12Noon-2pm *Solidarity Vigil at U.S. Embassy with Nonviolent Resistance at "School of the Americas"

by SOA Watch Thu Nov 09, 2006 12:46 Ft. Benning, Georgia,USA

Dear Friends in the Struggle,

Yesterday’s midterm elections results represent a victory for all grassroots activists working to hold the U.S. Congress accountable for failed policies and misplaced priorities. Over 20 of our opponents of the June 2006 amendment have lost their seats in the House surpassing the 15 vote margin we need to win a vote in Congress. With this new and more favorable Congress, we expect a successful vote on the SOA/ WHINSEC. The next few months will be a crucial time for SOA Watch as we work to connect with these new Members of Congress, educate them about this important issue, and urge them to support closure of the school.

As we prepare for the upcoming legislative campaign, we also need you to come to Georgia this November to show Congress that our movement continues to grow.

In hope,

Aisha, Christy, Emily, Eric, Hendrik, Joao, Lisa, Pam, and Roy

by Ploughshares Mon Nov 13, 2006 16:19

For more information Ph. 087 918 4552

Members of the recently acquitted Pit Stop Ploughshares www.peaceontrial.com and Luis Evelis Andrade Casama, president of the Organizacion Nacional Indigena de Colombia (ONIC) will be among those gathered at a solidarity vigil at the U.S. Embassy in Dublin, Ireland this Saturday 12noon-2pm. The gathering will remember the 1989 murders of six Jesuits and two Salvadoran women by graduates of the "School of the Americas" www.soaw.org Ft. Benning, Georgia, USA. Over 20,000 protesters will be gathering at Ft. Benning this weekend in the largest demonstration at a U.S. base in North America since the Vietnam War. They will be demanding the closure of the "School of the Americas" that specialises in teaching low intensity conflict techniques to Latin American soldiers.

Ciaron O'Reilly, one of the five Ploughshares activists unanimously acquitted in July '06 of $US 2.5 million "criminal damage without lawful excuse" to a U.S. Navy war plane at Shannon Airport en route to Iraq, stated "There is a direct link between Ireland and Ft. Benning! Many of the young Americans who have passed through Ireland to kill and be killed in Iraq, came from their combat training at Ft. Benning. Ft. Benning also hosts the notorious "School of the Americas" where Central and South American soldiers are brought to the U.S. to learn ways to wage war on the poor of their own countries.

We gather outside the U.S. Embassy in Dublin this weekend with the tens of thousands of Americans heading to close down the SOA at Ft. Benning. These are the Americans who are serious about confronting terrorism, they do it nonviolently and directly. We applaud their courage and their stamina and we offer our solidarity! We are blessed this weekend with the presence in Ireland of Luis Evelis Andrade Casama, an indigeneous Colmbian who knows the suffering inflicted by graduates of the SOA in pursuit of U.S. profits and policies of low intensity conflict!"

Background info
www.soaw.org
www.peaceontrial.com
Ph. 087 918 4552

by Ploughshares Thu Nov 16, 2006 16:57 087 918 4552

*12 NOON

- Set up shrine for six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter. massacred on Nov. 16th. 1989 at the University of Central America in San Salvador. Nineteen of the military officers cited for this atrocity have received training at the US Army School of the Americas, Ft. Benning, Georgia USA www.soaw.org

Martyrs of the University of Central America

* Ignacio Ellacuria, rector of the University and an outspoken critic of the Army

* Ignacio Martin Baro, who studied the effects of war on the human psyche

* Segundo Montes, a strong advocate for refugees and human rights

* Amano Lopez, a gifted counselor and pastoral worker

* Joaquin Lopez y Lopez, director of an education program in poor communities

* Juan Ramon Moreno, a gifted preacher and retreat leader

* Elba Ramos, the Jesuits’ housekeeper, remembered as sensitive and intuitive

* Celina Ramos, Elba’s 14-year-old daughter who had worked as a catechist

* 12NOON -1.30 PM

Vigil calling for the close of the School of the Americas, the demilitarisation of Shannon Airport and in solidarity with nonviolent resistance taking place at the School of the Americas, Ft Benning, Georgia this weekend. The vigil is in concert with other solidarity vigils in Manta/Ecuador, San Salvador/El Salvador, Asuncion/Paraguay, Colombia and throughout the U.S.

