Nov. 19-21: Convergence on Fort Benning
Close the School of the Assassins! All U.S. Troops Home Now!
Shut Down the SOA, School of the Americas!
Shut Down Stewart Detention Center
Latin American Peoples Organize to Resist Increased U.S. Militarization in the Region Schedule of Events for Convergence to Shut Down the School of Assassins


 

Close the School of the Assassins! All U.S. Troops Home Now!

From November 19-21, human rights organizations, student groups, and many anti-war forces will converge at Fort Benning Georgia to demand that the U.S. School of the Assassins (SOA) be shut down Now. The SOA is an integral part of the U.S. military machinery used to protect U.S. monopolies in Latin America and the Caribbean. It serves to further the aims of U.S. imperialism to block the building of alternatives in the region through use of force and outright annexation. The SOA sends thousands of U.S. trained and funded soldiers from Latin America into the region to organize death squads and terrorist attacks against unions, peasant organizations and all those defending rights. The SOA is responsible for countless killings of those resisting U.S. interference and dictate and standing for sovereignty. Voice of Revolution salutes all those participating in the Convergence of Resistance and joins in demanding that the School of the Assassins be Closed Now! U.S. militarization is deadly to the peoples at home and abroad, wasting untold billions for destruction and killing while serving to divide the peoples and undermine their rights. The best way to assist the peoples of the Americas is to Bring All U.S. Troops Home Now!

Latin America and the Caribbean are rich in human and natural resources. As part of its preparations for more war, the U.S. is organizing to increase control of the region, using militarization. Just before President Barack Obama took office, in June of 2008, the U.S. reactivated the Navy’s Fourth Fleet of battleships. Obama kept that decision in place. Since his election, a plan for use of seven Colombian bases was worked out. Shortly after that, plans were announced for two new U.S. naval bases in Panama. January 2010 saw another U.S. military invasion of Haiti, using the earthquake as justification for troops and U.S. control of the airport. In July of 2010, 7,000 U.S. marines and dozens of warships landed in Costa Rica – a country with no standing army – for a six-month tour of duty.

Latin America and the Caribbean also represent growing efforts to build alternatives to U.S. imperialism, alternatives that favor the people and their rights. Developments in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil; establishment of ALBA, the Bolivarian Alternative independent of the U.S.; efforts to establish ALMA, the Marti Alternative known as the SOUL of the Americas, uniting North and South America and bringing forward the rich thought material and traditions of the peoples contributing to a culture of resistance and governing models of the people’s own making.

Use of force and broad impunity show that the imperialists have no solutions. Resorting to force is their only option. U.S. war and militarism are aimed at blocking the development of alternatives in all the Americas. For the peoples it is clear that Another World is Possible and We Will Create It!

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Nov. 19-21: Converge on Fort Benning

Shut Down the SOA, School of the Americas!

From November 18-21, 2010, thousands will gather at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia to stand up for justice and call for the School of the Americas (SOA) to be shut down! The SOA is operated by the U.S. military and trains U.S. and Latin American soldiers to protect U.S. monopolies and carry out U.S. interference in Latin America. During its 59 years, the SOA has trained more than 60,000 Latin American soldiers in sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation [torture] tactics, all to oppose struggles for rights and sovereignty in Latin America. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the people. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into becoming refugees by U.S. trained and funded soldiers from the School of Assassins. SOAWatch calls on all to join in Shutting Down the School of the Assassins!

On Thursday, November 18 at 10am, the Latin America Solidarity Coalition's Conference Against Militarization kicks-off at the Quality Inn in Columbus, (1325 Veterans Parkway). The Puppetistas march through Columbus at 5pm (gather at 1353 23rd St). Organizers report that the weather is warm, sunny and perfect for celebrating the resistance at the gates of Ft. Benning!

This year there will be different ways for people to be involved in the Saturday action including crossing the line of the base of Fort Benning which risks federal arrest, or a city side action, outside the permitted area. We ask all interested to please join in Nonviolence Trainings Friday morning and afternoon. The practice of nonviolent direct action is an essential part of the movement to close the School of the Americas. All interested can also participate without risking arrest at permitted activities in front of the base.

