Is this Mordor or Tar Sands?!

Tar Sands extraction in northern Alberta is called many things – an environmental disaster, a carbon ‘bomb’, and it’s often likened to Tolkien’s Mordor. For someone who has been there, I think it’s an apt description. This summer, First Nations and Metis communities living at ground zero are inviting people to come together to join the fourth Healing Walk.

Forward on Climate rally in DC, Feb 2013

As the Summer Heat actions begin across the United States, “from where fossil fuels leave the ground, to the halls of power…” to challenge the fossil fuel industry and as activists prepare “…to stand up – peacefully but firmly — to the industry that is wrecking our future,” the Healing Walk invites us to, “come and see the impacts of the tar sands and be a part of the healing.”

I’m honored to be going. Sharing solidarity, ceremony and the Walk with communities on the frontlines of the tar sands is essential for me to re-commit to fight to stop the tar sands alongside those impacted by it. And also to recognize that those in power, often supported by immense corporate interests have failed to protect land, air, and water for future generations.

As the Healing Walk site says,

“No one feels this more then the people that have lived in the Athabasca River region for generations. They have watched their land get destroyed, they are forced to breathe dirty air, and in many communities they can no longer drink the water. The wildlife they have traditionally harvested are getting scarce, the fish they harvest have tumours, and the medicinal plants are disappearing along with the permanently changed landscape.”

Sign up to join the Healing Walk here.

When you join the Healing Walk, you will see the tar sands for yourself and have the opportunity to join others to heal the communities and land, and return home to take action with passion and determination. You will be amongst those directly affected by the tar sands who stand up everyday to speak on behalf of the land. You will march with Beaver Lake Cree Nation mother and tar sands fighter, Crystal Lameman, who was honored just last month at Global Exchange’s Human Rights Awards and inspired everyone in the audience with her telling words,

Crystal Lameman received the Grassroots Award in San Francisco, May 2013

“When disaster strikes it is not going to know race, color or creed. I’m here to tell you, when that happens, the greed is going to see that it cannot eat money and you cannot drink oil.  And that we all bleed the same color. …If the government and industry think that throwing money at us is going to make this better, I choose life and my children’s lives and I choose health over money.”

And with the news of the planet hitting 400 parts per million of CO2, a number way beyond the limit of what is needed to maintain a healthy planet, her words are even more prescient.

TAKE ACTION!

• Join the Healing Walk and be part of the solution to stop the destruction.

Details about the events and logistics for July 5th and & 6th are straightforward and lots of support is being provided for accommodations and transportation. Sign up now.

• Please be in touch if you want to join me July 5th & 6th on the Healing Walk. Together we’ll come back ready to Beat the Heat this summer, fight the Keystone XL pipeline, work for climate justice and stop the tar sands.

Other things they got right: long hair and mustaches.

We’ve certainly had our fair share of help along the way, often coming from the most unexpected places. When Global Exchange first started in 1988, our office was furnished with donations, our decor a mishmash of orange desks and a number of posture-enhancing chairs from a Catholic girls school (some of which are still in the office today!) A kindly guy at Kinkos let us come in after midnight to print our pamphlets for free. And our first major donor gave us $15,000 – allowing us to hire our first staff person AND buy a laser printer. (Laser printers were a pretty big deal back in 1988).

The perfect color for driving global revolution

The generosity and dedication of many people helped us through our early days, and a diverse, international network of supporters continues to provide the foundation and strength for all we do. A quarter century of help from our friends has allowed us to accomplish a great deal in advancing human rights and promoting resilient ecosystems. From challenging the travel ban to Cuba to demanding Freedom From Oil, you’ve been there.

But we’re not done yet. Far from it.

We’re putting out a call to our support network to help us drive the next quarter century of change by becoming Global Exchange Monthly Sustainers (GEMS). By making a regular, monthly gift, you can provide a bedrock of financial support that allows us to focus our energies on the most pressing issues of our time: ending the drug war, stopping fracking, and getting money out of politics.

Sign up here to become a Global Exchange Monthly Sustainer.

One of these could be yours if you become a GEMS today. Blue desk not included.

Over the next month, we’re recruiting 25 new monthly givers, each giving $25 or more a month: 25 GEMS for 25 years! We’re going to raise $7,500 to give our work a boost over the coming year.

Will you be one of the 25? A gift awaits you.

