End the Militarization of Asia and the Pacific! Fight to Cancel RIMPAC!

On April 10th the Resist US-Led War Movement joined the International Women’s Alliance and BAYAN USA in launching the international campaign to Cancel the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) military exercises. RIMPAC is the world’s largest US-led joint war exercises, held biannually in occupied Hawai’i and involving the militaries of more than 20 US allies. In support of the people of Hawai’i who have been organizing against RIMPAC since it began in 1971, the international campaign aims to galvanize people throughout the continental US and around the world to expose and oppose the destructive and lethal war games. The international campaign will culminate with a convergence in San Diego this summer, where the US Navy will host an opening reception prior to departing for RIMPAC in Hawai’i. 

The day following the campaign launch, the White House hosted the first ever Trilateral Summit of the US, Japan and the Philippines. Shoring up US military alliances in a build up to war with China, the Trilateral Summit undergirds the very reason we launched this campaign against the RIMPAC joint military exercise -- the exercises are blatant shows of force designed to project the power of US-led military alliances. The alliances themselves are tools used by the US to secure its long term military and political interests, over which the US is rapidly losing its grip.

On the Philippines’ side, the US-Marcos puppet regime raked in $128 million in military aid from the US, amounting to more than the past 10 years combined. This will go primarily into infrastructure for the at least nine new bases that Marcos is allowing the US to use under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. Funds will also purchase new attack helicopters, missiles, fighter jets, rifles and other weapons that the Armed Forces of the Philippines uses in repressive military operations against their own people. Further, the Philippines Enhanced Resilience Act of 2024 (PERA Act) was introducedenate in the US Senate to strengthen and modernize the U.S.-Philippines alliance through significantly increased U.S. security assistance--a total of $2.5 billion in Foreign Military Financing over the next 5 years. 

On the Japanese side, the US-Kishida parter imperialist regime advocated for a place in the Australia-United Kingdom-US (AUKUS) military agreement to secure investments in military AI, cyber and hypersonic warfare, while declaring plans to double the nation’s military spending within the next 5 years.  This would make the country the fourth largest military spender in the world after the US, Russia and China. Japan also discussed its other Trilateral Agreement with the US and South Korea and plans for continued military exercises that have been taking place over the Korean Peninsula as an unprovoked show of force to the government of the DPRK.

With this Trilateral Summit, the governments of both Japan and the Philippines made it clear that they will toe the line of the US Indo-Pacific Strategy, marking China as their main target and allowing their countries to be used as pawns in the US so-called “Island Chain Strategy” of encircling China with bases, missile silos and surveillance radars.  Japan and the Philippines pledged to conduct even more military exercises together, including joint patrols around the Taiwan Strait, outside the maritime borders of all three nations.  This will only put a target on both countries as the US plans its aggressive strategies miles across the ocean in Washington DC.

As the US works to put in motion ever more military agreements in Asia and the Pacific with the help of its partner imperialist and puppet governments like Japan and the Philippines, the peace loving people of the world must unite and show our mass opposition to US-led war and the build up to World War 3.  Join us in the international campaign to Cancel RIMPAC and say no to all provocative military exercises and alliances!

The US uses RIMPAC to strengthen the abilities of 26 of its allies’ militaries to wage wars of aggression around the world, further fueling tensions between major military powers. Through weapons testing and war-games during RIMPAC, defense contractors and fossil fuel corporations reap hundreds of millions of dollars in profits. The US military occupation of Hawai'i violates native Hawaiian sovereignty and turns Hawai'i into a testing ground for current and future wars. RIMPAC leads to environmental destruction, violence against women, and a gross neglect of the day to day needs of people all over the world by advancing US-led wars.

But just as people around the US and the world took to the streets to condemn the Trilateral Summit, we will do the same for every manifestation of rising militarism that we are able to, culminating in the mass mobilization to San Diego this summer!

Get involved in the international Cancel RIMPAC campaign today!  Sign up on the campaign interest form: https://tinyurl.com/CancelRimpacSupport

To learn more, view the recording of the campaign launch: https://youtu.be/uL1V967FhVc. Also download the slides for an in depth look at RIMPAC and the campaign.