"April
Days" to Protest Drone Killing and Surveillance, Long Planned,
Gets
Boost From Opposition to Drone Use Inside the U.S.
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
What:
Rallies, Protests, Visual Photo-ops
Where:
Across U.S.
When:
April, 2013
A
nationwide, month-long campaign of counter-drone teach-ins, rallies and
protest, called "April Days of Action" by its organizers, will challenge the
escalated use of drones for targeted assassination by the Obama Administration
as well as domestic surveillance by police agencies around the United States.
The actions will call for a total halt to drone killing and
surveillance.
The
campaign, that has been months in the making, is being boosted by a groundswell
of domestic opposition to use of drones against American citizens in the United
States, sparked by the leaking in February of a government "white paper" on
drone targeting of United States citizens and the drone filibuster by United
States Senator Rand Paul in early March.
"The
April Days of Action will continue to build the surging interest in banning --
or given the blank slate of existing law, at least regulating and limiting --
the domestic use of drones," said Shahid Buttar, Executive Director, Bill of
Rights Defense Committee (BORDC). "Some jurisdictions have already passed
legislation to ban drones, and BORDC will soon release model legislation that
anyone can use to recruit allies and local elected officials to assert control
over drones."
"There
is no question that the April Days of Action will exhibit a level of antiwar and
civil liberties activism that is unprecedented in recent years," said Medea
Benjamin, founder of Code Pink. "The only question is whether the
Administration's half-hearted attempts to put the drone genie back in the bottle
will satisfy the American public, now that the public has been
awakened."
Planning
for the April campaign was set in motion in December, 2012 by a group of antiwar
organizations (listed below), with the goal of bringing the widest possible
public attention to the ways in which drones are violating rights of
sovereignty, due process, privacy, freedom of assembly and safety of persons and
communities and to point out the exploding proliferation of U.S. drone
manufacturing, U.S. drone research, and U.S. drone bases.
"Most
people here in the United States know a little bit about drones; we want
everyone to begin to see the depth of the threat that drones present to all of
us, regardless of what nation we live in," said Nick Mottern, founder of Know
Drones, an educational organization.
The
April events, which span the United States, from Hawaii to Maine, have been
coordinated by Joe Scarry, of the No Drones Network. "As I have talked to people
across the country," Scarry said, "I have found a remarkable level of
determination to be part of this campaign to stop drone killing and spying.
People read about this in the paper every day, and they can feel in their guts
that it's wrong, and they want to stop it now."
Events
are planned for Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, DC,
Atlanta, Dayton, Ft. Wayne, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Des Moines,
Seattle, Tucson, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, Honolulu, as well as in
dozens of other locations, including many of the communities that host the
estimated 100 drone basing sites in the U.S.
A
broad alliance of organizations -- in addition to Code Pink, Know Drones, and No
Drones Network -- worked to promote the national mobilization against drones,
including national organizations like the American Friends Service
Committee, Fellowship of Reconciliation, National Campaign for Nonviolent
Resistance, Pakistan Solidarity Network, Veterans for Peace, United National
Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), Voices for Creative Nonviolence, War is a Crime.org
and World Can't Wait, as well as dozens of state and local peace and justice
organizations, including Peace Action (NY), Upstate (NY) Drone Action and
Brandywine Peace Community (Philadelphia).
Details
on events are being posted at: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1170/p/salsa/event/common/public/index.sjs?distributed_event_KEY=708
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