Marie Shebeck, Author at Witness Against Torture

Inauguration Resistance and Petition to Report Deaths in Custody

Fast for Justice 2017 // Film

Dear Friends,
We wanted to send out a recap of our witness at the Inauguration Resistance and the Women’s March in D.C. You may view more photos at the following links:
Inauguration protest
Women’s March on Washington
We direct you again to WAT’s statement opposing Trump’s agenda on torture and detention, and to the new video that Justin made to break down what needs to happen to close Guantanamo, now that Trump is president. Our friends, the Peace Poets created a new spoken word video to encourage us in these difficult times – view it here.
Lastly, we have included an ask from our partners the Coalition of Concerned Mothers – please sign their petition here and read about their work.

WAT Witnesses at Trump’s Inauguration, Attends Women’s March

O crisis, intensify! The morning is about to break forth.

Even though the bands tighten and seem unbreakable,
They will shatter.

Those who persist will attain their goal;
Those who keep knocking shall gain entry.

O crisis, intensify!
The morning is about to break forth.

–from the poem O Prison Darkness by Abdulaziz in Poems from Guantanamo

We reflected on this poetry as thirty WAT members circled up at First Trinity’s Church Hostel on January 20 before we went into the pre-dawn darkness at 6:30 am to demonstrate at the Inauguration. We processed to a nearby security checkpoint close to the Mall. We had a long row of folks in orange jumpsuits and black hoods; a robust team of guides, given the darkness; a security team, given the potential for hostile Trump supporters; as well as a choreographer, a medic, and people assigned to media and leafletting. We were ready.

We joined a huge crowd of Palestinian human rights supporters and antiwar protesters at D St. and First St. NW. Our banner holders silently faced the police amid a raucous sea of chanting. As dawn broke, we extracted ourselves from the crush and moved a half block away. There we faced the line of people waiting to enter the inauguration. Back at the intersection, riot police moved in, but we stayed safely out of the fray.

Our hooded detainees holding anti-torture banners provided a dramatic tableau that drew hundreds upon hundreds of people snapping photos or recording videos. The steady flow of humanity, which included Trump supporters and protesters, was, for the most part, respectful and peaceful. Whenever a person seemed hostile, a member of the security team was right there beside the WAT member being confronted in order to provide a united, nonviolent front. We received some derisive comments that echoed words we’ve heard from Trump concerning torture and Gitmo. We understood the challenge that faces us as we go forward from this day.

We stayed at our post until 10:00 am, having committed to occupy that space while other protest groups went to another check point where Black Lives Matter had completely blocked entrance to the inauguration. We later heard from one BLM member who told us how wonderful it had been to look up from their protest and see all the white faces surrounding and supporting them.

Many of our activists stayed another night, so we could attend the Women’s March on Washington on Jan. 21^st. This time we carried our own personal messaging as women and as men supporting women. All 25 of us stepped off together, but we split into smaller groups, intentionally and unintentionally, as the day progressed and we moved through an incredible sea of humankind. One group actually heard and saw some speeches on a jumbotron. Many of us, however, had no idea there were any speeches, but we found the crowd itself to be fabulous. A couple of first timers kept asking when we were going to get to the march, and we told them they were in it! The throng was so big that the march had to self-assemble on at least 5 parallel streets. The big hits of the day were the creative signs and the sense of love and community that enveloped us all.

But how shall we educate men to goodness, to a sense of one another, to a love of the truth? And more urgently, how shall we do this in a bad time?—Daniel Berrigan, S.J.

Coalition of Concerned Mothers Banner a Big Hit at the Women’s March

Sign Their Petition to Demand Reporting of All Deaths in Police Custody

The Coalition of Concerned Mothers is a dynamic group of women who are trying to make sure no other mothers suffer what they have: the killing of their children by police or by senseless community gun violence. During this January’s fast, WAT met with members of the Coalition, as we have in years past. Hearing the stories of how their children were killed and their struggles for justice, was heartbreaking, but strengthened our resolve to support their efforts to stop the senseless killing.