*12.30 PM
Speakers -Luis Evelis Andrade Casama, (president of the Organizacion Nacional Indigena de Colombia/ National Organisation of Indigeneous in Colombia)
-Ciaron O'Reilly (Pit Stop Ploughshares www.peaceontrial.com on history and ongoing nonviolent resistance at the SOA and Shannon Airport).
-Pepe (Chile)
....open sharing on U.S. wars in Central and South America.

*1.30 PM End vigil

**2.15PM - 3.45 PM Teachers Club

Luis Evelis Andrade Casama will be giving a longer presentation about his work with Organizacion Nacional Indigena de Colombia (National Organisation of Indigeneous in Colombia) as part of the Latin American Solidarity Centre AGM.

8 folks have made contact thus far intending to come to the vigil at the U.S. Embassy- from AWI, DCW, IAWM, LASC, Peace People

by mms Thu Nov 16, 2006 23:42

I participated at the solidarity delegation last April!!! contact me for any questions

Join the Guatemala Solidarity Project’s January, 2007 Delegation
January 4-15, 2007
Join us in January as we walk in solidarity with the Committee for Peasant Unity (CUC) and other grassroots organizations working for social justice and peace in Guatemala. We will visit numerous villages and organizations and examine the following questions:

How have Guatemalans organized in the face of genocide and systematic repression, and what lessons can we learn for our organizing?
Why does the US Government support Guatemala’s land eviction policy, and what is the impact on Guatemalans?
What has been the impact of US arming and training of Guatemalan militaries and paramilitaries?
How does the recently passed Central American Free Trade Agreement and other US economic policies affect the people of Guatemala?
How can we work towards long-term solidarity with the people of Guatemala?

Our visit will begin in Guatemala City, the largest city in Central America. Poverty and violence in the city are overwhelming. We will visit UPAVIM (United to Live Better), a women’s sewing cooperative formed in a squatter community, and learn of the challenges they have faced and overcome. We will also talk with domestic workers in the city about their struggle for basic rights. Current and former gang members will talk with us about the real reasons behind daily gang violence in Guatemala, and how the government’s “social cleansing” policy has only made things worse.

Then we will travel to eastern Guatemala and visit the area around Morales, Izabal. Also known as “Bananera,” this was the former headquarters of the United Fruit Company, which has disintegrated into Chiquita and other corporations. UFCO played a key role in the 1954 CIA overthrow of democratically elected president Jacobo Arbenz, the last progressive allowed to govern the country. Today Morales is still home to violent repression against peasants struggling for land rights and workers asking for tolerable working conditions. We will talk with numerous peasants in the area who are part of CUC, as well as banana plantation workers and union organizers.

After this we will head northwest to the department of Quiche, a central target of the genocide of the 1980s. We will visit returned refugee communities and Communities of Populations in Resistance to learn how they have organized in the face of genocidal repression. We will talk with peasants about their childhood in the mountains, hiding from US-armed and trained militaries, and how they have structured their communities today.

On our way back to the city we will speak with members of Majawil Q’ij about their struggle for the full rights and participation of Mayan women, and their work to revitalize Mayan knowledge and use of natural medicines.

Finally we will talk with representatives of the US government and multinational institutions and ask why they support continued repression. We will talk with the leaders of various peoples movements and amongst ourselves about how to work in solidarity with the people we have met.

For more info contact: Palmer Legare at 802 426 3783 or palmerlegare@yahoo.com
Co-sponsors:
Guatemala Solidarity Project, Vermont School of the Americas Watch, PeaceVermont, North Country Coalition for Justice and Peace

This delegation is open to all interested in learning more about Guatemala and US policy toward the nation. People willing to act in solidarity with the above organizations after returning from the delegation are most desired.

Cost for the trip, NOT including transportation to and from Guatemala, is on a sliding scale of $400 to $700. This includes pick-up at the airport, all transportation in Guatemala, all meals, translation, all housing, and drop-off at the airport after the trip. Scholarships are available on a limited basis.

by marie - ex-Galway Fri Nov 17, 2006 10:18

THank you thank you thank you!
so great to see what you have pulled together - will share with my
fellow
Living the Dream marchers -now that we are done with our 15 miles for
today, on our way from Selma to Fort Benning - will send you more info
later when more time - got to get to a meeting before the mass rally
now
thank you for your peacework!
marie

by Update Sat Nov 18, 2006 22:25

http://www.soawne.org/06SOAProtest/06SOAVigilFlier.html