SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
For Immediate Release
November, 20 2018, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Email:,media@dsausa.org
The Democratic Socialists of Americas Calls on the United States to End Support for the Saudi-led Criminal Military Intervention in Yemen
The National Political Committee, the elected leadership body of the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America), has put out the following statement:
Since 2015, Saudi Arabia and its military "coalition" have been committing atrocities in Yemen on a colossal scale -- bombing hospitals, health clinics, schools, factories, markets, weddings, funerals, residential areas, even school buses, and killing thousands of civilians.
NEW YORK
The National Political Committee, the elected leadership body of the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America), has put out the following statement:
Since 2015, Saudi Arabia and its military "coalition" have been committing atrocities in Yemen on a colossal scale -- bombing hospitals, health clinics, schools, factories, markets, weddings, funerals, residential areas, even school buses, and killing thousands of civilians.
This unrelenting assault, coupled with a suffocating naval blockade, has created "the worst man-made humanitarian crisis of our time" in the words of the United Nations, which says Yemen is on the brink of the world's worst famine in a century, with 12 to 13 million civilians at risk of starvation. The war has also led to the worst cholera outbreak in the world, with roughly 10,000 cases reported per week.
The United States is deeply complicit in this staggering slaughter. It provides the weapons as well as the operational, logistical and intelligence support to the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen. The Pentagon also supports the Saudi campaign in Yemen through a classified operation and is reported to have special operations forces on the ground there.
In 2015, the Obama administration signed off on the Saudi intervention largely as a concession to the kingdom, which was irate about the Iran nuclear deal. Following reports of Saudi war crimes in Yemen, in October 2016 Obama banned the sale of precision-guided military technology to the kingdom. The Trump administration overturned that ban in March 2017.
Trump has deepened US support for the Saudi-Emirati intervention in Yemen, increased arms sales to the Saudi kingdom and emphatically embraced the reactionary agendas and repressive policies of the Gulf monarchies. Amid the global outcry over the Saudi kingdom's gruesome murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Trump administration announced that the US military would no longer refuel Saudi coalition planes.
While this suggests that the administration is feeling the heat from mounting pressure to recalibrate the US-Saudi alliance and US policy on Yemen, Trump continues to give the benefit of the doubt to Mohammed bin Salman, despite the preponderance of evidence that the Saudi Crown Prince directly ordered Khashoggi's murder.
Congressional efforts to end US support for the criminal Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen have been bolstered both by the Khashoggi affair and the results of the midterm elections. The "Murphy Amendment" introduced by Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and H.Con.Res.138 sponsored by Rep. Ro Khanna of California, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, would cut off US military assistance to the Saudi-led coalition. We also support the bipartisan legislation Senators Bernie Sanders and Mike Lee are bringing forward, S.J.Res.54.
While these measures have been opposed and circumvented by Republicans in Congress, the tide is now turning. This is a critical moment for the struggle to end US support for this criminal military intervention.
DSA strongly supports these measures and encourages all our members to urge their elected representatives and senators to sign on as co-sponsors. We also encourage DSA members to publicize and politicize this issue by joining the broader movement for peace in Yemen and the entire region.
The Yemen war is a complex conflict, one with internal Yemeni dynamics in addition to the regional and global ones addressed here. Ending the Saudi-led coalition's intervention in Yemen will not bring the war to a conclusion in and of itself. But it will end a horrific onslaught of war crimes, alleviate the threat of mass starvation and ease the suffering of countless Yemeni civilians.
Without US support, the Saudi-led coalition would lose its lifeline. But Yemenis themselves must bring this war to an end and rebuild their shattered society. Non-combatants are essential to securing peace in Yemen. DSA strongly supports Yemeni civil society and human rights activists in their struggles to end the war and forge a viable future.
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has over 55,000 members and 200 local groups (as of November 2018) building working class power while establishing an openly democratic socialist presence in American communities and politics.
LATEST NEWS
As Mexico Enacts Universal Healthcare, Advocate Says Insurers' 'Stranglehold' Is Moving US in 'Opposite Direction'
Medicare for All advocate Wendell Potter said it's "both inspiring and frustrating" to see other nations advance their public healthcare systems while the US dismantles its own.