The stage program at the gates of Fort Benning will take place on Saturday, November 20, 2010 from 11:30am - 4pm and on Sunday, November 21, 2010 from 8am - 2pm. The program will feature leaders from the resistance against the illegitimate U.S.-supported government in Honduras; Padre Jesus Alberto Franco, a leader from Colombia, who works with Afro-Colombian, indigenous and mixed-race farmers in resistance; Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit; Marie Dennis, director of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns and Co-President of Pax Christi International; United Auto Worker president Bob King; the Hip Hop group Rebel Diaz from the Bronx; the puppetistas, musicians and many other beautiful people.

Workshops and Vendors

The vigil at the gates of Fort Benning has become one of the largest annual progressive gatherings in the country. This year, 60+ tables hosted by progressive organizations and fair trade retailers will line Fort Benning Road throughout the weekend. Pick up a cup of fair trade, organic coffee at the Café Campesino tent, check out empowering literature at the Catholic Worker Bookstore, and learn about Witness for Peace's fall campaign at their table.

Dozens of workshops and other events will be held throughout the weekend at the Columbus Convention Center. Organizations and individuals such as Ann Wright, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Símon Sedillo, the Colombia Support Network, Pax Christi USA, and many others, will hold informative sessions throughout the weekend. There will also be concerts, student meet-ups, a Catholic liturgy at which Bishop Thomas Gumbleton will preside, a hip hop show case, film screenings including The Coca Cola Case and Quién Dijo Miedo (Inside the Coup in Honduras), nonviolence trainings, and other exciting events to look forward to!

4th Annual Vigil at the Stewart Detention Center

SOA Watch calls for justice for all immigrants including those held inhumanely and without due process at the Stewart Detention Center, an isolated, for-profit facility. Join the vigil November 19 at 10am in Lumpkin, Georgia. Those leaving from Columbus will meet outside the Convention Center (801 Front Ave.) at 8:15am to join the caravan led by a member of Georgia Detention Watch.

Join the Organized Actions

Get creative! Join the Puppetistas!

Educate people at the legislative table near the stage, contact Theresa at tmcameranesi@gmail.com.

Help with translation and interpretation. We still need bi-lingual English-Spanish interpreters. Contact Sara at sara.koopman@gmail.com. or Marcos at somospoetas@gmail.com.

Volunteer with the medics team, contact Larry at egbertL4pj@yahoo.com. Other organizing work includes: working at the event registration table; delivering programs to hotels; unloading tables and chairs for Saturday and Sunday's events at the gates; and more! Contact Nico at nico@soaw.org. For additional updates and information see soaw.org.

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Run by Corrections Corporation of America

Shut Down Stewart Detention Center

On November 19, the fourth annual vigil was organized at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia. The vigil is part of the weekend of actions to close the School of the Americas (SOA) in nearby Fort Benning. The vigil is expected to draw participants from across the United States, including people directly impacted by the inhumane and criminal detention policies of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Organized by several state and national human rights organizations, it links U.S. aggression and terrorism against the peoples of Latin America with its repression against immigrants in the U.S., many of them from Latin America.

The SOA Watch “Calls for justice for all immigrants including those held inhumanely and without due process at the Stewart Detention Center, an isolated, for-profit facility. We contend that many immigrants to the United States, particularly those from Latin American, are victims of U.S.-sponsored military training and other atrocious policies around issues like trade and immigration. In our fight to close the SOA, we continue to work toward a world that is free of domination and violence. We recognize the existence of SOA/WHINSEC and our unjust immigration policies as being parts of the same racist system of oppression. SOA Watch allies itself with those most affected by U.S.-backed violence in an effort to create a just world.”

The vigil also highlights the fact that private prison corporations, such as Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), which operates Stewart, are raiding the public treasury with the government’s assistance. Indeed, CCA has worked directly with state legislators in various states to pass anti-immigrant laws that emphasize detention. In Georgia they secure about $100 per day from the government for each person held in detention. Their profits have greatly increased alongside the massive increase in ICE detentions in recent years. CCA is currently the largest private operator of prisons and detention centers.

