Tag: Movements and Resistance

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Making Waves: Defending Ka’ena

Making Waves: Defending Ka’ena, Episode 55

Length: 0:27
Social issues & cultural programming dedicated to peace and social justice.
7/19/2011 Tue 9:30 am, Channel NATV Channel 53
Or streaming online:  http://olelo.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=30&clip_id=21987

I speak with Summer Mullins and Uncle Fred Mullins about their efforts to protect Ka’ena from the scourge of off-roaders destroying the sand dunes with their mud bogging, drunken crashes, bonfires and garbage. According to Uncle Fred Mullins, 90% of the offenders are military.  We show some video and photos from Ka’ena.

Also, you can watch past episodes online.

Making Waves, Episode 54 “No Can Eat Concrete!”

I speak with Wai’anae kupuna, Auntie Alice Greenwood (Concerned Elders of Wai’anae) and Candace Fujikane (UH Manoa English Professor) about the struggle for environmental justice to preserve Wai’anae’s cultural sites and agricultural lands from industrial encroachment.

Making Waves, Episode 51, “Violence and the Military Culture”

Darlene Rodrigues speaks with Col. Ann Wright about the epidemic of violence against women in the military and discuss how the military culture exacerbates the violence.

 

 

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U.S. base realignment in Japan threatens endangered deer

The recent “2 plu2 2” talks between the U.S. and Japan included discussions about moving aircraft carrier flight training from Iwo Jima to Mageshima. House of Japan reports:

Japan has suggested the Iwo Jima flight training be conducted on Mageshima, an island in Japan’s southwest, where Tokyo plans to build a military base to bolster its southern defenses and its preparedness for natural disasters.

Mageshima was officially named as a candidate in a statement following last month’s “2 plus 2” meeting between the U.S. and Japanese foreign and defense ministers. Japanese government officials earlier this month met with local leaders to discuss the plan.

But this plan is meeting strong resistance from local residents and officials:

http://www.japan-press.co.jp/modules/news/index.php?id=1984

2011 June 22 – 28

Local authorities hostile to FCLP on Mageshima Island
June 22, 2011

The Japan-U.S. Security Consultative Committee (two plus two) talks on June 21 provoked one city and three town authorities to respond in anger in regard to U.S. aircraft training exercises on Mageshima Island in Kagoshima’s Nishinoomote City.

A joint statement issued by the bilateral foreign and defense ministers specifies the island of Mageshima as a candidate site for field carrier landing practice exercises (FCLP) by the U.S. carrier-borne aircraft.

The island is only 12km from Tanegashima Island where the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has its space center and 40km from the World Natural Heritage island of Yakushima. Military exercises will not only increase the danger of accidents, but will also inevitably undermine the islands’ positive image of unspoiled nature and strong presences of the agricultural, forestry, fisheries, and tourist industries.

The municipalities of Nishinoomote City, Nakatane Town, Minamitane Town, and Yakushima Town soon displayed banners reading, “We are adamantly opposed to the military use of Mageshima Island,” on their townhouse buildings.

The local municipal heads and assembly chairpersons on June 1 visited the Defense Ministry to express their disagreement to the carrying out of FCLP on the island and the abrupt notification on the plan to construct a new Self-Defense Forces base on the island that will be used as a permanent FCLP facility.

Nishinoomote City (Jun.6), Nakatane and Yakushima towns (Jun.14), and Minamitane Town (Jun.15) respectively adopted resolutions in their assemblies opposing the FCLP plan. These local authorities sent a joint letter of protest to Defense Minister Kitazawa Toshimi and Foreign Minister Matsumoto Takaaki.

But the expansion of military activities to Mageshima would threaten the existence of the endangered species of deer.  Below are two statements from residents of the nearby islands explaining the negative impacts of the proposed aircraft carrier training on Mageshima:

U.S. Carrier-based Aircrafts Will Finish an Endangered Deer Colony in Japan

A high-level talk called “2 Plus 2” between the Defense and Foreign/State Cabinet officials of the U.S. and Japan has just named Magesima Island the official candidate for the U.S. Navy’s FCLP (Field Carrier Landing Practice) base as part of the stagnated realignment of the U.S. forces in Japan.  This came as a surprise to the residents of two neighboring islands of Tanegashima and Yakushima for two main reasons.

Before explaining those reasons, a brief background would help.  Mageshima is a small, lone and uninhabited island 13km (8 miles) off the coast of Nishino-omote city in Tanegashima, a culturally unique island in southern Japan where in the 16th century Portuguese brought matchlock guns for the first time in the Japanese history and where at present the nation’s major rocket launching site for its space program is located side by side with the stable local economy of agriculture and fishery.  Less than 20km (12 miles) west of Tanegashima lies Yakushima, an alpine island with rich ancient forests registered as UN World Natural Heritage.  The three islands form a tight triangle.

Misfortune for Mageshima is the fact that it is almost entirely owned by a private company over the last few decades and the owner has tried desperately to make profits by shady efforts such as selling the island as the intermediate storage site of the spent nuclear fuel from nation’s 54 clogged nuclear power plants.

These efforts failed primarily because the island is home to a minimal colony of Mageshika, an endemic subspecies of Japanese deer.  Only a few hundreds in the whole world survive on this small island mere 12km (7.5 miles) around with severely limited resources.  However, the company owner went on to destroy their habitats by bulldozing the island to build airstrips for no apparent reasons.  A range of domestic court cases to protect the Mageshika colony were filed and in one of the related cases the owner has just been convicted guilty of a large scale tax-dodge.  Residents of Tanegashima and Yakushima are surprised to know now that the airstrips were conspired for the U.S. Navy’s carrier jets and more so in dismay to fear that the FCLP will put an end to the last surviving deer.  No legitimate government in the 21st century would seem to allow such wonton destruction of biodiversity.

