San Francisco Bay View & The Black Alliaince for Peace – 2018-12-16 00:42:38
https://blackallianceforpeace.com/movement-news/firstconferenceagainstusnatomilitarybases
Black Internationalists Demand
Closure of Hundreds of US Military Bases
San Francisco Bay View & The Black Alliaince for Peace
(December 2018) — The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), a founding member of the Global Campaign Against US/NATO Military Bases, joined 300 attendees from 36 countries at a historic conference last weekend that re-committed anti-war activists to closing US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military bases throughout the world.
The Global Campaign Against US/NATO Military Bases held its first international conference November 16-18 at Liberty Hall in Dublin, Ireland. The conference’s Unity Statement was endorsed by more than 700 individuals and organizations.
The Dublin conference convened several months after the US-based Coalition Against US Foreign Military Bases held its first conference in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States. Ireland was chosen because of its neutral position, having never joined NATO.
The United States operates more than 1,000 military facilities on six continents. This enormous presence embodies the US policy of Full Spectrum Dominance, which threatens democracy and self-determination for other nations.
BAP reaffirms our commitment to this world-wide initiative and to our recently launched campaign, US Out of Africa!, to shut down US Africa Command (AFRICOM). This military program is present in 53 out of 54 African countries. BAP is circulating an online petition that makes these demands:
1. The complete withdrawal of US forces from Africa,
2. The demilitarization of the African continent,
3. The closure of US bases throughout the world, and
4. The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) must oppose AFRICOM and conduct hearings on AFRICOM’s impact on the African continent.
After recent US midterm elections, the Democratic Party now makes up the majority of the US Congress and owes that status to Black US voters. As colonized subjects on stolen land, the US-based Black diaspora wants the nations of their ancestral continent to live freely and independently, which means AFRICOM must be dismantled. The BAP petition calls on CBC members to act as true representatives of their constituents, who are among the most peace loving in the country.
There can be no peace or democracy when a group of nations and their proxies can wage violent action against people around the world. BAP’s mission to re-capture and re-develop the historic anti-war, anti-imperialist and pro-peace positions of the radical Black movement will play a crucial part in the Global Campaign Against US/NATO Military Bases.
US out of Africa!
Shut down AFRICOM!
Close all US and NATO foreign bases!
Note: The Joint Communiqué adopted by participants at the First International Conference Against US/NATO Military Bases is posted below.
https://blackallianceforpeace.com/movement-news/firstconferenceagainstusnatomilitarybases
PRESS COMMUNIQUE OF THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE AGAINST US/NATO MILITARY BASES
Adopted by the participants at the
First International Conference Against US/NATO Military Bases
November 18, 2018
Dublin, Ireland
DUBLIN (November 16, 2018) — The First International Conference Against US/NATO Military Bases was held on November 16-18, at the Liberty Hall in Dublin, Ireland. The conference was attended by close to 300 participants from over thirty-five countries from around the world. Speakers representing countries from all continents, including Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, United States, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Poland, United Kingdom, Ireland, Czech Republic, Israel, Palestine, Kenya, D.R. Congo, Japan and Australia, made presentations at the conference.
This conference was the first organized effort by the newly formed Global Campaign Against US/NATO Military Bases, created by over 35 peace, justice and environmental organizations and endorsed by over 700 other organizations and activists from around the world. What brought all of us together in this International Conference was our agreement with the principles outlined in the Global Campaign’s Unity Statement, which was endorsed by the Conference participants.
The participants in the Conference heard from and shared with representatives of organizations and movements struggling for the abolition of foreign military bases from around the world about the aggressions, interventions, death, destruction, and the health and environmental damages that the military bases have been causing for the whole humanity along with the threats and violation to the sovereignty of the “host” countries.
The participants and organizers of the conference agreed as a matter of principle that while they oppose all foreign military bases, they consider the close to 1,000 US/NATO military bases established throughout the world, which constitute the main pillars of global imperialist domination by US, NATO and EU states, as the main threat to peace and humanity, and must all be closed.
The NATO states’ military bases are the military expression of imperialist intervention in the lives of sovereign countries on behalf of the dominant, financial, political, and military interests, for the control of energy resources, transport roads, markets and spheres of influence, in clear violation of international law and the United Nations Charter.
The participants in the Conference call upon the organizations and movements who agree on the above to work closely with each other in a coordinated manner as a part of the Global Campaign to organize and mobilize the public around the world against US/NATO military bases.
While we call for the closure of all US/NATO military bases, we consider the closure of bases and military installations in certain countries and areas as needing special attention by the international movement.
These, for example, include
*the Guantanamo US base in Cuba,
* the US bases in Okinawa and South Korea,
*the US Base in Rammstein/Germany,
*Serbia,
*the old and new US/NATO bases in Greece and Cyprus,
*the establishment of the new US African Command (AFRICOM) with its affiliated military bases in Africa,
*the numerous NATO bases in Italy and Scandinavia,
*the Shannon Airport in Ireland, which is being used as a military base by the US and NATO,
*and the newly established bases by the United States, France and their allies on and around the Syrian soil.
In order to continue our joint Global Campaign in solidarity with the just causes of the peoples in their struggle against foreign military aggression, occupation and interference in their internal affairs, and the devastating environmental and health impacts of these bases the participants agreed to recommend and to support coordinated actions and initiatives in the coming year (2019) which shall strengthen the global movement to expand the actions and cooperation while moving forward.
As a step toward this goal, the conference supports the global mass mobilizations against NATO’s 70th Anniversary Summit in Washington D.C., on April 4, 2019 and respective protests in the NATO member states and worldwide.
We declare our solidarity with the Cuban people’s decades-long efforts to take back their Guantanamo territory, illegally occupied by the United States, and declare our support for the Sixth International Seminar for Peace and the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases, organized by MOVPAZ for May 4-6, 2019, in Guantanamo, Cuba.
The participants express their most sincere thanks and gratitude to the Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA) Ireland, for their generous hospitality and support in hosting this historic Conference.
Conference Against US/NATO Military Bases: A Video Summary
Watch videos from all three days of the First Conference Against US/NATO Military Bases, which was held in Dublin, Ireland, November 16-18. BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka and BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley serve on the Executive Committee of the US-based Coalition Against US Foreign Military Bases, of which BAP is a founding member. Ajamu chaired a panel on Day 2 and Margaret chaired the AFRICOM panel on Day 3.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
