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Below are initial reports from across the country on wearing Guantanamo detainee orange jumpsuits Dec. 10 & 11, sending the message that “Torture + Silence = Complicity”. Check back for more as they become available, and send your stories, pictures, and videos to reports@worldcantwait.org.
Click here to read the call for the Dec. 10 & 11 actions.
Click below for reports from:
New York City:
Photos by Stanley Rogouski
As American as Shopping and Torture: Street Theater on International Human Rights Day
A Report by Sunsara Taylor
On the bright Sunday, that was International Human Rights
Day, December 10th, tourists and shoppers line up like any other day.
Hundreds at a time stretched down Broadway and around the corner
waiting for their chance to “ooooh” and “aaahh” at the famous Macy’s
Christmas window displays. Piped in Christmas carols greeted the
throngs as they streamed by with children on their shoulders,
shopping
bags in hand, and money to spend. Necks craned to catch a glimpse of
the fancily wrapped gifts and twirling bespeckled tree in the window
display.
Inevitably, inadvertently the shoppers’ eyes would drift
from the display windows and catch hold of us. Across the sidewalk, a
dozen of us crouched beneath black hoods. Bright orange jumpsuits, the
trademark uniform of Guantanamo, set us apart from the crowd. Our hands
were gripped behind our backs, as if cuffed. Unbeknownst to them, from
behind the hoods that concealed our faces, we were watching their
expressions change.
A young white woman’s face tightened as she grabbed for her
boyfriend’s arm. “Wow,” she murmured, “that’s intense.” A group of
immigrant friends slowed their Spanish and then stopped altogether,
their conversation losing its relevance. Children cast their gaze
upwards to parents for explanation – but how do you explain to a child
the living image of endless anguish and torture that is taking place in
your name as you shop?
You do it like this: “Never mind them
honey. They don’t like our President.”
Or like this: “They’re showing something that shouldn’t be happening. It’s good what they”re doing.”
Or like this, belted out by a young Black woman pushing a
stroller for everyone to hear: “That’s right! We need to get his Bush’s
stinkin’ ass out of there!!”
But no matter how it was explained, the children kept looking – even as their parents tugged them away.
They weren’t the only ones. Many stood and stared back and
forth between the two displays – the one in the windows a shimmering
alter to consumerism and the holiday spirit, those of us under the
hoods a living replica of the human spirits being consumed by American
inaction and acquiescence.
We were all told by George Bush that, “they hate us for our
freedoms.” We were all told to go shopping, lest the “terrorists win.”
It was remembering this while listening to the harrowing story of
Khaled El-Masri on Democracy Now last week that sparked the idea of
bringing the faceless hoods of American torture victims into the heart
of New York’s holiday shopping, the home of the Miracle on 34th Street.
El-Masri, a German citizen, was rendered and tortured by
the U.S. government at a secret C.I.A. prison. He was beaten, kicked
and force-fed for months but told of even worse treatment for his
fellow detainees: being hung from ceilings for days in extreme cold,
simulated drowning, and having one’s limbs and teeth broken. He had
received no hearing, no legal recourse, and even since his release the
government has provided no reason for his detention or his release.
Judging by the faces which were transforming in front of us
from holiday cheer, to double-take-confusion, to stern disturbance,
while many have learned to push this out of their minds, it is not yet
something they are at ease with.
But, as it says in the Call for the World Can’t Wait, “That
which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn – or be
forced – to accept.”
And there are those who have not only learned to accept,
but to celebrate the barbarity of torture. These were the ones who
yelled out, “If you hate America then you deserve it!” Or, “We’re gonna
be there for four more years!!”
It would be nice to be able to dismiss this as the
backwards howls of some beyond-the-pale fools, but it is this spirit
and level of discourse that occupies much of the airwaves and halls of
state power. It was the Vice President who called water-boarding a
“dip” and a “no brainer.” It was in a public debate that John Yoo, the
architect of George Bush’s torture programs, insisted that the
President had the right to torture someone, “including by crushing the
testicles of the person’s child.” It was the Commander-In-Chief who,
when arguing for the passage of the Military Commissions act that
disregards the Geneva Conventions, asked incredulously, “What does that
mean, “outrages upon human dignity”?”
