups.com laamn-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: laamn-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
