SOA Watch Border Convergence
Details at http://www.soaw.org/border/
After holding an annual vigil at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia, the human rights group SOA Watch is moving its convergence to become bi-national at the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales, Arizona/ Sonora, Mexico.
Activists throughout the U.S. and Mexico will gather on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border from October 7-10, 2016, in the lead-up to the November elections. Our goal is to:
- highlight US intervention in Latin America as one of the root causes of migration
- stage protests, cultural events, and nonviolent direct action against racism, xenophobia and US militarization at home and abroad.
We understand these two go hand in hand and that U.S. state violence is not particular to United States. Communities are being targeted for assassination and state repression throughout the Americas by U.S. trained military and police forces. People from Latin America continue to be forced to flee from U.S. trained repressive security forces, only to be confronted with a militarized border, racist immigration laws, and xenophobic rhetoric in this election cycle. Black and Brown bodies in the U.S. continue to be targeted and systematically imprisoned and killed in the same way. We can no longer separate the issues and today we say enough! We cannot look at immigration reform without looking at its root cause. We cannot discuss police brutality or the prison industrial complex in the U.S. without discussing its root purpose. State violence is used to exert control and oppress our communities in order to maintain an exploitative racist system that benefits the few.
We need to build broad-based grassroots power across borders, and push back against neoliberal politics of privatization of the commons, the militarization of our communities, and the upholding of profit interests over life, that permeate today’s political discourse. Stand on the side of mutual aid and solidarity, join us from October 7-10, 2016 in Nogales, Arizona/ Sonora to build power for a culture shift.
Our choices can no longer be the lesser of two evils. Today we choose ourselves. We stand on the side of dignity and against neoliberal politics.
To make the Convergence at the Border a success, we need you to mobilize your communities to take a stand for justice and against militarization from October 7-10, 2016 at the border wall in Nogales, Sonora / Arizona. The convergence will include workshops and events on both sides of the U.S.- Mexico border, as well as art, music, and resistance. To learn more about why SOA Watch is moving from the gates of Fort Benning to the border, read the article From the School of the Americas to the Border, and watch the documentary The Empire’s War on the Border.