But the ugly hostility of the men who cursed and condemned
us only turned more of the faces our way, stirring others from their
preferred indifference. Out came the cell-phone cameras and pocket-size
video cams. Mouths formed the words on our signs, “Drive Out the Bush
Regime,” and many nodded.
Over to my right, a voice pierced the din of traffic, cell
phones, and banter. A young Middle Eastern man is flailed his arms and
spoke bitterness, “I hate this President! I hate what he is doing! Look
at this! Look what he is doing!” His two friends looked on in
semi-amazement at the depth of his emotions; one was Latino, the other
white. As he gestured, a larger knot of people stopped. Hands grabbed
up the flyers we were distributing and hushed conversations broke out
among families and friends.
I was not surprised by the depth of his emotions, but
impressed by his courage to speak so boldly. There is nothing that
could stop the government from grabbing him. Consider Dilawar, only
22-years-old and believed innocent by most of the U.S. military
personnel who grabbed him as he drove his cab past their base in
Bagram, Afghanistan. He weighed just 122 pounds, but was chained to the
ceiling. Guards took turns striking his legs more than 100 times with
such force that they would no longer bend, joking that each time they
did because he would scream, “Allah.” After four days, still chained to
the ceiling, he died. His autopsy described his trauma as comparable to
being run over by a bus.
As we continued to crouch, our knees and backs began to
ache and the people continued to stream by. There was recognition in
the crowd and intensity even in the reaction of those who do not stop.
We had no doubt that over dinner and coffee, over telephone lines and
email messages, a conversation had been provoked that will travel home
with the tourists and recur every time they open the newspaper to read
another account, see another detainee in shackles, hear another
rationalization about the necessities of torture.
Somewhere I heard the name Jose Padilla, the U.S. citizen
held for more than three years as an “enemy combatant” without charges.
Recent footage of his captivity showed him shackled at the feet and the
wrists and forced to wear sensory depriving goggles and earmuffs to
prevent him from having any orientation or human interaction before he
could be taken to the dentist. The punitive and premeditated nature of
his torment precise enough to have impressed Heinrich Himmler. Already,
our presence was bringing these horrors more to life for those around
us.
As we were getting ready to wind down for the day, a woman
dressed in all pink and white makes her way towards me. Her hair was
feathered on top and she looks like the middle of America: mega-church,
soccer-mom, mall-walker, you-name-it. She took me by the arms and cast
her gaze where she suspected my eyes must”ve been and said, “I am from
Houston and I am so proud of you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for
doing this.”
She, like the Dixie Chicks, was ashamed that the President
is from her home state. Her arms were still filled with Macy’s bags,
her young ones still expecting gifts under the tree, but her soul was
stirred and she listened and nodded as we insisted that there will be
no end to the torture and immoral wars unless the regime responsible is
driven from office. She gave her email and phone number and, grabbing
my arms one more time before moving on, she said, “I don’t want to have
to tell my kids I just let all this go on.”
As the torture continues, silence is
complicity. It is not just the regime that must be challenged, but the
people who dislike what is being done, but who are learning to live
with it. There is still time to reach them, but not a lot of time. It
is only us – out here, who still have the ability to shop and to talk,
to voluntarily hood ourselves or act in other ways – who can challenge
others to wake up and act in our millions to bring this to a halt.
As Ariel Dorfman wrote in the Washington Post as the
Military Commissions Act was making torture the law of the lands,
“Can’t the United States see that when we allow someone to be tortured
by our agents, it is not only the victim and the perpetrator who are
corrupted, not only the “intelligence” that is contaminated, but also
everyone who looked away and said they did not know, everyone who
consented tacitly to that outrage so they could sleep a little safer at
night, all the citizens who did not march in the streets by the
millions to demand the resignation of whoever suggested, even
whispered, that torture is inevitable in our day and age, that we must
embrace its darkness?”