Another reason for surprise is based on the reality that all surrounding municipalities, one city and three townships in Tanegashima and Yakushima, have already declared official “No”s to the plan in the strongest tones.  The sentiment of natural and cultural conservation is very active in the area.  Residents have expected that the two Governments had already learnt from hard lessons in Okinawa: committed local oppositions could halt military plans, especially when they are for foreign armed forces.  Would the U.S. citizens accept for example, say a British Navy’s Field Carrier Landing Practice base, 20 miles from Kennedy Space Center?

An expat American woodworker living in Yakushima recently expressed his concerns in the following letter to President Barak Obama.

Jun Hoshikawa
Writer, environmental activist, and a resident of Yakushima

+++

MR. BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

DEAR MR. PRESIDENT,

I AM WRITING, RESPECTFULLY, TO PRESENT SOME LOCAL INFORMATION RELATING TO THE PROPOSED AIRFORCE FACILITY, FCLP, TO BE LOCATED ON MAGE-SHIMA  IN JAPAN, AND TO MAKE A PLEA FOR RECONSIDERATION.

AS A RESIDENT OF NEABY YAKUSHIMA I HAVE BOTH A PERSONAL INTEREST AND FIRST HAND UNDERSTANDING OF THE LOCAL SITUATION.

18 YEARS AGO I VISITED YAKUSHIMA WITH MY JAPANESE WIFE, ATTRACTED BY ITS RENOWNED BEAUTY (ITS CENTRAL MOUNTAINS ARE A UNESCO WORLD NATURE HERITAGE SITE) AND, AS A WOODWORKER, BY THE EXISTENCE OF JOMON SUGI, THE LARGEST CEDAR TREE YET FOUND MEASURED TO BE FROM 2,600 TO 7,200 YEARS OLD.

I SOON DECIDED THIS WOULD BE AN IDEAL PLACE TO RAISE OUR NEW- BORN SON AND QUICKLY RETURNED TO BUILD A WORKSHOP (I AM A FURNITURE MAKER AND HOUSEBUILDER), A HOME AND LATER A RETIREMENT HOME FOR MY WIFE’S PARENTS. I AM A U.S.CITIZEN, BUT ALSO A PERMANENT RESIDENT OF JAPAN.

I WAS A LITTLE SURPRISED TO LEARN THAT YAKUSHIMA IS THE MOST FAMOUS ISLAND IN JAPAN, LARGELY DUE TO THE EXISTENCE OF JOMON SUGI WHICH IS HELD IN ALMOST RELIGIOUS REVERENCE BY JAPANESE.

YAKUSHIMA, LIKE ALL NEARBY ISLANDS IS COMPRISED LARGELY OF AGRICULTURAL AND FISHING COMMUNITIES. THE POPULATION HAS REMAINED STEADY BECAUSE THE FLIGHT OF YOUNG PEOPLE TO THE CITIES HAS BEEN OFFSET BY COUPLES WHO WANT TO RAISE FAMILIES OR RETIRE IN THIS ENVIRONMENT OF BEAUTY, PEACE, AND NATURE. THE ECONOMY IS HELPED BY A GROWING INDUSTRY OF ECO-TOURISM DRAWN BY THESE SAME FEATURES.

IN THE PAST YEAR THE ISLAND HAS BEEN BUZZED SEVERAL TIME BY FIGHTER JETS, A TRULY FRIGHTENING PHENOMENON ? THE ROAR OF THE JETS BEING MAGNIFIED AS THE SOUND BOUNCES OFF THE MOUNTAINS.

THE NOISE POLLUTION CAUSED BY THE PROPOSED JET FIGHTER AIR STRIP ON MAGE-SHIMA WOULD FORCE ME TO LEAVE YAKUSHIMA AND ALL I HAVE BUILT UP IN THE LAST TWO DECADES. MANY OF MY FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS FEEL THE SAME. THE INFLUENCE OF THIS MILITARY OPERATION WOULD CERTAINLY HAVE A NEGATIVE EFFECT ON NEW SETTLERS AND TOURISM, SO THE END RESULT WOULD BE TO DAMAGE OUR ECONOMY AS WELL AS RUINING THE QUALITY OF LIFE HERE.

THE LOCAL SITUATION

1.        THE PROSPECT OF THE PROPOSED MILITARY INSTALLATION ON MAGE-SHIMA IS THE MOST UPSETTING THING TO HAPPEN HERE SINCE THE U.S.BOMBED THE ISLAND 66 YEARS AGO. THE PEOPLE ARE AGAINST IT, THE POLITICIAN ARE AGAINST IT.
THE PRIVATE OWNER OF MAGE-SHIMA HAS LONG HAD A SHADY REPUTATION HERE, MAKING FALSE AND MISLEADING REPRESENTATION OF HIS INTENTIONS. SOME LOCALS WERE INITIALLY FAVORABLE TO THE NOTION OF A MILITARY BASE, LOOKING FORWARD TO SOME ECONOMIC GAIN, BUT THE REALIZATION THAT IT WILL BE BASICALLY ONLY AN AIRSTRIP HAS LEFT THEM DISAPPOINTED AND ANGRY.
THE FACT THAT IT HAD ALREADY BEEN BULLDOZED AND DEVELOPED FAR IN ADVANCE OF ANY FORMAL DECLARATION OF PLANS MAKES PEOPLE MORE  ANGRY.

2.        THIS AREA IS THE RAINIEST, HOTTEST, MOST HUMID PART OF JAPAN (WE GET 8 TO 10 METERS OF RAIN PER YEAR). IT IS ALSO IN THE MIDDLE OF TYPHOON ALLEY ? WE HAVE ALREADY HAD OUR FIRST OF THE YEAR.

I WONDER IF YOUR ADVISERS HAVE MADE YOU AWARE OF THIS? IF ONLY FOR THE WEATHER, THIS SEEMS LIKE A PRETTY STRANGE CHOICE FOR AVIATION ACTIVITIES.

