Women's Voices Women Speak

Morning in Mākua

2012-02-08T09:46:00.000-08:00

“Rather than building up for war, we could be working toward peace,” Fred Dodge, MD, co-founder of Mālama Mākua.

Wanting to connect with ‘āina before leaving for Vieques, Eri, Elise and I had the opportunity to visit Mākua Valley.

Mākua once supported a thriving community. It is a traditional training ground for ‘olohe, masters of the warrior arts, and, because of the long stretch of sandy beach, it was a comfortable stopping off point for visitors destined for Kaena Point. There were terraces of dryland crops; uala, sweet potato, was probably the primary one.

When the U.S. entered World War II, the Army appropriated Mākua for live weapons training. The valley was assaulted from land, air and sea. Up through 1998, Mākua valley was used as a disposal site for unneeded ordnance and other hazardous materials. Only in 2004 did live weapons training end.

Due to the grassroots efforts to honor Mākua valley as a wahi pana, Mālama Mākua has emerged as the stewardship organization that serves as watchdog, monitor, liaison to the Army, and kahu 'aina. Training is more controlled, culturally significant sites are preserved and studied, and there’s a big endangered species conservation effort in place.

But it’s a never ending job for Mālama Mākua – they are disputing an incomplete environmental assessment of the marine resources, battling the Army’s renewed claim to the valley as a necessary training ground, while also negotiating for regular, cultural accesses.

Looking to Kaho‘olawe as a model, Mālama Mākua has in its arsenal some of the United States’ own laws: the Endangered Species Act, the Historic Preservation Act, the Environmental Policy Act, and, most importantly, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA). It is the latter that will assure access to the community to mark the opening and closing of Makahiki, and regular access to several culturally significant sites throughout the valley.

Upon arrival, our ho‘okupu to Mākua included wai from the punawai deep in Nu‘alolo ‘Āina, and pa‘akai from Hanapēpē. Fred and Leandra welcomed us. With us were a few kūpuna, a group of hiking grad students, and two of the three founders of Nā Wāhine o Kunia Honouliuli. We saw petroglyphs, terraces and waterways (sans the water). We learned about mauka conservation efforts and different historic uses of the areas we saw and visited. We felt the nurturing spirit of Mākua.

Mahalo iā Ko‘iahi, mahalo iā Kahanahāiki, mahalo iā Mākua!

UPDATED! Support Hawaii Women to Represent at the 8th IWNAM meeting, Puerto Rico

2012-02-07T09:29:00.000-08:00

Dear friends of Women’s Voices Women Speak, Third Path Movement for Reproductive Justice-O’ahu & Hawai‘i Peace Justice,

Please help our organizations send Elise, Eri and Terri to be Hawai‘i's delegation to attend the 8th International Women's Network Against Militarism (IWNAM) meeting entitled “Encuentro/Nets for Genuine Security.” This meeting will take place in Puerto Rico between February 19-24, 2012. We are participating because we believe that genuine security in Hawai‘i is about ending Hawai‘i's dependence on the war economy. We believe that genuine security lies in our communities creating sustainable, community-based alternatives that cultivate, instead of exploit, people and resources. Identifying, implementing, and advancing these local alternatives also needs a collaborative international effort. Our work seeks to raise awareness on the systemic issue of militarism that cuts across cultures and lands, and to build international solidarity that connects our struggles.

This past year our organizations collaborated on the Passionista Fashion Show: Undressing Globalization and Militarism, which was a part of Moana Nui 2011:Pacific Peoples, Lands and Economies, an alternative conference to APEC. On September 11, 2011, we organized a solidarity action to support Jeju Island communities’ resistance to the development of military facilities that would house Aegis missile systems, which are interconnected to the missile facilities at Barking Sands on Kaua‘i. Also, after the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, WVWS wrote a statement of solidarity with the IWNAM to demand that the U.S. and Japanese governments shift the spending of taxpayer monies from the upkeep of U.S. military facilities in Japan and other territories to helping victims of the earthquake, tsunami, and radiation poisoning. We also demanded the creation of employment opportunities that transcend militarism.