Paragould, Arkansas:
Skateboarding youth mobilized to say “No Torture”.
The local WCW organizer took the call for actions on Oct 10 to stop
torture to the local skate parks. The youth there had no idea the
Congress had passed a bill legalizing torture and had never heard the
name Military Commissions Act. They were angry about it and agreed to
show up on Oct 10.
From 12 noon to 4pm 15 people – all but two teen-aged youth – showed
up at the road leading into the local WalMart which serves a very large
area around the small town. The road in front of it is the main
east-west route across the state so truckers and others passed by. For
four hours, it was non-stop honks of support. The youth were short on
money so had no jumpsuits or flyers. They made up for it with loud
chants of “No torture”, signs that said “Stop the Attack on Iran” and
“World Can’t Wait-Drive Out the Bush Regime” and as much discussion as
you can have with people in their cars.
Chicago:
There
were about 100 people gathered in front of the Art Institute Sunday
afternoon. People from many different organizations were there, such as
The World Can’t Wait, Code Pink, Progressive Democrats of America,
Veterans for Peace, A.N.S.W.E.R, 9/11 Truth, just to name a few. It was
great to see so many of us there and many people wished it could be
like that all of the time. Many held signs along Michigan Ave. that
read Impeach Bush, “Hands off Iran”. Other signs called attention to
the Torture being perpetrated in our names and called for the end of
the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. One large sign read “Honk for
Impeachment” and got a really good response from people in cars,
especially cabbies.
The mock trial for the Bush Chain Gang was a success and the general
public and passersby were intrigued and stopped to watch the
proceedings. The trial was presided over by a Judge in white wig who
called the Court of Street Theater to session and charged Bush, Cheney
and Rumsfeld (represented by large paper mache heads worn by performers
dressed in black and white stripped prison garb) with impeachable
offenses and crimes against humanity. Representing the accused were two
Billionaires for Bush, including Horace B. Greedy, and the prosecutor
read out the very serious charges for all to hear. Two detainees in
orange suits told of the horrors of torture and abuse they had suffered
in Afghanistan and Guantanmo, all at the hands of US forces, before
being relased after 3 and a half years with no charges. The jury filled
up with passersby and demonstrators and rendered a long and heartfelt
GUILTY verdict. Many people videoed the trial and we hope to have a
version ready for various websites and YouTube soon.
After the trial we decided it would be good to do a perp walk. The
Chain Gang was escorted by the the warden, the judge, the lawyers, and
the detainee witnesses. All through the trip, the judge was telling the
crowd that the Chain gang was found guilty, but warning the crowd that
they were slippery characters not yet jailed and so to be careful. The
hooded detainee followed the Chain gang pointing at them and called out
“torturers, murderers, criminals, and liars.” A 5-6 year old girl
watched with wide eyes and asked her mother, “Is Bush a criminal?” (Her
mother barked, “No!”.)
Among the shoppers, a few whooped with delight and grabbed their
cameras to record the scene. One young man who had just moved to town
was so excited to see us. “Are you the people who called for everyone
to walk out, no school, no work, about a month ago? Is there a chapter
here?” A Black teenaged woman danced with delight when she saw the war
criminals in chains, like their authority and power had been punctured,
“Oh, they are going to jail!!”
We went down State Street to Macy’s. Many people laughed with
delight and wanted their pictures taken with the Chain Gang. There was
a singing Santa who sang a special song for us about Peace. A couple of
people took photos of themselves with a hooded detainee. Children at
both Macy’s and the Art Institute had their pictures taken with the
Chain Gang. From Macy’s we went through the Christmas Village at Daley
Plaza where the response was mostly positive, but we did have a few
scrooges and grinches calling us names. One teenage guy handed back his
flyer insisting that we had to be in Iraq because otherwise we would be
fighting the terrorists on our own shores. When asked what Iraq had to
do with Al Quaida and 911, he admitted there was no nnection and the
young woman with him who had handed back her flyer when he did, now
took one to read. In addition to some hostile reactions, at least half
the people didn’t want to see us or deal with torture and war: “It’s
Christmas!” Or delighted at first to see puppets, some retreated when
they saw what it was, “Oh, no! It’s political.”
