Unite and De-Militarize!

Are you with us?

2007-03-23T19:20:00.000-04:00

Are you or your organzation working to expose and disarm war profiteers? Do you long to see a mass movement educated about and focused on the corporations instigating war for profit?

Then we need your help. We need to work together to build collective strategies that will lead to large scale success. But first we need to know who you are, and what work you are doing (or would like to do) for the cause.

Please take a few minutes and fill out a short survey to help us identify our allies in this work and how we can strengthen our connections to each other.

We need a name!

2007-03-23T18:48:00.000-04:00

What do you get when you cross the military industrial complex with a broad-based grassroots movement for peace and justice? This network! But what do we call ourselves? We need a name that encompasses both our vision for a better world and our methods (stopping war profiteers!) Here are some suggestions so far! Send your suggestions to smodintern@warresisters.org.

Stop the War Profiteers Network

Network Against the War Economy
Network Against War Profiteering
Network Opposed to the Militarization of Everything
Demilitarization of Everything Network
Demilitarizaton Network (Dmz N)
Demilitarized Zones Network (DMZ Net)
People Over Profit: Stopping War Profiteers (POP-SWAP!)
Peace-Economy Alternatives to Corporate Exploitation and Profiteering of Occupation, War, and Reconstruction (PEACE-POWR)
War Profiteers Conversion Laboratory
Stop the Merchants of Death Network
Armistice Race

Draft Points of Unity

2007-03-23T18:19:00.000-04:00

In addition to a mission statement, the working group wanted to create a more expanded document outlining who we are, what we support, and what modes of intervention we use to achieve our goals. Here is a draft in progress.

We oppose:

The militarization of our schools, our communities and local economies.
- Virtually every industry comprising the global industrial labor force is somehow connected to the "military industrial complex."
The undue influence that military contractors exert on economic and foreign policy.
- Military contractors contribute millions of dollars to political campaign funds with the hope that their investments will yield profitable returns in the form of military contracts – and they do. Corporations such as Lockheed, General Dynamics, Boeing, and Northrop derive up to half of their annual profits from military-related production, while Halliburton and its subsidiaries receive billion-dollar contracts to support military operations around the world.
The ‘revolving door’ between government and military contractors.
- Military contractors are closely allied with political leaders, and vice versa. In fact, many contractors recruit government officials for employment after they complete their term in office. This revolving door between government and military contractors compromises the ability of politicians to provide objective oversight of military contractors and lobbyists from the private sector and blurs the distinction between the public and private sectors of the economy.
Corporate globalization policies that further promote militarism and war.
- The closer integration of the people and nations of the world has wrought many advantages, but it has also produced devastating harms. Globalization is primarily driven by international corporations who push for the elimination of trade barriers, allowing interests in the industrialized world to exploit both human and natural resources of the developing world. The result is that globalization today increasingly resembles imperialism.
The many entities that profit from the war economy.
- Corporations that manufacture weapons or weapons delivery systems (e.g., Lockheed-Martin, Alliant Tech, Caterpillar).
- Corporations that provide infrastructure and services to the U.S. military or their proxies (e.g., Halliburton, Blackwater, Dell Computers).
- Universities and other non-profit security "think thanks" that receive government or corporate funding to further entrench the war economy (e.g., Boston University, Rand Corporation, American Enterprise Institute).
- Corporations that profit from forced market expansion to exploit human and natural resources (e.g., Bechtel, Coca Cola, Exxon-Mobil).
- Government agencies that directly or indirectly contribute to increased militarization across the world (U.S. DoD/NASA, U.K. Ministry of Defence, NATO).

We support:

Efforts to dismantle the war economy and develop an economy of peace that prioritizes people over profits.
Creative, nonviolent and democratic strategies and tactics (the following is meant to be illustrative and not authoritative):
- Educating others about war profiteers and the military-industrial complex.
- Counter-recruitment, counter-corporate recruitment, speakers' bureaus, and the distribution of books, manuals, articles and video.
- Engaging the public, the warmakers, the United States government, and the United Nations through legal channels.
- Engaging both traditional and non-traditional legal action. We use US law and international human rights law as a frame for our engagement with the legal system. We also affirm the right of members to practice nonviolent civil disobedience, to break unjust laws, and to put a flawed legal system on trial.
- Economic agitation, so that it is no longer profitable for corporations and governments to wage war.
- War tax resistance.
- Pressuring universities, investment funds, and all levels of government to divest all monies for military-related research or production.
- Shareholder activism.
- Partnering with those communities who are most impacted by militarism.
The autonomy of each member group to choose for itself which methods of intervention it will pursue in order fulfill the vision of this network.

Draft Mission Statement

2007-03-23T18:17:00.000-04:00

The following Mission Statement was drafted by a working group and submitted for consideration to the network on January 23, 2007.

We are a network of organizations and individuals committed to dismantling the war economy and developing an economy of peace that prioritizes people over profits. We seek to motivate and empower a broad-based movement to educate, agitate and organize against the military industrial complex through creative, nonviolent and democratic means.

Peace in Space Sunday Session

2006-11-07T16:51:00.000-05:00

The Peace in Space workshop attendees agreed the number one intra-movement goal is education, education, EDUCATION! Far too many peace activists, even those well acquainted with the nuclear industry, equate space-based warfighting with the issue of banning weapons in space. While it is useful to participate in diplomatic efforts, the vast majority of activists do not understand how first-strike tactical war in particular regions of the world is enabled by new space tools.

One of the keys for education is unifying all the sources of of information on corporate involvement in specific military programs, specific bases, etc. (This is obviously of interest to groups well outside the peace in space community.) Sources exist at WILPF, FAS, Government Accountability Project, World Policy Institute, globalsecurity.org, Center for Defense Information, Global Network, but they must be synthesized and constantly updated. Carol Urner's work at WILPF can be seen as a template for a universal web-based model. Jack Cohen-Joppa of Nuclear Resister said that community awareness must extend beyond the major contractor in a city - in Tucson, most attention is given to Raytheon, even though there are many small optical-based military contractors working in space.

