DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article by Marcia Chambers from the New Haven Independent

Abby Boyle, a junior at Branford High School, remembers the moment she took her cell phone to sign up her high school for the national student walkout to raise awareness about gun violence in the nation’s schools. 

It was a moment she and others will never forget because it was part of a national event that has transformed her and hundreds of other Branford students, an event they organized. 

“A big part of this was to show that our generation is going to make the change because we are the future, and we are soon to be adults. So it is like this is our time to really get out there and have them listen to us,” said Jayleen Flores (pictured), a senior and the president of the school’s Student Council.

Abby Boyle, Jayleen Flores, Andrew DeBenedictis, Mary Olejarzyk
(Bill O’Brien photo)

The national student walkout idea began on social media shortly after 17 students and teachers were gunned down in their classrooms on Feb. 14 at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. A former student armed with a high-powered assault rifle and determined to open fire went into the school and executed his plan.

Branford students created their own program, encouraged by school administrators to do so. The Walsh Intermediate School also had a program. The high school program held last Wednesday was led by Boyle and three other student leaders, Flores, a senior; Andrew DeBenedictis, a junior; and Mary Olejarzyk, a junior. Flores is student council president. The others all hold officer positions in various school organizations. (See photo)

The four students met with the Eagle last Friday in the office of High School Principal Lee Panagoulias, Jr., who said about 500 to 600 students attended the walkout program, which had been planned for outdoors, but was redirected to the school gym because it had snowed the day before. Those who did not participate went to the school auditorium. Faculty chose their destinations as well.

Olejarzyk said, “I think in terms of finding our voice, we were never told no. This administration was willing and excited to help us. In a lot of different schools in other parts of the country and even in Connecticut, kids were told they would be suspended if they walked out, and that is not personally what I think they should be saying. Young people were the lowest number of voters turning out in recent elections. I think we need to encourage voting, and I appreciate what our school did. They let us have our voice.”

The students said they would have liked the press to be there and one of them said she had contacted a local television station. “I think the press being there would have been nice, especially for us. I think it would have been nice because more people could have heard our story,” Boyle said.

Before last Wednesday’s event, the Eagle contacted Hamlet Hernandez, the district’s superintendent, to ask if we could cover the student program at the high school. He said it was closed to the press. He would not explain why it was closed to the press except to say some events were open and some were not. 
 
Growing Up With Sandy Hook

Boyle, one of the high school’s leaders, wanted her school to be part of a program to commemorate the lives of those lost that day and to find a way to talk about safety for students. The attack on the Florida high school was the 17th school shooting in the U.S. in the first 45 days of 2018. 

These Branford teens have lived with kids being killed in their classrooms since they were 12. They said they all remember well when a young man named Adam Lanza walked into the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, five years ago and opened fire, killing 20 children, ages 6 to 7 years old, and six educators, including teachers and the school principal. Then he killed himself. He had earlier killed his mother. 

Abby Boyle, a junior at Branford High School, remembers the moment she took her smart phone to sign up her high school for the national student walkout to raise awareness about gun violence in the nation’s schools. 

It was a moment she and others will never forget because it led to a national event that has transformed her and hundreds of other Branford students.

When Olejarzyk spoke before those in the high school gym she read a letter she wrote to U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who in the aftermath of Sandy Hook has devoted himself to changing how the nation deals with guns and the law. In her letter she told Murphy what it was like “to be our age and to grow up in an age of Sandy Hook. This has to stop.”

Murphy, along with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Reps. Rosa DeLauro and Elizabeth Esty spoke to the thousands of students who assembled at the National Student Walkout in Washington, D.C. 

Olejarzyk told Murphy what it has been like “with this constant news of new mass shootings in schools in other places. This affects us.” She said she wrote Murphy that “we are ready to make the change; we are ready when we are 18 vote for officials who will make the change on what should be adopted.”

Boyle said she started the process to involve BHS in the national student walkout “about one month ago,” after she learned about the walkout on social media. “The idea was to get kids involved and to raise awareness against gun violence and to show remembrance for all the victims lost due to that violence and to show Congress that we care.”

Thousands of students in schools across the state and country walked out on the morning of March 14, each school doing it their own way. In nearby Guilford the students walked out of their classrooms and onto the street, standing in front of their school. Other kids took to their local town or city halls. But some Connecticut school districts threatened to suspend students for walking out, not happy with the idea that students would create their own independent program. 