There’s a special bonus when you become a GEMS at $25 or more a month; you will receive a book signed by Noam Chomsky, our 2013 Human Rights Award Honoree. If you’re interested, you better hurry. We can only guarantee books for the first 25 people to sign up at $25 or more a month.

Click here to sign up now.

And if you happen to have an extra orange desk lying around…just kidding.

Devastatingly, as we follow, protest, monkey wrench and resist the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiation round taking place in Lima, Peru this week, we have a concrete example. Free Trade looks like the 1,127 workers who perished in the sweatshops in the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh.

Since April 24, corporations have rushed to distance connections with the fugitive owner of the unsafe building, pledged compensation to the grieving families, and stepped up to act more responsibly. And while the negative PR from the disaster was enough to finally break European companies like H&M, Zara, Primark and Canadian grocery giant, Loblaws into signing a legally binding agreement to pay for third party safety inspections of their operations, the underlying cause of this, and other disasters, has yet to be challenged.

Primark operated in Rana Plaza.

Across the world in countries like Bangladesh, companies operate to supply the North with cheap clothes made in sweatshops, made ‘competitive’ in the global market through corporate globalization.

Thanks to Free Trade agreements, companies pay workers less than a dollar a day (the workers in Rana Plaza were making $38 a month, an amount considered high – after it was raised following protests a year ago), make the right to organize illegal, ignore safety and environmental rights and sometimes bribe local officials to override local law to reap in billion dollar profits.

So, while the effort to rescue survivors and recover bodies from Rana Plaza now becomes an effort to clear and demolish the site, corporations like those that operated in Rana Plaza are, right now, lobbying for more Free Trade, for the TPP.

As the Lima round of TPP negotiations are underway (May 15-24) corporate interests are lobbying for more access to operate more sweatshops in Brunei, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. The Citizen’s Trade Campaign factsheet called ‘What Corporations Want With the TPP‘ directly links corporate lobbying to disappear worker protections and rights in pursuit of cheaper manufacturing and higher profits. They say:

“Many corporations are looking for ways reduce labor costs and undercut worker power in the United States, China and throughout the world. The TPP would grant corporations easier access to labor markets in countries such as Vietnam where workers are paid even less than Chinese sweatshop workers. Whether or not corporations decide to move their production to these lower-paid countries, the threat of moving there (or of being undercut by competitors who have already done so) can be used suppress employee compensation virtually anywhere in the world.“

We cannot let the victims of Rana Plaza be forgotten. The U.S. retail giants like GAP and Walmart that have refused to sign the safety agreement must be pressured to do so. But the TPP is slated to become the largest Free Trade Agreement in the world, and if we don’t stop it from happening and demand fair trade, we will suffer more even disasters.

TAKE ACTION! (Action items updated on 5/21/2013):

• Watch a (recorded) video conversation with Fair Trade activists in Lima; Listen to a great interview, it’s a comprehensive TPP primer; and learn more about the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
•  Tell GAP to end death traps and sign the legally-binding Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Agreement.
• Join a Reality Tour to learn more about the impacts of the corporate global economy on workers and the environment.

350.org in Australia

It took a couple of years for the number to stick:  350. Its the number (parts per million of C02) that we need to maintain if we want to save our lovely planet. But this weekend we topped 400 and like the frog in the pot of water that is slowly coming to a boil we may have reached a point of no return.  But we can’t live like that – fear and despair won’t change anything.

Crystal Lameman, of the Beaver Creek Cree who was honored at this year’s Global Exchange Human Right’s award says: “When disaster strikes it is not going to know race, color or creed. I’m here to tell you, when that happens, the greed is going see that it cannot eat money and you cannot drink oil.  And that we all bleed the same color. . .…If the government and industry think that throwing money at us is going to make this better, I choose life and my children’s lives and I choose health over money.”

Crystal Lameman and Carleen Pickard at Global Exchange Human Rights Awards

350.org has been building the broadest possible movement to fight climate change — making links around the world from Uzbekistan to Argentina, keeping that 350 number in front of UN negotiators and student activists alike. So it was with some trepidation that I saw a long e-mail from Bill McKibben cross my computer screen this weekend. What could he say that would lift my spirits and encourage me to keep up the fight even as the water begins to boil.

He calls us to fight – to do hard, important and powerful things this summer.  As we start experiencing the climate chaos of the summer months he says we have to turn up the heat on our politicians to get the number down again. “Summer Heat”– is a call to do something to stop our addiction to fossil fuels and the policies we’ve built around that addiction to maintain it — from fracking in California to the Keystone XL pipe line, to oil company’s dirty refineries to the struggles by front-line communities suffering from impossibly brutal extraction techniques, to mountain top removal and toxic sludge. To survive we have to struggle together.

Carleen Pickard, our Executive Director, said when she introduced Crystal Lameman, “I believe struggling for climate justice is our highest calling and greatest challenge as a movement. Some think of climate change as a distant or untouchable crisis, but we know every pollutant and every carbon emission is generated in a real place in real time. And as we confront this crisis together with the leaders from the front lines, we know an injury to any community on our beautiful planet will eventually injure us all.

Protecting the vitality of the atmosphere that sustains all life on Earth means we have to forge a new path past the international institutions have failed and abandoned us in the wake of corporate globalization. We must be brave. We must be fearless, and relentless. We must work together.”

Thank you Bill Mckibben! Thank Crystal Lameman, Thank you Carleen Pickard!  It is one big fight we all want to be part of.

Join us at Global Exchange this summer to Beat the Heat!  This will be a chance for thousands of us to show the courage and love we need to bring the number down!

Update 5/21/2013: Guatemala genocide conviction overturned.

From CNN.com:

When former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt was convicted of genocide and sentenced to 80 years in prison this month, it was not expected to be the end of story.

Observers knew that an appeal was coming, but it was a separate action — a ruling by Guatemala’s Constitutional Court — that provided the latest twist in the case.

The Constitutional Court on Monday overturned Rios Montt’s conviction and sentence, and ordered the proceedings to return to the trial phase.

The ruling does not annul the entire trial, but everything that happened after April 19, notably the closing arguments and conviction.

Read more about the overturning of the conviction on CNN.

—

Genocide and the Trial of the Century in Guatemala: But Where Will It End?

This guest post was written by human rights activist and lawyer, Jennifer K. Harbury, whose husband was disappeared by the Guatemalan government in 1992. Her book, Searching for Everardo, revealed the CIA’s complicity in the fate of her husband and thousands of others. Jennifer was the Director of Human Rights at Global Exchange in the 1990s.

On May 10, 2013 Judge Jazmin Barrios declared former President and General Efrain Rios Montt guilty of genocide in Guatemala, and sentenced him to eighty years in prison. The case sets a historic precedent: this is the first time a President has been tried and sentenced for such war crimes by a domestic court in Latin America. Many hail this as a death knell for the blanket impunity long enjoyed by military leaders throughout the hemisphere for the war crimes they commanded during the “Dirty Wars”.

Even more was at stake in this trial, however, as evidenced by the extraordinary reaction of the audience as the sentencia was read aloud. People erupted into cheers and applause, weeping openly for their own long lost loved ones. Bells rang and cars honked throughout the streets. The Mayan survivors, dressed in their hand- woven traditional clothing, stood and cried out “Tantiq! Tantiq!”, or “Thank You, Thank You!” to the Judge in their ancestral language. As journalists swarmed the stunned General Rios Montt, the audience began to sing the words of Otto Renee Castillo, a young and gifted Guatemalan poet assassinated by army death squads long ago.

Justice is long overdue. Guatemala is much like the old South Africa, with a tiny and wealthy upper class composed of the Conquistador and other European descendents. The indigenous Mayans comprise eighty percent of the population but have long been stripped of their lands and treated as serfs in their own nation, suffering extreme poverty, malnutrition and racism. For nearly 500 years, every attempt at rebellion or dissent has been crushed by a brutal army created to protect the interests of the landowners. Reform efforts of President Arbenz came to an abrupt end in 1954, when the CIA backed a violent military coup. A blood bath ensued, and the army carried out a forty year “counter insurgency” campaign that earned them the title of worst human rights violator in the hemisphere, no small feat given the competition. When the Peace Accords were signed in 1996, the U.N. Truth Commission found that army had systematically engaged in torture, murder and forced disappearances, and bore responsibility for 94% of the 200,000 deaths and 640 massacres that had occurred. The great majority of the victims were Mayan men women and children. Accordingly the Commission also held the army responsible for genocide.

General Rios Montt was the President in 1982, and had commanded some of most frightening campaigns against the Mayan civilian population, declaring entire regions to be insurgents or supporters. One of the worst-hit areas was the Ixil triangle in Quiche highlands. Pursuant to the military “Plan Sofia” the army marched village to village, burning small farms and torturing and killing every Mayan man woman or child encountered. As one soldier testified, it was a matter of “Indio visto, Indio muerto”. The mass cemeteries are still being unearthed.

The genocide trial was based on the 1982 massacres in the Ixil triangle. Despite the constant death threats , nearly 100 survivors, most of them Mayan women, travelled to the Capital and gave their horrific testimonies. One, after recounting her own long torture and rape, and the loss of her family and friends, said simply, “ This happened 31 years ago. For 31 years I have waited to tell the truth. Now I have spoken.”

The case began more than a decade ago but like all of the other war crimes cases, it had long been obstructed in Guatemala. As the trial date approached, the right wing forced a de facto amnesty through Congress. The bill was passed by President and General Otto Perez Molina, who also participated in the 1982 Ixil massacres. (Although the press declared him popularly elected a year ago, in fact nearly half of the Mayans cannot vote.) International uproar forced the cancellation of the bill. Next, as reported by Allan Nairn, a key official involved in the case was told that he had a choice. Accept one million dollars, to be placed in an offshore account, or, as the visitor explained as he placed a gun on the table, they knew where to find his children. Precisely the same offer had shut down an investigation of President Otto Perez Molina’s involvement in the Bamaca case earlier. For the first time, however, there was an extraordinary team consisting of the Attorney General Claudia Paz, a solid prosecutor under her command, a brilliant and idealistic young private attorney representing the Ixiles, and Judge Jazmin Barrios herself. No one gave in to the firestorm.

Reaction in the court room to the guilty verdict. Photo credit: AP

As the case advanced, the Defense attorneys openly threatened and insulted the Judge, filed endless bad faith appeals for delay purposes, and at one point simply walked out of the court room and refused to answer the Judge’s demands that they return at once. When a soldier testified that Otto Perez Molina was also involved in the Ixil atrocities, a judge in a different court ordered the entire case annulled, spinning it off schedule for weeks. In the end however, the trial reached its conclusion and the General received his verdict. Guilty.

The battle for justice is far from over however. President Otto Perez Molina has long declared that genocide never occurred in Guatemala and that the UN Truth Commission was simply mistaken. He is now urging everyone to remember that the ruling is not final, and that numerous issues remain on appeal. Unfortunately this is true. Traditionally, many human rights rulings have been overturned on appeal months later, once all the internationals have gone home and the public scrutiny has died down. Meanwhile a state of siege has been declared in a number of Indigenous regions and once again there is a massive military presence there. Judge Jazmin Barrio is under a wave of attacks and demands that she be put on trial herself for the abuse of power and corruption. CACIF, the coffee growers association, has publicly demanded that the trial be annulled.

The Ixil survivors have returned home in the highlands. They have spoken and thus honored their dead. But will they survive this time?

TAKE ACTION!

• Support Global Exchange’s Human Rights programs. Join us as a member, and receive a copy of Jennifer K. Harbury’s book, Searching for Everardo: A Story of Love, War, and the CIA in Guatemala.
• Travel to Guatemala on a Reality Tour and explore how U.S. fair trade activists and women’s cooperatives in Guatemala are working together to use fair trade to advance local development efforts in Latin America’s most impoverished communities.

Cuban Rap Artist Kokino. Photo by Yordis Villalon.

While the media storm in response to Beyonce and Jay-Z’s recent trip to Cuba has begun to settle down, those who are most directly affected by U.S. foreign policy in Cuba- Cubans living on the island- continue to feel the repercussions of a conversation, that at least in the U.S. media, excludes their voices. Kokino, a Havana born rapper, spoke with us recently to share his perspective on the trip to Cuba and the motivation behind the freestyle rap he released in response to both Jay-Z and Pitbull’s versions of “Open Letter,” freestyle raps addressing criticisms of the trip.

Kokino, part of the Cuban rap duo Anonimo Consejo, has been an integral part of the underground rap scene in Havana and is a founding member of the Cuban Rap Agency. The duo is widely respected for their explosive power and socially minded lyrics. Kokino now lives in the United States and recently released a solo album, “El Akokan.” In a recent stop in Oakland, CA, Kokino sat down with us to explain the intent behind his rap and his take on the politics between the two countries.

(This interview was conducted in Spanish and translated into English by the author.)

R: What inspired you to write the response to Jay-Z and Pitbull’s version of “Open Letter?”

Kokino: Well first of all I’m a big fan of Jay-Z. I didn’t write the song to defend him though, he’s so big he doesn’t need anyone to defend him. (I’m responding to) The politics, they’re s**t. Politicians on both sides are making a lot of money, they live well, but everyone else… This is a game between two countries.

R: Why did you target Pitbull?

K: I don’t have anything against Pitbull personally. But I wanted to ask him, if you identify as a Cuban, why haven’t you done anything for Cubans? “Cuba” is a word that sells, internationally. But if Pitbull wanted to help Cuba, why doesn’t he give ten thousand dollars to the Cuban rap agency to support us, for instance? So to Pitbull I say, really help me if you’re my brother. But what rappers do is they talk about an issue that sells, and Cuba sells. That’s what bothered me about what Pitbull said.

R: Can you tell me more about these different versions of Cuba?

Cuban Rap Duo Anonimo Consejo. Photo credit Havana Cultura.

K: When I first came to the United States I met an aunt in Miami who had left Cuba in the Mariel times. I had never met her before, and she came to get me at the airport. It was a very nice experience, that’s when I learned that blood is thicker than water. But you know, she had this idea of what Cuba was like that she got from Miami and mainstream media. I had to be like, “Tia, you can’t listen to this stuff anymore, nobody is dying of hunger (in Cuba).” Things are hard but you can hustle, you can do what it takes to survive. There’s really good things and really bad things in both countries. I want my song to reach people because I want them to see this reality. Those who talk about Cuba should be those who live there. It’s like I say in my song, “one has to be present/live where we live/be in the heat/with the electricity blackouts, with the pain.” Talking about bad stuff sells, but there’s good stuff too. For instance community. Here, why don’t neighbors know each other?

R: What is your stance on the embargo and the travel ban?

K: It’s a pile of crap. I have to be honest I’ve never really understood the travel ban well. And there’s even a limit on the amount of money (legal travelers) can spend everyday? Doesn’t make sense to me. People should be able to travel where they want. Nobody else cares about traveling to Cuba except for them (Miami legislators.) Like I said it’s like a game between these two countries, and it’s the people who end up paying.

R: What is the ultimate message you are trying to get across with your song?

K: Again, it’s that I want people to talk about reality, what people really live through. As a rapper I choose to speak to my personal experiences, not just sell an image. And the U.S. government- that is what they have done, they have sold an image of Cuba.

Thanks to Kokino for sharing your thoughts with us!

Take Action!

Help us tell Beyonce, Jay-Z, and others with influence to join us, the people, in asking President Obama to end the embargo, lift the travel ban, and get Cuba off the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. Share this post widely in your community by email, Facebook, and Twitter.

Global Exchange staff at 2013 Human Rights Awards gala Photo Credit: Global Exchange

Wow, last Thursday was quite a night!

Global Exchange celebrated its 11th annual Human Rights Awards on May 9, 2013.

Photos from the event are below, plus lots more are posted on Facebook and Flickr.

We had a great time with everyone who came to the Palace of Fine Arts, and we’re grateful for the support of our donors, sponsors, and volunteers.

Together, we helped shine a spotlight on the work of our amazing honorees; People’s Choice Awardee Julian Assange and Wikileaks (chosen by online voters by a wide margin), Grassroots Awardee Crystal Lameman, and Human Rights Awardee Noam Chomsky.

It’s hard to deliver highlights from the night because there were so many! And this, coming from a woman who has been to almost every annual Human Rights Awards gala since its inception.

Grassroots Award Winner Crystal Lameman Photo Credit: Global Exchange

Ok, but if I HAD to pick one, I’d say it was the speeches. They were moving and honest and left listeners wanting to act.

Grassroots Honoree Crystal Lameman delivered a sobering account of how her community and First Nations in Canada is impacted by the Tar Sands and how through determination they’re fighting to stop the Tar Sands.

Daniel Ellsberg accepting award on behalf of Julian Assange and Wikileaks Photo Credit: Global Exchange

Daniel Ellsberg and Jacob Appelbaum accepted the People’s Choice Award on behalf of Julian Assange and Wikileaks. We were excited to welcome back Daniel Ellsberg who accepted Bradley Manning’s People’s Choice Award last year.

Daniel read Julian Assange’s acceptance speech which you can read here. The part about spies in the audience gave attendees quite a chuckle, and this snippet really stood out for me, referring to Human Rights Award Honoree Noam Chomsky:

Noam, you are the sea; relentless and enduring. Crashing wave after wave of understanding into towering cliffs of lies, eroding them at their base. The rotten foreshore of empire has a precipitous overhang as a result. You have inspired and continue to inspire many, including me.

Day of the Dead themed catering staff Photo Credit: Global Exchange

Besides the inspiring speeches, the evening included a silent auction, a Day of the Dead altar with catering staff from Work of Art catering who dressed the part, and musical entertainment by Rupa and the April Fishes.

Global Exchange Executive Director Carleen Pickard speaking at the 2013 Human Rights Awards Photo Credit: Global Exchange

The 2013 Human Rights Awards gala was also an opportunity for us to celebrate our 25th anniversary with many of those who have contributed to our successes over the years. Executive Director, Carleen Pickard, spoke from the podium about Global Exchange’s vision, victories and called for our collective action for climate justice.

Holding the event at the Palace of Fine Arts was perfectly fitting; the first Global Exchange Human Rights Awards gala was held there 11 years ago, adding a full-circle element to the evening.

As we take stock of Global Exchange at 25, despite the daunting challenges we still face, we look forward to celebrating more successes in the years to come.

TAKE ACTION!

• Help build an unstoppable movement for change! Your continued support is critical to our efforts.  Help us found an unstoppable movement for change for the NEXT 25 years. Make your tax-deductible donation to Global Exchange today.
  
• Check out the 2013 Human Rights Awards photos– below and on Facebook and Flickr (and a few more on Instagram!)
• We’re traveling to Oaxaca, Mexico for a 25th Anniversary Reality Tour, from October 30, 2013 – November 7, 2013! Join us for a once in a lifetime opportunity.  

BDS Italiia: Occupation isn’t green

The Cannes Film festival opens this week in France from May 15 – 26^th showcasing the year’s greatest films and the glitterati associated with them.

At the festival the American Pavillion (AmPav) serves as the center of activity for the American film community so it was with some dismay that we learned that the premier sponsor of the pavilion is none other than Sodastream.

The company sells itself as a progressive, green company that fits in well with the creative forward thinking crowd that will be gathering at the film festival.

“No cans at Cannes’, it says.  But SodaStream is not socially responsible. Its main production site is in Mishor Edomim, a settlement and industrial zone in the occupied West Bank, on confiscated Palestinian land.

The company claims that the land ownership is “disputed” but the UN, the International Court of Justice, the EU court and US foreign policy all agree that the settlements are illegal and an obstacle to peace.

The company claims that Palestinian workers enjoy equal rights and that this is actually a community development project for Palestinians – yet the workers there cannot organize or vote in their own community. They cannot travel on the road leading to the factory without a special permit provided arbitrarily by a foreign army and they have no other opportunities to work elsewhere because the occupation does not allow travel or any local Palestinian–owned development?

Yes, SodaStream has to pay Palestinian workers minimum wages;  this is enforced by Israeli military law,but Israeli workers have more protections and benefits than their Palestinian co-workers, including health coverage, union membership and social security.

The Municipal taxes paid by Sodastream to Ma’aleh Edomim are destined exclusively for the settlement’s growth and development not for any Palestinian community development.

Occupation isn’t green and it isn’t progressive.  A YouTube video recalls the U.S. creative community’s history of standing up for social justice issues.

An interfaith coalition calls on the industry professionals attending Cannes to boycott the Sodastream bar at AmPav and the general public to call on retailers to remove SodaStream products from their stores.

You’re not going to Cannes?  You can still do something….

TAKE ACTION!

• Watch thisvideo and share it widely.
• Sign apetition.
• Use Twitter to get on the celebrity newsfeeds. Follow @AFPredcarpet
• And learn more from aPalestinian factory worker.

We celebrated the 2013 Human Rights Awards on Thursday May 9th in San Francisco. This year’s Honorees are:

• People’s Choice Award: Julian Assange and Wikileaks
• Grassroots Award: Crystal Lameman
• Human Rights Award: Noam Chomsky

The award to Julian Assange and Wikileaks was presented by Kiki Kapany of the Julian Assange Defense Fund and accepted by Daniel Ellsberg and Jacob Applebaum.

If you missed this special night, (or were there and want to re-visit a few moments from the program) below is Julian Assange’s acceptance speech (as read by Daniel Ellsberg), along with Kiki Kapany’s introduction.

Kiki Kapany, Julian Assange Defense Fund, speaking at 2013 Human Rights Awards Photo Credit: Global Exchange

Introduction delivered by Kiki Kapany:

Good evening! My name is Kiki Kapany, and I’m here on behalf of the Julian Assange Legal Defense Committee. In 2010, Global Exchange–in true grassroots spirit–decided to add the People’s Choice Award to this event to shine a spotlight on the sung – and unsung – heroes and heroines working for peace, justice and sustainability, as determined by the global community.

