A
STATEMENT OF CONSCIENCE
NOT IN
OUR
NAME
et it not be said that people in the United States
did nothing when their government declared a war without limit and instituted
stark new measures of repression.
The signers of this statement call on the people of
the U.S. to resist the policies and
overall political direction that have emerged since September
11, 2001,
and which pose grave dangers to the people of the world.
We believe that peoples and nations have the right
to determine their own destiny, free from military coercion by great powers. We
believe that all persons detained or prosecuted by the United States government should have the
same rights of due process. We believe that questioning, criticism, and dissent
must be valued and protected. We understand that such rights and values are
always contested and must be fought for.
We believe that people of conscience must take responsibility
for what their own governments do -- we must first of all oppose the injustice
that is done in our own name. Thus we call on all Americans to RESIST the war
and repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush administration. It
is unjust, immoral, and illegitimate. We choose to make common cause with the
people of the world.
We too watched with shock the horrific events of September
11, 2001.
We too mourned the thousands of innocent dead and shook our heads at the
terrible scenes of carnage — even as we recalled similar scenes in Baghdad, Panama City, and, a generation
ago, Vietnam. We too joined the
anguished questioning of millions of Americans who asked why such a thing could
happen.
But the mourning had barely begun, when the highest
leaders of the land unleashed a spirit of revenge. They put out a simplistic
script of “good vs. evil” that was taken up by a pliant and intimidated media.
They told us that asking why these terrible events had happened verged on
treason. There was to be no debate. There were by definition no valid political
or moral questions. The only possible answer was to be war abroad and
repression at home.
n our name, the Bush
administration, with near unanimity from Congress, not only attacked Afghanistan but arrogated to itself
and its allies the right to rain down military force anywhere and anytime. The
brutal repercussions have been felt from the Philippines to Palestine, where Israeli tanks and
bulldozers have left a terrible trail of death and destruction. The government
now openly prepares to wage all-out war on Iraq — a country which has no
connection to the horror of September 11. What kind of world will this become
if the U.S. government has a blank
check to drop commandos, assassins, and bombs wherever it wants?
In our name, within the U.S., the government has
created two classes of people: those to whom the basic rights of the U.S. legal system are at least
promised, and those who now seem to have no rights at all. The government
rounded up over 1,000 immigrants and detained them in secret and indefinitely.
Hundreds have been deported and hundreds of others still languish today in
prison. This smacks of the infamous concentration camps for Japanese-Americans
in World War 2. For the first time in decades, immigration procedures single
out certain nationalities for unequal treatment.
In our name, the government has brought down a pall
of repression over society. The President’s spokesperson warns people to “watch
what they say.” Dissident artists, intellectuals, and professors find their
views distorted, attacked, and suppressed. The so-called Patriot Act — along
with a host of similar measures on the state level — gives police sweeping new
powers of search and seizure, supervised if at all by secret proceedings before
secret courts.
In our name, the executive has steadily usurped the
roles and functions of the other branches of government. Military tribunals
with lax rules of evidence and no right to appeal to the regular courts are put
in place by executive order. Groups are declared “terrorist” at the stroke of a
presidential pen.
We must take the highest officers of the land
seriously when they talk of a war that will last a generation and when they
speak of a new domestic order. We are confronting a new openly imperial policy
towards the world and a domestic policy that manufactures and manipulates fear
to curtail rights.
There is a deadly trajectory to the events of the
past months that must be seen for what it is and resisted. Too many times in
history people have waited until it was too late to resist.
resident Bush has declared: “you’re
either with us or against us.” Here is our answer: We refuse to allow you to
speak for all the American people. We will not give up our right to question.
We will not hand over our consciences in return for a hollow promise of safety.
We say NOT IN OUR NAME. We refuse to be party to these wars and we repudiate
any inference that they are being waged in our name or for our welfare. We
extend a hand to those around the world suffering from these policies; we will
show our solidarity in word and deed.