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Student Chosen Themes
 
At the Branford High gym, each of the four student leaders, led with a theme. Boyle began with a Remembrance, reading aloud the 17 names of those shot to death. Flores spoke about students finding a voice. DeBenedictis spoke about student unity, and Olejarzyk spoke about teenage life and its challenges. 

The Branford students defined the walkout as leaving their classrooms, not necessarily leaving the building. “We all physically left the classroom. There were a lot of different ways to do this and this is the way we chose it,” DeBenedictis said. He added that it had snowed the day before and the student leaders didn’t feel comfortable forcing everyone out. We decided it was better to have it in the gym,” he said, adding it was easier to hear in the gym than on the field.
   
Flores got right to the point on the location issue. “When I spoke I made the point that it doesn’t matter where we’re standing, but that we are standing. Some people were pretty upset that we weren’t going out, but it shouldn’t matter where we are. It is what we are standing up for.”

All four were highly aware of the fact that they may well be the generation to change America’s thinking about guns, violence, and schools. Each has come to see how they empowerment works; each has now discovered an inner voice they want to share with others.

DeBenedictis said, “And what we are seeing in Congress is that actions that should have been happening haven’t taken place over the last 20 years where school shootings have become increasingly more common. And because our politicians really aren’t taking care of this we felt it was time for students to step up and start fighting for ourselves.” 

Olejarzyk agreed. “I think what happened in Florida really resonated with people our age because we are very politically aware and after what the students in Parkland started we felt really inspired to help make their message louder up here.”

The Eagle asked each student what he or she took away from the experience.

Boyle said, “I guess what I felt thinking back a few weeks ago when I found this (demonstration) on the internet, I said I am going to set up my school for this and see what happens. I was thinking this probably won’t be a big thing. And it is just so surreal to see that we were part of this movement and that we are such a small little school, in a small town, in a small state, but it really shows that our actions matter, that we could do something really huge.”

DeBenedictis said, “When all was said and done, thousands if not hundreds of thousands of students at schools participated in this across the country. We are writing history in textbooks for one of the largest student movements in history.

“This really helped us find a voice, a united front. I think this is an issue that students need to be organized on.  As young people we found a voice on this issue. With the march on Washington coming, it is really good that we are making this all happen,” DeBenedictis added. 

Panagoulias, who let the students do virtually all the talking at the interview, was asked by the Eagle about earlier student movements in American history.

He remembered demonstrations of decades past. “During the ’70s it was a lot of us versus them, students versus the institution. I think one of the things Branford chose to do is to support their kids. This was a great opportunity for the entire learning community. Some teachers went out. Some didn’t.”

The principal asked the four students, “If you wanted to go outside do you think we would have supported that?”

“Yes,” Boyle said. “It didn’t matter where.” DeBenedictus observed that in the gym “we could hear each other speaking.”

What the four students said they learned was that coming together changed how they think. Each seemed to have found new goals and a new direction that would take them outside themselves in the future.

Voting in Elections  

Asked if they had registered to vote, all said they have pre-registered to vote so that may do so when they turn 18.  The principal said “We will have the Registrars of Voters here in the spring when more kids are of age so that they can register.” 

Boyle delivered the register to vote message to the hundreds of students gathered in the gym. “Our decisions matter. Each and every one of us has to register to vote. We need support. Our generation needs to have a voice.” The energy in the gym after a walk-out that lasted 17 minutes was intense, she said. “ This was an overflowing of energy, of positivity. Everyone was commenting. It was really awesome,” she said. 

Flores said, “Everyone I talked to left with a great feeling afterward. They were inspired.”

DeBenedictis pointed out that for many people “this was their major political event, for many this was the first time they made a poster, or came out because they were passionate about something and that was a really big deal for a lot of students. I think that will inspire them in the future, to stand up for what they believe in.

“One other thing I want to add. I think this idea that young people are completely apathetic about politics, I think that is declining. If you look at our generation, how passionate we are about these issues that are affecting us, I think young people are really waking up. I think it will explode in 2016 and especially in the presidential election in 2018.” 

Other Points of View
 
Those students who did not walk out may still be involved in many of the issues, Panagoulias observed. 

“Those students may be involved but they may have different opinions. Because they chose not to participate it may mean they have different viewpoints but they may still be involved.”