The vigil will highlight the unjust repression families’ face, both through detention of loved ones and in efforts to fight the government. As a report by Georgia Detention Watch, one of the organizers brings out, “One of the featured cases will be that of Pedro Guzman. Guzman has been detained at the Stewart facility for over a year, while his U.S. citizen wife, Emily, has spent tens of thousands of dollars fighting for justice. Their case is currently on appeal as Guzman was inexplicably denied bond in this civil matter. ‘I never knew that the immigration system in the United States was so outrageously flawed until I began to experience it through my husband,’ said Mrs. Guzman. ‘Pedro is one of the very few fighting his case of immigration detention. It is a daily emotional fight for him to continue without his freedom. He is incarcerated in a unit with more than 60 other detainees, no edible food, no privacy, no contact visits with us, being treated like an animal, and 9 hours away from our home. Most days he feels he can no longer fight. He qualifies to be here legally but the broken immigration system continues to detain him. Taxpayers are paying approximately $100 per day to keep Pedro away from me and his four-year old son.’

“This action follows prior vigils, humanitarian visitations, and the release of a report by Georgia Detention Watch focused on the Stewart Detention Center. ‘The spotlight on this remote immigration detention center is justified as it is the largest in the United States and has a growing list of alleged human rights abuses, including lack of adequate medical care and the imposition of solitary confinement without a disciplinary hearing,’ says Anton Flores-Maisonet of Georgia Detention Watch. The March 2009 death of Roberto Martinez Medina, an immigrant detained at Stewart, of a treatable heart infection further accentuated ICE and CCA’s deadly track record and the fact that the facility is located one hour from the nearest hospital.

“Additionally, Mark Lyttle, a U.S. citizen with mental disabilities who has a pending lawsuit against the U.S. government and CCA for his wrongful detention and deportation was detained unlawfully for six weeks at Stewart. Azadeh Shahshahani, an attorney on the ACLU case filed on behalf of Mark Lyttle said: ‘Mark’s case is a tragedy that serves to underscore the deep systemic injustices that continue to plague our government’s system of detention, one that involves notorious corporations such as CCA and remote facilities such as Stewart.’ He added, ‘Mark is just one of thousands of people in this country who have been victimized by a single-minded focus on detention and deportation without the kind of individualized determinations that are the essence of due process,’ said Shahshahani.”

These cases and many others indicate that individual rights are not protected in the U.S. system of democracy and neither are collective rights, such as those belonging to immigrants.

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Latin American Peoples Organize to Resist Increased U.S. Militarization in the Region

When President Barack Obama was inaugurated, people in Latin America, as in many parts of the world, expected a shift towards a more peaceful U.S. foreign policy. Those hopes were soon dashed by a series of bellicose U.S. policy moves in the region. But now civil society throughout the Americas has responded by organizing against increased U.S. militarization.

Organizations from Colombia to Honduras to Argentina oppose the further intensification of U.S. military presence in the region, and have been spurred to action. In January in Paraguay, during the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the World Social forum, more than 75 international and national groups launched the Continental Campaign against Foreign Military Bases. Modeled after the Continental Campaign against the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which successfully derailed the U.S. government's plans for a region-wide free trade agreement, the campaign seeks the removal of U.S. and other foreign bases from Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Campaign has already been active. In August, for example, Colombia hosted the International Summit of Women and People of the Americas against Militarization. The Summit brought together organizations and activists from all over the Americas under the slogan, "We do not birth sons and daughters for war."

Continental Campaign Against Foreign Military Bases

The Continental Campaign against Foreign Military Bases, particularly the Colombian branch, has already had successes. In response to a lawsuit brought to the country’s Constitutional Court, the Court ordered the suspension of the base licensing agreement unless it is fully reviewed by Congress. President Juan Manuel Santos has since tabled the issue indefinitely, saying that he will not submit the present agreement to Congress.

That victory does not signal the end of the Campaign’s fight, however. Enrique Daza, who is also a founding member of the Colombia No Bases Coalition, which participates in the Continental Campaign, says that “for the Coalition, the fall of the agreement does not imply the end of the economic and military dominance that the U.S. exercises over our country. The previous military agreements like Plan Colombia have meant submission of the country, all of our institutional and economic apparatus, to the rule of Washington. We will continue to monitor the military relations between Colombia and Washington that continue to be active, since Frank Mora (Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Western Hemisphere Affairs) has indicated that a military agreement with Colombia continues to be important for the U.S.”

