Join the Peoples Movement Assembly to Resist Empire and Militarization, followed by music and much more!
The Saturday morning assembly in the Convention Center during the 2013 November Vigil to close the SOA at Fort Benning, Georgia, was organized in the Peoples Movement Assembly (PMA) format. The PMA model has been developed by Project South and through the US Social Forum (USSF).
Six-hundred people took part in 21 small group discussions about the role of nonviolent direct action, and grassroots organizing. The groups developed collective political understanding through dynamic conversations, and new relationships started to form. A goal for the PMA process is to engage everyone to come up with answers to questions about strategies, to develop our political analysis, and to come up with joint plans for action.
Another Peoples Movement Assembly (PMA) is going to take place on Sunday, March 30, 2014 from 12 noon to 4:15pm in Washington, DC during the Spring Days of Action, and we want you to join!
The movement to close the SOA has been tremendously successful in educating broad sectors about the reality of U.S. foreign policy towards Latin America. While SOA Watch started out with a narrow focus of ending the training of repressive Latin American military forces and the closure of the School of the Americas, the scope of our work has broadened over the years.
The SOA is part of a broader system of militarism. The institute is not an aberration of U.S. foreign policy but a clear example of it.
At the Peoples Movement Assembly (PMA) this Spring, we will place the SOA into the broader political frame. We will explore the intersectionality of social justice movements in the US, and the relationship between militarized US policy, mass incarceration, deportations, the “War on Drugs,” etc.
Art and culture will be an integral part of the PMA. The PMA will lead into the April 5 National Day of Action to Demand President Obama Stop Deportations, the Torture Abolition Survivor Support Coalition’s Survivors Week in June, June 28 Honduras Coup anniversary, the SOA Watch Youth Encuentro in July in Venezuela, the Vigil to Close the SOA and to End U.S. Militarization at Fort Benning, Georgia (November 21-23, 2014), and into the next US Social Forum, which is going to take place in the Summer of 2015.
Here is the schedule of events for the remainder of the Spring Days of Action:
1) Sunday, March 30. Art and Music are the soul of our movement, and there will also be an amazing concert, from 8-11 pm. Confirmed artists include Bocafloja, FenomeDon, Cindy Zavala a.k.a. La SalvadoReina,Olmeca, and dj rAt (Maracuyeah / anthology of booty) from 8 PM – 11 PM @ Acre 121 – 1400 Irving Street, NW, Washington DC, 20010. Click here to buy your concert ticket now!
2) Monday, March 31. SOA Watch staff and activists with decades of grassroots lobbying experience will lead a Lobby/Advocacy Training from 9:30am – 12pm on HR 2989, opposition to proposed sanctions againgst Venezuela, and Not1+ Deportations. There will also be a workshop from 1:30 – 4pm on Direct Action with emphasis on local, grassroots, and youth organizing. (9:30 AM – 4:00 PM @ The United Methodist Building, 100 Maryland Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002).
3) Monday, March 31. Join School of the Americas Watch, ally organizations, musicians (Lilo Gonzalez & Son Cosita Seria), artists, and other supporters in Downtown Takoma Park as we take the streets in a public demonstration aimed at outreach to the local community and messaging directed at two important political players with ties to Takoma Park, W.H. Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, and Rep. Chris Van Hollen. Learn more about HR 2989, the bipartisan bill in congress that seeks to suspend and investigate the SOA/WHINSEC, and what you can do to help close the School of Assassins. Take a stand for peace, mutual respect, and accountability in both Latin America and the U.S.! (6:15 PM – 8 PM @ downtown Takoma Park – Laurel Ave. & Carroll Ave).
4) Tuesday, April 1. SOA Watch activists and staff will meet with their Members of Congress to urge them to cosponsor HR 2989, and support other positive policies toward Latin America. For more information on lobbying, contact Arturo by phone (202-234-3440) or email ( arturo@soaw.org).
A National Call-In Day will allow the voices of activists from around the country to be amplified by concentrating our strength on one day and blitzing the Capitol phone lines.
5) Thursday, April 3. In coordination with the University of Maryland’s Latin American Studies Center and UMD-based student group Voices: Arts for Social Change, a night dedicated to Chile’s folk music hero Victor Jara will be held on campus in College Park, MD from 5:30-8:30. SOA Watch Advocacy Coordinator Arturo J. Viscarra, Prof. Karín Rosemblatt, PhD doctoral candidate Brandi Townsend, and Coral Cantigas Conductor Diana Saez will discuss the role of nueva canción in Chilean social movement and the campaign to extradite Jara’s killer, Pedro Barrientos, from Florida to Chile to stand trial. Music will be performed, dialogue lively, and refreshments delicious.
Room 0200 Skinner Hall at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD. For public transportation, take the Metro Green Line to the College Park stop. Then take the red UMD shuttle bus to campus (get off at the final stop opposite the Stamp Student Union). See map below. Free parking in Lots Z and Mowatt Lane Garage is circled in red. Skinner Hall is circled in blue.
6) Saturday, April 5. SOA Watch has been working to connect the dots between militarization and immigration, and we encourage our supporters to join us and allied organizations for the April 5th National Day of Action Against Deportations. We will raise our voices in unison to say #Not1More and #2Million2Many to President Obama and the Congress in DC or in actions across the U.S. organized by NDLON and other organizations. More information can be found here. (Meeting at Lamont Park, Lamont Street NW & Mt. Pleasant St. NW at 11 AM, March to White House, where march will arrive around 1 PM for rally at President’s Park).