Boyle said that while the focus of her program was not guns or violence “we brought it up and mentioned it, and some people have really strong opinions about gun restrictions and gun laws.

“Even if you may have a different opinion than me or any of us here today, we can still work together to come up with a better solution. You know it is not always about being so left or so right. Like sometimes you have to be in the middle to find a solution. I think many do not realize that.”

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article from Democracy Now (reprinted according to terms of Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License)

In a historic day of action, more than a million students from over 3,000 schools walked out of classes to protest gun violence on Wednesday [March 14]. Walkouts occurred in all 50 states as well as some schools overseas. The nationwide student walkouts occurred one month after 17 students and staff were shot dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. At many schools, students walked out for 17 minutes—one minute for each person murdered in Parkland. The students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are now organizing a massive March for Our Lives on March 24 in Washington, and solidarity marches are planned across the country. We air moments from marches in New York and talk with Luna Baez and Citlali Mares, two students in Denver, Colorado, who helped organize their school’s walkout for gun reform Wednesday.

Video on Democracy Now website

Transcript

NERMEEN SHAIKH: In a historic day of action, more than a million students from over 3,000 schools walked out of classes to protest gun violence on Wednesday. Walkouts occurred in all 50 states, as well as some schools overseas. This was the scene outside one school here in New York City.

PROTESTERS: No guns, no violence! No guns, no violence! No guns, no violence! No guns, no violence! No guns, no violence! No guns, no violence! No guns, no violence!

CHELSEA: My name is Chelsea. I go to the High School of Fashion Industries. And today we’re here to protest against what happened at Parkland. We’re here to stop gun violence in schools and everywhere.

PROTESTERS: I’m a student, not a target! I’m a student, not a target! I’m a student, not a target! I’m a student, not a target!

LAURA RICHMOND: My name is Laura Richmond. I go to High School of Fashion Industries. And we’re here protesting gun violence all across America. Guns don’t solve problems, they create problems. And obviously, as you can see, we all feel strongly about this. This is something that’s been going on for far too long. And if people—if adults aren’t going to take action, we need to take action.

PROTESTERS: No guns, no violence! No guns, no violence! No guns, no violence! No guns, no violence!

KAYLA CONCEPCION: My name is Kayla Concepcion. I go to the High School of Fashion Industries. We are protesting to disarm the NRA and the mass school shootings that has happened across the country. It has to end now. And it starts with every school protesting. And we are here today to stop this shooting! Today! Every school should walk out right now and go and protest!

PROTESTERS: Disarm the NRA! Disarm the NRA! Disarm the NRA! Disarm the NRA! Disarm the NRA!

AMY GOODMAN: The nationwide student walkouts occurred one month after 17 students and faculty were shot dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. At many schools, students walked out for 17 minutes—one minute for each person murdered in Parkland. The students at Majory Stoneman Douglas High School are now organizing a massive March for Our Lives on March 24th in Washington, D.C. Democracy Now! will be there, broadcasting live the entire march. Solidarity marches are planned for across the country. In Brooklyn, New York, a walkout occurred at Edward R. Murrow High School.

ANASTASIA BEIRNE-MEYER: We are standing here today, halting our education to show that we will not be living in fear of a school shooter. We will not be next. We will not sit in our classrooms wondering why Congress is not working as hard as we are. We will not overlook the fact that it is the students’ responsibility to speak out against the dangers of guns. And I’m not just talking about mass shootings. I’m talking about the militarization of our law enforcement and the normalization of these weapons in our communities. We will not let our future be dictated by the millions of dollars from the National Rifle Association that prevent stronger gun laws.

AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in Denver, Colorado, where we’re joined by two organizers of a student walkout at Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy in Denver, Colorado. We’re joined by Lali Mares and Luna Baez. Luna is the daughter of the undocumented activist Jeanette Vizguerra, who’s one of the founders of the Metro Denver Sanctuary Coalition. Jeanette Vizguerra took refuge, sanctuary, in Denver, but now is now out, because there is a private bill that protects her.
Luna Baez and Lali Mares, we welcome you both to Democracy Now! Luna, let’s begin with you. Talk about what happened yesterday at your middle school.

LUNA BAEZ: What happened yesterday at our middle school was we walked out in support of better gun laws and for the 17 that fell during the Parkland school shooting.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: You talk about what kind of response you and Luna received when you started to organize this protest. What did teachers and students at your school say to you?

