Sisters and brothers, comrades and friends:

The country with the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, the only country ever to use nuclear weapons in war, is preparing again to unleash a nuclear holocaust.

The rulers of the most extensive and most formidable Empire in world history are discussing the feasibility of using nuclear arms against "opponent regimes" and their peoples. The U.S. rulers are testing the winds of public tolerance of the unthinkable, as they step up their efforts to impose their dominance over every region of the planet, and over every aspect of human existence.

Their loyal junior partners, the political servants of the Canadian business class, are testing public opinion too. Can the Jean Chretien/Paul Martin Liberal government get away with participation in George Bush's Star Wars 2? Can they get away with it after pretending to oppose the U.S. conquest of Iraq, after continuing to patrol the Persian Gulf, after sending 2000 soldiers to bolster the U.S. conquest of Afghanistan, after continuing to police the transition to capitalism in the Balkans?

To the space, land and sea-based missile system that is Star Wars 2, we say NO.

To the stupid, wasteful, dangerous and destabilizing Missile Defense programme, involving a total expenditure of nearly $1 trillion dollars - about 10 times the size of Canada's federal budget -- we say NO.

We demand: Money for human needs and decent jobs, not for weapons of mass destruction, not for Star Wars, not for the profits of big business and the war industry.

We say: Hands off Cuba, North Korea and Iran. Free the Cuban Five. U.S./Britain out of Iraq. Canada out of Afghanistan. Defend civil liberties. Repeal the so-called "anti-terrorism" laws. The *regime change* most urgently needed is in Washington, D.C.

To us it is clear that, so long as capitalism survives, the capitalist rulers will seek to roll back the modest gains of working people and our allies. Capital and its political servants will continue to ravage social benefits, public services and the human rights of the majority, while investing billions derived from our toil and intelligence into "profitable" means of destruction.

The only way to end the obscenity of global poverty, pollution and disease is to change the prevailing priorities, to take the toys away from the business boys, and to establish majority rule - a Workers' government and a socialist commonwealth in every land.

We can and we should start down that path today by demanding:

No to Star Wars 2. No more Hiroshimas. Eliminate all nuclear weapons. U.S. out of Iraq and the Middle East