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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.
Kim Abeles, artist
William Blum, author
Rosemary Carroll,
attorney
Noam Chomsky
Ramsey Clark
Petah Coyne, artist
Culture Clash
Christine B.
Harrington, Direc- tor of the Institute for Law & Society, New York Uni- versity
David Harvey,
professor of anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center Martin Luther King III,
president, Southern Christian Leader ship Conference
C. Clark Kissinger,
Refuse & Resist!
Anuradha Mittal,
co-director, Institute for Food and Develop- ment Policy/Food First
Rev. E. Randall
Osburn, exec. v.p., Southern Christian Leadership Conference
David Riker,
filmmaker
Edward Said
Mark Selden,
historian
David Zeiger,
filmmaker
Howard Zinn,
and hundreds of
others.
(For a more complete
listing of signatories, see:
www.zmag.org/ZNET.htm)
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