At this writing the Guantanamo hunger strike has surpassed 70 days. The situation there is ever more urgent after the Saturday April 13th assault on the hunger strikers. The London Guantanamo Campaign put it like this, “Either by U.S. military force or organ failure through lack of food, this hunger strike is likely to become fatal.”
We must remember that we live under a government that has used 9/11 as a justification to illegitimately invade and occupy countries — killing over a million people — to carry out deadly drone attacks consistently in four countries, to round up and indefinitely detain and torture hundreds without charge or trial.
Our government does not have the interest of humanity at heart… its only interest is the advancement of U.S. empire and we must send a clear message to others that American lives are not more important than others and that right now lives are on the line at Guantanamo. Each day in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia children cower in fear of the next U.S. drone attacks. No one in our government hears the men at Guantanamo. No one in our government hears these frightened children.
The prisoners’ strike has put the illegitimacy of indefinite detention at GTMO in front of the world. The actions of World Can’t Wait and a few other groups in this country are amplifying their voices. We must pump up the volume.