Please sign their petition demanding the Department of Justice begin enforcing laws requiring the reporting of all deaths in police custody:

http://petitions.signforgood.com/DeathsinCustodyReportingAct?code=CofCM

According to President Marion Gray Hopkins and Vice-President Cynthia deShola Dawkins, “Because of the Death in Custody Reporting Act and Arrest Related Death Act the Department of Justice has the legal responsibility to require law enforcement agencies to report any and all deaths of people while in custody. To date, although this law has been in place for several years, the financial penalties on law enforcement agencies for not complying have not been enforced.”

We need this information. The victims of police brutality are not just hashtags. They are brothers, daughters, mothers and fathers, many of whom we never hear about. Police brutality, especially against people of color, is systemic and in order to address this national crisis legislatively our elected officials need these reports.

Recap and Celebrating 10 Men Released

Fast for Justice 2017 // Film

Dear friends,

We celebrate the release of ten more men from Guantanamo Bay Prison: Ghaleb Nassar Al Bihani, Mustafa Abd al-Qawi Abd al-Aziz Al-Shamiri, Karim Bostam, Abdul Sahir, Musab Omar Ali Al-Mudwani, Hail Aziz Ahmed Al-Maythali, Salman Yahya Hassan Mohammad Rabei’i, Mohammed Al-Ansi, Muhammad Ahmad Said Haider, and Walid Said bin Said Zaid. They were released to Oman over the weekend. We were privileged to spend time in D.C. with Ghaleb’s wonderful drawings when we visited the Tea Project’s Exhibit (It is open until Friday at GWU’s Gallery 102).

Thank you for all of your support during Part 1 of our witness in D.C. We had 10 days filled with engaging street theater, liquids only fasting, group discussions and reflections, as well as lots of meetings to shape our daily actions. Please visit our website to see photos and videos of the week, as well as our daily updates and notes from the white supremacy workshop Jerica led. We gathered a few links to articles about our J11 actions here: The Guardian, USNews, UPI, CommonDreams and Fox and Frida wrote a Little Insurrection. Her article really nails our time together during the fast and how we are moving toward Part 2: Inauguration Resistance.

If you are planning on joining WAT for our Inauguration Resistance on January 18-21st, RSVP is required to witnesstorture@gmail.com ASAP – we will have limited space so it is specifically reserved for those joining our witness during that time.

Thank you for your continued support. Please keep sharing your local events and news stories with us. We hope to see you in D.C. this weekend!

Witness Against Torture on Social Media
We will be using #CloseGitmo and #guantanamo
Please “like” us on Facebook & follow us on Twitter & Instagram.
Check out our latest news and updates on Tumblr.
Post any pictures of your local activities to our flickr account and we will help spread the word.

Donate to support our work and Fast for Justice.
We are asking our supporters to donate $45 to Witness Against Torture to symbolize the 45 men remaining in Guantanamo.
Witness Against Torture is completely volunteer driven and run. We have no paid staff, but do have expenses associated with our organizing work. We need your financial support. We are fiscally sponsored by the Washington Peace Center. The Washington Peace Center is a verified US-registered non profit.If you are able, click here to donate.

White Supremacy Workshop Notes – WAT Fast for Justice 01.07.17

Fast for Justice 2017 // Film

Below are some more detailed notes from the workshop that Jerica led based on the class she teaches on Whiteness. There are questions at the end which we considered together as we planned our witness in DC on January 11 and during the inauguration resistance. We invite you to read through these resources and consider these questions with us.

“Hope is a discipline.” Mariame Kaba

White guilt is not helpful.
(Smith, “The Problem with Privilege”) – public confessions from white folks will not absolve supremacist thinking.