For specific goals outside the peace community, the group was comfortable in providing support to efforts within the US government, and efforts within the UN, for banning weapons in space. However, this should be seen as only a small first step. Bringing regional peace groups to a greater awareness of the use of military space for global dominance, and getting Washington-based peace think tanks to address the issue of unilateralism more openly, is a more important goal.

Frank Cordaro of Des Moines Catholic Worker and MacGregor Eddy specifically talked about the problem of fear among former activists, even those willing to challenge the nuclear industry in the 1980s. Residents near Offutt and Vandenburg seem to relish staying ignorant, and often special strategies must be developed to bring in, not just members of the community at large, but old activist friends who have lost their way.

"Maybe the real answer is to make new friends if the old friends no longer care," Cordaro said.

Loring

Peace in Space Part 1

2006-11-07T16:50:00.000-05:00

Most of Part 1 of the Peace in Space workshop was informational, to give participants grounding in the basic issues. The format was very interactive, with participants regularly diving deeper for clarification on certain issues of technical capabilities or government and corporate doctrine. MacGregor provided a tutorial on missile-defense and on waging more effective war from space, and emphasized the locations such as Kwajalein and Diego Garcia, where indigenous struggles have a direct bearing on the status of U.S. space bases. Loring provided an overview of the new "virtual" (outsourced) corporation, and how the corporate infrastructure of the 21st century affects both the traditional military-contractor "metal-benders" as well as the new breed of engineering think-tank. Loring provided lists of key contractors involved in larger space intelligence and first-strike warfare projects.

We identified two types of goals: those the peace-in-space movement should maintain internally for better organization, and those to set as national policy goals which peace activists can seek to influence. In the former category, short-term goals involved contining decentralization and regionalized autonomy along the lines of the Global Network model, since the Washington-directed peace group model does not work well with peace-in-space issues. Over the longer term, Carol Urner is very anxious to see many in the movement participate in building up a database of corporations and the major programs they are involved with, a process that is growing more difficult as simple lists of prime contractors and subcontractors are replaced with long chains of outsourced military contracts.

For national policy, we encouraged a short-term goal of seeking a ban on weapons in space, and the Sunday meeting will discuss various ways in which we can work on UN programs in this field. In the mid-term, peace activists can push for a more honest and explicit discussion of the role of U.S. unilateralism, a subject some of those interested in space issues have tried at times to avoid. Over the long term, this type of discussion could lead to international "rules of the road" for how nations may use near-Earth orbital space -- provided, of course, that the U.S. would actually be willing to comply with the rules it demands other nations follow.

Loring Wirbel
reporting for peace in space group

Militarization of Space Session

2006-11-07T16:34:00.000-05:00

Participants agreed #1 issue on every agenda should be education, education, EDUCATION. Most peace activists still largely unaware of peace-in-space and ballistic missile defense issues. Many who are aware identify it largely with effort to weaponize space, where more important issue is using existing military space networks in unilateral, aggressive ways. (Note: Publicity given to revised Presidential Space Policy can help realize this goal.)
Need for database for space contractors and programs is essential. This discussion was combined with one in the Resources working group. Opportunities exist for merging WILPF print and Web resources with the CorpWatch “Wiki-like” evolving encyclopedia of corporate contractors.
How can regional activists increase collaboration? Have certain forms of CD or bannering become obsolete? New collaborative efforts are under way among groups working on Strategic Command (Omaha), AF Space Command (Colorado), and Joint Space Operations Center (Vandenberg). Many participants say that residents near major military bases who participated in the thousands in late 1980s and early 1990s appear to stay away for reasons of fear. Education can highlight the intersection between “usable” nuclear weapons and precision conventional weapons; but only bold, public efforts to “give voice to the silent” can shake people out of their post-9/11 fear.
Some discussion was undertaken on “turning the Washington DC NGOs around” – getting Beltway groups to look beyond UN disarmament initiatives to discussing unilateralism openly. Union of Concerned Scientists is useful here, at a position almost akin to Global Network. Center for Defense Information, particularly since the publication of the Space Policy, is getting better, talking openly on the problems of unilateralism. Other groups like Henry Stimson Center have a long way to go. Should activists denounce arms-control centrists (shades of SALT-II!), or try to bring them along?
Numbers have seemed down and somewhat dispirited for the October 2006 Keep Space for Peace Week activities. Can new efforts to revitalize energy change things? Are new types of activities, new focus on corporate enablers necessary?

SMOD Networking Proposal from the Networking sub group at the conference

2006-11-01T13:44:00.000-05:00

The group listed things that a Network can help coordinate. A website and email list can help groups share information on:

Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigns

Coordinate actions- there was discussion on picking special days, (i.e. April 1^st) or focusing on traditional spots (i.e.Nevada), as well as coordinating actions around anniversaries (i.e. Aug 6-9)

Nonviolence Training for campaigns

Strategic Planning, strategies

Identify and develop skills needed (possibly create a tool kit)
Coordinate research

Post a calendar of what’s happening

Outreach to others involved in war profiteers work - those doing vigils at weapons manufacturers, groups focusing on war profiteers, and encourage them to join a network. We need to remember to honor existing networks, but recognize we are looking to create a more comprehensive network that does not exist.

Steps to be taken to develop a network:

Create a report from the conference and circulate to those who attended and those invited and others. – Mimi and Joanne

Create a Statement of what this network will be, that we can use for outreach. Jarrett, Steve and Felice

We will organize an “Initiating Coordinating Committee” (people volunteered at the last plenary) who will move these ideas forward. Those who volunteered: WRL, NYSPC, Alliant Action, WILPF. They will meet through regular phone calls and email.

Youth Organizing Meeting

2006-11-01T12:41:00.000-05:00

Youth Organizing Meeting at SMoD Conference Notes

The Youth Organizing Meeting in conjunction with the Mutual Mentorship workshop at the Stopping Merchants of Death Conference was an attempt to increase visibility and improve relationships between individuals and organizations working for justice and peace with a youth focus. The following notes attempt to document who, within the SMoD network, is doing what, how our efforts fit together and within the big picture of anti-corporate/ anti-war organizing.

Present were representatives from several broad-based local and national campaigns to end the occupation of Iraq, protect the rights of students, prioritize funds for education over war, ensure living wage alternatives to the military and cut off the supply of young people to the war machine.