In fact, he says, the Colombia No Bases Coalition, like the entire Continental Campaign, “does not exist solely to demand the removal of U.S. military bases in Colombia. Our objective is much more expansive and covers the fight against all types of military intervention in the continent, the criminalization of social protest and solidarity with the struggles of all of the peoples of the world for their self-determination. Our call is to consolidate an alliance with the greatest number of organizations that understand the process of repression that accompanies the intensification of neoliberal policies throughout the world.”

Indeed, one of the principal objectives of the Continental Campaign is for each country in Latin America to hold plebiscites so that the people themselves can decide if they want foreign military bases on their sovereign soil. The Campaign also makes it clear that it intends to collaborate in the fight against the criminalization of social protest and the domination and exploitation of the peoples of the region.

To participate in the Campaign in the U.S.:

• Participate in the Anti-Militarization Conference in Columbus, Georgia, held in conjunction with the annual School of the Americas Watch vigil to Close the SOA (see www.soaw.org)

• Join the December 10th Day of Action against military bases in the Americas.

• Attend a vigil for Haiti on the first anniversary of the earthquake.

Opposition to Increasing U.S. Militarism

When President Obama spoke at the Americas Summit in April 2009, he declared that he would seek a new, more inclusive and less-unilateral policy in the Americas. These pronouncements fueled expectations of a new direction for U.S. Latin America policy. Reality soon began to set in, however, with the signing of an agreement between the Obama administration and the Colombian government in October 2009, which would allow the U.S. military largely unfettered access to seven Colombian bases. Shortly thereafter, plans were announced for two new U.S. naval bases in Panama. Then the January 2010 earthquake hit Haiti, and the US military was sent to the ravaged island in large numbers to help with “recovery” efforts. In July of this year, 7,000 U.S. marines landed in Costa Rica –a country with no standing army – for a six-month tour of duty.

The writing may have already been on the wall even before Obama took office, foretold by the June 2008 reactivation of the Fourth Fleet of the U.S. Navy. The fleet, which had been inactive since the end of WWII, operates in the Caribbean and the waters of Central and South America. […]

Opposition to this increasing militarization has been fierce, especially in Latin America. Colombian social leader Enrique Daza, who serves as secretary of the Hemispheric Social Alliance, says that the signing of the Colombia bases agreement “generated great national indignation. The agreement constituted a concession without precedent, since [in doing so] the Colombian government formally ceded the monopoly of force, increasing the risk of violations of human rights and heightening tensions in the region.”

In fact, when the Colombia bases agreement became public, governments from Bolivia to Brazil voiced concern that the bases might be used for possible attacks against their own countries. Objections intensified after the discovery of a Pentagon budget document that described the U.S. presence in one of the proposed Colombia bases as an "opportunity for conducting full spectrum operations throughout South America," and suggested using the bases to confront the "threat" of what the document referred to as "anti-U.S. governments."

The Consequences of Militarism

Latin American is extremely rich in natural resources, and areas like the biodiverse Amazon basin and oil reserves in Southern Atlantic waters are believed to be attractive targets for militarized resource control. A precedent already exists in places like Colombia, where the military has been used to guard private oil pipelines.

Many people worry that increased militarization in the Americas will lead to — and in fact already is leading to — increased criminalization and repression of dissent. Colombia has been host to bogus legal cases against human rights defenders launched by Colombian military investigation units — some of which receive U.S. funding — in a clear effort to silence dissent. With U.S. backing, former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe oversaw the illegal wiretapping of many members of these groups, and under his watch Colombia remained the most dangerous country for unionists and one of the most dangerous for journalists. Honduras has seen a resurgence of the military-backed death squads famous in the 1980’s for their repression of union and peasant movements. Today they direct their fire against the broad movement seeking to restore democracy after the U.S.-backed 2009 coup that deposed President Manuel Zelaya.