Peggy McIntosh – “White Privilege and Male Privilege”; “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”
late 80s
first white academic publicly questioning the intricacies of whiteness
like male privilege, white privilege is an unearned asset
through no virtue of one’s own, white folks possess key to accessing institutions, structures, systems of our society

Racism is not merely individual acts, thoughts, behavior that is prejudiced, but
“invisible systems conferring dominance on my group” – a system

Racism = race-based prejudice PLUS power

“Psychologies of Dominance” – whites are taught (conditioned/socialized) into the infrastructure of racism early on; we should assume complicity with white supremacy
no training to “see” advantage

Whiteness = individual, morally neutral, normative, average, benign, universal, good

Robin DiAngelo – “White Fragility”
we are taught that racism is individual acts/thoughts/behavior
racists = bad; I am good; therefore I cannot be/am not racist
racism is “a multidimensional and highly adaptive system” in which “whites have systemic and institutional control”
this system PROTECTS and INSULATES whites from race-based stress; therefore we can move through a highly racialized world with an unracialized identity
i.e. whites not identifying as “white” until they take a diversity class

Challenges/confrontations become highly stressful and whites get triggered, DEFENSIVENESS
whites are socialized into superiority and entitlement. When this is challenged, we become highly fragile (“white fragility”)
a challenge to our racial worldview = a challenge to our very identity as “good” (white = good)
whites tend to withdraw, cry, minimize, ignore, defend, disengage, and leave

Patterns that reinforce white fragility:
Segregation: most white people grow up, live in, and are accustomed to all white neighborhoods, schools, and communities. We are taught this is not a loss.
Good/Bad Binary: if we commit no individual racist acts, we are not racist.
Individualism: whites are not a racialized, homogenized group like other racial categories. This belief erases our collective history of domination, control, and wealth accumulation.
Entitlement to Racial Comfort: white folks have no tolerance for racial stress because we have no practice in dealing with racialized confrontation. When we are confronted, whites tend to blame the person of color bringing up the incidence of racism, and accuse them of wrongdoing as source of discomfort. When in a position of power (in a hierarchy, i.e. job situation), the whites tend to consolidate power, recruit other white people to their side, and isolate the POC.
Racial Arrogance: because whites have no training in dealing with racial stress, we also tend not to practice humility when listening to the experiences of POC. Instead, we largely dismiss their experience (which is different from our own).
Racial Belonging: whites enjoy a deeply internalized, largely unconscious sense of belonging to our society/culture. In every valuable situation or image capturing life, whites belong. (When this doesn’t happen – when white folks are de-centered from the scene – this becomes very destabilizing and frightening.)
Psychic Freedom: whites don’t bear the social burden of institutionalized racism. POC are seen as responsible for the “racism problem”; therefore, whites don’t need to use their psychic/mental energy on it.
Messages of Value: whites are characterized as better and more important in all major forms of shared story, including textbooks, history, media, teachers, heroes. “Good” neighborhoods are really white neighborhoods (coded language); religious iconography; the internalization of value and belonging in mainstream media.

Myth of meritocracy: the American Dream; the belief that the system is based on merit and each individual has the same access/ability to make it to the top.

Whiteness = power = the ability to craft and repeat a societal narrative or story until it is true. Monolithic representations of POC groups and marginalized identities are created by white supremacy.

Lipsitz, “The Possessive Investment in Whiteness”

Smith, “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy”
White Supremacy impacts communities in different ways, therefore the strategies for liberation must be different.
white supremacy is constituted by three separate but interrelated LOGICS

SLAVERY/ CAPITALISM:
black folks = slaveable/property
anchor of capitalism
commodification; pillar is about exploiting LABOR
hierarchy is racialized; “as long as you’re not black, you can stay off the bottom and escape commodification”
Prison Industrial Complex = rooted in anti-black racism; slavery was reinstated through the prison system; black folks overrepresented; PIC as modern-day slavery

GENOCIDE/COLONIALISM
indigenous folks = must always be disappearing (manifest destiny)
this gives non-indigenous rightful claim of land; pillar is about exploiting LAND
settler colonialism
indigenous as “present absence” in white mainstream imagination
appropriation of custom, spirituality, culture

