NoDalMolin, CODE PINK & Hambastagi – 2017-08-12 01:07:21

Special to Environmentalists Against War

ACTION ALERT: Call for Global Action Against Military Bases — October 7, 2017
NoDalMolin, CODE PINK & Hambastagi

VICENZA, Italy (August 11, 2017) — It’s time to resist! TOGETHER!

Determined activists around the world have been resisting occupation, militarism, and foreign military bases on their lands for decades. These struggles have been courageous and persistent. Let’s unite our resistance into one global action for peace and justice.

This fall, during the first week of October, we invite your organization to plan an anti- militarism action in your community as part of the first annual global week of actions against military bases. Together our voices are louder, our power stronger and more radiant. Let’s resist together to abolish war and stop the desecration of Mother Earth.

Join us in creating a world where every human life has equal value and a safe environment in which to live. It is our hope that this is the beginning of an annual effort that will better unite our work and make our connections with each other stronger. Will you join us in this global effort?

Background:
On October 7, 2001, in response to the events on September 11, the United States and Great Britain launched the “Enduring Freedom” mission against Afghanistan. These giant military forces began their assault on a country already battered by the Soviet invasion and years of a devastating civil war that brought Afghanistan back to an obscure medieval existence by Taliban fundamentalism. Since 9/11 a new concept was established, Permanent Global Warfare, which has continued since that fateful day.

However, in those early days, a new social movement also emerged, which itself aspired to become global. Challenging the new world order marketed under the façade of the “War on Terror,” this international anti-war movement grew so rapidly that the New York Times called it “the second world power.”

Nonetheless, today we live in an increasingly insecure world, with ever expanding global wars. Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan,

Israel, Libya, Mali, Mozambique, Somalia, Sudan, and South Sudan are just some of the hot spots. War has increasingly become a strategy for global domination. This perpetual state of war has a devastating impact on our planet, impoverishing communities and forcing massive movements of people fleeing from war and environmental degradation.

Today, in the Trump era, this approach has intensified. The US withdrawal from climate agreements accompanies a destructive energy policy, ignoring science and eliminating environmental protections, with consequences that will fall heavily on the future of the planet and all who live on it. The use of devices such as the MOAB, “the mother of all bombs,” clearly shows the ever more brutal course of the White House.

In this framework, the richest and most powerful country, which possesses 95% of the world’s foreign military bases, regularly threatens to initiate military intervention with other major powers (Russia, China, North Korea, Iran), pushing them to grotesquely increase their own military budgets and arms sales.

It is time to unify all those around the world who oppose war. We must build a network of resistance to US bases, in solidarity with the many years of active resistance in Okinawa, South Korea, Italy, the Philippines, Guam, Germany, England, and elsewhere.

On October 7, 2001, the world’s richest country began its perpetual military assault and occupation of Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest nations. We propose the week of October 7, 2017 as the first annual GLOBAL ACTION AGAINST MILITARY BASES.

We invite all communities to organize solidarity actions and events during the first week of October. Each community can independently organize a resistance that meets their own community’s needs. We encourage community organizing meetings, debates, public speaking events, vigils, prayer groups, signature gathering, and direct actions.

Each community can choose its own methods and locations of resistance: at military bases, embassies, government buildings, schools, libraries, public squares, etc. To make this possible we need to work together in resolving our differences for a united front, giving strength and visibility to every initiative. Together we ARE more powerful.

As Albert Einstein said: “War cannot be humanized. It can only be abolished.” Will you join us? Let’s make this possible, together.

With the deepest respect,

First signatories
NoDalMolin (Vicenza – Italy)
NoMuos (Niscemi – Sicily – Italy)
SF Bay Area CODEPINK (S. Francisco – USA) World Beyond War (USA)
CODEPINK (USA)
Hambastagi (Solidarity Party of Afghanistan) STOP The War Coalition (Philippines)