One of several human rights scandals that erupted in Colombia in late 2008 concerned thousands of extrajudicial executions, euphemistically referred to as “false positives.” Several thousand cases have been reported—and surely many more have gone unreported—of this macabre practice in which young men were lured from poor neighborhoods by paramilitaries, taken to rural areas, killed by the army, dressed up as guerrilla fighters and claimed as combat kills – or “false positives.” The practice has also been used to silence human rights defenders and community organizers. As a recent report by the Fellowship of Reconciliation demonstrates, many of the units that committed the largest number of these killings received substantial U.S. military aid and therefore should have been evaluated for human rights abuses under the Leahy Amendment, a law requiring vetting of military aid for human rights abuses in the recipient country. […]

Moira Birss recently returned to the U.S. after two years in Colombia as a Human Rights Accompanier with the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

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Schedule of Events for Convergence to Shut Down the School of Assassins

Reflecting the internationalist spirit of the Convergence to Shut Down the School of the Assassins (SOA), the SOA Watch Translation and Interpretation Working Group are providing simultaneous Spanish language interpretation through headsets, which will be available at no cost near the stage.

Note: The following abbreviations signify different event spaces. Click on the link below to see where the spaces are located in Columbus.

CC (Columbus Convention Center, 801 Front Avenue)

QI (Quality Inn, 1325 Veterans Pkwy)

Warehouse (Puppetista Warehouse, 1353 23rd Street)

For a complete map of Columbus, Georgia, click here

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Monday - Wednesday [11/15-11/17]

All Day: Making Puppets, Warehouse

Thursday [11/18]

All Day: Making Puppets, Warehouse

1-7:30PM: Organizers' Strategy Conference on U.S. Militarization (www.lasolidarity.org), QI

7pm: Former Prisoners and Probationers of Conscience Dinner, Locos Amigos Cantina (1030 Broadway, Columbus, GA 31901)

• 7:30-11:30pm: Atlanta Benefit Concert to Close the SOA, Eyedrum Gallery

Friday [11/19]

• 9am-11pm: Event Registration Table: Stop by to pick up your vigil program! Any weekend schedule changes will be posted at this table, CC Lobby

• 9am-11pm: Tabler and Vendor Space, CC Riverside Lobby

• 9am-8pm: Silent Auction by the SOAW Latin America Office, CC Riverside Lobby

• 9:30am-12:30pm: SOA Watch Nonviolence Training: An Introduction, CC 201

9:30am-12:30pm: SOA Watch Nonviolence Training: Nonviolent Action Preparation, CC 207

10am-12pm: Immigrant Rights Rally at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia (45 minutes from Columbus). Meet at the Convention Center at 8:15AM to find a ride or join the caravan led by a member of Georgia Detention Watch.

• 11am-12:30pm: Film Screening: South of the Border, CC 101

• 12:15-1:45pm: A Biblical Vision of Economic Justice: A Call to Live Jubilee! CC 210

• 12:30-2pm: Latin America Solidarity Coalition presents: Building a Movement Against U.S. Militarism, CC 207

• 1-2:30pm: Film Screening: Ending U.S. Sponsored Torture Forever, CC 101

• 1-3pm: Anti-Oppression Training, CC 201

• 2-5pm: SOA Watch Nonviolence Training: An Introduction, CC 207

• 2-5pm: Entrenamiento en No-Violencia: La Preparación para la Acciόn No Violenta, CC 208

• 2-5pm: SOA Watch Nonviolence Training: Nonviolent Action Preparation, CC 210

2:30pm: Puppetista Building and Rehearsal, warehouse

• 3-5pm: Film Screening: Pink Smoke Over the Vatican, CC 101

• 3-5:30pm: Colombia Teach-In (Hosted by Witness for Peace), CC Sycamore Room

• 3-6pm: SOA Watch Peacemaker and Guide Training, CC 201

• 3:30pm: Puppetista Drum Circle Rehearsal, warehouse

• 5:30-7:30pm: The Gaza Flotilla - Citizens Challenging Israeli and U.S. Policies, CC 210

• 5:30-7:30pm: Witness Against Torture: Mobilizing to Shut Down Guantánamo, Bagram, and Other Detention Sites, CC 208

• 5:30-7:30pm: Return to El Salvador documentary, narrated by Martin Sheen & Faces of Witness: Portraits of Salvadorans in their own words, CC 101

• 6-8pm: Inclusive Catholic Eucharist, CC Sycamore Room A/C

• 6:15-8pm: Pax Christi USA Annual Gathering at the SOA, CC Sycamore Room B/D

• 6:30-7:30pm: Legal Observer Training (contact Nikki at nikkithanos@gmail.com with questions about what it means to be a legal observer), CC 201