Many felt hopeful that the energy and spirit of these campaigns was having an impact on politics and the world we live in. Many of these youth-led organizations are at the forefront of the campaigns. We discussed ways to bring that leadership to the larger movement, and identified concrete needs for support. Most of these centered around recognition of the work we are doing, awareness of the issues affecting youth and our organizing methods, better relationships, support for our short term goals, better communication among ourselves and networks to collaborate, share information and increase our impact.

Basic strategy questions:

Ω What are the short, intermediate and long term goals of your group? Ω What do you need to reach those goals? Ω How does your group’s work relate to the movement overall? Ω What resources can you provide to others?

Short Term Goals-

SPAN- Think Outside the Bomb Conference(s)

Santa Barbara, CA, October 20-22
New York City, November 4-5
Atlanta, GA, TBA

Flunk the War Machine: Books Not Bombs Agenda

Counter-recruitment

Internet activism and campus organizing to end the occupation of Iraq and

Protect civil liberties of students threatened by recruiters

NYSPC- Fall Agenda

A Month of Education, Organizing, and Action!

* OCTOBER 10TH-OCTOBER 15TH BOOKS NOT BOMBS KICK-OFF TO KICK OUT:

Examine the US war budget and demand spending on education, job training, veterans’ benefits and health care. Kick out Congress people that don’t prioritize our needs! Sign the Books Not Bombs Petition! download the petition.

* OCTOBER 16TH-OCTOBER 22ND TEACH-INS & FILM SCREENINGS:

Organize Teach-Ins and Film Screenings on the Iraq War at your school or in your community.

* OCTOBER 23RD-OCTOBER 29TH STUDENT SOLIDARITY WITH IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR:

Invite Iraq Veterans Against the War members to speak on your campus and support their resistance! For more information, visit www.ivaw.org

* OCTOBER 30TH-NOVEMBER 3RD TURN UP THE HEAT WEEK:

Make yourself visible and your voices heard at public events, rallies and candidate engagements demanding "Books Not Bombs"!

* NOVEMBER 3RD-NOVEMBER 6TH PEACE PARTIES:

Be social with your actions! Celebrate cultural resistance through art, spoken word, hip-hop, and partying! Get together, devise strategies to end the war and build community!

* NOVEMBER 7TH WALK OUT TO GET OUT OF IRAQ!:

National youth walk out. Mobilize to show the opposition of young people to a war that is killing our peers. Be creative, help people get to the polls and speak out!

Not Your Soldier Network-

Not Your Soldier Action Camps bring together young people who are heavily targeted by military recruitment. At the camps, youth learn how to take action to fight military recruitment, the poverty draft, and the corporations that profit off of war.

Not Your Soldier Days of Action are coordinated days of creative, non-violent direct action where youth take leadership and tell recruiters, "We are Not Your Soldiers!"

· Take back your school! Check out the War Resister's League book, "Demilitarized Zone: A Guide to Taking Your School Back from the Military." You'll get a lot of ideas about organizing to keep military recruiters out of your school, including detailed legal information, concrete campaign suggestions, and up-to-date statistics.

· Protect your privacy! Make it hard for recruiters to get your home number by joining Military Free Zone's Opt Out campaign. If you "opt out", your school can't give your information to the military.

· Educate your friends! Show AFSC's video "Before You Enlist." Invite a local veteran from Iraq Vets Against War to speak to your class or club. Get copies of the comic book, "Addicted to War" and pass it around.

Other organizations represented at the conference: AFSC, YAWR and Cal State Fullerton/ Orange County Peace Coalition, Student Farmworker Alliance, FOR, CAMS

What We Need To Reach our Goals:

Communication- Some conflicts over language and tactics, especially around nonviolence and the limits of militant action

Transformation- The ability to turn enemies into allies

Knowledge of who has power and access to it- as well as different approaches to challenging it

Mutual Mentorship- Elders who are willing to remind us of history and past successes and failures, but also willing to learn from us

Network- That allows us to support each other’s efforts and join multiple campaigns with varying tactics and strategies for maximum effect

Nonviolence theory and praxis

Common Analysis

Diverse tactics

Discipline- The military has it, we should too. We can redefine and reclaim what it means to be on point and effective leaving hierarchy and domination out of it

Relationships with workers in the military and war-making industries

Non-cooperation with corporations, universities and government policy decisions that take away our freedom and humanity

Teacher allies- Especially around the use of school walk outs, some concern about the goals of walk outs and their intended targets. Often teachers suffer as an unintended result and are alienated as a result from campaigns they would otherwise support.

Messaging- Ability to point out the contradictions made by those in power in catchy, memorable ways

What Resources We Provide to the Movement:

Imagination

Grassroots power structure of linked campus organizing

Counter-recruitment energy and leadership (nationally and locally)

Meditative energy/ healing practice/ spirituality

Diversity and multi-cultural coalitions

National networks like NYSPC, SPAN, NYS

Self-reflection and dialogue about our own participation in a culture of violence and materialism

Self-care culture

Punk/hip hop/ electronic/ dub/ rap music

Educators

Community

Deep relationships

Colombia Support Network Report

2006-11-01T12:39:00.000-05:00

(For more information please contact the Colombia Support Network www.colombiasupport.net Email :csn@igc.org

KEDAHDA
Since 1998 the war for the control and exploitation of the natural resources in the region of Southern Bolivar State in the northwestern region of Colombia is destroying the social organizing en this region. The region is known for having one of the largest gold mines in the Western Hemisphere besides oil, emeralds and a great variety of bio diversity in fauna and flora, and water. The rural peasant and small mining communitites who inhabit the area have been taking care of the natural resources exploiting them with elementary tools. The Colombian state has abandoned the area : there is practically no infra-structure in roads, telephones, sewer system, water treatment for these rural communities who lately have resourced to plant coca plants for the production of cocaine to survive. The inhabitants can not take their products to the markets for the lack of roads.The area also was the site of guerrillas like the Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN) and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC).

