 April 2001
American Friends Service Committee Peacework Magazine Patrica Watson, Editor Sara Burke, Assistant Editor Pat Farren, Founding Editor 2161 Massachusetts Ave. Telephone number: Fax number:
pwork@igc.org Peacework has been published monthly since 1972, intended to serve as a source of dependable information to those who strive for peace and justice and are committed to furthering the nonviolent social change necessary to achieve them. Rooted in Quaker values and informed by AFSC experience and initiatives, Peacework offers a forum for organizers, fostering coalition-building and teaching the methods and strategies that work in the global and local community. Peacework seeks to serve as an incubator for social transformation, introducing a younger generation to a deeper analysis of problems and issues, reminding and re-inspiring long-term activists, encouraging the generations to listen to each other, and creating space for the voices of the disenfranchised. Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC. |
In the Matter of Vieques... Excerpt from a statement to the Federal Court by Mar'a I. Reinat-Pumarejo, March 14, 2001 (www.institutolatino.org) ...Vieques is another example of this military, colonial, racial imposition; another historical tragedy in which we are all assuming roles--some of us as resisters, others as collaborators. This small island, ironically called by the military "the crown jewel of the Caribbean," has been subjected to US military imposition for more than sixty years. Today, here in this court, the military submits documents as proof of their legitimate right to the land--documents steeped in the blood and tears of the land's natural and original owners. The expropriation process was hasty and cruel. It left many without shelter, without possessions. What legitimate ownership can be established by documents forged from the brutal removal of defenseless people? Lands violently taken, as were the lands of our Native-American brothers and sisters; by brute force, as African men and women were ensalved in US. And because history is told from the perspective of the hunter and not the lion, we are supposed to ignore these otherwise obvious facts. Sixty years of continued violence, insults, racial hatred, ecological damage, disease, certainly drive people to self-defense. Just yesterday, the University of Puerto Rico released a new study showing that the risk of developing cancer in Vieques is three times greater than in the rest of the Island of Puerto Rico. How to explain that this court does not agree to examine research that will show there is a "state of necessity" in Vieques that justifies civil disobedience? How do you explain that so many of us who have never had anything to do with violating the law are so persistently marching through this court? ....At this moment we are participating in an historic process where the defense of the people of Vieques is being criminalized. There is the intention to ignore and repress a whole people's movement, which rises in self-defense against the genocide of its people. Nevertheless, there will be no amount of repression that changes the course of this movement. The struggle will continue. And the Navy, which so arrogantly and criminally behaves, will have to leave. Cuando las telarañas se unen, pueden atar a un león. --Proverbio Etíope
(When cobwebs unite, they can tie up a lion) 
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