'What's Driving the 'New Cold War' and How Can We Stop It?'

Our speaker will be Tova Fry, of the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) and the International Action Center (IAC). The subject will be the conflict in Ukraine between pro-Russian and pro-European Union factions there - and the specter of military intervention by the U.S. and NATO, whether direct or indirect, overt or covert.

UNAC formed in July 2010 at a conference of 800 activists from peace, environmental, and social justice groups around the U.S. The coalition adopted an "Action Program" that included a review of U.S. affairs, and initiated campaigns to deal with the war-and-peace issues of the time. It also considered demands to make on a U.S. government and system that, it asserted, puts profits above human needs.

UNAC's positions include a narrative of U.S./NATO support for the overthrow of a Ukrainian government leaning toward Russia - speculating on a possible U.S. eye on Russia's energy resources. The presence of a far-right faction also associated with the pro-western uprising further complicates the U.S. role. UNAC's position is to oppose our country's intervention, favoring spending resources on education, jobs and other needs here at home.

Tova Fry's anti-war work began in 1967, when she attended a Vietnam war teach-in at the University of Michigan and then boarded a bus to join the March on the Pentagon. In Detroit she continued to organize against the Vietnam war and U.S. actions in the Middle East.

Tova has been active with the IAC since 1992, helping to organize campaigns and educate against U.S. occupations around the world. She moved to the Bay Area in 2011.

As part of UNAC, Tova has helped to organize demonstrations against U.S. intervention in Libya and Syria, and more recently put on a community "speak out" in downtown Oakland against U.S. and NATO intervention in Ukraine. On June 15, Tova will offer a perspective on the Ukraine story that doesn't tend to make it into the mainstream media.
The UUSM is wheelchair accessible.