3.        YOU ARE CERTAINLY AWARE OF THE STRONG EFFORTS OF THE RESIDENTS OF OKINAWA TO REMOVE THE AIR BASE FROM THEIR LIVES. THEIR ACTIONS HAVE HAD PRETTY GOOD PUBLICITY HERE IN SOUTHERN JAPAN, BUT BECAUSE OF THE LONG-TIME U.S. OCCUPATION AND PRESENCE THERE, AND BECAUSE OKINAWA IS SOMEWHAT DISTANT FROM MAINLAND JAPAN (BOTH IN KILOMETERS AND CULTURE) I THINK THEIR STRUGGLE HAS NOT BEEN SO HEART FELT BY THE REST OF JAPAN.

LOCALLY, WE DON’T HAVE THE  NUMBERS  TO  FIGHT  THIS  PROPOSED  INSTALLATION AS THEY DO IN OKINAWA, BUT FIGHT IT WE WILL.  HOWEVER, BECAUSE OF THE FAME OF YAKUSHIMA AND THE REVERENCE IN WHICH IT IS HELD, THIS WILL BE SEEN AS A NOISY AND BELIGIRENT GIANT TRYING TO STEP ON A RARE WILDFLOWER AND PEOPLE ALL OVER JAPAN WILL RISE UP AGAINST BOTH GOVERNMENTS FOR SUCH ACTION. THIS WILL TAKE SOME TIME, BUT I KNOW IT WILL HAPPEN.

I LOVE AMERICA AND I LOVE JAPAN.  PLEASE RECONSIDER.

SINCERELY,
WILLIAM  BROUWER

178 KOSHIMA, YAKUSHIMA-CHO, KUMAGE-GUN, KAGOSHIMA, 891-4405 JAPAN
E-mail  koidomari@muj.biglobe.ne.jp

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Korean Civil Society: “We appeal to save Gangjeong!”

Statement of appeal

“We appeal to save Gangjeong!”

The Joongduk coast of Gangjeong Village in Jeju Island is now suffering. In 2006, Jeju Island was designated as an Island of Peace for the purpose of consoling the deep sorrow of the April 3rd Massacre. And the Joongduk coast was appointed as a Biosphere Reserve, World Heritage Site, and Global Geological Park by UNESCO. It is an Absolute Preservation Area, which is now suffering from naval base construction.

Insisting that the naval base is vital for national security, the Korean government and the navy are enforcing the construction. However, the Ocean Navy expansion plan upon which the base construction was justified has been discarded in revisions to the national defense bill regarding strategies to counteract recent security threats, leaving no justification for this new base. In addition, the original argument from the government when the National Assembly budget bill was passed was to construct a Joint Civil Military site to be used for tourism as well as military purposes. However, that plan has disappeared and now only the military base is being constructed.

By maintaining military alliances with Japan, Australia, South Korea, and India, and through joint military exercises with the Philippines, Vietnam, and Taiwan, the U.S. is attempting to build up its defense line against China. If the Jeju naval base is constructed, the U.S., which possesses the right to station there according to the ROK-U.S. Mutual Defense Agreement, will surely use this base to stand up against China. In that case, Jeju Island, an Island of Peace, will become a center of military conflict between the U.S. and China, jeopardizing South Korea’s national security.

Government and military authorities, however, are turning a blind eye to the voices of Gangjeong residents and civil peace activists, as well as to the demands to suspend the construction coming from the opposition parties and the investigation committee of the National Assembly. The navy has even used violence against a protesting civilian. On July 11, the national government recommended that the city government barricade a farm road on the Joongduk coast, which is the last remaining piece of state-owned land under the jurisdiction of Seogwipo city within the site of the naval base construction. This action was a response to the demand from the Ministry of National Defense to discourage any attempts to stage a protest against the naval base construction. However, such efforts by the government to enforce the construction only bring about stronger resistance and conflicts from Gangjeong residents and peace activists. The construction must be stopped before any unfortunate accidents take place.

We appeal to the government and military authorities.

The argument for the base construction by the government and the navy is no longer valid. Moreover, the means and procedures used to promote the construction have been so violent and deceptive that they are only causing more resistance and resentment. Unilaterally pushing ahead with the construction, in the name of the national project, is obviously not a wise way. We call upon the government and military authorities to withdraw their plan to close the farm road and to completely reexamine the Jeju naval base construction project.

We appeal to Woo Keun-Min, Jeju governor

Governor Woo, you were aware of the negative consequences that could result from the naval base construction and you were right. We urge you to give up the futile illusion about the development profit and to listen to the desperate voices of the residents. We further request you to use your authority to cancel the removal of the “absolute preservation area” designation of Joongduk coast. If you do so, history would remember you as a person who protects the peace of Jeju and the Korean peninsula.

We appeal to the national assembly

As an entity representing citizens, the national assembly has a duty to listen to and respond to citizens’ voices. We appeal to the opposition parties to be more active in nullifying the Jeju naval base construction project. The Grand National Party, as the current ruling party, should seriously examine whether the base is really needed and whether national budget should be spent on inflating military forces and feeding construction capital.

We appeal to citizens.

Gangjeong citizens have been fighting alone for over four long years. In the meantime, the village community has been torn apart, leaving indelible scars. Citizens are also engulfed with fears due to various lawsuits from the government and construction companies, as well as fines up to tens of millions of won. They are suffering from the fact that the Goorungbi boulder, which represents their dreams and memories, might be covered with cement block.

Please express your solidarity and give them your consolation. And if you can, please visit Gangjeong Village. Then you might be able to understand more clearly why the construction must be stopped. In addition, please use your wisdom and energy to do whatever you can in your position to prevent the Jeju naval base construction.

We appeal to peace advocates worldwide.

International support, advocacy, and solidarity to stop the Jeju naval base construction give Gangjeong residents and peace activists strength and courage. Please spread the news of these problems related to the Jeju naval base construction with your networks and show us your support and solidarity.