We then walked to Millennium Park. A young boy between 11& 13
came along side the hooded detainee, patting the detainee on the
shoulder. The detainee pointed to the Chain Gang and told the boy the
Chain gang tortures people. The boy then caught up with Bush and asked
Bush why he was torturing people. I found this quite moving in that
someone from the public, especially a child, was engaged and now a part
of the performance.
Overall, everyone felt that the day was positive and were
particularly proud to have come together with other groups to do this
performance. Jill, who played one of the detainees, concluded: “I find
it all very hopeful in these dire times. We are indeed making an impact
and effecting change.”
2 accounts of wearing the orange jumpsuit to work in Chicago:
Attorney H. Candace Gorman, who is defending two Guantanamo detainees, wearing the orange jumpsuit on Dec. 10.
She writes about Guantanamo detainees at:
http://gtmoblog.blogspot.com/
—
My day at work:
I had an interesting day wearing the orange jump suit. I wrote
Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib on the back of the suit and left the house
with WCW flyers. I walked through the pedway and the lobby of one of
the giant office buildings downtown carrying my laptop as though
nothing was out of the ordinary. People did double-takes, but
surprisingly no one asked me what it was about.
It was a different story when I got to work, where the suit created
quite a stir. I work in a place with a lot of foreign-born
professionals and they were much more aware of the Military Commissions
Act and the horrors of Abu Ghraib. This was especially true of the
Pakistanis and South Asians. Some of them wanted to know how the MCA is
different than the Patriot Act.
Several people hadn’t known about the legalization of torture and
overturning habeas corpus and they thanked me for bringing it to their
attention. At lunch time a friend called me from a restaurant where he
was lunching with co-workers. They wanted to know what habeas corpus
means, and does the new law apply only to foreign-born or to US
citizens as well. Throughout the day people came to my cube to talk
about torture, the war, religion, the death of Pinochet, and whether
the country is headed to fascism. A few people really surprised me with
their support. I learned a lot in one day about how people on my job
are looking at the situation. The most frequent comment: “Scary!” The
most controversial point: complicity.
I was wondering all day if management would call me in and say I had
to take off the suit – or worse! Actually I wasn’t too worried because
last week I asked one of the top executives that I’ve talked with about
WCW if he would fire me if I wore the suit. He said,
“Absolutely…NOT.” He thought it was a great idea. Several other
managers made a point of telling me the suit was “awesome” (one told me
I looked like a pumpkin, but he liked the political statement).
Of course there were many people I didn’t speak with, and I’m sure
there was discussion about my statement that didn’t reach me – I hope
so. One of my objectives was to get people to confront the reality that
their government is guilty of crimes against humanity, so I hope people
keep talking about it.
Students at Columbia
College brought the reality
of torture to light, with events on Human Rights Day and John Yoo’s visit to Chicago:
At Columbia
College on Monday,
December 10th, many students anxiously scurried to their classes to
take their final exams. In the midst of the busiest week of the semester,
twelve students from Columbia College and the Art Institute of Illinois, took
time out to remind students of a harsh reality: Despite the distraction of the
busy work load of finals, despite the Democratic victory in November, people in
Guantanamo and around the world are still being tortured, and under the
military commissions act of 2006, this is now legal.
