The Guardian 6 December, 2006
22,000 say:
"Close the School of the Americas"
WT Whitney
FORT BENNING, GEORGIA: More than 22,000 people from all over the United States and
Canada, half of them young people, gathered here on November 17-19 to demand that the
Defense Department's School of the Americas (SOA) be shut down and that justice prevail
in Latin America. Remembering victims of soldiers trained in torture at the school, they
conducted a solemn funeral procession to the main gate of this military base, location of the
SOA and home base for 60,000 US soldiers.
This was the largest anti-SOA demonstration ever at Fort Benning. Simultaneous protests took
place in other US cities, eight Latin American countries, Canada and Ireland.
Founded in 1946 at the beginning of the Cold War, the SOA has trained 61,000 Latin American
soldiers and many of its graduates have participated in massacres, torture and assassinations.
Yearly protest demonstrations coincide with the November 16 anniversary of the 1989 killings of six
Jesuit priests and two women in El Salvador at the hands of SOA graduates.
First located in Panama, the SOA promotes US military influence in Latin America. Critics say it
provides troops used by right-wing governments to repress students, religious workers, union
organisers and popular movements. School torture manuals came to light in 1996. Reacting to
mounting criticism, Washington changed the school's name in 1996 to the Western Hemisphere
Institute for Security Cooperation.
In 1990 Catholic priest Roy Bourgeois founded SOA Watch in order to carry out non-violent direct
action and legislative advocacy to close the school. That group organises the Georgia
demonstrations.
This year 16 protestors, defying the guards, entered the base and were arrested, purposefully
risking the jail sentences handed out to trespassers in previous years.
Over the course of 12 hours spread over two days, 70 musicians and speakers held forth on a
stage at the main gate of the military post. Protestors heard from SOA organisers, civil rights
leaders, torture survivors, union organisers, religious activists and representatives of indigenous
groups.
"Living the Dream" activists had walked from Selma, Alabama, and a Buddhist Peace Pilgrimage
arrived on foot from Atlanta. Early on November 19, 200 Veterans for Peace members and
supporters walked four miles to the gate.
"We have to keep a check on what our government does", said Victor Kittle from Detroit. "I'm afraid
terrorism begins at home."
A Vietnam War veteran pointed out, "Many of us don't know what goes on here, but we know what
the results are."
The war in Iraq was on people's minds. A member of Iraq Vets for Peace said, "Iraq was terrifying.
Not only that but if you complained about anything — shortages or the food — you become a marked
man and had to watch your back."
Education was a big part of the tightly organised event. Over 65 presentations were offered, mostly
at the Convention Centre in Columbus. Non-violent protest, immigrant rights and prison reform
were covered, as well as conscientious objector training, debt cancellation and human rights
volunteer programs.
Participants attended sessions on union repression in Colombia, killings of women in Guatemala,
indigenous rights in Bolivia and Venezuela's revolutionary process, conveyed by that country's
ambassador.
At a remarkable labour caucus organised by the Georgia AFL-CIO and Michigan UAW leaders,
former Congressman David Bonier, who now heads American Rights at Work, Human Rights
Watch labour researcher Carol Pier, and AFL-CIO Organising Director Stewart Acuff connected the
proposed Employee Free Choice Act with workers' rights in Latin America.
Representing Colombia's trade union confederation CUT, Alfonso Velasquez detailed violent union
repression endemic in that country. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson
presented labour rights "as a strand in the fabric of social and economic justice", emphasising that
wherever workers are abused, the rights of all people are under siege.
Many speakers cited recent electoral victories in Latin America and opposition there to the US
military build-up as signs of hope and positive change in the region. SOA Watch activists described
their campaign to persuade Latin American political leaders to no longer send troops to the SOA, a
step already taken by Uruguay, Argentina and Venezuela.
Encouraged by Democratic victories in the recent congressional elections, SOA Watch plans to
intensify its campaign to persuade Congress to vote the SOA out of existence. In June 2006 an
amendment to that effect introduced by Democratic Representative Jim McGovern lost by 30
votes.
People's Weekly World