Friday June 14, 2002
The Guardian
Let it not be said that people in the United States did
nothing
when their government declared a war without limit and
instituted
stark new measures of repression.
The signers of this statement call on the people of the
US to
resist the policies and overall political direction that
have
emerged since September 11, 2001, and which pose grave
dangers to the people of the world.
We believe that peoples and nations have the right to
determine
their own destiny, free from military coercion by great
powers.
We believe that all persons detained or prosecuted by
the US
government should have the same rights of due process.
We
believe that questioning, criticism, and dissent must
be valued
and protected. We understand that such rights and values
are
always contested and must be fought for.
We believe that people of conscience must take responsibility
for what their own governments do - we must first of
all oppose
the injustice that is done in our own name. Thus we call
on all
Americans to resist the war and repression that has been
loosed on the world by the Bush administration. It is
unjust,
immoral, and illegitimate. We choose to make common cause
with the people of the world.
We too watched with shock the horrific events of September
11.
We too mourned the thousands of innocent dead and shook
our
heads at the terrible scenes of carnage - even as we
recalled
similar scenes in Baghdad, Panama City, and, a generation
ago, Vietnam. We too joined the anguished questioning
of
millions of Americans who asked why such a thing could
happen.
But the mourning had barely begun, when the highest leaders
of
the land unleashed a spirit of revenge. They put out
a simplistic
script of "good v evil" that was taken up by a pliant
and
intimidated media. They told us that asking why these
terrible
events had happened verged on treason. There was to be
no
debate. There were by definition no valid political or
moral
questions. The only possible answer was to be war abroad
and
repression at home.
In our name, the Bush administration, with near unanimity
from
Congress, not only attacked Afghanistan but arrogated
to itself
and its allies the right to rain down military force
anywhere and
anytime. The brutal repercussions have been felt from
the
Philippines to Palestine, where Israeli tanks and bulldozers
have
left a terrible trail of death and destruction. The government
now
openly prepares to wage all-out war on Iraq - a country
which
has no connection to the horror of September 11. What
kind of
world will this become if the US government has a blank
check
to drop commandos, assassins, and bombs wherever it wants?
In our name, within the US, the government has created
two
classes of people: those to whom the basic rights of
the US
legal system are at least promised, and those who now
seem to
have no rights at all. The government rounded up over
1,000
immigrants and detained them in secret and indefinitely.
Hundreds have been deported and hundreds of others still
languish today in prison. This smacks of the infamous
concentration camps for Japanese-Americans in the second
world war. For the first time in decades, immigration
procedures
single out certain nationalities for unequal treatment.
In our name, the government has brought down a pall of
repression over society. The President's spokesperson
warns
people to "watch what they say". Dissident artists, intellectuals,
and professors find their views distorted, attacked,
and
suppressed. The so-called Patriot Act - along with a
host of
similar measures on the state level - gives police sweeping
new
powers of search and seizure, supervised if at all, by
secret
proceedings before secret courts.
In our name, the executive has steadily usurped the roles
and
functions of the other branches of government. Military
tribunals
with lax rules of evidence and no right to appeal to
the regular
courts are put in place by executive order. Groups are
declared
"terrorist" at the stroke of a presidential pen.
We must take the highest officers of the land seriously
when
they talk of a war that will last a generation and when
they
speak of a new domestic order. We are confronting a new
openly imperial policy towards the world and a domestic
policy
that manufactures and manipulates fear to curtail rights.
There is a deadly trajectory to the events of the past
months
that must be seen for what it is and resisted. Too many
times in
history people have waited until it was too late to resist.
President Bush has declared: "You're either with us or
against
us." Here is our answer: We refuse to allow you to speak
for all
the American people. We will not give up our right to
question.
We will not hand over our consciences in return for a
hollow
promise of safety. We say not in our name. We refuse
to be
party to these wars and we repudiate any inference that
they are
being waged in our name or for our welfare. We extend
a hand to
those around the world suffering from these policies;
we will
show our solidarity in word and deed.
We who sign this statement call on all Americans to join
together to rise to this challenge. We applaud and support
the
questioning and protest now going on, even as we recognise
the
need for much, much more to actually stop this juggernaut.
We
draw inspiration from the Israeli reservists who, at
great personal
risk, declare "there is a limit" and refuse to serve
in the
occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
We also draw on the many examples of resistance and
conscience from the past of the US: from those who fought
slavery with rebellions and the underground railroad,
to those
who defied the Vietnam war by refusing orders, resisting
the
draft, and standing in solidarity with resisters.
Let us not allow the watching world today to despair of
our
silence and our failure to act. Instead, let the world
hear our
pledge: we will resist the machinery of war and repression
and
rally others to do everything possible to stop it.
From:
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