On March 3 of 1997 a paramilitary group invaded the town of Rio Viejo and assassinated the head of the miners union, posting his head on a stick facing the Serrania de San Lucas, where the gold mine is located and telling the community they should allow the entrance of the multnationals since they would bring developments and jobs.

At the end of 1997 the paramilitary group known at the time as Autodefensas Campesinas de Cordoba y Uraba ( ACCU) anounced its intention to control this territory from the hands of the guerrillas. On November 7 , 1997 combats started and the ACCU took over the mountains and blocked the entrance of food and medicines for the inhabitants. ACCU attacked by land , river and the air aided by helicopters and small planes. On their path they left death and loneliness by killing civilians, burning their homes, robbing cattle and property, raping women, massacres, torture, beheding peope and displacing most of the inhabitants of the region accusing them of being guerrilla collaborators, punishing the population. Openly the paramilitary group spoke of preparing the region for the exploitation of its natural resources through the investment of large sums of capital.

Here is the description of some of the doings of the paramilitaries when entering the region as described by the Regional Working Group of the Magdalena Medio from direct testimony from the communities of Southern Bolivar state :

On Friday November 6 180 men dress with uniforms and carrying arms came at 1 p.m. in nine motor boats and with a list of names killed a citizen called Michel Hernandez. Then they went to the place called Sudan and took off a boat Nilson Polanco 20 years old who was beaten and decapitated in front of the population. Then they killed another youth who was 23 years old. With a list on their hands they asked for several families from the town. Former Mayor from Tiquisio Arcesio Perez introduced himself as the commander of the paramilitary group.Hilario Torres former City Council member is one of his main helpers.

On Saturday November 7, 1997 at 8 in the morning about 50 ELN guerrilas waited in trenches for the arrival of the paramilitary group. They arrived in 10 motorboats, starting the atack. After two hours of combat the guerrilla retrieved because they were attacked by helicopters. This state of war takes place in the area of the Serrania de San Lucas.

The inhabitants observe that when there is fighting and there are dead paramilitaries, their corpses are picked up minutes later by a grey helicopter. People believe this helicopters leaves from Corozal, near the militarybase. Brigadier General Fernando Millan from the Colombian army publically recognized that two Army helicopters and two private ones are in the area under his command.

In the hamlet of La Mocha they burned 40 houses and kidnapped an indetermined number of peasanta to use them as human shields. The whereabouts of these persons is unknown. When the paramilitaries arrived to Pueblito Mejia, the inhabitants had left the town. 200 houses were burned and 2 persons were killed. In the outskirts of this town they burned the cooperative of the Peasant Association and killed 12 people. On Friday night they burned 100 homes in Mina Azul. In the hamlet of Buena Sena the paramilitaries burned 205 homes from a total of 211.On Sunday November 22 in Norosi 42 houses were burned On November 26 the whole population in the town of Monterrey was sieged and have no possibility of displace themselves.

In the town La Cooperativa two children 3 and 5 year-old were beheaded. They were taked from their mother’s arms and the men in this family were killed by machetes accused of being guerrillas. Town after town ther destroy and kill whatever they find according to the people who run into the mountains escaping from the invasion as described by widows, mothers and relatives who lost their loved ones. People describe bombings and the use of machine-guns. The paras carry laminated lists of names. There is no food in the area. People are cut in pieces, dismembered and decapitated. The guerrilla uses land mines and occupies community places. The ELN dennounced acts of antropofagia by the ACCU.

Ther are no official reports to establish numbers of anything.

Counter- insurgency Battallion # 27 Rogelio Correa Campos from the Colombian Army arrived in Arenal after the paramilitaries have left. The same with Battallions Los Guanes and Narino. People have seen the Army patroling with civilians and it does not go after the ACCU but stays in the territory making check-points, seeking land mines. They do not stop the helicopters that help the ACCU

As a consequence of these there is a massive displacement of the population in the area and with no place to go. To summarize this first incursion 10 towns were destroyed, more than 1,000 homes were burned, 400 persons were massacred and 35,000 were displaced.

Since that time the situation has not changed for the population of this region. Last September 9 , 2006, CSN received the following statement from the Asociation of Miners. Our communities have worked and lived in this region, as miners and peasants for several generations. Ten years ago, MNC’s from the mining sector, attracted by the great mineral wealth of this region have wanted to take over our territory, developing as years pass the same strategy that is used in other parts of the country: terror and killings with the support of the State and the paramilitaries. This strategy calls for a total militarization of the region in order to displace those who are the legitimate owners of the region in order to leave in the hands of MNC’s our territory. On September 19 members of the Colombian Army, “New Granada” Battallion cowardly assassinated our leaders ALEJANDRO URIBE accusing him of being a guerrilla. The same Battallion appropiated documents of the Federation of Miners and Peasants according to an Urgent Action sent by communities in the region. These same communities ask the national government to reject the pretension of the multinational KEDAHDA to take over by legal and ilegal means their territory.

Colombia Support Network requests to do the following Urgent Action :

COLOMBIAN ARMY KILLS MINER' LEADER TO HELP MULTINATIONAL KEDAHDA

On September 19, 2006, Alejandro Uribe, a well-respected leader of the community of Mina Gallo in the South of Bolivar Department, was murdered by Colombian Army personnel. Mr. Uribe, a peasant and a small-scale miner was president of the Mina Gallo Community Action Board. The Army misrepresented his killing to the news media as that of a guerrilla in combat. About 600 inhabitants of the region traveled to the headquarters of the Nueva Granada Battallion of the Army’s Fifth Brigade in Santa Rosa demanding the return of the body of Alejandro Uribe.

On September 21, the Army responded by threatening the assembled community members, saying “ he (Uribe) will not be the only dead person you are going to have. There will be more dead leaders”. The Army had previously indicated it had a list of leaders of the region and members of the miners’ federation, whom they hoped to find walking alone in paths in the vicinity of their homes.

General Jose Joaquin Cortes of the Army’s Fifth Brigade suggested that Alejandro Uribe was an ELN guerrilla carrying an AK-47 rifle and was accompanied by five guerrillas, and died in an army-guerrilla combat, all of which the community residents totally reject.