We will try our best to prevent the Jeju naval base construction which endangers the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia, and which is destroying the lives of Gangjeong residents and the natural environment, a gift from heaven. We firmly believe that this struggle is our responsibility to Jeju Island, where the sorrow of the April 3rd massacre is deeply embedded, that this is a expression! of our conscience regarding the suffering Gangjeong residents, and that it is the demand of the times to protect and ensure peace for our children. We sincerely appeal to everybody who stands alongside us to protect Gangjeong Village and Jeju Island.

July 13, 2011

National Network of Korean Civil Society for Opposing to the Naval Base in Jeju Island

 

 

 

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ALERT: South Korean government cracks down on peaceful protesters

Please read and act on this urgent update and appeal from Christine Ahn:

Dear friends,

I have very tragic news to report from Jeju Island, South Korea.

At the crack of dawn on Friday, undercover police officers came to Gangjeong village and arrested three major leaders of the peaceful resistance: Village Chief Kang Dong-Kyun, renowned peace activist Brother Song Kang-Ho, and base opposition leader Ko Kwon-Il.

The South Korean Navy and Minister of Justice Lee Gui Nam also issued a threat to Kang Dong-Kyun and 76 other villagers, peace activists and civil society organizations for blocking the naval base construction. It specifies the following:

(1) These 77 individuals are banned from getting into the public waters or land near the Joongduk coastline where the naval base will be constructed.

(2) The notice bans the staff and volunteers from five civil society organizations – Peace-Life Association, Jeju Environmental Association, SPARK, Frontiers, and Gangjeong Village Association – from entering the public waters and land near the naval base site.

(3) All facilities from the resistance site must be removed within seven days.

(4) In the case that the facilities are not removed, the Navy and Minister of Justice will charge the village leader Mr. Kang for removing these facilities.

(5) The village leader Mr. Kang will be responsible for paying the Navy 5,000,000 Won ($5,000 US dollars) for each case of violation.

The South Korean military is trying to quash the resistance by arresting its leaders and inciting fear among villagers who are fighting for their land, community and livelihoods. As one of activist wrote, “I feel the martial law atmosphere here.”

The truth is: the villagers and their leaders are not alone. There is a growing tide of people from throughout the Korean peninsula and around the world who are behind them. We must let them know we have their backs by spreading this information – far and wide – and quick.

Here’s what you can do:

1.    Please forward this to the media and as many people as possible.

2.    For those in the United States, please call the South Korean Embassy in Washington, DC ASAP and let them know the repression against the villagers conveys to the world that South Korea has returned to the era of authoritarian rule. The South Korean Embassy in Washington: (202) 797-6343.

3.    Email U.S. Ambassador Kathleen Stevens and let her know that we know that the U.S. Forces in Korea oversees the South Korean military, and as American citizens, we won’t stand for more military destruction in the name of so-called national security. EmbassySeoulPA@state.gov.

4.    Please keep forwarding this petition to your friends and family. http://signon.org/sign/save-jeju-island-no-naval?source=s.em.cr&r_by=192143

5.    Visit www.savejejuisland.org and join the facebook page for quick updates in Gangjeong http://www.facebook.com/groups/Saveprofyang?ap=1.

We must not let the Lee Myung Bak regime repress democracy. We must not let their attempts at intimidation dampen the hope that has inspired so many people around the world to act for peace. We must remain firm in our resolve to support the courageous villagers in Gangjeong who are standing up to their military and government. We must join them in saying, “No Base on Jeju Island.”

 

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The struggle for ex-military lands from Puerto Rico to Hawai’i

In her article “Struggles for Ex-Base Lands in Puerto Rico” published in the Peace Review, Mills College professor and Puerto Rican activist/scholar Deborah Berman Santana writes:

Community struggles against militarism do not end once they succeed in ending military occupation and closing down bases. In fact, such victories often signal the beginning of a potentially much more difficult struggle—that is, to ensure that the formerly militarized lands and resources will benefit the communities that were most impacted by the bases. Since military bases are usually built in highly desirable locations in terms of accessible coastlines, fertile lands, and abundant water resources, once closed, they often become targets for corporate and elite control.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in Puerto Rico, a United States colony since 1898 with a continuing history of U.S. military occupation and corporate economic exploitation, as well as political domination by an entrenched local elite. The story of the sixty-year struggle of the people on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques against U.S. Navy occupation and bombing received international attention, while continuing efforts of that community to hold the Navy accountable for its toxic legacy have recently begun to receive more coverage. Yet the equally important struggle of the communities impacted by the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station—the huge naval complex to which Vieques belonged—is virtually unknown outside of Puerto Rico. This essay examines the important community struggle, based both on class and colonial resistance, to regain the lands that comprised the military base known as Roosevelt Roads for sixty years.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL ARTICLE

The difficulty of the clean up process is well known in Hawai’i at sites like Kaho’olawe, Waikane, and Waikoloa. However,  in Hawai’i we need to address whose vision dictates the reuse of the former military lands.

The Navy has begun to sell and lease excess lands in Hawai’i to generate revenue for Ford Island redevelopment. It was a special loophole created by Senator Inouye to facilitate the privatization of former military lands, to the exclusion of the conversion of these excess lands to other conservation, sustainable development or culture oriented reuses.    This issue may arise in Lualualei, where the land has been relatively underutilized by the military and may be a candidate for some sort of transfer in the future.  The community in Wai’anae wants to see the lands return to agriculture, especially since the Lualualei vertisols are some of the richest agricultural soils in Hawai’i.  But developers want to exploit this “frontier” of closing military lands.