CITLALI MARES: Some of our teachers were very hesitant about the walkout. A lot of them supported us, but we knew that there are some that weren’t going to be able to help us to the maximum we needed. And then the students felt like it was very important, and it was important for them to walk out with us, because they knew that it affected them in a very big way.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And what about your school principal and other school administrators?

CITLALI MARES: We didn’t hear much about our principal. Our vice principal was out there while we were walking out. So, it was good to have that kind of support while we were there.

AMY GOODMAN: Luna, can you talk about why you chose to be one of the organizers of this protest? And what grade are you in?

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LUNA BAEZ: I am in eighth grade. And the reason I chose to be one of the organizers was because from what I know. Me and Lali had a bit more experience than the other children—

AMY GOODMAN: In organizing?

LUNA BAEZ: —and the other students. Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: And would you say that experience comes from organizing around your mom, Jeanette Vizguerra?

LUNA BAEZ: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: And do you see these issues as linked? Can you talk about your mom just for a few minutes? I visited her in Denver at the Unitarian Church, where she had taken sanctuary, before she was able to come out because she’s protected by a bill that was passed in Congress.

LUNA BAEZ: So, I would say it would be linked, because my experience with media and all things related to that are from my mom’s process.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Lali, why did you choose to help organize this student walkout? And what demands are you making of President Trump, of Congress, of the NRA?

CITLALI MARES: I chose to organize, to help organize the walkout because I knew that this wouldn’t just affect us as a school, it would affect everyone in the United States and out of the United States, because this is something that’s bigger. And with a bigger group of students, it can allow us to create a bigger impact.

And I would just want the president to pass something that says that we can—we have better laws about guns, not necessarily taking away the guns, but nobody needs that type of weapon in their house, where somebody who doesn’t need that has it in their hands and something like Parkland can happen.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Lali, how many students participated from your school in the walkout? Were you surprised by how many did or how many didn’t?

CITLALI MARES: Yes, we expected maybe 20, 25, 30. We didn’t expect that big of a group, and we thought it would just be eighth graders walking out with us. As Luna and I were walking the halls, we noticed that high schoolers were joining some of the sixth and seventh graders. So, I would say about 70, 80. It wasn’t a big a—like a big size, but it was large for us as our first walkout.

AMY GOODMAN: And, of course, 2,000 Denver-area students also walked out all over, many marching to the state Capitol. I want to thank Luna Baez and Citlali Mares for joining us from Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy in Denver, as we go back to more voices from the nationwide student walkout on Wednesday.

PROTESTERS: No more silence! End gun violence! No more silence! End gun violence!

AHRIANA MERRYWEATHER: All these people have come together today so that they can express how they feel about gun violence and all these things and how kids don’t feel safe in their schools, which is the one place we should feel safe, because that’s where we spend most of our time.

REEM ARAJAI: I hope that the president will step up, stop accepting money from the NRA, because if all of the deaths that have occurred aren’t enough to convince him, then I guess it just has to be us protesting right now.

SIMONE HICKS: If you can protect guns this much and don’t have the same regard for the people who are going to create your country in the future, then we’re in trouble. The kids are the future. If you’re not protecting the kids, then what’s left?

PROTESTERS: I call BS! I call BS! I call BS!

NUPOL KIAZOLU: My name is Nupol Kiazolu. I’m 17 years old, and I’m president of the Youth Coalition for Black Lives Matter New York. I’m out here also because I lost my father to gun violence, and I lost many family members and friends to gun violence. Gun violence is not a new issue. It affects our communities every single day, and it affects black and Latino communities disproportionately. I came here to give honor to those 17 lives that were lost, because those people were heroes. But we don’t need any more martyrs. We need justice. And that starts here and now.

PROTESTER 1: This is about people—gay, straight, black, white, religious, nonreligious—coming together so their kids don’t have to be afraid to go to school.

CAROLINA THOMAS: Hi. My name’s Carolina Thomas, and I’m 12 years old. And I’m here today because I’m sick and tired of hearing that someone has died at school innocently. I am sick and tired of hearing that someone has been killed at school while learning how to read or write. Why are we fighting for something that the adults should be fighting for? Why are we here marching and walking out of school, when the people of Congress should be protecting us?

PROTESTER 2: It makes sense to me that the only problem is the guns. Get rid of the guns, get rid of the violence. We have the most guns than any country on the face of this world. We’re the richest country that’s ever existed on the planet, and we can’t deal with these issues? It doesn’t make any sense.