Ten students dressed in orange jumpsuits and hoods and
gathered with signs and banners for a silent but powerful display of this
reality in one of the busiest spots on the Columbia College Campus. At first,
passer-bys were few. We got a couple of strange looks, but people were taking
our flyers. At lunchtime, however, the lunchtime rush kicked in, and hundreds
of students passed by our display. We were able to get out hundreds copies of
the Silence+Torture=Complicity statement, as well as information with actual
accounts of torture that took place at Guantanamo.
The response was mixed. Some walked by and scoffed. When one
woman came up to look at our posters with the infamous pictures released from
Abu Ghraib. “Don’t talk to them!” her friend called out. “These pictures are
really scary!” the woman replied, and took a flyer. Others stopped by to take
pictures and engage with student organizers. One person came up and immediately
asked how he could get involved. Another took a flyer and read the entire thing
while standing in front of us. “What’s going on is really messed up. It is good
you guys are out here.” One professor
came up to an organizer and asked for a stack of flyers and said that she
wanted to take them to her class. Two other supportive faculty members
expressed their support and thanked us for being there. A student who lives in
the largest dorm on campus came up and asked, “What do you mean torture is now
legal?” He had seen the pictures from Abu Ghraib, but thought that because of
the large controversy over them, that those type of practices had been stopped.
He was shocked to hear about the military commissions act, and after our
conversation, grabbed a stack of flyers and said he wanted to get them up all
over his dorm.
Overall, the response was positive. The event certainly made
a strong impact on people, despite their political sentiment. Generally, we
noticed there was a strong appreciation for what we were doing, but a
disconnect between the reality of torture and personal responsibility to act to
stop it. Most we encountered we unaware
of the Military Commissions Act and its implications.
We had a similar experience the next day, when a couple
student organizers from Columbia went to welcome
John Yoo, Berkley professor and one of the main
architect of the Bush regime’s policy on torture, at the Freedom museum in
downtown Chicago.
Organizers were unable to get in, but Yoo happened to be speaking in the lobby
of the museum, surrounded with clear glass windows. One organizer dressed in
the jumpsuit and hood and kneeled in clear view of the stage and crowd inside
with a WCW poster at his side. While the event went on, another organizer
passed out the Silence+Torture=Complicity statement to passers-by. It was a
cold and rainy night, so the streets were quite empty, but those who did pass
definitely took notice. Two men who work at the Redeye, a local newspaper, came
up to us and said “Right on!” Both had heard of WCW, and aid that though they
were supportive of what we are doing, they think that without a draft, people
will not care enough to make the sacrifices needed to actually drive out the
regime. Neither had heard of the military commissions act, and were both were
horrified when they heard that it passed through the both houses of Congress
and that many Democrats voted in its favor.
One older man came up and asked what we were doing. He too,
had not heard of the Military Commissions Act, and said that he was not
surprised, and that the United
States has been torturing people for
hundreds of years. When an organizer posed that up to this point, though
practices of torture have gone on, it has not been legal, he said, “You”re
right, but how can we stop this? People are too comfortable.”
Through the course of the evening, we heard many similar
responses. As the event let out, many people came up and thanked us for being
there, and said that they were glad to see young people out standing up for
something important. This included two people who worked at the freedom museum,
who gave us their cards, and took a picture for their website. One young
professional came out and said that he feels generally disappointed by the left
and that he thought Yoo’s ability to articulate himself was much better than
his debater that evening. He talked about the severity of the situation in the
world today, and compared Bush to Hitler. When confronted with the necessity of
the people taking responsibility to stop this, he said that he thought that was
true, but feels unsure of what that looks like, or exactly what to do. An older
man that was leaving the debate said that Yoo had not even mentioned torture,
and he felt that he was avoiding the issue. He said that he thought it was up
to the younger generation to stop this, but he is cynical because unlike during
the Vietnam war, there is no draft. He said he knew that many young people care
about what’s going on, but because it is not directly affecting them, they will
not be compelled to act.
After the evening came to a close, it was clear that there
is a need for more of these type of displays, and to continue to contribute to
the transformation of the political climate and to bring this severity of the
Military Commissions Act, its implications, and the reality of the Bush program
to light, and even more, the need for a massive movement of resistance to stop
it.
