Not
In Our Name
A Statement of Conscience signed by over 40,000 people in
the US
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.
Over 40,000 signatures
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