We who sign this statement call on all Americans to
join together to rise to this challenge. We applaud and support the questioning
and protest now going on, even as we recognize the need for much, much more to actually stop this juggernaut. We draw inspiration from
the Israeli reservists who, at great personal risk, declare “there IS a limit”
and refuse to serve in the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
We also draw on the many examples of resistance and
conscience from the past of the United States: from those who fought
slavery with rebellions and the underground railroad,
to those who defied the Vietnam war by refusing orders, resisting the draft,
and standing in solidarity with resisters.
Let us not allow the watching world today to
despair of our silence and our failure to act. Instead, let the world hear our
pledge: we will resist the machinery of war and repression and rally others to
do everything possible to stop it.
53 Maryknoll
priests and brothers
James Abourezk
As`ad AbuKhalil,
Professor, Cal State Univ, Stanislaus
Michael Albert
Mike Alewitz,
LaBOR aRT & MuRAL Project
Robert Altman
Aris Anagnos
Laurie Anderson
John Ashbery,
poet
Edward Asner,
actor
John Robin Baitz
Russell Banks, writer
John Perry Barlow
Rosalyn Baxandall,
historian
Joel Beinen
Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange
Jessica Blank, actor/playwright
William Blum, author
Theresa & Blase
Bonpane, Office of the Americas
Fr. Bob Bossie,
SCJ
Oscar
Brown, Jr.
Judith Bulter
Leslie Cagan
Kisha Imani
Cameron, producer
Henry Chalfant, author/filmmaker
Kathleen Chalfant
Bell Chevigny,
writer
Paul Chevigny,
professor of law, NYU
Noam Chomsky
Ramsey Clark
Ben Cohen, cofounder, Ben and
Jerry's
David Cole, professor of law, Georgetown University
Robbie Conal
Stephanie Coontz,
historian, Evergreen State College
Paula Cooper
Kia Corthron,
playwright
Kimberly Crenshaw, professor of law,
Columbia and UCLA
Culture Clash
Kevin Danaher, Global Exchange
Barbara Dane
Angela Davis
Ossie Davis
Zack de la Rocha
Mos Def
Ani Di Franco
Julie Dorf,
International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission
Carol Downer, board of directors,
Chico (CA) Feminist Women's Health Center
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, professor, California State University, Hayward
Bill Dyson, state representative, Connecticut
Michael Eric Dyson
Steve Earle, singer/songwriter
Barbara Ehrenreich
Deborah Eisenberg, writer
Hector Elizondo
Daniel Ellsberg
Brian Eno
Eve Ensler
Leo Estrada, UCLA professor, Urban
Planning
Frances D. Fergusson, president, Vassar College
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Laura Flanders, radio host and
journalist
Jane Fonda
Richard Foreman
Elizabeth Frank
Michael Franti,
SpearHead
Glen E. Friedman
Terry Gilliam, film director
Milton Glaser
Charles Glass, journalist
Jeremy Matthew Glick, editor of Another
World Is Possible
Danny Glover
Leon Golub,
artist
Juan Gómez
Quiñones, historian, UCLA
Vivan Gornick
Andre Gregory
John Guare,
playwright
Allan Gurganus
Jessica Hagedorn
Sondra Hale, professor, anthropology
and women's studies, UCLA
Suheir Hammad,
writer
Nathalie Handal,
poet and playwright
Michael Hardt,
author of Empire
Christine B. Harrington, Professor
of Politics, NYU
David Harvey, distinguished
professor of anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center
Stanley Hauerwas,
theologian
Tom Hayden
Edward S. Herman, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Susannah Heschel,
professor, Dartmouth College
Fred Hirsch, vice president,
Plumbers and Fitters Local 393
bell hooks
Rakaa Iriscience,
hip hop artist
Abdeen Jabara,
attorney, past president, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Fredric Jameson, chair, literature
program, Duke University
Harold B. Jamison, major (ret.),
USAF
Jim Jarmusch
Erik Jensen, actor/playwright
Chalmers Johnson, author of Blowback
Bill T. Jones
Casey Kasem
Evelyn Fox Keller
Robin D.G. Kelly
Martin Luther King III, president,
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Barbara Kingsolver
Arthur Kinoy,
board co-chair, Center for Constitutional Rights
Sally Kirkland
C. Clark Kissinger, Refuse &
Resist!