Seattle:
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Three community college students I had about 10 really I |
On
12/10 World Can’t Wait Seattle participated in an International Human
Rights Day funeral procession with a Filipino solidarity group and the
Oaxaca Support Committee. About 100 people marched. Fourteen people,
mostly youth, dressed as torture victims all chained together. We also
had someone that played the role of the torturer who spouted insults at
the victims periodically and gave orders. When one of the victims would
speak, the torturer would yell, “You are all DOGS!” When there would
be a stop in the march, the torturer would shout “KNEEL!” and of course
the detainees would immediately comply.
The character of the
march was very solemn, but people’s rage and disgust came through at
the rally afterwards when what was meant to be a solemn eulogy
escalated until there was a chant “The World Can’t Wait! Drive Out the
Bush Regime!” About half the people in the march left with orange
armbands. People handing out the flyer reported that many along the
march route did not know about the MCA. When told, they were appalled
or stunned. Some didn’t care.
Reports from two people wearing the jumpsuits in the march:
It
was disturbing for all of us. Then we felt stupid for feeling
disturbed because it was nothing compared to what the actual detainees
have to go through every day. You can’t see, you have to be helped up
a curb, you are dependent on those guiding you, you are under their
control.
It was very hard changing the perspective and being subservient.
When
the torture victims were in the crowd, or when we kneeled in a circle,
all chained together, you could feel the mood shift and people watching
be much more confronted with image and reality. Very good to have such
a large contingent.
San Francisco:
On Dec 10th the SF Bay Area chapter went out to the Farmer’s Market at the United Nations Plaza. Our Human Rights/Impeachment day was a joint effort with Impeach Bush-Cheney and other groups. There were about 12 people dressed in orange jumpsuits and black hoods. With so many “prisoners” we were able to have groups of them disperse and have several guerilla theaters going on at once. The plaza was not as busy as the Christmas shopping areas but people were more willing to stop and listen and talk.
People of many nationalities listened pretty attentively to Peter Phillips, Suraya (speaking of women’s issues from the Kurdish standpoint & about experiencing racist harassment for wearing an impeach Bush shirt), an incredible Russian singer named Irina Rivkin who sang some scathing lyrics vs Bush regime, and our own Ben R who read Debra Sweet’s speech (almost the whole thing) with just the right accents and drawing much applause. The photo ops were incredible, with a great display of the MCA on posterboard. Our booth was colorful & we sold a bunch of shirts, hoodies, and New York teach-in DVD’s. People had a lot of interesting questions: is impeachment really possible, why can’t different groups work together more, what should Bush be replaced with, disbelief that the Dems will make any real changes, etc. The press was all over the place. Although Fox attended to IBC, Nickelodeon followed one of the youth around all day for a documentary (fyi this is Linda Ellerby’s children’s show … so be on the lookout). Eyewitness news (channel 5) showed Ben up close, but no sound! We had at least 4 cameras operating & maybe a little video (hopefully). The Chronicle had an extensive article and picture the next day that totally left WCW out!
Seven WCW people (followed by the Nick film crew) peeled off from the UN Plaza action and walked downtown to Powell and Market wearing the orange jumpsuits and carrying the “worldcantwait.org” sign, a torture picture from Abu Ghraib, and the MCA display. They stood in front of Westfield center where a lot of holiday shoppers and other people were passing by. A few of them stood outside agitating and holding the signs and a few went in to the mall, with the Nick cameraman. They got a lot of attention, but quickly got kicked out. Outside, they took turns agitating. Some people were very negative and said the torture picture was not appropriate for children to see. One of the youth responded that, if it’s so inappropriate, maybe our government shouldn’t have done it! But many also thanked them, and a couple contributed money.