• 7:30-8:30pm: TASSC International Presents: Torture and Accountability, CC 208

• 7:30-9:30pm: Direct Action: All Risk Levels and Creative Nonviolence, CC 207

• 8-10pm: Solidarity Does Make the Difference: Demilitarization of Latin America, CC 210

• 8-10pm: Life in Cuba Today and the 5 Cuban Political Prisoners Held in the U.S., CC 201

• 8-10pm: Film Screening: Burma VJ (academy award nominee), CC 101

• 8:30-11:30pm: The Peacemonger's Song Swamp: A Benefit Concert to Close the SOA, CC Sycamore Room

• 10-11:30pm: Why Lie (I Want a Beer): How We Can Better Serve, Love, and Understand the Homeless in Our Midst, 207

• 10pm-12am: (Still) Organizing After the Earthquake: Movement Building in the Caribbean and Beyond, 208

• 10:30-11:30pm: "Must we starve our children to pay our debt?" Updates on the IMF and Economic Violence; Jubilee USA's Fight for Economic Justice, CC 201

Saturday [11/20]

• 7am - 9am: Presbyterian Breakfast, Holiday Inn North, Reservations required. $10 for a full breakfast buffet. Speakers - Susana Pimiento from the Fellowship of Reconciliation Colombia program and Rick Ufford-Chase, director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship

For reservations, contact Marilyn White at marwhite@igc.org.

• 8-11am: Peace Walk to Close the SOA: Join the 11th Annual Peace Pilgrimage to Close the SOA at the Columbus Civic Center (intersection of Veterans Blvd. and Victory Dr.) to walk the final 4.5 miles of a 100-mile pilgrimage. Hosted by Nipponzan Myohoji (Buddhist order) and Alterna Community.

• 8-11:30am: Tabler and Vendor Space, CC Riverside Lobby

• 8am-11pm: Event Registration Table: stop by to pick up your vigil program! Any weekend schedule changes will be posted at this table, CC Lobby

• 8:30-11am: Labor Caucus: hosted by the UAW, USAS, US LEAP, AFSCME, AFL-CIO, and USW, CC 212 (Bilingual Workshop)

• 9-10:30am: Spontaneous choir / band rehearsal for anyone interested in playing or singing at the 6:30pm liturgy in the Convention Center North Hall -- All are welcome! CC 205

• 9am-7pm: Silent Auction by the SOAW Latin America Office, CC Riverside Lobby

• 9:00-10:30am: MORNING PLENARY! Learn about SOA Watch's 2010 campaign! All attendees are encouraged to attend for important weekend logistical, direct action, nonviolence, and legislative information. CC Ballroom

• 10-11am: Kids Learn SOA Songs to Close the SOA, CC 103

• 10-11am: Middle School Teach-In, CC 104

• 10:45-11:15am: Direct Action: All Risk Levels and Creative Nonviolence, CC Ballroom

• 1:30pm: Gather for Nonviolent Action Preparation last minute training in English and Spanish near the entrance to the rally on Ft. Benning road.

• 11:30am-4:30pm: RALLY AT THE GATES OF FORT BENNING (Bilingual)

• 2:30pm: Puppestistas Rehearsal, Ft. Benning Rd.

• 5pm-12am: Tabler and Vendor Space, CC Riverside Lobby

• 5-6:30pm: Making Space for Peace: Protecting Human Rights Activists and Communities in Resistance in Latin America, CC 213

• 5-6:30pm: Emancipación: Un Camino a la Liberación de los Inmigrantes, CC 212

• 5-6:30pm: Venezuela 101 -- 21st Century Democracy, CC 202

• 5-6:30pm: Film Screening: Pink Smoke Over the Vatican, CC 103

• 5-6:30pm: Haiti, the SOA Connection, and the Ongoing Repression of the Majority, CC 207

• 5-7pm: Demilitarizing Your Campus: Presented by the American Friends Service Committee, CC 208