Please help us raise money to pay for air fares for these Hawai‘i women to serve as delegates to the next IWNAM meeting, and to represent Hawai‘i in this effort for international solidarity. During this conference, attendees will have the opportunity to network with women from the Pacific, US, Caribbean and Asia. In addition, we will visit and talk to the community of Vieques, an island whose struggle to stop military weapons testing parallels Hawai‘i’s Kaho‘olawe.

Following the return from the conference, delegates will hold a public presentation to share lessons learned at the conference and help facilitate our organizations to strategize and create a mission and vision for genuine security in Hawai‘i. To learn more about the 8th International Women’s Network Against Militarism meeting, visit http://www.genuinesecurity.org/projects/meeting.html.

To donate:

By Cash: Hand-deliver to Eri (808)542-0348
By Check: Make checks out to "Collective for Equality Justice and Empowerment" and mail to Eri Oura 3161 Ala Ilima St. #809 Honolulu, Hawai’i 96818
By Credit Card: Click on the Donate button below

(Please note that donations to this project are not eligible for tax write-offs as we are not sponsored by a non-profit.)

For more information about these organizations:
Women’s Voices Women Speak: http://wvws808.blogspot.com/
Hawai‘i Peace and Justice: http://hawaiipeaceandjustice.org/
International Women's Network Against Militarism: http://www.genuinesecurity.org/projects/meeting.html

The members of WVWS, Third Path Movement for Reproductive Justice-O’ahu, and HPJ would like to wish all of our supporters a happy new year! Mahalo nui loa!

UPDATE:
Big mahalo to those who have donated!

Kat Brady
Craig Howes
Nicki Garces
Brandy Nalani McDougall
Aiko Yamashiro
Monisha Das Gupta
Stephen Dinion
Patricia Koge
Darlene Rodrigues
Tricia Lee Tolentino
Nancy Aleck
Deja Ostrowski

Makana Preparations

2012-01-30T01:52:00.000-08:00

Hau & Puka Shell Jewelry

Hand-stripped and prepared strips of hau (above) and puka shells, or shells with holes, handmade into jewelry.

Kim Kuʻulei Birnie and Marion Ano crafting a necklace

Leotele Togafau creating puka shell earrings

Atlas curiously inspecting the strips of hau

Marion and Nicki Garces putting together a bracelet

Mahalo to Grace, Lydi, Jane & Marion for helping pick shells at Ke Iki beach in Pupukea!

Kāwika

2012-01-29T03:09:00.000-08:00

In preparation for our journey to Puerto Rico, the 2012 Hawaiʻi delegation is learning a traditional kahiko hula from Kumu Hula James Dela Cruz, co-founder of Nā ʻŌpio o Koʻolau Hula Halau. The song was hakuʻd in honor of King David Kalākaua, the "Merrie Monarch" who brought back the hula after colonial influences had suppressed this cultural practice and tradition in Hawaiʻi. We learn this hula to honor ancestors who value expression and representation beyond conventional norms set in place by colonial influence and imperial force.

Kāwika (David) - Mele Inoa for King David Kalākaua

King Kāwika Kalākaua
Eia nō Kāwika ea O ka heke aʻo nā pua Ka uwila ma ka hikina ea Mālamalama Hawaiʻi Kuʻi e ka lono Pelekani ea Hoʻolohe ke kuʻini ʻo Palani Na wai e ka pua i luna ea O Kapaʻakea he makua Haʻina ʻia mai ka puana ea Kalani Kāwika he inoa This is David The greatest of all flowers (He is) the lightning in the east That brightens Hawai`i| News reached England Also heard by the French queen Who is this flower of high rank? Kapa`akea is his father Tell the refrain King David, is his name

