Not in Our Name (NION)
(http://www.notinourname.net)
-- Meera Perera
October 6, 2002 was a day when close
to 100,000 people came together in cities across the United States
and said "NO"! -- No to a war without limits, no to
the round-ups & indefinite detentions of thousands of Arabs,
Muslims & South Asians, & no to the vicious attacks on
civil liberties. No, Not In Our Name! The current administration
insists that the people of America comply with its program of
war on the world and domestic repression and that dissent in any
form will not be tolerated. October 6th was a day when
tens of thousands gathered, in spite of the government's warnings,
to collectively pledge resistance to the injustices being committed
in their name.
In March of this year, South Asians Against Police Brutality
and Racism (SAPBR) received a letter from the initiators of the
Not In Our Name (NION) Project. In it was a call to begin a discussion
on how to build a broad movement of resistance in this country.
Together with many other local organizations in New York, SAPBR
had just participated in the National Day of Solidarity with Muslim,
Arab & South Asian immigrants and was in the midst of strategizing
on how to play the strongest role possible in fighting the government's
agenda of war and repression. In the initiating letter from NION
three features of this chilling climate were identified: the war
on the people of the world; the disappearances and vicious attacks
on Arab, Muslim and South Asian people in the U.S.; and the destruction
of civil, legal and political rights, including the very right
to dissent. NION was one of the few movements linking all three
aspects and seemed prepared to do what was required to stop this
juggernaut. SAPBR welcomed the invitation
to participate in building "a movement powerful enough to
send a message to the people of the world that we stand with them
against the unjust, unlimited war."
We in SAPBR discussed the ties between police brutality and racism
with that of the recent repression of civil rights. The repressive
and racist arms of the state that had for long brutalized Black
and Latino youth in the past through its police was now targeting
Arab, Muslim and South Asian people in the U.S. Furthermore, we
debated the links between the external wars with the attacks here
on fellow South Asians. The unlimited war abroad was justified
in the name of safety here, while in reality minorities and immigrants
here were being unjustly rounded up. We believe the war abroad
is not possible without the state crushing dissent at home and
furthermore it can not implement its repressive attacks at home
without cooking up external threats and wars outside. Integral
to the intensification of domestic repression is the specter of
the enemy within of Muslims, Arabs and South Asians as potential
terrorists. With that view we could not stand and watch a war
in our name.
Some members of SAPBR went to the initial meeting in March to
begin this discussion. It was attended by about 60-75 people
from around the country involved at various levels of political
struggle, from different backgrounds both politically and culturally.
Though we all recognized the urgency of this kind of movement,
we weren't exactly sure of how to make it happen. Students, artists,
community organizers, antiwar activists, revolutionaries and family
members who lost relatives in the World Trade Center and in Afghanistan
were gathered ready to discuss the various aspects required to
take on the government's program.
On June 6, 2002 the Pledge of Resistance was launched in sixteen
cities across the U.S. In New York about 400 people in a crowded
church heard stories from former detainees, people having returned
from Palestine, artists, attorneys, all stepping out to declare
that they will not go along with what the government is calling
on all of us to do. Together we took the Pledge of Resistance,
which begins with the words, "We believe that as people living
in the United States it is our responsibility to resist the injustices
done by our government in our name." (See for the complete
pledge http://www.notinourname.net/downloads/pledge_eng_esp.pdf)
We as South Asians living in this country, have a particular
responsibility to expose and resist the atrocities committed by
the US government. Our immigrant communities are currently under
attack in the very country many of us believed would uphold our
civil liberties and human rights. Historically, foreign students
and other immigrants have played heroic and key roles in anti-war
struggles in the U.S., such as the resistance of Iranian students
during the Vietnam War movement. In today’s context, the experiences
of the Muslim, Arab and South Asian immigrants and their accounts
of the devastating effects of U.S. imperialism in their home home-regions
will undercut all the lies that form the U.S. propaganda machine.
Thus the silencing of these voices is critical to the State’s
repression of a potential anti-war movement. Now, more than ever,
we serve as a key link between the people living in this country
and the people around the world where the US is waging their unjust
war.
As the Pledge of Resistance began to be heard on public radios
stations and at various events following June 6th,
NION needed to inspire a new breadth of commitment and a deepened
resolve among the people in the U.S. Preparations began for building
for a day of mass resistance in the early fall began soon after
June 6th. The date of Oct 6th was chosen
because it is the eve of the one year anniversary of the day bombs
started falling on Afghanistan. In cities across the country
people would come together to declare their opposition to the
Bush administration's program of international control and domestic
repression. From New York City, ground zero, more than 25,000
converged in Central Park— pledging to the people of the world
that we stand with them and not the U.S. government. Around the
country in more than 40 cities, NION events took place. People
all over the world were excited and empowered to see this type
of movement emerge from the United States.
Even as the Bush administration prepared for a horrifying war
in Iraq, we witnessed the beginnings of a powerful resistance
movement on October 6th. It was a day when people and groups
of different political pursuits came together with a unity in
their support of the people of Iraq against the impending wave
of war by the U.S. Each one of us who took the Pledge of Resistance
has a special responsibility to continue to make it possible for
thousands and thousands more to pledge their resistance to the
policies and overall political direction that have emerged since
9/11/01. SAPBR has played a key role in the Not In Our Name Project.
We have been involved from the early stages and helped to make
the links between our own communities that are coming under attack,
the steady erosion of our civil liberties, and the war on the
world. However, this is a movement that requires millions and
millions participating in various forms of resistance with the
determination to stop the horrors being done by the U.S. government
in our name.
_______________________________________________________
South Asians Against Police Brutality and
Racism (SAPBR) was formed in 1997 to bring an organized South
Asian voice to the police brutality movement in the U.S. SAPBR
is guided by two principles: that a broad multinational movement
to stop the epidemic of police brutality must be built and that
this multinational movement must bring together those who are
not directly under attack with those directly targeted by police
brutality. SAPBR was initiated at the time one of the most egregious
police brutalizations was committed. In the summer of '97, Abner
Louima, a Haitian immigrant, was sodomized by New York police
in a precinct bathroom with a toilet plunger that severely damaged
his anus and rectum. New York City was outraged and came out
en masse to protest this horror. SAPBR was formed in the
midst of this resistance and continues the battle to stop police
brutality and repression.
_________________________________________________________
Meera Perera is a founding member of SAPBR
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