What really is going on here is that the Colombian Army is engaged in uprooting peasants and small-scale miners by attacking their leaders such as Alejandro Uribe, so that the multinational mining corporation Kedahda can enter the region and undertake mining operations on peasants’ and miners’ lands the government of president Alvaro Uribe has improperly licensed or conveyed to this company for mining development

Please write to

US to demand that the US government cut off all aid to the Colombian military which is openly engaged in the forced displacement and murder of civilians whose lives and properties it is suppose to protect.

In the States please write to :

Your Senators and Representatives. See our website www.colombiasupport.net

Condoleeza Rice . See www.state.gov

Ambassador to Colombia Mr. William Wood:
AmbassadorB@ state.gov

Kevin Murakami, Human Rights Officer, U.S. Embassy, Bogota, Colombia.
E-mail: MurakamiKT@state.gov

And write government officials in South Africa and Canada to tell them you very much disapprove of the actions of Kedahda, a corporation with headquarters in these two countries. Please ask them to investigate this company. Kedahda should recognize the rights and property of of the Colombian peasants and miners and must refrain from seeking the assistance of the Colombian Army in obtaining mining lands. Kedahda is expected to act honestly and should not seek to receive or develop mining lands ilegally or by threatening or killing those who live upon and work these lands and mines.

South African Parliament
Mr. Emmanuel Nkosinathi
info@parliament.gov.za
Fax 021 461 5372

Canadian Parliament
Ms.Angela Crandall
faae@parl.gc.ca
Fax (613) 996 1962

Finally to Colombian Government to urge that it
1)Investigate the atrocities committed by the Colombian military and punished those responsible ;
2)to protect small scale miners and peasants recognizing their legitimate right to the lands they are occupying and the mines they have been working and
3) Refrain entering into bogus contracts with multinational corporations such as Kedahda to give them valuable mining concessions in lands where small scale miners and peasants have already established their right to possession; 4) And demand that the Army deliver the list of proposed victims to the Procurador General’s office for an investigation

S.E. Álvaro Uribe Vélez, President of Colombia auribe@presidencia.gov.co

[OR to better send e-mail to Uribe login to http://www.presidencia.gov.co and click on
ESCRIBALE AL PRESIDENTE at the bottom of the page.

Dr. Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, Minister of Defense,
juasant@mindefensa.gov.co
siden@mindefensa.gov.co
infprotocol@mindefensa.gov.co

General Jose Joaquin Cortes
josecofranco@yahoo.com

Dr. Francisco Santos, Vicepresidente de la República,
Téls. (+571) 334.45.07, (+573) 7720130,
E-mail: fsantos@presidencia.gov.co ;
buzon1@presidencia.gov.co

Dr. Edgardo Maya
Procurador General
webmaster@procuraduria.gov.co
cap@procuraduria.gov.co
reygon@procuraduria.gov.co

See updated information in our web News Section in our CSN web

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Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI 53701-1505
phone: (608) 257-8753
fax: (608) 255-6621
e-mail: csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net

Public Hearings on Mining
Findings of the People’s Court on Multinationals and Paramilitary Forces in Colombia

Santa Rosa
Southern Bolivar Region
Colombia
August 16, 2006

The representatives of diverse organizations, (many based in the southern Bolivar Region and others from elsewhere in Colombia or in the world), invited groups representing, or working in solidarity with farm workers, miners, indigenous peoples, Afro-Colombians, and students to convene in Santa Rosa on August 15-16, 2006 to hold hearings related to a lawsuit against the Kedhada Mining Company, a subsidiary of the Anglogold Ashanti multinational corporation. The Company’s natural resource extraction projects have seriously compromised miners’ rights in our Region, particularly through its use of ad hoc armed forces to control its workers.

Our findings after these two days of deliberations include the following:

1. When miners in this region have applied to the Bolivar Region’s Mining Office for permits, or to add on to their existing mining titles, they’ve found out that the Kedhada Company already established contractual rights to nearly all of the untitled known mines in the Region. This Company has now requested similar priority rights in 336 Colombian municipalities. These same operational strategies were reported in Quinchía and in Risaralda, among many other sites.

2. These strategies have succeeded because of changes made just a few years ago in Colombia’s Mining Code to benefit multinational mining interests. These changes have harmed our miners who, for decades, have risked or loss their lives to maintain their sole source of income. The changes have also compromised the quality of life of our communities, our regions, our indigenous peoples and our Afro-Colombian population.

3. Under the current Mining Code, impoverished miners are unable to meet the requirements for obtaining legal mining titles. This leaves many miners and their families no alternative but to continue working in the mines and selling the gold on the black market. Many have thus faced extreme poverty due to the vagaries of this secondary market. It was also noted the these new provisions in the Mining Code have inured to the benefit of municipalities and regions that are not even mining gold, given that some of the resulting profit is used to finance paramilitary activities in various non-mining regions in Colombia.

4. Although it has only been proven that the Kedhada Company is now surveying mining sites under the jurisdictions of Buena Seña, San Martín de Loba and La Cruz, all indications are that over the next decade this multinational will have established the requisite infrastructure to survey the southern Bolivar region at will. The Company will by then have gained title to those mines which seem most profitable, without any regard for the presence of farm workers, many of whom have worked on the lands for decades. Our early research indicates that this Company ignores concerns related to proper decontamination. This region’s great gold wealth could soon help fund further violence, displacements and plundering instead of benefiting our people.

5. Our miner and farm worker community participants have further testified that many government bureaucrats and workers from international agencies have obtained valuable information from them, then gone on to work for the Kedhada Company. They’ve exploited our good will, betraying our communities’ trust in their motives. We have also heard testimony which indicates that the region’s police and armed forces are increasingly prone to defend this multinational corporation’s interests. Now, more than ever, they work to convince our fellow farm workers that this Company represents progress for the region, and that they should therefore comply with the Company’s demands. We also learned that many government workers have negotiated substantial kickbacks from this Company in exchange for their direct support or for their deliberate complacency.