ONLINE SOURCE: http://www.kalena.com/huapala/Kawika.html

About the 2012 Hawai'i Delegation

2012-01-29T02:34:00.000-08:00

Meet the 2012 Hawaiʻi Delegation to the 8th Meeting of the International Womenʻs Network Against Militarism in Puerto Rico and Vieques

Ellen-Rae Cachola was born and raised on the island of Maui. She is a grand daughter of Ilocano sugar and pineapple plantation workers who came from Narvacan, Ilocos Sur, Luzon, Philippines. Ellen-Rae was one of three delegates from Hawai'i who participated in the 5th East-Asia-U.S.-Puerto Rico Women's Network Against Militarism (former name of the International women's Network Against Militarism) meeting in Manila, Philippines in 2004. Since then, this women's network is raising her consciousness on the interconnected histories of imperialism and colonization between the Philippines and Hawaii; the Asia-Pacific, the Americas and Caribbean at large. Ellen-Rae is currently a doctoral student at UCLA's Archival Studies program, to understand how recordkeeping systems participated in the colonization of Ilocanos, but also, how recordkeeping systems can be created to support liberatory social movements.

Terri Kekoʻolani (bio to come)

Elise Leimomi Davis is a kanaka maoli and filipina, born and raised in Hawaii before living in New York and California for school and work. She is currently an Assistant Researcher at `Imi Hale Native Hawaiian Cancer Network, in Honolulu, HI. Elise received a BS in Biology with a concentration in genetics and development and a Masters in Public Health with a concentration is social and behavioral health sciences. Prior to working with`Imi Hale I worked with the Hawaii Department of Health as a Community Intervention Specialist and as an Evaluation Research Assistant with the Office of Public Health Studies at the University of Hawaii. Her interests include community health education, community capacity building for health promotion, healthy food systems, and reducing health disparities.

Kim Kuʻulei Birnie:

Mother, grandmother, daughter, auntie and sister, whose professional and community work has centered on issues of social justice and aloha ‘āina. She has worked in Hawai‘i’s public health arena addressing health disparities among Native Hawaiians [www.papaolalokahi.org] and Pacific Islanders. She is descended from a ranching family that lived on the island of Kaho‘olawe and has been active with the Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana [www.kahoolawe.org].

Eri Oura is a womyn, born and raised in Hawai′i, of Japanese ancestry, but raised by a Korean woman from Daegu. In 2008, Eri co-founded the Collective for Equality, Justice & Empowerment (a student group at the University of Hawaiʻi), and has worked with various anti-violence, justice-oriented, women- and queer-focused organizations. She works on the administrative side of non-profits in Hawai′i and have worked on different projects and programs that encourage peaceful resistance in communities where injustice is the norm.

Special Thanks:

Our delegation would not be able to go to Puerto Rico without the support of our communities here in Hawaiʻi. There have been countless powerful and fearless sisters and brothers in Hawaiʻi nei who have supported work towards genuine security and continues to lift up this delegation to be able to be on this journey. Special mahalo nui to Grace Caligtan, Darlene Rodrigues, Marion Ano, Kyle Kajihiro, Pete Doktor, Monique Yuen, Gigi Miranda, Nicki Garces, Leotele Togafau, Darshan Mendoza, the Passionista! Fashion Show Project [www.facebook.com/pages/Passionista-Fashion-Show-Project/251830551539759], Hawaiʻi Peace & Justice [www.hawaiipeaceandjustice.org], liberated cuts [www.facebook.com/liberatedcuts], Kānehūnāmoku Voyaging Program [www.facebook.com/pages/K%C4%81neh%C5%ABn%C4%81moku/164152836975817] and Third Path Movement for Reproductive Justice!

Moana Nui 2011 Statement

2011-11-12T13:25:00.000-08:00

"We, the peoples of moana nui, connected by the currents of our ocean home, declare that we will not cooperate with the commodification of life and land as represented by APEC's predatory capitalistic practices, distorted information and secret trade negotiations and agreements.