Apr 10, 2026
As Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum moves forward with a plan to enact universal healthcare for her country’s more than 130 million people, a longtime advocate for Medicare for All in the US called the development “both inspiring and frustrating.”
"Inspiring because it shows what is possible," Wendell Potter, a former insurance company communications director who has become a leading critic of the industry, told Common Dreams. "Frustrating because here in the US we are going in the opposite direction."
Earlier this week, Sheinbaum announced a decree that she called "a historic step" for Mexico.
Beginning in 2027, her government plans to unify Mexico's public health institutions into a single Universal Health Service, allowing patients across the country to receive care from the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), the Social Security Institute and Social Services of Workers of the State (ISSSTE), and the IMSS‑Bienestar program, which provides free services to those without employer-provided insurance.
According to TeleSur, universal access would be rolled out gradually, with universal emergency care and continuity of treatment, free of financial constraints, beginning in January. Specialized services such as radiotherapy, laboratory tests, and imaging studies would be phased in later that year, and universal prescription fulfillment and hospitalization would also be added to the program in 2028.
"The goal is that when we leave the government [in 2030], any Mexican man or woman can go to any health institution for treatment for any ailment and be received," Sheinbaum said.
Mexico has expanded its annual healthcare budget in recent years, but Sheinbaum's government hopes that consolidating all of Mexico's health services into a single program will eliminate bureaucratic bloat and create a more cost-effective system that saves money over time.
Potter described the plan as “just another example of countries around the world lapping the US when it comes to healthcare policy.”
While tens of millions more previously uninsured Mexicans have become eligible for free care under the healthcare expansion efforts of Sheinbaum and her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the US under President Donald Trump is in the process of shredding public healthcare programs and subsidies.
Following the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by Trump last year, 11.8 million Americans are expected to lose Medicaid and other coverage, and more than 20 million are projected to see higher premiums after insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act were allowed to expire.
"Due to the stranglehold Big Insurance has on too many politicians in this country, instead of expanding care and lowering costs, we are simply helping Big Insurance make more and more money," Potter said. "It is totally backwards."
"We must continue to keep Medicare for All as our north star here. But also acknowledge the reality that we need to change so much about our current political environment to make it possible," he said. "And that has to start with breaking up Big Insurance's stranglehold on Washington."
Keep ReadingShow Less
US Inflation Rose 'Sharply' in March as Trump's Iran War Drove Up Gas Prices
“The toll of Trump’s war in Iran won’t stop at the pump,” warned one expert. “Price hikes on summer vacations, groceries, and electronics are coming."
Apr 10, 2026
New data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that inflation soared in March thanks in large part to increased energy costs stemming from President Donald Trump's illegal war with Iran.
According to the BLS, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) posted a month-over-month gain of 0.9% in March, led by a 10.9% increase in energy prices including a massive 21.2% increase in gasoline.
On a yearly basis, total prices rose by 3.3% from where they were in March 2025—the highest annual inflation rate since April 2024.
University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers commented in a social media post that inflation in March was "up sharply, and there's more to come," while describing the data as "the first numbers showing economic effects of the war in Iran."
New York Times economics reporter Ben Casselman observed that the 3.3% rise in inflation was "the fastest inflation rate of Trump's second term," and that "the jump was driven almost entirely by higher energy prices, the direct result of the war with Iran."
Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, flagged a particularly worrying aspect of the BLS report, which is that "wage growth is almost entirely eaten up by inflation now."
"Wage growth was +3.5% in March for the past 12 months. Inflation was +3.3% in March for the past 12 months," Long explained. "This is the squeeze many households are feeling. Their pay won't be able to keep up with this level of inflation. (And yes it was the same situtation in 2022)."
Elizabeth Pancotti, managing director for policy and advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative, said that the spike in inflation "comes as no shock to anyone who has filled up their gas tank in the past month," and predicted the damage wouldn't be limited to fuel prices.
"The toll of Trump’s war in Iran won’t stop at the pump," Pancotti said. "Price hikes on summer vacations, groceries, and electronics are coming down the pike as his war stokes chaos in supply chains around the world. By pursuing this illegal war, the president has made it clear that he’s putting American families last."