• 5-7pm: Roots of Migration Workshop (Hosted by Witness for Peace), CC 211

• 5-7pm: Film Screening: The Coca Cola Case, CC Ballroom

• 5-8pm: Maryknoll Gathering, CC 104

• 5:30-7:00pm: HONDURAS: 510 Days of Impunity - 510 Days of Resistance. CC 205 ***

• 5:30-7:30pm: Christian Peacemaker Teams Gathering: Join in for a time of prayer, song, and story-telling in preparation for Sunday's vigil. All are welcome! CC 201

• 6:30-8:30pm: Students for a Democratic Society Gathering, CC 213

• 6:30pm: Catholic Liturgy: This year's Eucharistic Celebration is being planned by students, liturgists, campus ministers, musicians, and activists. Bishop Thomas Gumbleton will preside, CC North Hall

• 7-8:30pm: After the Election: Working Together to Create Economic Survival for All, CC 207

• 7-9pm: Veterans for Peace Gathering and Sharing, CC 208

• 7-9pm: Simón Sedillo presents: The Demarest Factor, U.S. Military Mapping of communal indigenous lands in Oaxaca, Mexico, CC 103

• 7-9pm: SOA Watch Legislative Training, CC 212

• 7:30-8:30pm: Roy Bourgeois and Lisa Sullivan Report on Bolivia's "Get Goni" Campaign / Followed by LIVE AUCTION! CC 205

• 7:30-9:30pm: Live Performance: Sentenced to Death for Not Killing - The Story of Ben Salmon, CC 211

• 8-10pm: The Coalition of Immokalee Workers: Fighting for Fair Food, CC 201

• 8-10pm: Job, Intern, Volunteer and Religious Vocations Fair (Hosted by SOA Watch). Interested in Making Social Justice Your Career? Stop by and visit tables hosted by groups including the Christian Peacemaker Teams, AFSCME, and Pax Christi. CC Ballroom A

• 8-11pm: The Swords Into Windmills: A Benefit Concert to Close the SOA, CC Ballroom

• 8:30-9:30pm: South/North Youth Organizing to Close the SOA (ALL Youth and Students are Welcome and Encouraged to Come!), CC 213

• 8:30-10:30pm: Return to El Salvador documentary, narrated by Martin Sheen & Faces of Witness: Portraits of Salvadorans in their own words, CC 104

• 9-11pm: The Militarization of Costa Rica: U.S. Warships and the SOA, CC 205

• 9-11pm: Colombia Support Network presents: A Powerful Connection: Linking Peoples and Communities, CC 202

• 9:30 pm - 11:00 pm: Presbyterian Peace Fellowship gathering for seminary and college students @Holiday Inn North. For information, contact Marilyn White at marwhite@igc.org. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

• 9:30-11pm: The "New Penitentiary Culture": How the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, USAID and the School of the Americas are Sowing Terror and Political Repression in Colombian Prisons, CC 208

• 9:30-11pm: Film Screenings: Children of the War and Children and Migration, CC 207

• 9:30-11pm: Emancipation: A Path to Immigrant Liberation, CC 212

• 9:30-11pm: No to U.S. Intervention in Colombia! Stop FBI Repression! A Presentation by Fight Back! Newspaper, 213

• 9:30-11:30pm: Film Screening: Quién Dijo Miedo / We are Not Afraid (Inside the Coup in Honduras), CC 103

• 10-11:30pm: Film Screening: Breaking the Silence: Torture Survivors Speak Out, CC 211

• 10:30pm-12am The Campaign to Stop Killer Coke, CC 201

• 10:45-11:45pm: The Roots of War: The World Bank and IMF's long history of economic violence, CC 104

Sunday [11/21]

• 7:45am: Veterans for Peace March from the Columbus Inn (formerly the Days Inn) to Fort Benning Road. If you cannot do the full walk, please meet at the end of Fort Benning Rd at 8am to join marching to the gates, although we highly encourage people who are able to meet at Columbus Inn.

• 8:45am-2:00pm: Memorial Service, Solemn Funeral Procession and Puppetistas, Fort Benning Rd.

• 2:00pm: Stage Breakdown. Volunteers needed! Meet at the stage!

Monday [11.22]

• 8:15am-12pm: Biggest SOA Watch Mailing Party of the Year! Volunteers Needed! QI

 

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Voice of Revolution
Publication of the U.S. Marxist-Leninist Organization

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