Protests Against Guantamamo Torture Camp

by Felix Barrett

Sat, Jan 12, 2008 1:57PM

JANUARY 11, 2008 -- On the day six years ago that the first prisoners began arriving at the U.S. torture camp at Guantánamo, protests were staged across the country and around the world demanding that Guantanamo be shut down. Prisoners are kept in Guantanamo under horrific conditions for years without trial.

In San Francisco over 150 people marched from the U.S. Court of Appeals through downtown San Francisco demanding that Gitmo – the U.S. run concentration camp at Guantamo Bay be closed. There were contingents of activists from Code Pink, the ACLU, Act Against Torture, and World Can’t Wait.

About ten students from Leadership High School in San Francisco marched in the protest. Fifty of the 200 students at the school wore orange armbands. Many students had only really become aware of the situation of the Guantaamo prisoners when author and Revolution Newspaper correspondent Larry Everest spoke at their school. They were angry that this truth had been kept from them and determined to let others know and to stop what was happening.

About a third of the protesters donned bright orange jump suits like those worn by prisoners at Guantanamo, some were linked by chains, others wore black hoods and some carried candles. Almost everyone wore orange, in one way or another. At several points along the march demonstrators sat down in the street blocking traffic along Market Street, the primary thoroughfare threw San Francisco’s financial district.

Some links to international reporting (most from mainstream media)

80 people were arrested at the Supreme Court== http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/01/80-arrested-in.html

Fresno: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/01/11/18471801.php

Philippines == http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080111-111755/RP-activists-picket-US-Embassy-for-Guantanamo-prison-closur

Sydney Australia == http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23037560-5005961,00.html

Ireland == http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/ireland/article3329252.ece

Adelaide Australia == http://news.theage.com.au/close-guantanamo-bay-says-david-hicks/20080111-1lez.html

London and Edinborough == http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0801121747151827.htm

London with nice picture == http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/01/11/guantanamo-protests.html

For more information: http://revcom.us

§Shut It Down

by Felix Barrett

Sat, Jan 12, 2008 1:57PM