The Wai’anae community is resisting the encroachment of industrialization in Lualualei. But these profit driven elites are pushing for changes to the Wai’anae Sustainable Communities Plan, including an industrial spot zone in Lualualei and a Pohakea bypass road that would penetrate the Wai’anae mountains and destroy agricultural lands, native forest and sacred sites.  The Pohakea road was inserted into the draft plan without the knowledge or consent of the community.  It has been compared to another H-3 Freeway.

On Sunday, Na Wahine O Kunia sponsored a cultural access to Pohakea in the Wai’anae mountains. It is one of the traditional passes through the Wai’anae range (the other being Kolekole that is also controlled by the military) where Hi’iaka traveled from Wai’anae to ‘Ewa in her epic journey.  They plan another hike on July 16 to raise awareness about the riches of the area and the sacred landscape that would be affected by over development.

 

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More on Jeju: Solidarity message from Gloria Steinem and a new article on the history of the Jeju anti-base struggle and

Gloria Steinem wrote a passionate solidarity appeal for the Jeju anti-base struggle:

My dear friends,

There are many reasons I thank you for signing the petition to stop the naval base on Jeju Island –  and any one would be enough.

First, nine years ago when I saw this island at the tip of South Korea, I couldn’t believe my eyes. It is said that the only people who do not know Jeju is the most beautiful place on earth are those who have not seen it. From snow peaks, wild flower covered hills and ancient nutmeg forests to goddess groves and coral reefs, there is good reason why UNESCO named it a World Natural Heritage Site.

That would be enough.

So would the truth that the world does not need one more monument to death and destruction taking money, human effort, energy and resources away from preservation and life. As an American, I am ashamed that a naval base is being built to support U.S. nuclear-powered submarines – the same ones now being serviced elsewhere. As global citizens, you and I have a duty to stop it.

This May, I went to Jeju again, and saw two more living realities.

First, I stood on the edge of the sea where volcanic rock carries fresh water streams down from the snow peaks, and saw workmen breaking up those rocks so that their huge machines could descend and pour cement over living coral reefs. Even the dolphins were crying.

Then I met with dozens of people from Gangjeong which is the closest village. They’e been living in tents on this shoreline for four years, braving weather, arrests and absence from their families in order to protest a naval base that endangers their land, their livelihoods and their guardianship of this ancient island. Only bribes and illegalities have given the government of South Korea any pretense of democracy. The people want you to know that is a lie.

Several outsiders there – from South Korea itself and from as far away as France – came to support them, and just stayed. One young couple have been there for six weeks, with only the clothes they arrived in.

This contagion is causing the South Korean Defense Minister to pressure the Prime Minister to accelerate its construction. It has caused the Navy to say it will destroy the trail to the protestors’ camp and cut local power lines that broadcast this resistance.

In other words, the resistance is working.

This is how you and I can help the villagers, save our World Natural Heritage, and stop natural destruction in the name of military destruction:

1. Forward this petition to at least 10 friends and family. If each signer does this, we could have nearly 20,000 more signatures –fast.

2. Go to the website: www.savejejuisland.org and do at least one of the actions on the “Get Involved” page.

If we stop this naval base, it will be contagious for peace, the environment, and democracy.

Jeju Island means Women’s Island. It stands for an ancient balance. We must save it from the cult of militarism that endangers us all, women and men.

With high hopes,

Gloria Steinem

The following article by Gwisook Gwon in Japan Focus gives an excellent history and context of the struggle against a naval base in Jeju:

Protests Challenge Naval Base Construction on Jeju Island, South Korea: Hunger Strike Precipitates a National and International Movement

Gwisook Gwon*

In May 2011, ‘Vimeo’ and ‘Youtube’ posted a film interview with Korean film critic Yang Yoon-moo.1 The interview shows why Yang has struggled against the naval base building for 4 years in Gangjeong village, Jeju Island south-west of the mainland of Korea and strategically located in relation to China, Japan, Korea and Russia.

Strategic Jeju

In addition, the film shows his forcible arrest by police on April 6, 2011. Following his arrest he maintained a hunger strike for 71 days including 57 days in prison. Why did he (and fellow residents of Gangjeong village) conclude that have no other choice than to risk their lives to prevent the construction of a base?

The movement against construction of a naval base on Jeju Island began in 2002 when the Korean navy announced plans to pursue an ‘ocean navy strategy’ to build military strength at sea through deploying large warships (Chosun.com, May 27, 2007). Challengers pointed out that the base would become a center for a naval arms race in the Asia-Pacific and a new phase in the ROK-US military alliance with Jeju as a focal point for monitoring and challenging China.2 With both China and Japan strengthening their naval forces with the newest vessels and submarines,3 peace activists have contended that the new base could only intensify hostilities throughout the region.4

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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The Invisible Army: trafficked humans make the war machine go

Sarah Stillman wrote an excellent article in the New Yorker about the “invisible army” of foreign workers or “third-country nationals” (TCNs) staffing U.S. military bases in war zones. She reports that “armed security personnel account for only about sixteen per cent of the over-all contracting force. The vast majority—more than sixty per cent of the total in Iraq—aren’t hired guns but hired hands.”  These TCNs tell horrific tales of abuse and exploitation, but also of resistance.  Trafficked humans and modern slavery make the war machine go.   Here are some excerpts from the article:

The Invisible Army

For foreign workers on U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, war can be hell.

by Sarah Stillman June 6, 2011

More than seventy thousand “third-country nationals” work for the American military in war zones; many report being held in conditions resembling indentured servitude by subcontractors who operate outside the law.

The article follows two Fijian women who were recruited to work in Dubai. They were tricked and found themselves working for the U.S. military bases in Iraq:

Soon, more than fifty women were lined up outside Meridian’s office to compete for positions that would pay as much as thirty-eight hundred dollars a month—more than ten times Fiji’s annual per-capita income. Ten women were chosen, Vinnie and Lydia among them. Vinnie lifted her arms in the air and sang her favorite gospel song: “We’re gonna make it, we’re gonna make it. With Jesus on our side, things will work out fine.” Lydia raced home to tell her husband and explain things to her five-year-old son. “Mommy’s going to be O.K.,” she recalls telling him. “Dubai, it’s a rich country. Only good things can happen.”