The Republican Party tried to put its best spin on the numbers by boasting that core inflation, which excludes the prices of food and energy, did not rise as much as anticipated.
"Core inflation just came in LOWER than expected for the month of March!" the GOP wrote in a social media post. "President Trump continues defying the 'experts' and beating expectations."
However, the GOP's post got several angry replies from followers who argued that core inflation mattered little when energy prices are spiking and gas prices are averaging $4.15 per gallon.
As Vox senior editor Benji Sarlin noted, former President Joe Biden's White House regularly pointed to core inflation numbers while trying to ease voters' anxiety about rising prices, but with little success.
"Congrats to all the Trump White House folks explaining the difference between topline inflation and core inflation during an oil shock today, I’m sure the Biden WH alums will be very sympathetic," Sarlin wrote. "People on social media also love it when you say inflation is actually pretty good if you just exclude gas, try it out."
Keep ReadingShow Less
UNICEF Says Children 'Being Pulled From Under Rubble' in Lebanon After Israeli Bombardment
The United Nations Children's Fund warned that Israel's continued assault on Lebanon "poses a grave risk to the ceasefire and the efforts toward a lasting and comprehensive peace."
Apr 10, 2026
A United Nations agency said late Thursday that Israel's massive bombardment of Lebanon earlier this week killed or wounded more than 180 children, a statement issued as the Israeli military vowed to continue assailing the war-ravaged country—potentially derailing ceasefire efforts in Iran and across the region.
The UN Children's Fund, widely known as UNICEF, said the toll from Israel's assault on Wednesday brought the total number of children killed or wounded in Lebanon since March 2 to at least 600. The agency said it is "receiving reports of children being pulled from under the rubble, while others remain missing and separated from their families."
"Many are experiencing trauma, having lost loved ones, their homes, and any sense of safety," UNICEF said. "Across the country, more than one million people have been uprooted, including an estimated 390,000 children, many for the second, third, or even fourth time."
UNICEF went on to echo growing concerns in the region, and around the world, that Israel's continued bombing and invasion of Lebanon "poses a grave risk to the ceasefire and the efforts toward a lasting and comprehensive peace."
"The children in Lebanon cannot be left behind," the UN agency said.
UNICEF's statement came as the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces said Lebanon is the Israeli military's "primary combat" zone and that the IDF is "in a state of war, we are not in a ceasefire."
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have both insisted that Lebanon was not included in the Iran ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday—a claim that Iranian leaders and Pakistan's prime minister, who is mediating peace talks, have said is false.
On Thursday, Trump said Netanyahu agreed during a phone call to "low-key it" in Lebanon. But in a recorded statement addressed to residents of northern Israel on Thursday, Netanyahu declared: “There is no ceasefire in Lebanon. We continue to strike Hezbollah with force, and we will not stop until we restore your security.”
Netanyahu's decision to escalate Israel's attacks on Lebanon—killing hundreds of people and leveling entire neighborhoods—just hours after Trump announced the ceasefire deal with Iran fit with a longstanding pattern of the Israeli government undercutting diplomacy.
Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, wrote for The Intercept on Thursday that Israel "has worked ceaselessly to prevent any off-ramp from confrontation between the US and Iran," noting that "in 1995, when Iran and the US flirted with economic rapprochement by opening the Iran oil industry to American investment and development, Israel and AIPAC lobbied Congress and President Bill Clinton to block it."
"Netanyahu is widely thought to benefit from wars—from Gaza to Iran and now, most critically, in Lebanon—to shore up his political fortunes. He faces an election in October, and losing could lead to the revival of corruption charges that might land him in prison," Abdi noted. "The question now may unfortunately not be whether Iran and the US can find a compromise. Instead, the fate of the global economy and, not least, Iranians themselves, could rest between Netanyahu and Trump, who faces his own political challenges in midterm elections this year."
US Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) wrote Thursday that "Netanyahu urged Trump to start this war, now Trump must demand he help end it."
"Who's calling the shots here?" Van Hollen asked.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular