We won't deny our consciences: prominent Americans have issued this statement on the war on terror

14 June 2002

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 US to resist the policies and overall political direction that have emerged since September 11 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 US 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. 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 v 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. 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 US government has a blank cheque to drop commandos, assassins, and bombs wherever it wants?

In our name the government has created two classes of people within the US: those to whom the basic rights of the US legal system are at least promised, and those who now seem to have no rights at all. The government rounded up more than 1,000 immigrants and detained them in secret and indefinitely. Hundreds have been deported and hundreds of others still languish today in prison. 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 recognise 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 draw on the many examples of resistance and conscience from the past of the US: 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 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.

From: Michael Albert; Laurie Anderson; Edward Asner, actor; Russell Banks, writer; Rosalyn Baxandall, historian; Jessica Blank, actor/playwright; Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange; William Blum, author; Theresa Bonpane, executive director, Office of the Americas; Blase Bonpane, director, Office of the Americas; Fr Bob Bossie, SCJ; Leslie Cagan; Henry Chalfant,author/filmmaker; Bell Chevigny, writer; Paul Chevigny, Professor of Law, NYU; Noam Chomsky; Stephanie Coontz, historian, Evergreen State College; Kia Corthron, playwright; Kevin Danaher, Global Exchange; Ossie Davis; Mos Def; Carol Downer, board of directors, Chico (CA) Feminist Women's Health Centre; Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Professor, California State University, Hayward; Eve Ensler; Leo Estrada, UCLA Professor, Urban Planning; John Gillis, writer, Professor of History, Rutgers; Jeremy Matthew Glick, editor of Another World Is Possible; Suheir Hammad, writer; David Harvey, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Centre; Rakaa Iriscience, hip hop artist; Erik Jensen, actor/playwright; Casey Kasem; Robin DG Kelly; Martin Luther King III, President, Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Barbara Kingsolver; C Clark Kissinger, Refuse & Resist!; Jodie Kliman, psychologist; Yuri Kochiyama, activist; Annisette & Thomas Koppel, singers/composers; Tony Kushner; James Lafferty, executive director, National Lawyers Guild/LA; Ray Laforest, Haiti Support Network; Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor, Tikkun magazine; Barbara Lubin, Middle East Childrens Alliance; Staughton Lynd; Anuradha Mittal, co-director, Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food First; Malaquias Montoya, visual artist; Robert Nichols, writer; Rev E Randall Osburn, executive vice president, Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Grace Paley; Jeremy Pikser, screenwriter; Jerry Quickley, poet; Juan Gumez Quiones, historian, UCLA; Michael Ratner, president, Centre for Constitutional Rights; David Riker, filmmaker; Boots Riley, hip hop artist, The Coup; Edward Said; John J Simon, writer, editor; Starhawk; Michael Steven Smith, National Lawyers Guild/NY; Bob Stein, publisher; Gloria Steinem; Alice Walker; Naomi Wallace, playwright; Rev George Webber, President Emeritus, NY Theological Seminary; Leonard Weinglass, attorney; John Edgar Wideman; Saul Williams, spoken word artist; Howard Zinn, historian.

Published in The Guardian © The authors / 2002 Guardian Unlimited

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