ORIENTALISM/WAR
West as superior; always against the “exotic”, “inferior”, “anti-progress” East
U.S. exceptionalism
pillar is about XENOPHOBIA, ISLAMOPHOBIA, JUSTIFICATION for war
there is always a constant threat to the well-being of Empire
immigrants = foreign threats inside and outside the Empire
anchor for war; U.S. can justify constant war to protect itself from constant threat
Racial profiling of Arab World is widespread, “necessary”
“the U.S. IS war”, white supremacy = must always be at war
culture of fear
myth of “security”

Questions to consider:
The term “white supremacist” has been used to describe Trump’s campaign in the mainstream. Why? How might this connect to the Bannon appointment and the rise of white nationalism and the alt-right? How is Trump consolidating power? Trump was endorsed by David Duke and, even though widespread calls were made for Trump to distance himself, he did not. How might this impact our work?

Day 3 Update: Loving Persistent Resistance

Fast for Justice 2017 // Film

This morning’s reflection led by Matt Bereza focused on the unseen laws that govern energy and the transfer of energy. In the 1600s a scientist named Leibniz developed a mathematical formula that came to be known as the Law of Conservation. Essentially, this law states that what is taken will be filled—this thought later gave rise to the laws thermodynamics. While mathematical in nature, these theories can also be seen as philosophical. This morning we meditated on those things we have lost—food, our own space, time, and control over the thermostat. After contemplation, several members of the group responded with what has been conserving their energy. Most notably, members of the circle spoke about community and the presence of others as nourishing.

The volatile and hostile political atmosphere in the country and here in the capital city prompts us to consider how we can take care of each other and our personal and communal safety and wellbeing. Protocols, contingencies and the roles of a security team were discussed. Especially in these coming days leading to the Trump inauguration, we recognize the need for more deliberate care.

The dramatic witness voicing the words of the men in Guantanamo was repeated near the White House as we joined the weekly vigil there that members of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House has held there every Monday noon for many years.

We opened the space with words from Art Laffin. “If a member of our own blood family was imprisoned at Guantanamo, what would we want people to do to help them? We would certainly want a speedy and just resolution to their case. Yet 55 men have languished at Guantanamo, most for 14 years, not knowing their fate. We need to see the men at Guantanamo as members of our own blood family and act on their behalf. And so we come to the White House today, in the name of the detainees unjustly held at GITMO, to call on President Obama in his last days in office to fulfill his campaign promise of eight years ago and issue an executive order to Close GITMO Immediately!”

We continued to be creative and amend our presentation. We have added these words inspired by Ghaleb al Bihani, as shared with us by the Center for Constitutional Rights, who while enduring his own unjust incarceration recognized his solidarity with the oppressed in the United States: I have been at Guantanamo for 15 years and I am a ‘forever prisoner’. I saw the news of people protesting the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson and the stories of policies that use racial profiling and mass incarceration. These people are being treated like non humans, like us. We are trapped in Guantanamo in the same way that black people are on US soil. That is mass incarceration.

We could not approach the usual “free speech zone” on Pennsylvania Avenue due to the setup of the reviewing stands for the inauguration of Donald Trump as president on January 20. Our plea at the White House is to President Obama to keep his promise to close Guantanamo as the window of his opportunity to do the right thing closes. We rejoice in the recent releases of some of those unjustly bound, but we know that any vestige of the horrible prison that remains when Trump takes office will set the stage for more heinous violations of human rights in the coming years. Today, The New York Times, published an article entitled, “Trump Said ‘Torture Works.’ An Echo Is Feared Worldwide” explaining the effects of another pro-torture U.S. president in the Global community.

Whatever comes, we pledge ourselves to continue our loving persistent resistance.

Learn more about our activities this week by checking out our Daily Schedule, and January 11th: Call to Action,

Witness Against Torture on Social Media.
We will be using #CloseGitmo and #guantanamo
Please “like” us on Facebook & follow us on Twitter & Instagram.
Check out our latest news and updates on Tumblr.
Post any pictures of your local activities to our flickr account and we will help spread the word.

