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 U.S. 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 United States 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, 2001.
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 vs. 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 U.S. government has a blank
check to drop commandos, assassins, and bombs wherever it wants?
In our name, within the U.S., the government has created two classes
of people: those to whom the basic rights of the U.S. 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 World War 2. 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 recognize 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 United States: 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.
Michael Albert
Laurie Anderson
Edward Asner, actor
Rosalyn Baxandall, historian
Russell Banks, writer
Jessica Blank, actor/playwrightv
Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange
William Blum, author
Theresa Bonpane, executive director, Office of the Americas
Blase Bonpane, director, Office of the Americas
Fr. Bob Bossie, SCJ
Leslie Cagan
Henry Chalfant, author/filmmaker
Bell Chevigny, writer
Paul Chevigny, professor of law, NYU
Noam Chomsky
Robbie Conal, visual artist
Stephanie Coontz, historian, Evergreen State College
Kimberly Crenshaw, Professor of Law, Columbia, UCLA
Kia Corthron, playwright
Kevin Danaher, Global Exchange
Ossie Davis
Mos Def
Carol Downer, board of directors, Chico (CA) Feminist Women's Health
Center
Eve Ensler
Leo Estrada, UCLA professor, Urban Planning
John Gillis, writer, professor of history, Rutgers
Jeremy Matthew Glick, editor of Another World Is Possible
Suheir Hammad, writer
Rakaa Iriscience, hip hop artist
David Harvey, distinguished professor of anthropology, CUNY Graduate
Center
Erik Jensen, actor/playwright
Casey Kasem
Robin D.G. Kelly
Martin Luther King III, president, Southern Christian Leadership
Conference
Barbara Kingsolver
C. Clark Kissinger, Refuse & Resist!
Jodie Kliman, psychologist
Yuri Kochiyama, activist
Annisette & Thomas Koppel, singers/composers. Savage Rose
Dave Korten, author
Tony Kushner
James Lafferty, executive director, National Lawyers Guild/L.A.
Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor, TIKKUN Magazine
Barbara Lubin, Middle East Childrens Alliance
Staughton Lynd
Anuradha Mittal, co-director, Institute for Food and Development
Policy/Food First
Malaquias Montoya, visual artist
Robert Nichols, writer
Rev. E. Randall Osburn, exec. v.p., Southern Christian Leadership
Conference
Grace Paley
Jeremy Pikser, screenwriter
Juan G-mez Quiñones, historian, UCLA
Michael Ratner, president, Center for Constitutional Rights
Adrienne Rich, poet
Boots Riley, hip hop artist, The Coup
David Riker, filmmaker
Edward Said
Starhawk
Michael Steven Smith, National Lawyers Guild
Bob Stein, publisher
Gloria Steinem
Alice Walker
Naomi Wallace, playwright
Rev. George Webber, president emeritus, NY Theological Seminary
Leonard Weinglass, attorney
John Edgar Wideman
Saul Williams, spoken word artist
Howard Zinn, historian
Organizations for identification only (signers as of 6/1/02)
Contact the Not In Our Name statement at:
nionstatement@hotmail.com
7:52:56 AM 
|
|
