Call to Action for August 30: International Day of the Disappeared

AUGUST 30: INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE DISAPPEARED

In Your Community and Everywhere
A Day to Remember, A Day to Take Action

FREEDOM TO POLITICAL PRISONERS - APPEARANCE OF THE DISAPPEARED!

In solidarity with the international call from the Association of Families
of the Disappeared and Victims of Violations of Human Rights in Mexico
(AFADEM), and by the Latin American Federation of Associations of Families
of Disappeared Detainees (FEDEFAM)...

We of the Solidarity Without Borders Delegation call upon groups in the
United States to participate in August 30, as a day of remembrance and a
day of action for those disappeared and those detained.

As repression rises across the United States against immigrant communities
and communities of color...

As political prisoners continue to struggle for freedom behind bars, and
as more dissidents are taken captive as “terrorists” under the pretext of
homeland security...

As Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) imposes a reign of terror
with raids, roundups, deportations, detentions and disappearances...

As the government strips detainees of their rights from Guantanamo to Iraq
to Black Sites across the globe...

As private corporations, multinationals and security contractors profit
from every detention, disappearance, and incarceration, from our
communities to occupied territories abroad...

MAKE AUGUST 30 A DAY FOR MEMORY AGAINST FORGETTING. A DAY FOR STRUGGLE
AGAINST SILENCE.

As the US exports this repression globally to serve and protect its
corporate interests, to enforce its capitalist agenda on the world...

As the US sponsors state and paramilitary violence against people’s
movements in Mexico, such as the Zapatistas in Chiapas and the popular
struggles in Oaxaca...

As the US continues its 30-year campaign to silence those who resist in
Latin America, from Plan Colombia to Plan Mexico and on to the Security
and Prosperity Partnership...

As occupying forces continue to disappear thousands of people from their
homes and streets in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Haiti, and beyond...

As those who commit these crimes against humanity have never been brought to
justice, and as impunity reigns in the halls of power...

MAKE AUGUST 30 A DAY TO GLOBALIZE OUR REMEMBRANCE, A DAY TO GLOBALIZE OUR
RESISTANCE.

ON AUGUST 30 WE ALSO STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH...

Those commemorating Black August, in memory of the freedom fighters.
Those still struggling in New Orleans and beyond on the anniversary of
Katrina.
Those mobilizing for political prisoners and for immigrant rights at the
DNC and those mobilizing against the RNC.
Those struggling every day in their communities and behind bars.

THIS AUGUST 30 AND BEYOND, WE UNITE WITH OUR SISTERS AND BROTHERS IN
AFFECTED COMMUNITIES TO DEMAND...

Freedom to All Political Prisoners!
Appearance of the Disappeared!
Not One More Raid! Not One More Deportation!
Not One More Detention! Not One More Murder!

WHAT SHAPE COULD THE AUGUST 30 DAY OF ACTION TAKE IN YOUR COMMUNITY?

A March of Silence?
A Disappear-In? Direct Action Street Theatre?
An action at your local Detention Center?
An act of solidarity around the DNC or RNC?
A display of the faces and names of those disappeared or detained in your
community?
A dialogue or forum with the families and communities hit hardest by
repression?
Building local coalitions, supporting existing movements of resistance in
your community?
It´s up to you...

EDUCATE. AGITATE. ORGANIZE.

For Our Dead and Disappeared
Not a Moment of Silence But a Lifetime of Struggle!

From Oaxaca, Mexico in struggle,

Solidarity Without Borders Delegation


ORIGINAL CALL TO ACTION FROM AFADEM/FEDEFAM

International Day of the Disappeared Detainee

Since 1981, we have commemorated the International Day of the Disappeared
Detainee in Latin America. The purpose of this day is to remember men and
women who were taken from their homes by criminal hands. They were beings
who did not hesitate to offer their life to construct a world where peace
with justice predominates.

They were taken prisoner by those who thought themselves lords of their
lives, who applied the doctrine of national security through the most
ferocious terrorism of the State, commiting grave violations of human
rights, excelling by their cruelty to the forced disappearance.

Throughout these years, families have been added to the commemoration of
the disappeared in Asia, Africa, and the European Continent. Various
governments of these continents have recognized the proposal pushed by the
Latin American Federation of Associations of Families of Disappeared
Detainees (FEDEFAM), the establishment of the 30th of August as the
International Day of the Disappeared Detainee, among them the Bolivarian
of Venezuela.

Sadly, in Colombia, the forced disappearance is still practiced. Every day
many Colombians are victims of disappearance and other violations of human
rights, they are assassinated and tortured. But also in other countries of
our Latin America, repression and the perpetual violation of rights live
on, above all those that apply the economic project designed by the
government of the USA. For this reason we demand the termination of any
attempt to continue training soldiers to repress and murder the peoples.

Impunity is a grave problem that we confront day to day in many of our
countries, thanks to which those who committed crimes against humanity
have never even been brought to justice nor punished. This is leaving
grave consequences among our people. Human life is devalorized, confidence
in justice is lost, and democracy is degraded.

We, FEDEFAM, together with social organizations, will continue pushing
preventative actions so that the forced disappearance will be definitively
eradicated in Latin America and in the world.

FEDEFAM:
25 Years of Struggle for Truth
For Justice and Against Impunity!
For the Right Not to Be Disappeared!
Association of Families of Disappeared Detainees and Victims of Violations
of Human Rights in Mexico, AFADEM-FEDEFAM
FEDEFAM: 20 years of struggle against impunity
AFADEM: 30 years of struggle against impunity

FREEDOM TO POLITICAL PRISONERS - APPEARANCE OF THE DISAPPEARED