demonstratr

Hello everyone!

         I have just gotten back from the School of the Americas protest this past weekend in Ft. Benning, Georgia.  As you may know, the School of the Americas, funded by U.S. tax dollars, trains the elite military forces of Latin America in torture and counter-insurgency tactics.  Graduates of the school have included notorious human rights abusers and have been guilty of massacring killing civilians (men, women, and children…literally *hundreds* of children under five years old), assassinating human rights activists, and overthrowing democratically elected governments. (History of the SOA: http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=343). 

          I’m happy to say that last weekend’s SOA protest appears was one of the largest I have attended and that energy was quite high.  Approximately 20,000 people gathered at the gates of this “School of Assassins” to demand an end to the U.S. role in genocide, torture, and coups in Latin America.  There were at least a few thousand more people protesting than last year.  It was a peaceful march, and thirteen people climbed the fence into the military base in civil disobedience; they face up to six months imprisonment.   There were also simultaneous solidarity demonstrations in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Paraguay and Peru, as well as in Ireland, Canada and elsewhere in the US.  The momentum to close the SOA–and to stop U.S. imperial aggression in general–definitely is growing.

         A wonderfully large range of organizations and individuals participated in the protest.  A few notes on this: I noticed that this year’s crowd seemed more racially diverse, I thought, than previous years I have attended the protest– a very nice development.  It was also a younger crowd–as one of the speakers noted, the crowd has gotten consistently younger at the rallies over the last few years–and might have been one-half college students. There was also a contingent of “1,000 grandmothers” who marched, as well as many other older participants.

           The Iraq Veterans Against the War were present en masse, including our own Lexington hero, Darrell Anderson, and others like him, who have risked imprisonment for their refusal to participate in the war.  There were a number of activists who had come up from Oaxaca, Mexico, denouncing the massacres that have occurred there in recent weeks, where approximately 20 protesters were shot and killed by troops, troops whose superiors were trained at the School of the Americas.  Students for a Democratic Society was there (I don’t know much about the new SDS, but the rebirth of SDS is just one more symbol of the change that is going on in this country, with a revival of the antiwar activism of the 60s!).  Amnesty International played quite an active role this year’s SOA protest.  

             As usual, various faith groups were present, including many Catholic orders of nuns, monks and priests (due to the large number of Catholic lay and religious activists killed in Latin America by SOA graduates, and due to the Liberation Theology movement), as well as Protestants, Jews, Muslims, indigenous (the Aymara indigenous peoples of Bolivia sent a delegate or two), Buddhist monks, and others with similar committments to faith and liberation.  Also, as usual, there were numerous union activists present (including the “Coalition of Immokalee Workers” farmworkers, who led a successful Taco Bell boycott recently), socialist and anarchist groups, various environmentally-focused activists, pacifist/conscientious objector groups…and the list goes on.  It was such a wonderful group of people; I was very proud to participate in this effort with all who attended the protest.

             I feel so hopeful; there was such a strong sense of solidarity and optimism at the protest, and many of the speakers alluded to the fact that the recent November vote was a “vote for peace.”  Though I have little confidence that the Democratic Party will act to withdraw troops from Iraq and prevent further imperialist aggression by the United States, the election definitely shows that there has been a sea change in U.S. opinion.  We have to keep struggling for justice while the tide is with us!

           There is currently a bill in Congress to close the School of the Americas: http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=96.  I am asking people to please write to their Congressional representatives in support of HR 1217 (The “Latin America Military Training Review Act”), which would order the closure of the School of the Americas.  There is a *very* good chance that this bill will pass, but it’s going to be a close vote, so every effort counts!  There is so much opposition to the SOA, and a similar bill almost passed last year, although it lacked 15 votes that it needed.  SOA Watch predicts that the bill to close the SOA will finally pass this year.  However, it is very important to pressure Congress; this will be a close vote.

           Of course, closing the SOA will not be sufficient to end the U.S.’s brutal military interventions into Latin America.  It will certainly be a very good start.  Though the SOA is likely to “shut down” this year or next, it will attempt to carry on its operations through “ILEAs”–”International Law Enforcement Academies” in El Salvador and elsewhere, which will continue to receive U.S. government support and continue to train torturers and assassins.  You can keep posted at the www.soaw.org site for updates on this.  CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador) is also watching the ILEAs closely and has more info on their website, I think. (Just google CISPES.)

           Also, please demand the release of the thirteen activists faced with imprisonment for their nonviolent act of resistance at the protest this year.  Information about their upcoming trials and a call for action on their behalf should be posted soon at: http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=322. 

          Thanks for reading this and taking action on this important issue.

[Personal note: This was my fifth time attending the annual November protest against the SOA.  For the last three years, I went to the protest with the Amnesty International chapter (of which I was President) at my previous university in San Antonio, Texas (University of the Incarnate Word, which is actually the largest Catholic university in the state of Texas, though few people have heard of it outside of Texas).  A couple of years before that, I attended the protest with my family.  When I moved to Lexington for graduate school this fall, I was initially lonely for the San Antonio activist community I have come to know and love, but I am very grateful to the Committee for Democracy and Social Change, the UK Amnesty International chapter, and Students Taking Action Globally/STAG, all of whom have enabled me to continue to participate in social justice activism.  I even worked with UK Amnesty International in organizing a film screening on the SOA shortly before the protest; kudos to Amnesty, both locally and internationally, for doing some great work on this issue.  (A few of us UK Amnesty folks had planned to go to the protest as a group, but unfortunately a family emergency and the burdens of homework forced us to cancel the group trip.  At the last minute, I called up Xavier University, whose peace and justice staff were so helpful in finding me a ride on short notice; I ended up hitching a ride with some older activists from Cincinnati.)] 

   In Solidarity,

   Joan Braune