Donate to support our work and Fast for Justice.
We are asking our supporters to donate $55 to Witness Against Torture to symbolize the 55 men remaining in Guantanamo.
Witness Against Torture is completely volunteer driven and run. We have no paid staff, but do have expenses associated with our organizing work. We need your financial support. We are fiscally sponsored by the Washington Peace Center. The Washington Peace Center is a verified US-registered non profit.If you are able, click here to donate.

Take Action Today

News // Film

I have no doubt that the good American people will realize that holding innocent people in prison is not the way to go and will work for their release until every last innocent detainee has joined his family. I wholeheartedly forgive everyone who wronged me during my detention and I forgive because forgiveness is my inexhaustible resource.

~Mohamedou Ould Slahi, released without charge from Guantánamo after 14 years on October 17, 2016

Take Action Today:

Watch our #yearinreview2016 video here: Presidential Promises: Then & Now – As we come to the end of the Obama’s presidency, we’d like to take a couple of minutes to reflect on what he’s said and done regarding Guantánamo, as well as what lies ahead for those who remain trapped at the prison. Please share this widely with your friends via email, facebook, and twitter.

Join us in Washington DC: January 3rd to the 12th and January 19th – 21st:

Please note: RSVP is required – email us: witnesstorture@gmail.com

Every year, we come together not only to call for the closure of Guantanamo and its legacy of institutionalizing Islamophobia. We demand an end to policies that maintain racism, mass incarceration, and fear of our neighbors. Furthermore, we come together to envision the world we want to live in where justice and equality reign.

We hope you will join us for a week of actions and fasting from January 3-12, 2017 and our presence at the presidential inauguration January 19-21.

For more info and to RSVP, email us: witnesstorture@gmail.com

We need your Support – Donate to Witness Against Torture:

Now, more than ever, we need your help to build a nation without torture, indefinite detention, Islamophobia, and racism. Please consider a donation to help fund our annual Fast for Justice this January. We are completely volunteer driven and run. We have no paid staff, all of the money you donate goes to funding the work we do together. Click here to donate.

3 Action Steps to Take Today to Close Guantanamo Bay Prison

News // Film

In this critical transition to the Trump administration, we repeat the call we made earlier this year:

We remind ourselves that Islamophobia is dangerous. It is at the foundation of Guantanamo Bay Prison’s existence and the fuel that carries the violence we see today. We continue to offer our love and support to our Muslim sisters and brothers who will be targeted by violence fostered by hate speech. The work to dismantle racism and xenophobia should be our call.

We invite you to do three activities with us today:

1. Donate to Witness Against Torture

Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday – Now, more than ever, we need your help to build a nation without torture, indefinite detention, Islamophobia, and racism. Please consider a donation to help fund our annual Fast for Justice this January. We are completely volunteer driven and run. We have no paid staff, all of the money you donate goes to funding the work we do together. If you are able, please donate here.

2. Take Action: Call your senators today to denounce torture

Today, WAT is delivering a letter to Senator John McCain today to support his public stance on torture. He spoke out against torture at a Nov. 19 conference, saying, “I don’t give a damn what the President of the United States wants to do, we will not waterboard. We will not torture. We will not torture people” In our letter, we offer our perspective on torture at Guantanamo and ask him to continue to speak loudly in favor of a zero-tolerance stance against torture. Click here to read the letter.

JOIN WAT TODAY in calling and writing Senator McCain and your own senators. Demand that your senators join Sen. McCain to oppose this new administration’s stated intentions to “bring back waterboarding” and other forms of torture. Thank Senator McCain for his recent refusal to accept Trump’s plan to return to illegal treatment of U.S. captives and tell him to never back down.
US Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
To support your advocacy, we offer links to the following WAT statements:

WAT Torture Abolition and Accountability Platform, July 2016

Six Critical Demands for Closing Guantanamo, February 2016

3. RSVP for our Annual Fast for Justice:

We come together not only to call for the closure of Guantanamo and its legacy of institutionalizing Islamophobia, but also to invite our government and fellow citizens to choose the side of love, mercy and justice. We demand an end to policies that maintain racism, mass incarceration, and fear of our neighbors. We come together to envision the world we want to live in where justice and equality reign.