6. Before the Kedhada Company was incorporated as a legal entity, its parent company, Anglogold Ashanti, tried to obtain titles, through shady dealings, to an extensive 7000 hectares (over 17,000 acres) in the southern Bolivar region, specifically to lands under the jurisdiction of San Pedro Frío, El Paraíso, Mina Gallo and Montecristo. It has been proven that when their negotiations were faltering, the region was invaded by paramilitary forces who committed many crimes against miners, creating a veritable reign of terror through forced displacements, ‘disappearances,’ closing off certain areas to food imports, routine threats and even assassinations. This proves how badly a situation can deteriorate when economically powerful entities seek to exploit natural resources in or near communities that won’t simply cede their rights.

7. Recently, since we began to define and expose this Company’s modus operandi in our region, there has been a growing paramilitary presence, even after these ‘armed actors’ were to have been disbanded. We’ve also noted an increased use of private security forces to defend Kedhada’s interests. Some of our communities must now live with the intimidation of having government soldiers announce the imminent arrival of paramilitary forces. We’re told, for example that the paramilitary "Aguilas Negras," or "Black Eagles," will "not look favorably upon" those who oppose the Company’s presence. This makes it all the more worrisome that a special army battalion has recently been assigned to the mining zone of San Pedro Frío.

8. Given the testimony that has been presented at this public hearing, the People’s Court participants declare our commitment to defend our fundamental rights, territories and communities against these violations. We call for a unified, widespread resistance movement among the farm workers, miners, indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombians affected by the Kedhada Company’s plans and activities in our area.

THE CASE ABOUT DRUMMOND CORPORATION

Drummond Corporation was sued in a US Court in Alabama for conspiracy with paramilitaries to kill union leaders, after years of abuses. The company used standard procedures to work with private security agencies to protect their grounds. They buy armaments, munitions, uniforms, communication equipment, gasoline and provides salaries and transportation vehicles. The Company hires former officers of the Colombian Army .

Valmore Locarno and Victor Orcasita were taking out of the company bus when leaving the mine even if they pled with the company to led them stay overnight. This violence has a clear political and economic logic: to clear areas for globalization and to welcome foreign investments and exports diminishing the social responsibilities of the State increasing povery and inequality.

Report from the Technology Working Group

2006-10-19T12:03:00.000-04:00

PROJECTS

(Things we’d like to see done)

Ω A Directory of all SMoD Nat’l. Conference attendees

made available to all attendees

Ω Means of outreach to others

Concentrate on local groups affected

(Check “National Priorities Project” for those most affected by the corporate-military budget; contact them)

Ω Use “MySpace” and “YouTube”

NB: WRL has a “MySpace.”

Ω War profiteering working group = CONTRACTS group. Washington DC

Some conference calls

Note: failed to set up “Truman Commission” in Congress.

Listserv; can be with a nonprofit. Charlie Cray; Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Waxman’s staff is on it.

Ω Could WRL put up a “blog” of counter-corporate actions across the nation?

Ω Grants

RESOURCES

Ω Arms Trade Resource Center

NB. Frida Berrigan often collects and “popularizes” the research.

Ω Center for Defense Information

Ω WILPF

Short guide, on web, with many links, to help with YOUR community’s war profiteers;

Concentrating on WMD.

Working vs. corporate “personhood”

Has Manual locating local MoDs.

Ω POCLAD (Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy)

Ω Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities

Ω Pugwash

Ω Corporate Watch

Corporate Watch moving toward a kind of “Wiki” on corporations. Cross between Wiki and Source Watch. Check every 15 days. When verified, it’s “locked.”

Similar: Source Watch, run by PR Watch

[Wikipedia – open to all.

Sourcewatch – someone watches it, if you don’t have a source, I won’t publish it.]

NB: people can do bits of research.

Ω United Nations Environmental Program meeting in Nairobi

NB: People (especially youth) are more easily “grabbed” by environment than by war.

Ω Jarret Lovell

Can provide university resources

(Some copying, Printing, etc.)

Ω Grants:

TIDES Foundation

Doughboys

COUNTER-CORPORATE-RECRUITMENT - HALLIBURTON

2006-10-01T16:07:00.000-04:00

Pledge of Resistance to Halliburton and the War on Iraq

For over 10 years Halliburton has had direct ties to the U.S. Government - most notably through Vice President Dick Cheney - and has made sizable campaign contributions in both state and national elections. Halliburton's representatives first influence the government's decisions to go to war, then profit from the war they promoted. Halliburton and KBR now have major contracts in Iraq they didn't even have to compete for. These "no-bid" contracts are for pumping and delivering oil. They also receive numerous lucrative military outsourcing and reconstruction contracts. Halliburton is only one of many corporations involved in the war on Iraq. But Halliburton is the most insidious. As long as corporate control dominates Iraq, Iraqis will suffer economic subjugation and loss of autonomy - now and for generations to come.

Because it is a war-promoter and a war profiteer, Halliburton bears responsibility for the deaths, maiming and suffering of US soldiers and of the soldiers and citizens of Iraq. I will not cooperate. I will not use my education to inflict war and economic domination upon the people of Iraq. I will resist.

I declare Halliburton and its subsidiaries, including Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to be Merchants of Death.

I _______________, will neither seek nor accept employment with Halliburton or its subsidiaries.
Furthermore, I pledge to inform others of Halliburton's shameful practices. It is a Merchant of Death.
Signature: _______________________________________
Name:__________________________________________
Address:________________________________________
University/School: ________________________________
Sent to: War Resisters League, 339 Lafayette St., NYC, NY 10012

For over 10 years Halliburton has had direct ties to the U.S. Government - most notably through Vice President Dick Cheney - and has made sizable campaign contributions in both state and national elections. Halliburton's representatives first influence the government's decisions to go to war, then profit from the war they promoted. Halliburton and KBR now have major contracts in Iraq they didn't even have to compete for. These "no-bid" contracts are for pumping and delivering oil. They also receive numerous lucrative military outsourcing and reconstruction contracts. Halliburton is only one of many corporations involved in the war on Iraq. But Halliburton is the most insidious. As long as corporate control dominates Iraq, Iraqis will suffer economic subjugation and loss of autonomy - now and for generations to come.
Because it is a war-promoter and a war profiteer, Halliburton bears responsibility for the deaths, maiming and suffering of US soldiers and of the soldiers and citizens of Iraq. I will not cooperate. I will not use my education to inflict war and economic domination upon the people of Iraq. I will resist.