Yuri Kochiyama,
activist
Annisette & Thomas Koppel,
singers/composers
Barbara Kopple
David Korten,
author
Barbara Kruger
Tony Kushner
James Lafferty, executive director,
National Lawyers Guild/L.A.
Ray Laforest, Haiti Support Network
Beth K. Lamont, Corliss-Lamont.org
Jesse Lemisch,
professor of history emeritus, John Jay College of Justice, CUNY
Harriet Lerner
Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor, TIKKUN
magazine
Phil Lesh,
Grateful Dead
Lucy Lippard
James Longley, Filmmaker
Barbara Lubin,
Middle East Childrens Alliance
Janet L. Abu-Lughod
Staughton Lynd
Dave Marsh
Aaron McGruder
Rep.
Cynthia McKinney
W.S. Merwin
Susan Minot
Anuradha Mittal,
co-director, Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food First
Malaquias Montoya, visual artist
Tom Morello
Robin Morgan
Viggo Mortensen
Minister Benjamin Muhammed
Robert Nichols, writer
Linda Nochlin
Kate Noonan
Claes Oldenburg
Pauline Oliveros
Rev. E. Randall Osburn, exec. v.p., Southern Christian
Leadership Conference
Ozomatli
Grace Paley
Michael Parenti
Jeremy Pikser,
screenwriter, Bullworth
Frances Fox Piven,
Graduate Center of the City University of New York
Katha Pollitt
James Stewart Polshek
Jerry Quickley,
poet
John T. Racanelli,
Presiding Justice (Ret), California Court of Appeal
Bonnie Raitt
Margaret Randall
Marcus Raskin
Michael Ratner,
president, Center for Constitutional Rights
Amy Ray, Indigo Girls
Adrienne Rich
David Riker, filmmaker
Boots Riley, hip hop artist, The
Coup
James Rosenquist
Judith Rossner
Matthew Rothschild
Edward Said
Angelica Salas, director, CHIRLA
Luc Sante
Susan Sarandon
Saskia Sassen,
professor, University of Chicago
John Sayles
Jonathan Schell, author and fellow
of the Nation Institute
Carolee Schneemann,
artist
Ralph Schoenman
& Mya Shone, Council on Human Needs
Juliet Schor
Pete and Toshi
Seeger
Mark Selden, historian
Peter A. Serkin
Frank Serpico
Richard Serra
Rev. Al Sharpton
Wallace Shawn, playwright &
actor
Martin
Sheen
Ron Shelton, filmmaker
Alex Shoumatoff
Russell
Simmons
John J. Simon, writer, editor
Kevin Smith
Kiki Smith, artist
Michael Steven Smith, National
Lawyers Guild/NY
Norman Solomon, syndicated columnist
and author
Scott Spenser
Nancy Spero,
artist
Art Spiegelman
Starhawk
Bob Stein, publisher
Gloria Steinem
Oliver Stone
Mark Strand
William & Rose Styron
Peter Syben,
major, US Army, retired
Ron Takaki
Michael Taussig
Tony Taccone,
director
Studs Terkel
Marisa Tomei
Marcia Tucker, founding director emerita, New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY
Kinan Valdez
Coosje van Bruggen
Gore Vidal
Anton Vodvarka,
Lt., FDNY (ret.)
Kurt Vonnegut
Alice Walker
Rebecca Walker
Naomi Wallace, playwright
Immanuel Wallerstein,
sociologist, Yale University
Rev. George Webber, president emeritus,
NY Theological Seminary
Leonard Weinglass, attorney
Cornel West
Haskell Wexler
John Edgar Wideman
Saul Williams, spoken word artist
S. Brian Willson , activist/writer
Jeffrey Wright, actor
Howard Zinn,
historian