We invite you to RSVP today for our annual Fast for Justice: January 3-12 and our resistance at the Presidential Inauguration January 19-21.

Please email witnesstorture@gmail.com for registration information.

Thank you for your support in doing this important work. We hope you can join us today !

August Newsletter

News // Film

A few news updates about what has been happening at Guantanamo and in our activist community. Please read and share widely.

15 men released from Guantanamo Bay Prison

We celebrate the release of 15 men from Guantanamo last Monday to United Arab Emirates. Read more about this process and their resettlement here. The names of those released are:

Mahmud al Mujahid (now 36, from Yemen)
Mohammed Khusruf (now 66, from Yemen)
Abd al Muhsin Salih al Busi (now 37, from Yemen)
Abd al Rahman Sulayman (now 37, from Yemen)
Zahir Omar Hamis bin Hamdoun (now 36, from Yemen)
Majid Mahmud Abdu Ahmed (now 36, from Yemen)
Bashir al Marwalah (now 37, from Yemen)
Saeed Sarem Jarabh (now 38, from Yemen)
Ayub Murshid Ali Salih (now 38, from Yemen)
Mohammed al Adahi (now 54, from Yemen)
Abdel Qadir al Mudhaffari (now 40, from Yemen)
Abdul Muhammed al Muhajari (now 46, from Yemen)
Obaidullah (now 36, from Afghanistan)
Haji Hamdullah (in his 50s, from Afghanistan)
Mohammed Kamin (now 38, from Afghanistan)

We hope that they will be given support as they settle into a new life far away from Guantanamo, and that they will be able to see their families soon. Obaidullah’s family was interviewed here.

There are now 61 detainees who remain in the prison: 20 are cleared for release, 31 are awaiting clearance through the Periodic Review Board, and 10 are in the military commission system (of those, 7 are currently in proceedings and 3 have been “convicted”).

Jihad Ahmed Mustafa Dhiab

Witness Against Torture wrote a statement pleading for continuing assurances from all relevant authorities of the safety of Jihad Ahmed Mustafa Dhiab (aka Jihad Ahmed Deyab). Dhiab poses no threat to any nation, society, or people. He should immediately be set free so that he can continue to rebuild his life after years of detention at Guantanamo. You can read the full statement here.

Join us at the SOA Watch Convergence on the US/Mexico Border October 7-10

We stand in solidarity with the goals of the Convergence: to resist border militarization, engage in nonviolent direct action, and challenge the racist status quo that keeps our immigrant brothers and sisters imprisoned in detention centers and separated from their loved ones. We are looking to form an affinity group, if you are interested please email witnesstorture@gmail.com now and we will connect over conference call in September.

For more information on the Convergence visit www.soaw.org/border

News from our community

Art Lafflin received the Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace Award this August. He is a founding member of Witness Against Torture and helps keep up a weekly vigil in front of the White House, to which we bring our witness during the January fast. You can read more about the award here.

We remember George Homanich

George Homanich passed away on August 7th. Matt Daloisio shared that “George was a singularly unique guy: a mix of fierce commitment, unassuming humility, gentle compassion, and deep love. His presence in the Witness Against Torture community was deeply cherished, and his absence will be hard to accept. Sending love to Judy and all the family.”

Lastly, make sure to save the date for our annual Fast for Justice: January 3-12 and our presence at the Presidential Inauguration January 19-21 – We will start planning for these events soon. If you are interested in participating in the planning process, please email witnesstorture@gmail.com.

July Newsletter : RNC Report & News

News // Film

News from Guantanamo Bay Prison

We celebrate the releases of Abdul Rahman Ahmed, a Yemeni who is either 36 or 37 and Omar Hamzayavich Abdulayev, 37, from Tajikistan who are now in Serbia. Fayiz Ahmad Yahia Suleiman, 41 was released to Italy. We think of them and their newfound “freedom,” knowing their struggles for healing are not over. We also celebrate the clearing for release of New York Times best selling author Mohamedou Ould Slahi. Please join his family’s work to get him released immediately – you can sign the letter to Secretary of Defense Carter here and call your representatives to ask that they release him immediately.