They passed out all the flyers that they brought and many people were coming up asking for them. For the hour or so that we were there, there was always a small crowd standing around watching. One woman told the Nick camera that it was a shame that it’s only youth that are out here trying to change the world… she obviously didn’t know about the rest of the old folks back at U.N. plaza! We all thought that the action was successful and that we should do it again soon. Everyone agreed that this is a good way to get people’s attention, and even if they don’t immediately join World Can’t Wait, they”ll at least have that image in their mind so that the next time they hear something about “interrogation of detainees” or “extraordinary renditions” on the news they”ll remember those people in front of the mall. This type of thing is also part of WCW staying visible. We then walked back single file, like in the Atlanta Video.
As we were walking back, it occurred to us that we should have signs or should’ve stenciled on our jumpsuits something like “no torture,” because many people on the street clearly did not know what the jumpsuits were about. One guy asked if we were actors – probably because of the Nickelodeon cameras.
Elsewhere, two WCW people tabled at the benefit fair for KPFA (our progressive radio station). One of them summed up that at the KPFA faire, too many people wanted to avert their gaze from the torture pictures and go about their Xmas shopping. She grew both demoralized and angry at this – but she tried to persist, and discovered that the difference was not whether her agitation was loud or soft, but that she went past “announcing” and really challenged people to talk with her about the equation on the flyer (silence + torture = complicity). She argued to her best ability for why it is dangerous for people who don’t like the Bush agenda to wait for someone else to challenge it, that no change for the better has ever come to pass that way, and that the German analogy is apt. She said not everyone liked hearing it but some did told her they can see it, thanked WCW for being out there, gave names, took and put on orange ribbons.
Our overall summation of the public’s understanding of the MCA: By and large the level of public ignorance/incomprehension of just this one (very signal!) abuse does demonstrate the deep need for the WCW teach-ins, as well as for more impact (like media exposure that could flow from the teach-ins for example). People found all weekend, as we”ve heard before that, that across the board most people, whether middle class ordinary folks, or college students, or even NPR-listeners who are co-workers, simply are not aware of what that new law contains. A lawyer we know says he meets many professional attorneys who themselves don’t even realize the actual changes it presents. In Oakland on Monday afternoon, at the downtown bus intersection, three jumpsuited youth with flyers found lots of masses don’t even know the name MCA although lots of them (across the social and nationality board) have deep thoughts and questions about why things are the way they are – why poverty, the war, national oppression, the “information wars,” but this particular news just has been kept from most people.
Cleveland, Ohio:
There were two actions in Cleveland.
The first, on Sunday, Dec 10, WCW answered the call to have events about
impeachment. We showed the film “How to
Impeach a President” from the Center for Constitutional Rights at Lakewood
Public Library. We also showed the Les
Roberts presentation from the Oct 31 WCW NYC teach-in. In this he tells of his study that showed
that 655,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the U.S. invasion
and the struggle to have it presented in the media.
About 20 people attended.
Two people came with their orange jumpsuits, one wearing his. The MC opened up by reading U.S.
Representative Cynthia McKinney’s speech Dec 4 at Georgetown University. She spoke of how the Democratic Party is
telling everyone to wait now, wait to end the war, wait to end torture, wait
for justice for Katrina victims. She
told of the ongoing oppression of Black people.
She called for ending the funding for the war in Iraq and for
impeachment of Bush.
On Monday, Dec 11, we did a street theater action against
torture in front of a Catholic church in conjunction with the Catholic Workers
who brought their rolling Gitmo cage.
One of them dressed as a detainee and did stress positions barefoot and
hooded in an orange jumpsuit in the cage.
Two others, including a Jesuit priest, dressed as soldiers standing
guard over the cage. We had “No Torture”
and “Shut down Guantanamo”
banners and signs with pictures of what torture looks like.
One woman walking by gave us the finger as she refused a
flyer and then she walked into church.
Others stopped and talked to us and thanked us for doing this. The difference between those Catholics who
just turned their backs and walked silently or angrily into the church services
and the ones standing with us was really heavy.