PROTESTERS: Donald Trump, Mike Pence, gun control is common sense! Donald Trump, Mike Pence, gun control is common sense!

MARIA LOPEZ: As students, we’re here uniting our voices to advocate for like more stricter gun laws and for a safer school environment, because that’s why we come here. We come here for an education, and we don’t come here to be worrying, “Am I going to go home or not?”

JOEY ZARATE: In order to get our stronger message across, we needed to hold it here, where everyone gets to hear that we are together, we are one, we are with Florida. At the end of the day, we just want our schools to be safe and never be shot up again. That’s why we say, “Never again.”

PROTESTERS: Enough is enough! Enough is enough! Enough is enough!

PROTESTER 3: We grow guns. We place them in the hands of Americans and say, “Go play.” The inevitable senseless violence that follows is succeeded by senseless silence.

AMY GOODMAN: Voices from the nationwide student walkout on Wednesday. It’s estimated about a million people walked out, not only in the United States, but calling for gun control all over the world, in solidarity with the students at Parkland.

This is Democracy Now! We’ll be in Washington, D.C., on March 24th, covering the March for Our Lives, organizing the student survivors of Parkland, organizing around the Valentine’s Day massacre, calling for comprehensive gun control.

This is Democracy Now! When we come back, we go to Alabama to hear about another school shooting, just a few weeks after Parkland, that hasn’t gotten anything like the attention of what happened in Florida. Stay with us.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

Excerpts from an article by Cindy Long for the National Education Association

There’s a new face on the age-old gun debate: our students, and they won’t be silenced. They are demanding that the adults in power keep them safe and they will not stand by and allow elected officials to fail them any longer.

Click on photo to enlarge

As of Feb. 14, just a month and a half into the new year, a total of 20 people have been killed and more than 30 have been injured in shootings at American elementary, middle, and high schools. Only weeks earlier at Marshall County High School in Kentucky two students were killed by a 15-year old shooter who left fourteen others wounded and all traumatized perhaps for the rest of their lives. . . .

Organizing for School and Student Safety

Nationwide, students and activists have joined their rallying cry and have organized two upcoming events — the National School Walkout on March 14 and the March for Our Lives on March 24. NEA will also participate in another event, a National Day of Action on April 20, the anniversary of the Columbine shooting.

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March 14th – the Women’s March has announced a National School Walkout in which school communities will walk out of their schools for 17 minutes to honor the lives lost in Parkland. NEA will join with AFT in encouraging educators throughout the country to wear orange on this day.

March 24th – Several students who survived the tragedy at Parkland have called for a student-led march and protest. They will travel to Washington, DC, and meet with politicians on the need to address gun violence and are encouraging others to join. This is a fully student-planned march. More information can be found at marchforourlives.com.

April 20 – NEA and its members are joining with the National Public Education Network, American Federation of Teachers, Moms Demand Action, Everytown for Gun Safety, Giffords: Courage to Fight Gun Violence, and other national organizations, to take action against gun violence on April 20 together in a way that sends a strong message to policy makers that #enoughisenough.

“We demand a plan that will keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous people,” says NEA President Lily Eskelsen García. “Only the United States has such a long, long, long list of mass public murders by a lone gunman. The reason is simple. Our laws allow dangerous people to easily purchase military-style, rapid-fire assault weapons. That’s the only difference. That’s what we need to fix. Thoughts and prayers will not prevent the next tragedy. People rising up will.”

NEA is asking educators nationwide to share their ideas and information on events in their school communities. Visit our National Day of Action site.

Editor’s note: The National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) are the largest trade unions of teachers in the United States with 3 million and 1.6 million members respectively. They have consistently opposed NRA demands to arm teachers, and the AFT has once again expressed its opposition in the last few days.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article from Think Progress

For more than a decade, the First National Bank of Omaha has offered special branded Visa cards to National Rifle Association members to support the group. On Thursday, following two days of public pressure, the bank announced it “will not renew its contract” with the NRA.

Click on image to enlarge
(Note: Since this image was first published by Think Progress, most of the corporations have ended their relationship.)

The bank confirmed, in a tweet, that “customer feedback caused” the decision:

On Tuesday, ThinkProgress reported  that First National Bank was one of at least 22 corporations that the NRA says offer incentives to NRA members. The bank and its parent company did not respond to repeated inquires about whether last week’s horrific mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida, would cause it to reconsider its relationship with the group leading the charge to oppose gun violence prevention efforts.