We also want to update you on one of the men who was sent to Uruguay in 2014 and who now is being maligned by right-wing Senators as a terrorist amidst wild speculation as to his whereabouts. Abu Wa’el Dhiab (Jihad Diyab) was brutally force-fed while imprisoned in Guantanamo and still must use crutches to walk because of his torture in US custody. As with many of the men released in recent years, adjusting to life in exile has been extremely hard if not impossible: no family, no Muslim community, none of the emotional or social supports needed by torture survivors, and the expectation to learn Spanish and get a job. In June, WAT facilitated Dhiab’s reconnection with one of his former lawyers, Jon Eisenberg, who just provided key information about Dhiab’s situation, here. We hope you will read his account and share widely to help counter the demonizing narrative.

WAT joins Cleveland activists during the RNC

WAT has returned home from their visit to Cleveland during the Republican National Convention last week. We never came close to the Convention Center, because our business was elsewhere, in the neighborhoods ignored by the city’s glitzy convention promotion.

WAT’s participation in the People’s Justice and Peace Convention

On the weekend before the RNC, we joined the People’s Justice and Peace Convention to help write a People’s Platform. The convention adopted our proposed platform planks for Torture Abolition and Accountability as a component of the Racial and Social Justice section of the platform. Our anti-torture platform demands that the United States fully repudiate torture, which became a systematic state practice following September 11, 2001. It gives detailed policy prescriptions for immediately closing the Guantanamo prison, bringing justice to the detainees, ensuring accountability for torture, and strengthening anti-torture provisions. We recommend using the full anti-torture platform as a resource to guide our community members’ ongoing activism and advocacy work.
The organizers of the People’s Convention mounted the Public Square speaker’s platform in downtown Cleveland on the last day of the RNC to announce their People’s Platform to the press and public. They planned to share their platform with both the Republican and Democratic national conventions and their delegates. Perhaps more importantly they are seeking to “speak truth to the people” by sharing the platform widely with activists and voters, urging them to study the document and compare it with what the major political parties are offering. The full platform document will soon be available at the website of Cleveland Nonviolence Network

WAT on the streets of Cleveland

On the eve of the RNC, WAT members gathered in Market Square on the west side to hold a demonstration with our own answer to Donald Trump’s full embrace of torture: “Witness Love.” (insert attached photo) Luke Nephew led us into the square singing a chant he composed for the occasion:

The walls that they build
To tear us apart
Will never be as strong as
The walls of our hearts.

We invited those gathered around our banner to speak to the ways in which “we choose love” in response to the world’s violence.
On Day 1 of the RNC we joined the End Poverty Now Rally and March for Economic Justice. Around 600 activists marched from an abandoned industrial lot in an impoverished east side neighborhood into the heart of a shiny, modern downtown business corridor and plaza, accompanied by perhaps hundreds of black-clad police on bicycles. Democracy Now did a lengthy report on the march in which they interviewed Luke Nephew about ending torture (at 1:22:32), showed our banner and song (at 1:14:45) and ended with Mimi and Luke singing “My Liberation.” You can see WAT’s photos here.

The Peace Poets in Cleveland

Luke, Enmanuel, Abe, and Mimi buoyed our efforts with their poetic artistry in two Peace Poet shows during our days in Cleveland. Watch the Peace Poets’ stirring performance here (starts at 1:40:08) that closed out an inspiring evening on racial justice at the People’s Convention at Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in this video. And watch our Facebook page for upcoming video posts from the Peace Poets’ July 17th show, The People’s Mic: Word to the Resistance, at the Ohio City Masonic Arts Center.

Please save the date and plan on joining us at the SOAWatch gathering in Arizona this October 7-10. We will send out details soon.