USSF

Thursday June 28th

When the U.S. government launched the "War on Terror" and established the Department of Homeland Security, this meant an increased use of military might by the government against all critics of U.S. domination - at home and abroad. Today, the United States continues to flex its murderous, military might all around the globe. Meanwhile, under the guise of security, local, state and federal governments pump more money into building more prisons, detention centers, and border walls, and directing an increasing number of police and agents to the streets to conduct raids and to squash the peoples' opposition. As the U.S. government threatens to invade, bomb and sanction more countries, and as more and more people in the United States are thrown into prison or subjected to state violence, we have to answer the question of what it will take to stop the U.S. government's war on the peoples of the world.

Sound files from the Gulf Coast plenary:

Daniel Castellanos on black brown solidarity

On Katrina as a capitalist and racist human rights crisis

Dr. Beverley Wright on the transformation of poor neighborhoods into "green space"

The destruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita exposes the historic forces of genocide, slavery, and militarism, as well as widespread exploitation, white supremacy, and sexism. The total devastation demonstrates the environmental crisis facing the world; and highlights local, state and federal governments' abandonment of low-income communities and communities of color, including immigrant communities, and their women, children, elders, and disabled. The ongoing struggle to win the right of return for all displaced people and the right of working people to return to their jobs, including in the public sector and especially in the public schools, points to growing struggles against gentrification and massive privatization - the right to housing, education, health care, to all public services, and the right of workers to collective bargaining in their workplaces. These struggles also point to the need for new strategic alliances among organizations in the African American, Indigenous, immigrant and other communities of color, and among working people, women, and queer communities to make our vision of Gulf Coast reconstruction a reality.

    On Thursday, June 28th in the downtown Marriott of Atlanta, WILPF held a workshop on Women, Water, and War, which was received very warmly by an enthusiastic crowd of women and men. Kate Zaidon, program coordinator at WILPF and myself, Dannelle Hauser, legislative intern, moderated the workshop while five wonderfully eloquent women enlightened us on various topics regarding women in conflict, toxic contamination due to US military endeavors, nuclear weapons and the consequences women, children, and the environment endure, as a result of careless policy.

    The workshop began with Bobbie Paul, representing Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament (WAND),and her discussion revolved around the dumping of toxic waste into the Savannah River, a body of water located across from Augusta S.C. The toxic chemicals have come from a nuclear power plant and from the creation of bombs utilized by the U.S. military. The chemical of main concern is called tritium, radioactive hydrogen that Bobbie described as "Viagra for bombs". Bobbie Paul concluded the discussion with urgency to provoke change to attain clean water, which is so vital to our lives.

WILPF members and staff are settling in after arriving in Atlanta for the first US Social Forum, a historic moment in US organizing. The energy and spirit of today's opening march and plenary have set the stage for what promises to be 4 days of political education, strategy and movement building.

The opening march was unlike any that I have personally been involved with, as there were so many issues represented. We said NO to prisons, NO to war, NO to water privatization, NO to corporate control of our health care system, NO to homophobia, NO to racism, NO to assaults on women's rights.