We invoke our rights to free, prior and informed consent. We choose cooperative trans-Pacific dialogue, action, advocacy, and solidarity between and amongst the peoples of the Pacific, rooted in traditional cultural practices and wisdom.

E mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono. A mama. Ua noa."

This statement was conjured at the Moana Nui 2011 conference, a gathering of peoples of the Pacific to connect and grow our relations with each other. We ask you to join us in shifting away from neoliberal, profit-driven relations and sign-on to this statement. http://www.change.org/petitions/moana-nui-2011-statement

For more information go to: http://moananui2011.org.

Passionista! Undressing Globalization and Militarism Fashion Show

2011-11-09T09:37:00.000-08:00

Women Voices Women Speak in collaboration with Third Path Movement for Reproductive Justice, DMZ Hawai'i/Aloha 'Aina, Pek Pek Liberation Front and Women for Genuine Security present

Passionista! Undressing Globalization and Militarism Fashion Show
Thursday 11/10/11
6:30 PM
Church of the Crossroads
1212 University Ave.
Honolulu, HI

This fashion show is a Honolulu community-based grassroots collaboration that is conscious and humorous! We are a community of scholar-activists, teachers, students, parents and movers and shakers who are addressing and fighting against the hewa that APEC and other ultra-militaristic, corporate and state entities bring into our lives and onto our homelands across the globe.

Read about each of the outfits at our Fashion Show Archive page.

Passionista’s Resisting: Sistahs and Braddahs Uniting to un-dress Globalization and Militarization, 2011, mixed media installation

2011-11-05T11:14:00.000-07:00

A Home grown Community Art Collaborative with
Women’s Voices, Women Speak,
Pek-Pek Liberation Front, &
3rd Path for Reproductive Justice

Come check this out at...

Arts at Mark's Garage
1159 Nu`uanu Avenue
Honolulu, HI 96817-5121
http://www.artsatmarks.com/

Members and co-inspirers: Ellen-Rae Cachola, Grace Caligtan, Malaya Caligtan-Tran, Melisa Casumbal, Kim Compac, Pete Doktor, Nicki Garces, Kyle Kajihiro, Kotoba Kanazawa, Koa Luke, Christine Lipat, Gigi Miranda, Darlene Rodrigues, Terri Keko'olani, Eri Oura, Faith Pascual, Malaya Valenzuela-Lipman, Sarah Smorol, Leotele Togafau, Jen Yu, and Monique Yuen

Description: An art installation and a local O'ahu fashion show that builds on the work of the Women of Color Resource Center's popular education campaign, "Runway Peace Project: Fashion Resistance to Militarism." Also, check out Runway Peace Project's rendition over at Women for Genuine Security Fashioning Resistance to Militarism Project and Archive.

Peace Force

Our Peace Force mannequin rocks bigger picture vision glasses. S/he is fully armed with re-purposed weapons: a mike that speaks truth to power, a dialogue device , a human aid bag and used to gather la’au and traditional medicines, and lastly, several writing instruments, since the pen is mightier than the sword.

Tapis and Topless

This outfit depicts and honors the successful resistance led by Kalinga and Bontoc tribal women in the Cordilleras in the 1980’s to defend their land, life and resources from drowning because of the World Bank-funded Chico River dams. Because of the sheer determination and courage of the dam-affected peoples to stop the project by all means, the World Bank decided to withdraw its funding for the dam project. In fact, it was the experience of the World Bank on the Chico Dam that it formulated its operational guidelines of projects affecting indigenous peoples.

