Mass Mobilizations Opposing Empire This Week

20 November 2003
for immediate release

Media contacts:

Stop the War Coalition (UK)
Contact: John Rees, (011 44) 207.053.2155
For further info: www.stopwar.org.uk

Mobilization to Stop the FTAA (US)
Contact: Adam Hurter, 305.576.4881
For further info: www.stopftaa.org

School of the Americas Watch (US)
Contact: Matthew Smucker, 202.903.7257
For further info: www.soaw.org

Mass Mobilizations Opposing Empire This Week in United Kingdom and United States

Solidarity Between SOA, FTAA and Bush Protests

Joint Solidarity Statement of The Stop the War Coalition (UK), The Mobilization to Stop the FTAA (US), and The School of the Americas Watch Movement (US)

We, The Stop the War Coalition in London, England, The Mobilization to Stop the FTAA in Miami, Florida (U.S.) and the School of the Americas Watch Movement in Columbus, Georgia (U.S.), are mobilizing tens of thousands of people this week in the United Kingdom and the United States to hold our governments accountable. Our struggles are interconnected and we organize in solidarity with each other.

We recognize our governments¹ foreign policies are not bringing security to the world any more than their economic policies are bringing prosperity.

The invasion and occupation of Iraq, the training of soldiers in counterinsurgency at the School of the Americas, and the expansion of so-called ³free-trade² agreements like the Free Trade Area of the Americas, are strategies in the building of an empire based on greed, violence and power. These policies breed resentment.

Democracy will never come about through military invasion. ³Free trade² does not equal democracy; in fact the two are usually at odds. And our governments¹ claims of ³spreading democracy² throughout the world rings especially hollow when they have failed to even listen to the democratic input of their own citizenry.

We do not want war for empire. We do not want training camps where soldiers are taught to torture and assassinate their own people. We do not want economic globalization that serves elite interests to the detriment of the rest of the world.

We are united in building a world in which the values of justice, cooperation, respect for the earth, and genuine democracy are upheld. We believe this is the surest way to bring about lasting peace and security. To this end we will struggle together on both sides of the Atlantic and around the world.

ENDS

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