On the morning of October 10, 2007, the beauticians boarded their flight to the Emirates. They carried duffelbags full of cosmetics, family photographs, Bibles, floral sarongs, and chambas, traditional silky Fijian tops worn with patterned skirts. More than half of the women left husbands and children behind. In the rush to depart, none of them examined the fine print on their travel documents: their visas to the Emirates weren’t employment permits but thirty-day travel passes that forbade all work, “paid or unpaid”; their occupations were listed as “Sales Coördinator.” And Dubai was just a stopping-off point. They were bound for U.S. military bases in Iraq.

Lydia and Vinnie were unwitting recruits for the Pentagon’s invisible army: more than seventy thousand cooks, cleaners, construction workers, fast-food clerks, electricians, and beauticians from the world’s poorest countries who service U.S. military logistics contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Filipinos launder soldiers’ uniforms, Kenyans truck frozen steaks and inflatable tents, Bosnians repair electrical grids, and Indians provide iced mocha lattes. The Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) is behind most of the commercial “tastes of home” that can be found on major U.S. bases, which include jewelry stores, souvenir shops filled with carved camels and Taliban chess sets, beauty salons where soldiers can receive massages and pedicures, and fast-food courts featuring Taco Bell, Subway, Pizza Hut, and Cinnabon. (AAFES’s motto: “We go where you go.”)

The expansion of private-security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan is well known. But armed security personnel account for only about sixteen per cent of the over-all contracting force. The vast majority—more than sixty per cent of the total in Iraq—aren’t hired guns but hired hands. These workers, primarily from South Asia and Africa, often live in barbed-wire compounds on U.S. bases, eat at meagre chow halls, and host dance parties featuring Nepalese romance ballads and Ugandan church songs. A large number are employed by fly-by-night subcontractors who are financed by the American taxpayer but who often operate outside the law.

The wars’ foreign workers are known, in military parlance, as “third-country nationals,” or T.C.N.s. Many of them recount having been robbed of wages, injured without compensation, subjected to sexual assault, and held in conditions resembling indentured servitude by their subcontractor bosses. Previously unreleased contractor memos, hundreds of interviews, and government documents I obtained during a yearlong investigation confirm many of these claims and reveal other grounds for concern. Widespread mistreatment even led to a series of food riots in Pentagon subcontractor camps, some involving more than a thousand workers.

Amid the slow withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, T.C.N.s have become an integral part of the Obama Administration’s long-term strategy, as a way of replacing American boots on the ground. But top U.S. military officials are seeing the drawbacks to this outsourcing bonanza. Some argue, as retired General Stanley McChrystal did before his ouster from Afghanistan, last summer, that the unregulated rise of the Pentagon’s Third World logistics army is undermining American military objectives. Others worry that mistreatment of foreign workers has become, as the former U.S. Representative Christopher Shays, who co-chairs the bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting, describes it, “a human-rights abuse that cannot be tolerated.”

The women working in these bases are often sexually assaulted:

Late one night in early April, 2008, I knocked on the door of Lydia and Vinnie’s shipping container to find Lydia curled up on the floor, knees to chest, chin to knees, crying. Vinnie told me, after some hesitation, that a supervisor had “had his way with” Lydia. According to the two women’s tearful account, non-consensual sex had become a regular feature of Lydia’s life. They said the man would taunt Lydia, calling her a “fucking bitch” and describing the various acts he would like to see her perform. Lydia trembled, her normally confident figure crumpled inward. “If he comes tonight, you have to scream,” Vinnie told Lydia, tapping her fist against the aluminum siding of the shipping container. “Bang on this wall here and scream!”

The next day, I dialled the U.S. Army’s emergency sexual-assault hot line, printed on a pamphlet distributed across the base that read, “Stand Up Against Sexual Assault . . . Make a Difference.” Nobody answered. Despite several calls over several days, the number simply rang and rang. (A U.S. Central Command spokesman, when later reached for comment, noted, “We do track and investigate any report of criminal activity that occurs on our military bases.”)

“Treat others how you want to be treated” The abuses of human rights have grown so egregious that workers uprisings have sprung up and spread:

In the three years since Vinnie and Lydia returned from Iraq, thousands of third-country nationals have tried to make their grievances known, sometimes spectacularly. Previously unreported worker riots have erupted on U.S. bases over issues such as lack of food and unpaid wages. On May 1, 2010, in a labor camp run by Prime Projects International (P.P.I.) on the largest military base in Baghdad, more than a thousand subcontractors—primarily Indians and Nepalis—rampaged, using as weapons fists, stones, wooden bats, and, as one U.S. military policeman put it, “anything they could find.”

The riot started as a protest over a lack of food, according to a whippet-thin worker in the camp named Subramanian. A forty-five-year-old former rice farmer from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Subramanian worked twelve-hour days cleaning the military’s fast-food court. Around seven o’clock on the evening of the riot, Subramanian returned to the P.P.I. compound and lined up for dinner with several thousand other workers. But the cooks ran out of food, with at least five hundred left to feed. This wasn’t the first time; empty plates had become common in the camp during the past year. Several of the men stormed over to the management’s office, demanding more rice. When management refused, he recalls, dozens more entered the fray, then hundreds, and ultimately more than a thousand. Employees started to throw gravel at the managers. Four-foot pieces of plywood crashed through glass windows. Workers broke down the door to the food cellar and made off with as much as they could carry.

The riot spread through the vast camp. At one point, as many as fourteen hundred men were smashing office windows, hurling stones, destroying computers, raiding company files, and battering the entrance to the camp where a large blue-and-white sign reads “Treat others how you want to be treated. . . . No damaging P.P.I. property that has been built for your comfort.” (According to an investigation conducted by K.B.R., “P.P.I. employees . . . became agitated after being told they’d experience a delay while additional food was prepared.” “Upon full assessment of the incident,” a company spokesperson relayed in a written statement, “K.B.R. notified P.P.I. management of the need for changes to prevent any recurrence and worked with the subcontractor to implement those corrective actions.”)