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But less than 24 hours later, ThinkProgress spotted that the website advertising the “official credit card of the NRA” had mysteriously vanished, with an error message appearing in its place.

Neither the bank nor Visa responded to repeated ThinkProgress inquiries about the disappearance, but the bank did respond on Twitter, to many outraged customers, many of whom threatened to cancel their accounts  because of the relationship.

First National Bank is the first of the corporations to officially end its relationship with the NRA in the aftermath of Parkland.

There are still at least 21 corporations  with ongoing relationships with the NRA.

Editor’s note: Since this article was published, a number of these other corporations have stopped their relationship with the NRA, including Enterprise, Alamo and National, as well as Hertz and Avis car rentals. However, the NRA continues its own publicity, assailing the media and calling for the arming of teachers, a position supported by President Trump.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article by Elliot Swain for Code Pink

On January 12-14, 2018, a conference in Baltimore on US foreign military bases brought together anti-war voices from all over the world. Speakers identified the many threats posed by United States military presence—from national sovereignty to the environment and public health.

US military outposts in foreign nations are vestiges of a shameful history of US imperialism dating back to the Spanish-American War and subsequent US colonization of the Philippines and Cuba. Many more bases were built during World War II and the Korean War, and still exist today. The closure of these bases could signal the twilight of a long history of bloody, costly foreign wars while affirming the principle of self-determination for all peoples. Voices from Japanese, Korean, African, Australian and Puerto Rican resistance movements came together at the conference to draw these connections and plan a peaceful future.

Fittingly, the conference marked the 16th anniversary of the opening of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Demonstrators gathered outside the White House on January 11 to demand the release of the 41 prisoners still detained without charges in the prison that former President Obama had promised to close. But as co-chair of the National Network on Cuba Cheryl LaBash said, “Guantanamo is more than a prison.” In fact, the Guantanamo military base is the oldest outpost of the United States military on foreign soil, with permanent control ceded in 1901 under the neocolonial Platt Amendment.

The campaign to shutter the illegal and abominable Guantanamo prison coincides with the more protracted fight to return the bay to the people of Cuba. The history of Guantanamo shows how the barbarism of the modern war machine follows the dehumanizing logic of a century of US imperialism. 

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The peace movement in the United States, What are its strengths and weaknesses?

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The conference also devoted a plenary to the abysmal impact of both domestic and foreign military bases on the environment and public health. According to professor of environmental health Patricia Hynes, the majority of global superfund sites—sites the EPA identifies as posing risks to health or environment—are foreign military bases. Pat Elder from the group World Without War demonstrated how the Navy’s Allegheny Ballistic Center in West Virginia regularly leaks trichloroethylene, a known carcinogen, into the groundwater of the Potomac. The Naval War Center in Dahlgren, Virginia has been burning hazardous waste materials for 70 years.

The military’s impunity and recklessness towards public health is cast into sharp relief by the case of Fort Detrick in Maryland. The Army dumped radioactive sludge into the groundwater, which Frederick residents claim is directly linked to a spate of cancer-related deaths in the area. They sued, and the case was dismissed, with the judge citing “sovereign immunity.”

Though those bases are on US soil, “sovereign immunity” is all the more chilling of a verdict for the peoples of foreign nations.. Hynes described Okinawa Island as “the junk heap of the Pacific.” The island has been the dumping ground for extremely toxic defoliants like Agent Orange for several decades. Pollution from the island’s American military bases has caused hundreds of US service members and local Okinawans to become seriously ill.

The people of Okinawa have been tireless in their fight against these deadly bases. While local resistance leader Hiroji Yamashiro awaits trial on trumped-up charges, protesters turn out every single day to oppose the expansion of Marine base Camp Schwab. Indigenous movements like these are the lifeblood of the international opposition to US empire. But fundamentally, it is incumbent upon Americans to rein in the devastating impact of their government’s foreign military presence. 

The conference concluded with a call for an international summit on foreign military bases to be hosted by one of the countries presently fighting against the US military presence on their soil. It also called for the formation of an ongoing international alliance against foreign military bases. For more information and updates, go to www.noforeignbases.org. 

[Editor’s note: Additional information is available in an earlier CPNN article.