Communities in Oakland have been struggling against police violence, surveillance, criminalization, and incarceration for generations. Police here are becoming more and more militarized daily, there are joint trainings between local police, the US military, IDF, and Bahrainy security forces. Soldiers, trained killers returning from war, are joining the local police forces. Local police departments are investing in and using military grade weapons for low intensity warfare upon civilians here. We experienced the raids and night raids here in Oakland. We saw people get beat the hell out of, got shot by rubber bullets, bean bags and tear gas canisters. Now imagine that becoming live rounds, grenades and bombs.
Well that is what takes place in Afghanistan on a regular. The massacre of 16 Afghans in Panjwai, Kandahar, 9 of whom were children, is not an isolated incident. It just happened to get media attention. We’re outraged not only about this latest atrocity, but by the drone attacks, the night raids, the “kill teams” murdering for sport and collecting body parts as trophies, the urinating on dead Afghan bodies while filming it, the burning of Qurans. In addition to the recent wave of atrocities, there is an agreement being negotiated known as the "U.S./Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement", which if passed, will extend U.S. military presence in Afghanistan till 2024 and beyond.
In Afghanistan and throughout the worldwide Afghan community, people are rising up to military and police violence and holding mass protests. As Afghans, Muslims, and people of color, we call upon communities of resistance, upon Decolonize Oakland, Occupy Oakland, Occupy SF and other allies to stand in solidarity with the Afghan people. We ask you to STAND UP and join us and our non-violent direct actions. We encourage you all to have your own autonomous actions as you see fit as well. We need to stand in solidarity with the Afghan people and end the military occupation that is having devastating consequences on communities both at home and abroad. We also need to stand in solidarity with economically disenfranchised youth of color who are targeted by the military recruiters and end up joining the military as their only way out of systematic oppression at home. Recruiters with quotas target our children, not only in high school but middles schools, so we are talking 12 year olds here.
For these reasons, as our first non-violent direct action we have chosen to shut down the US Army, Navy and Marine Corps Recruiting Center in Fremont.
On Friday, March 30th, at 2:30pm we will meet at Fremont BART. We will start marching towards the recruiting center at 3:00pm.
Fremont has the largest Afghan immigrant community in North America. Fremont also has a high population of police & military personnel. And people who strongly support them. From our own experiences, there’s a lot of overt racism there as well. Therefore, we need our allies to please show up in strong numbers and support us as Afghan, Muslim, immigrant people.
We need the presence of legal observers. We need the presence of our own media people. We need help getting the word out about this action. We need people to pass out literature that is pertinent to this effort at the event. We need you to join us as allies in this action as well as future actions. Help us build a network of resistance against militarism across diverse communities.
While we need everyone to help us organize, we’d like our actions to be led by the communities who are most affected by war and militarism, such as people of color, Muslims, Arabs, Afghan, and immigrants. It’s time the WE occupy the occupiers. Lets occupy the US military.
Signed by: Autonomous Afghans Afghan for Peace
Co-organized by: SF Bay Area Iraq Veterans Against the War
Endorsed by: San Jose Peace and Justice Center Courage to Resist
(Event details: https://www.facebook.com/events/372239879462997/)