“Entayo agpabuya, paypayew kalkalsada, salidummay salidummay ay ay. Minas ken kabakiran, teatro pay ti babaknang, salidummay salidummay ay ay. Bannog, pudot ken bisin, tudo pudot ken lammin, salidummay salidummay ay ay. Uray kasta karigat na gana-ganasen tay latta, salidummay salidummay ay ay,” (Let us perform on the rice fields, streets, mines, forest and even in the theatres of the rich. Fatigue, hunger, rain, heat or cold. No matter how difficult, let us give our all).- excerpt from the Salidummay song entitled Kultura ti wayawaya [Culture of freedom].)

Daughters of Lien Apinam

The outfit pays tribute to the daughters of Lien Apinam, descedents who fight for accessible health care for their families. Lien Apinam was a female ancestor from Lukunor, Chuuk who stepped on the battlefield of two fighting groups. Her female presence on the battlefield stopped the battle because in the tradition and culture, hurting a woman brings bad omens to the nation.

Occupied Bride

In this outfit, our occupied bride wears chicken wire stretched into barbed wire to represent the ways in which her body and the earth she lives on has been bound along the military fence-line with toxins, contaminants and unexploded ordinances. Her boots bloom with flowers, signaling the flowering of young aloha 'aina warriors, willing to malama, defend, and bring back what has been poisoned.

Unko Spam

When Hawaii was occupied and colonized as the 50th state, it was lured into dependency and could no longer be a self-sustaining country. In World War II, spam was introduced to Hawai'i as an alternative to meat because the islands food imports were closed down during the war. A troupe of ex-G.I. women was recruited by Hormel Foods to promote Spam from coast to coast. The group was known as the Hormel Girls and associated the food with being patriotic. Today, it is estimated that the residents of the state of Hawaii and the territories of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) consume the most Spam per capita.

Miss Moana Nui

This dress represents Oceania outside of global first world nations’ divisions, military aggressions, and economic exploitations. Military symbols of brass buttons, looped epaulets, and the purple heart are here reconfigured to symbolize oceanic connections of friendship and good will unity and solidarity.

Military Straight Jacket: Commitment to the Nation?

Designed by an Army reservist, this piece touches on the phrase, "Commitment to the Nation" that was repeated over and over again during her ROTC enlistment. Her outfit questions the motivation under those words and behind those who choose military service. According to the National Priorities Project, of the 70,026 military recruits in Fiscal Year 2010, 1,111 came from U.S. Possessions and Territories, including the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and foreign addresses, including military postal addresses. The promise of a green card and citizenship is what commonly attracts Asia Pacific migrants to join the military because to be a U.S. citizen means they can access health care, higher education, and a decent standard of living for their families. While cash and US citizenship are powerful enticements for joining, she wants viewers to recognize soldiers underneath the numbers of dead, and honor the complex human beings under the uniform as sisters and mothers, brothers and fathers, and as all our children.

Check The Numbers:
2,776: US and Coalition deaths in Afghanistan
14,733: Wounded in Afghanistan
4,798: US & Coalition deaths in Iraq
32,224: Wounded in Iraq
11,2726: civilian deaths in Iraq
1985: suicides in military since 2001

Other numbers to consider as well:

In 2010 Lockheed Martin paid its CEO Robert Stevens $21.89 million and spent $12.7 million lobbying politicians.

In 2010 Northrop Grumman paid its CEO Wes Bush $22.84 million and spent $15.7 million lobbying politicians.

In 2010 Boeing paid its CEO James McNerney $19.4 million and spent $17.98 million lobbying politicians.

Hula Rise Up

This outfit plays on the designer's childhood memory and the ways that hula has been commodifed and used for tourist consumption. She updates and adds to this memory with adorning the mannequin with a poem by Summer Nemeth, titled, Na Wahine Koa, which speaks back to exploitation of this cultural practice and the 'aina.

Remembering Labor History and Resistance

Our remembering labor history outfits commemorates the proud labor organizing tradition in Hawai'i. The mannequin wears a palaka shirt, fused with a housekeeping outfit used in the hotel industry. Pinned to her uniform is a heart pierced with seven sewing needle symbolizing women garment workers in free trade zones. This outfit honors the organizing legacy of women plantation workers and their links to today’s struggle for fair wages and working conditions in the hotel and tourism industry. Her heart remembers her international sisters and their efforts to organize, even when in places where it is prohibited.