I declare Halliburton and its subsidiaries, including Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to be Merchants of Death.

I _______________, will neither seek nor accept employment with Halliburton or its subsidiaries. Furthermore, I pledge to inform others of Halliburton's shameful practices. It is a Merchant of Death.

Signature: _______________________________________ Name:__________________________________________ Address:________________________________________ University/School: ________________________________ Sent to: War Resisters League, 339 Lafayette St., NYC, NY 10012

Sent to: Vice President Dick Cheney, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20500

For over 10 years Halliburton has had direct ties to the U.S. Government - most notably through Vice President Dick Cheney - and has made sizable campaign contributions in both state and national elections. Halliburton's representatives first influence the government's decisions to go to war, then profit from the war they promoted. Halliburton and KBR now have major contracts in Iraq they didn't even have to compete for. These "no-bid" contracts are for pumping and delivering oil. They also receive numerous lucrative military outsourcing and reconstruction contracts. Halliburton is only one of many corporations involved in the war on Iraq. But Halliburton is the most insidious. As long as corporate control dominates Iraq, Iraqis will suffer economic subjugation and loss of autonomy - now and for generations to come.
Because it is a war-promoter and a war profiteer, Halliburton bears responsibility for the deaths, maiming and suffering of US soldiers and of the soldiers and citizens of Iraq. I will not cooperate. I will not use my education to inflict war and economic domination upon the people of Iraq. I will resist.

I declare Halliburton and its subsidiaries, including Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to be Merchants of Death. I _______________, will neither seek nor accept employment with Halliburton or its subsidiaries. Furthermore, I pledge to inform others of Halliburton's shameful practices. It is a Merchant of Death.

Signature: _______________________________________ Name:__________________________________________ Address:________________________________________ University/School: ________________________________ Sent to: War Resisters League, 339 Lafayette St., NYC, NY 10012

Sent to: Dave Lesar, CEO, Halliburton Company, 1401 Mckinney St # 2400, Houston, TX 77010
War Resisters League

Stop the Merchants of Death

2006-10-01T15:58:00.000-04:00

People Power and Profiteering

Goals/Strategies/Tactics

SOLIDARITY
-create strategic partners
-identify stakeholders/allies, including celebrities, environmental groups, children of execs)
-work with existing campus anti-war groups on education analysis

Internet-related
- utilize SMOD riseup list for email discussions – profiteers@lists.riseup.net
- make better use of existing internet resources (links on WRL site)
- develop counter corp recruitment web portals (parsons)

Short Term (0 -12 months)
-identify decision-makers of war profiteering (corporations, universities)
-identify resources
-schedule another SMOD conference
-inspire/motivate larger national anti-war groups to take on PPS
-target Parsons
- pitch Democracy Now! tour of war profiteers offices/operations
-outreach to consumer, tax-payer groups about fleecing and wasted by war profiteers
- develop state by state analysis that contrasts cost of war (nationalpriorities.org); disseminate to congressional candidates and representatives, educators, public officials, etc.
- brand activist effort/network to “stop the merchants of death” (and perhaps come up with better phrase than “merchants of death”, e.g., war profiteers)
-identify places to act (geographically)
-identify a timeline
- smash capitalism and the state ; )
-birddog congressional candidates (what positions did they take)
- refine and identify pillars

Intermediate (6 months – 2 years)
-build stronger analysis
- develop overarching story; figure out the “rap”
- develop message for red America
- articulate strategic frameworks for effective collective action
-develop tool kit for organizing high schools
-connecting climate and militarist work on campus (climate campus challenge and student anti-war groups)
- develop cooperatively owned factories (e.g., ford); see the movie, “the Take”)
-develop movement to de-privatize military
- organize coordinated days of action and direct action; mass mobilization at targeted corporations
-incorporate intelligence/interrogations war profiteering
- advance divestment campaigns on campus
- create comprehensive list of corporations that are contractors (defense, reconstruction, subcontractors),what they do, where their CEOs live, etc.
- foment dissent within the military re. Privatization
-analytical approach to corps: who are they; who is being actively campaigned against?
-campaign finance reform
-presence everywhere: coordinate actions or specific days of action, nationally and internationally
-promote books, video highlighting war profiteers
-exchanging info on economic conversion

Long term (2 years plus)
-provide long term economic alternatives
- demilitarize universities
- scuttle the proposed “middle east free trade area”
- stop the war in iraq,Afghanistan & palestine / prevent future wars
- end the corporate occupation of iraq and afghanistan

WEBSITES

www.Corpwatch.org
http://www.peoplepowerstrategy.org/
www.warprofiteers.com

Stop the Merchants of Death

2006-10-01T15:51:00.000-04:00

Stop Caterpillar!

Goals:

Short term:
Get CAT to INVESTIGATE Human rights violations in Israel
Intermediate:
Get CAT to stop sales to Israel
Divestment from all companies profiting from occupation
Long term:
End US support for Israeli Apartheid
Free Palestine
Ultimate:
Global Revolution

Tactics

Pressure the CEO and Board of Directors of CAT from all angles
Media – make CAT = Israeli HR violations
-focus on national business media
Ad Campaigns
-Counter their PR ads
-Ads in progressive publications
-30 second Video, YouTube, TV networks
Shareholder resolutions/actions
Lawsuits
Postcards and letters
Tag and stencil CAT equipment anywhere
Boycotts of CAT equipment and merchandise
Cat-Free Zones
Posters and stickers on merchandise in stores
Meet with officials from local distributors
National days of Nonviolent Direct action
-Headquarters in Peoria, IL
-Local distributors
-Next one: March 16th, 2007 (4th anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s murder)
Guerilla Theater
-Puppet bulldozers, act out destroying homes, trees, etc.
Petition for State Divestment from CAT (MN)
Local govt
University
Unions
Pensions
Churches

New Strategies:

Lobby KOMATSU
“My name is Rachael Corrie” play
Produce in multiple places on March 16.
In Peoria
Different actresses in play
Get Celebrities to act the role.
Peoria Catholic churches have just finished a “Just Faith” course.
ISU – counter corporate recruitment
-cards
Plan a week of action in Peoria
Activate Catholic Workers

