From the Archive

WAT Workshop Presentation at the October 2016 SOAW Convergence on the Border

Earlier this  month Witness Against Torture members traveled to the US-Mexico border in Arizona to attend the SOAW Convergence on the Border protesting border militarization, as well as the criminalization of migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and people of color.  Maha Hilal, Paula Miller, and Helen Schietinger presented a workshop at the convergence.  Helen reports below.

WAT Workshop Presentation at the October 2016 SOAW Convergence on the Border:  What connects the Eloy Detention Center, Rikers Island, Guantanamo Prison and Communication Management Units? (Hint: think racism and state violence.)

Presented by Maha Hilal, Paula Miller, and Helen Schietinger
Reported by Helen Schietinger

The Plan:

We had a great workshop planned: we would begin by spending five minutes on each of four types of detention institutions:

• Paula would use her five minutes to describe immigration detention centers and present the story of a person imprisoned in one.
• Helen would describe Guantanamo prison and show a short video of WAT members reading the words of Tariq Ba Odah.
• Maha would explain Communication Management Units and read the words of a Muslim person doomed to being in one.
• Helen would describe U.S. prisons and show a video of the words of Kalief Broder, who committed suicide after being imprisoned and horribly abused at Rikers Island.

We would follow these brief spotlights with a discussion of what these institutions have in common and what state objectives they achieve through racism and violence.  The conclusion would be a video of the Peace Poets performing Mental Slavery.

The Real Thing:

Even though the video equipment ended up not working and we were competing with other intriguing workshops and the interfaith service at the border, lots of people came and they appreciated what we had to offer.  I ended by playing Mental Slavery on my laptop since the AV equipment didn’t work, wondering if the audience could hear well enough, and if so, whether the strong language in the poem would offend anyone, but most folks were rapt.

We continued to get positive feedback from people for the next two days. WAT’s instinct to connect the dots between the different forms of U.S. detention and torture is a good one. Many participants, passionately committed to opposing one form of detention abuse or torture, had no idea of the extent of human rights abuses in other institutions.  Nobody had even heard of CMU’s.  Our work to build bridges and provide education among our diverse communities is as important as ever.