Ea reconstructed and For Realz Kine, Genuine Security Blanket

The need to re-purpose and reconstruct is reflected in the blanket. What is old can be made new. Liberated Cuts can reconstruct your shirt into new. Click here for more info.

But this production does not end here! Check these affiliated events...

Thurs, Nov 3 (Alterna*APEC) Yes Men Keynote

Fri, Nov 4 (Alterna*APEC) 1rst Friday

Sat, Nov 5 (Alterna*APEC) Yes Lab

Sun, Nov 6 (Alterna*APEC) UH Forum, Passionista Demo, Panel 5-7 pm

Thursday, Nov 10 Moana Nui afternoon panel on militarization & Passionista demo at 6:30 pm

Liberated Cuts! Reconstruct your Shirt and Support Fierce Hawaii Women

2011-11-05T10:12:00.000-07:00

Women's Voices Women Speak presents:

"Liberated Cuts"

Reconstructed Shirt Fundraiser for the Hawai'i Women's Delegation to go to Puerto Rico for the 2010 International Women's Meeting on Genuine Security.

CUSTOM RECONSTRUCTION AVAILABLE

Donation of $10-20

Mahalo for your Support!

Keeping checking us out here at wvws808.blogspot.com

WVWS at Community Alternative to APEC

2011-11-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

Women's Voices Women Speak will be representing at the Community Alternative to the APEC conference "Forum (to) Festival." Check it out on November 6, 5-7pm, at UH Manoa Art Auditorium.

Women's Voices Women Speak Stand in Solidarity with Jeju Island Activists

2011-09-10T17:30:00.000-07:00

On Sept. 4, 2011, Women's Voices Women Speak, Ann Wright, and a few friends gathered at the Korean Consulate of Hawai'i to hold a vigil in solidarity with peace activists on Jeju Island. This action was catalyzed by the current military and police encroachment on the Peace Camp at Gangjeong Village, Jeju. As we prepared for this event, Ann Wright reported back on her recent trip to Jeju Island. Despite the fact that Jeju island activists are being arrested and harassed for protecting the island from the naval base construction occurring on the island, they continue to protest.

Women's Voices Women Speak read the International Women's Network Against Militarism letter of support to Jeju Island activists to contextualize the vigil. They left messages of opposition to the Naval Base at Jeju on the Korean Consulate compound. Some wrote letters to the Korean Consulate. The Naval base on Jeju is to house Aegis destroyers, equipped with U.S. anti-ballistic missile and radar systems. This construction matters to Hawai'i because the Barking Sands Pacific Missile Range on the island of Kaua'i is also part of the anti-ballistic missile defense system network. In 2009, Hawai'i Senator Daniel Inouye pushed for funding for Aegis Ashore test facility at Barking Sands. Women's Voices Women Speak stand in solidarity with peoples of Jeju island to expose how Asian and Pacific island nations are being used to connect networks of U.S. Military weaponry.

No Naval Base on Jeju!
No Military Expansion in Hawai'i!
End Military Dependence in all Nations!

APEC from Japan People's Movement Perspectives 2010

2011-09-08T19:15:00.000-07:00

APEC had a meeting in 2010 in Yokohama Japan. Here are perspectives from No APEC TV! and People's Plan Study Group about what is APEC. These are resources on alternative views on APEC from people's perspectives.

Message from the International Women’s Network Against Militarism to the peoples movement for No Naval Base on Jeju!

2011-09-05T22:35:00.000-07:00

September 1, 2011

Dear friends in the struggle against US military expansion at Jeju Island,

We women from Okinawa, mainland Japan, the Philippines, Marshall Islands, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Australia and west-coast USA send our greetings in solidarity with the people of Ganjeong who oppose the construction of a new naval base to house Aegis destroyers.

