Zapatista Solidarity in San Francisco March 20th

This March 20th we marched against imperialism and militarization everywhere. We see these as interrelated components of a general state of warfare, one that is being waged in:

IRAQ, where since 2003 US military forces, together with corporate US mercenaries, have killed at least one million Iraqis, displaced countless others, and forever transformed the lives of tens of thousands of US soldiers, who bring the effects of the war home with them. All of this is committed first in the name of “global security” and then under the pretense of “freedom and democracy.”

AFGHANISTAN, where since 2001 (and really since the 1970s…) US military forces have been inflicting terror on millions in the name of the “war on terror” and the “liberation” of Muslim women. This paradoxical strategy is a fundamental condition of US warfare, and underlies the imperialist ambition of a “benevolent state.”

PALESTINE, where since 1948, the US has directly supported the Israeli occupation through both economic and military aid, and the criminalization and dehumanization of Arab and Muslim peoples, all of which amounts to the moral and material endorsement of an apartheid state.

HAITI, where since the earthquake of January 12th US military and corporate interests have dominated the “philanthropic” relief efforts in an application of disaster capitalism reminiscent of post-Katrina New Orleans. Such devastation could only have been produced by the intent to isolate the first free black nation liberated by its own anti-colonial struggles.

CHIAPAS, where since 1994 the Mexican government and its military and paramilitary agents—with the support of the Washington and its corporate backers—have attempted to eradicate rebel Zapatista communities that continue walking the path of over 500 years of anti-colonial indigenous resistance.

the BAY AREA, where every day police and militarized security forces murder, harass, profile, displace, and poison communities of color…

Those invested in these wars make every effort to isolate each of these “sites,” to erect material and conceptual walls in order to divide us from each other, and from ourselves.

We who reject and stand against these wars see their interconnectedness manifested in multiple forms—common impacts on youth, rampant displacement of marginalized communities, and psychological and physical damage—all of which are justified through overlapping discourses of “security.”

Although specific strategies differ from site to site and from time to time, we are all experiencing their violence today through invasions of our communities, our hearts, and our minds. This is why today we stand in solidarity with all peoples affected by endless and global war, and say ¡YA BASTA! ENOUGH!