Houston, Texas:
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On Overwhelmingly, Unfortunately, Overall, this was a great action, and should be done |
We had eleven people from high school students to members from Vets for Peace, the Progressive Action Alliance and the local Green Party. We stenciled the jump suits with “STOP TORTURE” and “REPEAL THE MCA,” and then drove to the Galleria shopping mall. I think everyone was excited but a little nervous, wondering what people’s reaction would be and how security would treat us.
The Galleria was packed with people, full of Christmas shoppers of all ages. We walked in and went to the indoor ice skating rink. People were watching us as we walked in.
I had written up a small sign on letter size paper that explained some of the basic rights the MCA had taken away from citizens, and in large letters explained it was now LEGAL to torture anyone. I held it in front of me and shoppers were reading it. I saw their eyes move from the “prisoners” in the orange jump suits to my sign, making the connection.
Some of us moved energetically through the crowd talking up the MCA and torture while others approached people in their own quiet but resolved way. Three people walked right up to me and asked me what the MCA was and when it had been made into law. Others willingly engaged and took the flyer. I would ask them if they had heard of the MCA and almost every one of them said, no. I asked them then if they knew what Habeas Corpus was, all said, yes. When I asked them if they knew they did not have these basic rights anymore, they did not, and were surprised. I probably approached around ten or twelve people in the short time we had. I was getting really excited about people’s response to us; they were interested. Only about three of them refused to engage or gave a negative response.
Within 15 minutes, five security people in uniform approached us and told us we could not be in the mall. While the others were talking with mall security, I was still engaging the crowd but in another way–by displaying my sign. I saw a couple people’s faces change indicating they did understand.
Mr. Mall Manager asked the “prisoners” if they had clothing on under their jumpsuits. It was clear he was going to ask them to remove them before we walked out. He thought better of it and dropped it. The security manager was more forceful than the others, and told us we had to get out right then, no exception. He said they did not want their “guests” to be bothered.
One mall employee quietly told me, “Thank you” as we left. After the security supervisor left, three of the security guards asked for a flyer.
We regrouped on a street corner and held the WCW banner that condemns torture and talked to people at a bus stop and on the sidewalk.
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About eight World Can’t Wait organizers and friends continued our 2-day protest of US Torture by “freeway blogging” on a bridge over a very congested piece of Houston freeway. We had, among others, a banner that read, “NO TORTURE! DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME!”. Some of us were wearing the orange jumpsuits and black hoods and one of us posed, arms extended, as the infamous Abu Graib prisoner in a black shroud.
We received lots of honks from the traffic below, as well as a few negative responses. We also had a lively debate with a young college student who was walking by, who was moved to do some investigation of what he couldn’t believe this country would do.
Kalamazoo, Michigan:
The Kalamazoo Chapter of World Cant Wait had three protest events focusing on torture on Dec 10. Eight of us donned orange jumpsuits with black hoods and marched behind a huge banner “Stop U.S. Torture” to join the local peace vigil at the downtown federal building. We marched past dozens of anti-war protestors who cheered us as we chanted “no torture”. Motorists driving by were overwhelmingly supportive, honking in agreement.
Next, we traveled down to Portage, a middle class suburb where the largest Mall is to protest at the vehicle entrance as hundreds of holiday shoppers drove by. We got a less friendly response here–many people seemed indifferent and pretended not to see us, some were hostile and some blew their horns and gave thumbs up. This area doesn’t see many protests except at the military recruitment station nearby. However, we hopefully caused hundreds of people to think about torture who otherwise would not have had it on their radar screen.
We ended the evening at a local bar. We had a “Teach-In on Torture” where we showed an excerpt from the Bush Crimes Commission DVD on torture, two organizers read poetry and one organizer presented information on how sexual humiliation and torture were used to target Muslim detainees and attack their culture at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib. About 30 people attended, with a group of college students joining us for the first time. We made plans to do another jumpsuit action this Saturday downtown amidst the shoppers.