We understand that 94 percent of the residents do not want this base. We admire and respect your strong opposition by occupying land seized by the government and by blocking roads in an attempt to stop construction. We deplore the fact the South Korean government has ordered police to take further measures against you, especially as you have used every possible democratic means to overturn the decision to construct the base in the pristine waters and land that have been your livelihood for many generations.

We agree that this base and the increased militarization of the island of Jeju will create new security threats in an increasingly tense region.

We also live in communities that experience increased militarization and the effects of enormous military investments that distort our local economies and take resources needed for our communities to thrive. The political and military alliances between our governments and the United States jeopardize our genuine security. Indeed, U.S. military expansion in the Asia-Pacific and the Caribbean relies on these alliances to tie our communities together according to their version of security that is not sustainable.

The plan to relocate U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam includes military construction projects that involve labor from Hawai’i, Micronesia and the Philippines. In addition to the destruction and loss of life caused by continued wars in the Middle East, these wars are also destabilizing our economies. For example, Filipinos who have been recruited to work on military construction projects are laid off during times of crisis and return to the Philippines where they have no jobs. On Guam, local companies cannot compete with larger military contractors and are seldom able to get contracts for base construction projects. The establishment of the U.S. military base at Ke Awa Lau o Pu’uloa, or Pearl Harbor, has transformed Oahu's food basket into a toxic “Superfund” site where many of Hawai’i's poorest communities live along its contaminated shores. In Puerto Rico, Governor Luis Fortuño has unleashed brutality against citizens, and suppression of their civil liberties because of protests against budget cuts to public services and education. In the continental United States a new campaign is calling for new priorities in federal spending away from war and toward services to support local communities.

We see your struggle as part of a wider pattern of people’s protest against increasing militarization.
Although we are far away, please know that we stand with you. We thank you for your courage to resist the militarization of your home. Your example inspires and strengthens us.

In solidarity,

Signed, on behalf of the IWNAM:

Kozue Akibayashi, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Japan
Ellen-Rae Cachola, Women for Genuine Security/Women's Voices Women Speak, U.S. & Hawai'i
Grace Caligtan, Women's Voices Women Speak, Hawai'i
Lotlot de la Cruz, KAISAKA, Philippines
Cora Valdez Fabros, Scrap VFA Movement & Philippine Women's Network for Peace and Security, Philippines
Annie Fukushima, Women for Genuine Security, U.S.
Terri Keko'olani, Women's Voices Women Speak, Hawai'i
Gwyn Kirk, Women for Genuine Security, U.S.
Rev. Deborah Lee, Women for Genuine Security, U.S.
Bernadette “Gigi” Miranda, Women's Voices Women Speak, Hawai'i
Eri Oura, Women's Voices Women Speak, Hawai'i
María Reinat Pumarejo, Colectivo Ilé: Organizadoras para la Conciencia-en-Acción
Aida Santos-Maranan, Women's Education, Development, Productivity and Research Organization (WEDPRO), Philippines
Dr. Hannah Middleton, Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition, Australia
Suzuyo Takazato, Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, Okinawa
Lisa Natividad, Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice, Guahan (Guam)
Ana Maria R. Nemenzo, WomanHealth Philippines.
Darlene Rodrigues, Women’s Voices Women Speak, Hawai’i

The International Women’s Network Against Militarism was formed in 1997 when forty women activists, policy-makers, teachers, and students from South Korea, Okinawa, mainland Japan, the Philippines and the continental United States gathered in Okinawa to strategize together about the negative effects of the US military in each of our countries. In 2000, women from Puerto Rico who opposed the US Navy bombing training on the island of Vieques also joined; followed in 2004 by women from Hawai’i and in 2007 women from Guam. The Network is not a membership organization, but a collaboration among women active in our own communities, who share a common mission to demilitarize their lands and communities. For more information, visit http://www.genuinesecurity.org.