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Agent Orange in Korea

http://www.fpif.org/articles/agent_orange_in_korea

Agent Orange in Korea

By Christine Ahn and Gwyn Kirk, July 7, 2011

In May, three former U.S. soldiers admitted to dumping hundreds of barrels of chemical substances, including Agent Orange, at Camp Carroll in South Korea in 1978. This explosive news was a harsh reminder to South Koreans of the high costs and lethal trail left behind by the ongoing U.S. military presence.

“We basically buried our garbage in their backyards,” U.S. veteran Steve House told a local news station in Phoenix, Arizona. A heavy equipment operator in the Army, House said he was ordered to dig a ditch the length of a city block to bury 55-gallon drums marked with bright yellow and orange labels: “Province of Vietnam, Compound Orange.” House said that the military buried 250 drums of defoliants stored on the base, which served then as the U.S. Army Material Support Center in Korea. Later they buried chemicals transported from other places on as many as 20 occasions, totaling up to 600 barrels.

“This stuff was just seeping through the barrels,” said Robert Travis, another veteran now living in West Virginia. “There was a smell, I couldn’t describe it, just sickly sweet.” Immediately after wheeling the barrels from a warehouse at Camp Carroll, Travis developed a severe rash; other health problems emerged later. He said there were “approximately 250 drums, all OD (olive drab) green… with a stripe around the barrel dated 1967 for the Republic of Vietnam.”

A third soldier, Richard Cramer of Illinois, said that his feet went numb as he buried barrels of Agent Orange at Camp Carroll. He spent two months in a military hospital and now has swollen ankles and toes, chronic arthritis, eye infections, and impaired hearing. “If we prove what they did was wrong,’ says Cramer, “they should ‘fess up and clean it up and take care of the people involved.”

The three veterans are now seriously ill. Steve House suffers from diabetes and neuropathy, two out of 15 diseases officially linked to Agent Orange. “This is a burden I’ve carried around for 35 years,” House, aged 54, told Associated Press reporters. “I just recently found out that I have to have some major surgery… If I’m going to check out, I want to do it with a clean slate.”

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“A lot of the guys who had bad discharges from the military just ended up staying here”

The Hawaii Reporter published an article about the challenges of helping Hawai’i’s homeless military population.   It is not news that a large percentage of the homeless in any given place are former military personnel.   Some of this population suffers from PTSD and/or substance abuse issues.  Here are some facts reported in the article:

On Oahu, the number (of homeless military personnel) can range from 500 or 1,200.

Retired Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Allan Kellogg, a homeless benefit counselor at Veterans Affairs, said:

“A lot of the guys who had bad discharges from the military just ended up staying here. I mean, if you’re going to be homeless, this (Hawaii) is the place to be.”

The profile of the homeless veterans is changing with more former military personnel having served in the recent wars:

While Kellogg mainly assists those veterans from Vietnam, he has seen around 30 soldiers this year who served in more recent wars.

And even military advocates are critical of the state’s draconian anti-homeless program:

Calvin Griffin, a U.S. Army Veteran and local radio talk show host, is critical of Hawaii’s 90-day plan.

“Anytime there’s an event in Hawaii, I’ve noticed that the government just rounds the homeless up, gets them out of the way. You know, because this is the state of Aloha. There’s supposed to be a sense of well being here,” said Griffin, who noted the APEC conference, which will attract world leaders, is set for November.

The problem of homelessness and houselessness (Kanaka Maoli who are native to this land, but are landless or unable to afford a house) are the products of this economic system that displaces people from their land and treats people as disposable commodities.  Criminalizing and sweeping the homeless and houseless only disperses them and exacerbates the problem.  We must also critique of the military component of this system.  The military system and the policies it executes destroys the lives of many men and women, a percentage of whom end up on the streets.   To prevent the epidemic of homeless vets, stop destroying the humanity of those who are lured into the military.

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Relief and Recovery in Japan: U.S. Should Decline Monies from Japan’s “Sympathy Budget” and End Military Dependence Globally

http://www.genuinesecurity.org/actions/notosympathybudget.html

Press Statement

Contact: IWNAM Secretariat, genuinesecurity [at] lists.riseup.net

April 11, 2011

Relief and Recovery in Japan: U.S. Should Decline Monies from Japan’s “Sympathy Budget” and End Military Dependence Globally

The International Women’s Network Against Militarism (IWNAM) demands that the U.S. and Japanese governments stop spending U.S. and Japanese taxpayer monies for the upkeep of U.S. military facilities in Japan and other territories. During these times of natural disasters, funds should directly help the needs of victims of the earthquake, tsunami, and radiation poisoning from damaged nuclear power plants in Japan, and also create alternatives for employment world wide that do not rely on militarism, or further interpersonal and ecological violence.

The IWNAM, formerly named East Asia–US-Puerto Rico Women’s Network Against Militarism, has called for reallocation of global military spending in order to achieve genuine security for people.  We call for the cancellation of the “sympathy budget,” a part of the host nation support provided by the Japanese government to maintain the U.S. military stationed in Japan (See Final Statement, International Women’s Summit to Redefine Security, June 2000.) The “sympathy budget” has been criticized for covering much more than Japan’s obligation under the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. It covers the salaries of Japanese employees, utilities for U.S. military personnel, and building costs for luxurious leisure facilities on US bases in Japan. In 2010, these expenses totaled 189 billion yen (about $1.6 billion).  If the Japanese government kept this money it could be used to help victims of the recent earthquake in the Tohuku region, people near Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants who were forced to evacuate their communities, and farmers and fishers whose products can not be sold because of the risk of radiation contamination.  Japan is in need of this money for reconstruction of the vast disaster-stricken areas, and recovery from economic and human losses. It is no longer sustainable for the Japanese government to maintain U.S. military bases in Japan. We believe that if the U.S. government would decline the “sympathy budget,” it could be used to help those people directly and to help create a more sustainable world.