What we need/have to offer:

Support for days of action
Share Business Media contacts
Share Activist contacts
Ads, print and video
A good model for shareholder action
Sophisticated Counter Corporate Recruitment

Stop the Merchants of Death

2006-10-01T15:07:00.000-04:00

A report from Stop CAT

STOP CATERPILLAR:

Goals:

Short term: Get CAT to INVESTIGATE Human rights violations in Israel
Intermediate: Get CAT to stop sales to Israel
Long: Free Palestine
Ultimate: Global Revolution

Tactics

Pressure the CEO and Board of Directors of CAT from all angles
Media – make CAT = Israeli HR violations
-focus on national business media
Ad Campaigns
-Counter their PR ads
-Ads in progressive publications
-30 second Video, YouToob, TV networks
Shareholder resolutions/actions
Lawsuits
Postcards and letters
Tag and stencil CAT equipment anywhere
Boycotts of CAT equipment and merchandise
Cat-Free Zones
Posters and stickers on merchandise in stores
Meet with officials from local distributors
National days of Nonviolent Direct action
-Headquarters in Peoria, IL
-Local distributors
-Next one: March 16th, 2007 (4th anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s murder)
Guerilla Theater
-Puppet bulldozers, act out destroying homes, trees, etc.
Petition for State Divestment from CAT (MN)
Local govt
University
Unions
Pensions
Churches

New Strategies:

Lobby KOMATSU
“My name is Rachael Corrie” play
Produce in multiple places on March 16.
In Peoria
Different actresses in play
Get Celebrities to act the role.
Peoria Catholic churches have just finished a “Just Faith” course.
ISU – counter corporate recruitment
-cards
Plan a week of action in Peoria
Activate Catholic Workers

What we need/have to offer:

Support for days of action
Share Business Media contacts
Share Activist contacts
Ads, print and video
A good model for shareholder action
Sophisticated Counter Corporate Recruitment

Stop Merchants of Death

2006-09-30T01:39:00.000-04:00

OPENING OF THE SMoD CONFERENCE
September 29, 2006
University of St. Thomas

Friday nite “Iraq for Sale” Movie by director Robert Greenwals
About 150 people attended.

Intro by Marv Davidov and Jack Nelson Pallmeyer, who gave us some of the economic dictates visited on Iraq, handed down by Paul Bremer.

The Film: Mostly about “Private security firms”. CACI, Titan ‘Black water, Etc.

Focus on U.S. loss of life.. How people were “duped” into trusting the corporations.

Also Halliburton & KBR
Families convinced that corporations knew that men were in danger of death

Attacking “no bid”. Contracts -”un-American.. “

How troops were suffering from lack of clean water, E.g..
One hour wait for food –Halliburton won’t go to 24 hour shift.
$45 for case of soda $100 for bag of laundry
Halliburton workers live in luxury, and were being paid at the same time. “Cost plus” contracts.

Get wrong equipment – burn. & destroy the equipment – buy new material.

No oversight from Congress.
“Their greed goes against our grain” “The profiteers will not easily turn into patriots.”
“Ws have to take our country back.”

After the Film

The “Time Line” is introduced by Mimi LaValley.
Two rows of butcher paper, with years marked off.
One charts the progress of the “Merchants of Death”
The other charts the progress of the resistance
Begins in 1900, ends in 2011 – 5 years from this conference
Throughout the Conference, people will keep adding to the Time Line.
By the end of the Conference, we hope to have realistic projections for resistance in the future.

Panel Discussion: Deidre Hughes, Moderator

Frida Berrigan: Speaks about her work, remarks that, 15 years after the end of the Cold War, we’re spending more on nukes now than then.

Gives dates for Time Line:
First Gulf War 1991, for every 100 soldiers, 1 private contractor
Cheney as Sec’y of Defense
1991 Hires a then-small company, Halliburton, to study the Feasibility of privatizing military logistics.
1992 report back: “privatizing is great.”
1992 – Cheney returns to private life
1995 – becomes CEO of Halliburton. Connections to both US AND Middle East leaders.
1995-2005 – Halliburton goes from 87th in Pentagon’s top 100 contractors, to 7th (with
$12 in contracts).
2000 – contract with KBR: within 72 hours of any military action, KBR will be there to serve. “Cost plus” Contract with bonuses – and the bonuses are figured as COST of job.
2001 – now for every 100 soldiers, 10 private contracts. – paid for by “emergency supplements,” rammed through Congress.
Hidden human and economic costs.

MacGregor Eddy
Global Network against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
WILPF

Noted that the Battle for Gettysburg, the North won because they had a hill
Space is the ultimate “hill”

In the Gulf War I, there was 1 US casualty for every 1,000 Iraqi deaths.

Now the military wants to reduce that to 1 US casualty for every 10,000 deaths
“Technological bullying”

War from Space.

Loring Wirbel
Citizens for Peace in Space

“We hide the blood better” with civilian contractors

In Colorado, they are used to link between private military contractors vs. contractors that build and make things.
New distinction: “newcomers” don’t make anything, they just devise systems.
So L-M, Boeing, etc.,

C.R.I.M.E.
Colorado Religious Industrial Military Educational Complex

3 fronts:
Col. Springs (don’t worry about Cheyenne MT).
Schriever Space Command, Peterson Air Force Base;
also Northern Command Homeland Security
Omaha also getting Strategic Command

Downtown Denver: Buckley Intelligence Base (no room to grow)
So: contract out the secret information from satellites,
To L-M, SAIC, N-G,

Expansion of Fort Carson to 3 million acres – for training of soldiers.

David Meiran

Comment on film: both strong and weak: Appeal to mainstream audience.

No mention neoconservative, WTO, Corporate Globalization

We need to know this, because then we could join with anti-globalization forces.

Active and passive war profiteers
Back end and front end war profiteers.

Importance of activism
Note: Houston Global Awareness & Halliburton Watch influential in compelling the Pentagon to cut no-bid contracts for Halliburton.

Stop the Merchants of Death

2006-09-01T14:55:00.000-04:00

Initial set-up of SMoD blog.