This year’s event is particularly important to us because it’s Global Exchange’s 25th anniversary. The response in previous years has been tremendous, and the honorees, from Mu Sochua from Northern Cambodia, to Javier Sicilia from Mexico, to Bradley Manning in prison in Kansas – are all inspiring examples both of this award and the values for which our movement stands. This year, 108 amazing activists were nominated. This year’s honoree won by an overwhelming majority.

In my mind there is no greater pursuit than defending the rights of the defenseless. But in order to right wrongs, in order to alleviate wrongdoing and defend those who need defending, we first need to know about that wrongdoing.

Today governments have unprecedented power to keep their wrongdoing secret. Julian Assange has shown the way to smash through that secrecy and to bare the face of all wrongdoing to the world. Whether exposing Ben Ali’s corruption in Tunisia or releasing secret diplomatic cables — or videos of airstrikes on innocent civilians, Assange and WikiLeaks have made it possible for the people to know about and have proof of these wrongs, and sometimes even to right them—as the Tunisians did when they drove Ben Ali out of power.

The creation of WikiLeaks is a truly revolutionary act and indeed represents a revolution in human rights. By using the internet to shatter the power of governments and large institutions to do their depredations in darkness, in secrecy, Assange has taken a giant step toward the protection of human rights.

Kofi Annan has said, “Business as usual is not an option… No nation can be prosperous without respect for human rights and law. Disruption is the wrecking ball that we must swing against inertia.” And what better exemplifies the swinging of that wrecking ball than the release of critical information?

A few years ago, Julian explained the impetus behind WikiLeaks to by saying, “I looked at something that I had seen going on with the world, which is that I thought there were too many unjust acts. And I wanted there to be more just acts, and fewer unjust acts.” Well, if you don’t imagine change – it won’t happen.

Kiki Kapany and Daniel Ellsberg at 2013 Human Rights Awards Photo Credit: Global Exchange

One person who is living proof of that axiom is here with us tonight: Daniel Ellsberg, whose release of the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times and other newspapers was an act of outright bravery that changed the entire course of history.

So who better to accept Global Exchange’s 2013 Peoples Choice Award to Julian Assange and WIKILEAKS–and to read a statement by its exiled editor in chief, Julian Assange–than another hero of transparency, Daniel Ellsberg.

Julian Assange’s Acceptance Speech read by Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg speaking on behalf of Julian Assange at 2013 Human Rights Awards Photo Credit: Global Exchange

Thank you for this honor.

I am very happy to be sharing it with Noam Chomsky whose generosity and
strength of character I know personally. Noam, you are the sea; relentless and enduring. Crashing wave after wave of understanding into towering cliffs of lies, eroding them at their base. The rotten foreshore of empire has a precipitous overhang as a result. You have inspired and continue to inspire many, including me.

Thank you to the people in this room for supporting this award. I’m going to thank you and Dan in the best way I know. By keeping this speech short. Then you can go and do the important thing. Make alliances to fight for WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning and me. Don’t think you can escape just because I am not there. We have a lot more spies in this room than the FBI.

San Francisco and the Bay Area is important to us. Ideologically, personally and practically. We fought our first big court case in the San Francisco federal courts in 2008; That was no-coincidence. If we were going to have a fight, anywhere in the world, then I wanted it to be in San Francisco. I structured WikiLeaks to encourage attacks on us to be drawn to San Francisco (sorry about that). The EFF, FPF and many of our other defenders are based here. If any state of the Union is going to save the United States from itself, it will be California. Washington sees that too–that’s why we’re being prosecuted in Virginia and Maryland.

Noam’s presence in this room –useful, even if from the east coast–reflects something very special. Cross generational solidarity. From Dan and Noam to Michael Ratner, from Kiki to me, from Jacob to Bradley Manning. The issues of each demi-generation are being understood as a continuation into the present. My fight is right now. But so is Bradley Manning’s. So is Jacob’s. I want Dan, Noam and Jacob, and all of you here, together with me in this fight because I know you understand. Our conflict tests every aspect of character, but it has also brought out the best in many and I am proud of them.

Remember that Bradley Manning’s trial starts on June 3. It’s scheduled to run for 12 to 16 weeks. The prosecution is bringing 141 witnesses. It is a show trial. A 12 week off-Broadway extravaganza being performed at Fort Mead. Its legal and political result will directly feed into the larger prosecution of WikiLeaks.