In addition, IWNAM demands that the Japanese government should stop building new military infrastructure at Henoko and Takae in Okinawa, and also in Guam, and use that money for survivors of these natural disasters.  Since the earthquake in March, the U.S. military and Japanese Self-Defense Forces have become increasingly visible in Japan. While their rescue efforts are recognized, we should not forget that the primary purpose of the military is not disaster rescue. Their primary training is to destroy the “enemy.” These natural disasters should not be used as opportunities for military forces to justify occupation of a country, as if they are heroes.  This obscures current military developments.  According to Lisa Natividad of Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice,

“On Guam (Guahan), the Japanese government has incrementally funded roughly $10 billion dollars, totaling 70% of the total cost of the relocation of U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam.  The island’s people suffer poor health outcomes largely due to environmental toxicity and degradation from the presence of U.S. military bases and installations since the U.S. assumed colonial rule in 1898.  For example, cancer rates are excessively high on the island, with the largest number of cases living near military bases.  In addition, the U.S. currently occupies roughly 1/3 of the island, and is in the process of “acquiring” an additional 2,300 acres to construct a live firing range complex on ancient Chamorro sacred ground in the village of Pagat.  The acquisition of the additional land will increase U.S. control of the island to nearly 40%, thus leaving only a small portion of the island for its native people.”

Furthermore, after Hurricane Katrina in the Southeast U.S., earthquakes in Haiti, and flooding in the Philippines, corporate and military interests capitalized on these natural disasters to further their own interests in the rebuilding process.  Afterward, these places were no longer economically accessible for communities who were previously living there, and they also experienced an increase in military surveillance.  We still need disaster troops and recovery plans to help people in times of natural disaster. But, we should also have a critical awareness of the cooperation occurring between militarist and capitalist forces who do not change structures of power when they take advantage of these vulnerable times to advance to geopolitical agendas of neo-liberal interests.

Dependence on militarism occurs when institutions that perpetrate violence provide employment for people. Interpersonal and ecological violence that manifests in military-dependent societies is not often seen as a product of the larger militarized society.  A recent case in Ohio, where a former U.S. Air Force member beat his Okinawan-born wife to death, illustrates interpersonal violence in militarized societies. The two met in Nago, Okinawa, while the man was stationed in Okinawa. They were married and moved to Cleveland, Ohio. On March 11, 2011, the wife was severely beaten by the husband and taken to the hospital where she was treated, but died from the injury. The local paper reported that this man had a history of violence with a former partner, but she was able to leave the relationship.  This example highlights the recurring pattern of interpersonal violence perpetrated by service members.

In Hawai’i, there is a proposal for an increase in helicopters at Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station (Oahu). A squadron of Ospreys (a hybrid helicopter and plane that transports troops), Cobra attack helicopters, and a squadron of Hueys are planned to be housed on Mokapu, Oahu, and deployed for practice on the Big Island. On March 30, 2011, a helicopter crashed killing one Marine, and injuring 3 others. The push for increased housing and training areas for of military aircraft in Hawai’i is a product of the U.S. military strategy in the Asia-Pacific, moving bases and troops from one island to another. Yet these decisions disregard the impact this has on local communities and environments in Hawai’i, Okinawa, and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region where military developments increase everyday violence and insecurity.

In 2009, global military spending was estimated at $1,531 billion, an increase of 6% from 2008 and 49% from 2000. On April 12, 2011, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) will release its calculations of global military spending for 2010. We estimate that this figure could reach $1.6 trillion.  We join peace groups, budget priority activists, arms control advocates, and concerned citizens the world over in public demonstrations, solidarity actions and awareness raising events to call attention to the disparity between bountiful global investments in war-making and the worldwide neglect of social priorities. Please visit the website for Global Day of Action on Military Spending at http://demilitarize.org/.

The IWNAM demands that U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration

1)    Decline the Japanese “Sympathy Budget.”

2)    End the military build up in Okinawa, Guam, Hawaii and other territories.

3)    Stop the justification of militarism in times of natural disasters

4)    Fund alternative jobs that end dependence on militarism

Signed, on behalf of the IWNAM:

Kozue Akibayashi, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Japan

Ellen-Rae Cachola, Women for Genuine Security/Women’s Voices Women Speak, U.S. & Hawai’i

Lotlot de la Cruz, KAISAKA, Philippines

Cora Valdez Fabros, SCRAP VFA Movement, Philippines

Terri Keko’olani, DMZ-Hawaii/Aloha ‘Aina/Women’s Voices Women Speak, Hawai’i

Gwyn Kirk, Women for Genuine Security, U.S.

María Reinat Pumarejo, Ilé Conciencia-en-Acción, Puerto Rico

Aida Santos-Maranan, Women’s Education, Development, Productivity and Research Organization (WEDPRO), Philippines

Kim Tae-jung, SAFE Korea, South Korea

Suzuyo Takazato, Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, Okinawa

Lisa Natividad, Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice, Guahan (Guam)

The International Women’s Network Against Militarism was formed in 1997 when forty women activists, policy-makers, teachers, and students from South Korea, Okinawa, mainland Japan, the Philippines and the continental United States gathered in Okinawa to strategize together about the negative effects of the US military in each of our countries.  In 2000, women from Puerto Rico who opposed the US Navy bombing training on the island of Vieques also joined; followed in 2004 by women from Hawai’i and in 2007 women from Guam.  The Network is not a membership organization, but a collaboration among women active in our own communities, who share a common mission to demilitarize their lands and communities. For more information, visit www.genuinesecurity.org.

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