What is to be done? The answer is easy. It has always been easy. Stop saying “not in my name” and start saying “over my dead body”.

TAKE ACTION!

Re-visit the 2013 Human Rights Awards, check out the photos from the evening on our Facebook page.

Diane Wilson in front of the White House.

This guest blog post is by Diane Wilson, a fourth-generation shrimper, environmental activists, and peace advocate from the Texas Gulf Coast and a 2004 Global Exchange Human Rights Award winner (CODEPINK Women of Peace Award).

As a fourth generation shrimper and an environmental activist on the Texas gulf coast, I have gone on hunger fasts to protect the seas that my community of fishermen depend upon. I know how far I would go to be heard. To have a voice. To push for justice. So I can vouch for the experts who say that the 100+ hunger strikes happening now in Guantanamo prison reflect the level of desperation and despair felt by the prisoners there. The detainees are screaming for justice from the outside world. And now they are being heard.

Here is one despairing voice:
Adnan Latif spent 10 years in Guantanamo without being charged. He was a poet, father and a husband and had been cleared for release four times. Yet he continued to be imprisoned. He was found dead in his cell, one of 9 men who have died at Guantanamo. In his own words, Latif asked, “Where is the world to save us from torture? Where is the world to save us from the fire and sadness? Where is the world to save the hunger strikers?”

My question is a lot more personal: Where are we, citizens of America?

This is a US detention and interrogation center. A prison, by all counts. Many have called it a gulag, a shame, a scandal, and they wouldn’t be wrong. The vast majority of the 166 men still trapped at Guantánamo have been held for more than 11 years without charge or fair trial. Eighty-six Guantanamo prisoners were cleared for release more than three years ago. The Navy, Army, and Marines have no reason to press charges.

Currently, more than 100 detainees are on a hunger strike, with 21 being force-fed and 5 hospitalized. The forced tube feeding, according to prisoners who have experienced it, is itself an act of torture and very debilitating. A medical back-up team of at least 40 has arrived at Guantanamo Bay as the number of inmates taking part in the hunger strike continues to rise, fueling speculation that the condition of the hunger-striking prisoners is deteriorating.

If the chains of good ol’ American indifference continue, hard and unabated, as they have currently been, then the men of Guantanamo Bay might remain there until hell freezes over.

Where are you, Mr. President?

When President Obama took office in 2009, he vowed to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison within a year. It’s 2013 and the prison still stands, prisoners remain– but in solitary confinement, ostensibly to reduce camaraderie and hopefully those hunger strikes! Some consider Guantanamo President Obama’s Shame. However, according to President Obama’s speech on Tuesday, he wasn’t a bit surprised they were having problems. Obama called Guantanamo unsafe and expensive to the US taxpayers and said it lessens cooperation with US allies. He said he would really like to shut it down and he is going to work on it!

Okay, President Obama, the time to talk and ruminate is over with. Now is the time for action. And what can you do? Well, pardon a back woods shrimper from the gulf coast for saying this: Congress may have imposed unprecedented restriction on detainee transfers, but you, Mr. President, still have the power to transfer men right now. You can and should use the certification/waiver process created by Congress to transfer detainees.

According to the ACLU, there are two essential steps the president can take. One is to appoint a senior point person so that the administration’s Guantanamo closure policy is directed by the White House and not by Pentagon bureaucrats. The president can also order the secretary of defense to start certifying for transfer detainees who have been cleared, which is more than half the Guantanamo population.

You, President Obama, must demonstrate immediate, tangible progress toward the closure of Guantanamo, or the men who are on hunger strikes will die, and you will be ultimately responsible for their deaths.

Where are you, Congress?

Well, Congress, you must not sleep well at night.  And contrary to what you believe or what you might believe the American people believe, you can not incarcerate forever a group of people who have not been tried.  Sticking them in Cuba will not hide the fact, either. Just as the infamous prison in Northern Ireland where men such as Bobby Sands conducted hunger strikes, died, and stained forever Britain’s human rights record, so Guantánamo stains America.

And where am I? Well, I know where this one American is.  I stand in solidarity with the Guantanamo prisoners on their hunger strike and I have been, and will continue to, fast indefinitely until justice comes.  Shut Guantanamo down!

TAKE ACTION! Sign CODEPINK’s petition to shut Guantanamo prison now.