Melanie and Eri at UHM Spring 2010 Colloquium Series

2010-04-28T18:05:00.000-07:00

The UHM Women's Studies Program is pleased to close our Spring 2010 Colloquium Series with the two Capstone presentations by Melanie Medalle and Eri Oura, graduate students in the Advanced
Women's Studies (AdWS) Certificate Program.

Each student enrolled in the AdWS Certificate program designs, develops, and completes a research and/or community involvement project that culminate s in a publishable- quality work or comparable
product, and a Capstone presentation given in the student’s final semester of the program. Melanie Medalle's presentation is entitled: "'1898 Unfortunates' : Sex, Race, and Space in the Philippine-American War" and Eri Oura's talk, "“Racial Tensions are Simmering in Hawaii’s Melting Pot”: Deconstructing Representations of the 2007 Waikele Case"

The event will take place at 2424 Maile Way, Saunders 624 (the Harry Friedman Room in the Political Science Department) Friday, April 30, 2010 from 12:30pm-2pm. Please spread the work.

Best,
Bianca Isaki

'1898 Unfortunates' : Sex, Race, and Space in the Philippine-American War

Melanie Medalle

Gathered in Paris on December 10, 1898, Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris, in which Spain ceded and sold to the United States the territory it had occupied for over three centuries
in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. At the signing of this massive real estate transfer, all persons native to the colonies implicated in the transaction were barred entry from the meeting, as
the enfleshment of their bodies were blurred in the language of the document. Drawing on violent tableaus such as this, in this paper I resituate an alternative genealogical imaginary of the control and
production of colonial and imperial bodily membership and intimacy.

In its first overseas insular colonial projects in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans at the turn of the nineteenth century, American proponents of imperial expansion continued a longer US project of
racialized sexuality/sexualize d raciality discourse production. The subaltern experience and contestation of this moment rendered a vastly different conceptualization and contribution to the development of US imperial aspirations and imaginaries of itself. I focus here on the period surrounding the Philippine-American War, explore a selection of cultural texts and consider how aesthetic and discursive narratives serve to coalesce and dissipate the imagination of the realities that
the subject and the state both fluidly inhabit. I argue that technologies of imagination are critical in the self-making of disparate and yet intimately connected bodies in a tightening transnational geography of power and resistance.

“Racial Tensions are Simmering in Hawaii’s Melting Pot”[1]: Deconstructing Representations of the 2007 Waikele Case

Eri Oura

In 2007, a Native Hawaiian family was involved in a physical altercation with a haole military couple as a result of a minor traffic accident. This case caught the attention of local and national media sources because of the violent nature of the physical and verbal actions that were exchanged. The description of the case in the media was disturbingly one-sided, portraying the Pa’akaulas (who
self-identify as Native Hawaiian) as racist and barbaric, while the Dussells remain to be represented as the only victims in the case. Before the hearings for the two Pa’akaula men involved in the incident, police and FBI investigated the case to determine whether the assaults were racially motivated and could be considered a hate-crime because the phrase “f-----g haole” was used during the incident.

Shortly after the investigation began, USAToday published an article entitled “Racial Tensions are Simmering in Hawaii’s Melting Pot,” which questioned Hawai’i’s tourist-based economy’s claims to
being a harmonious “melting pot” society that is the model for multiculturalism. The article also prompted national attention to the many of the losses Native Hawaiians have been facing since the
mid-1990s and the resurgence of political resistance for independence, but missed many critical points about the history of colonialism and neo-colonialism in Hawai’i. Instead, the article blamed Native
Hawaiians for the racial tensions in Hawai’i and included many statements that represent haole as the victims.

This essay deconstructs the representations of this case in local and national news media and analyzes how these articles construct the “perpetrators” and “victims” through different processes of colonialism and neo-colonialism. The results of this study questions how gendered these constructed roles are and what the role and nature of the American nationalist government in Hawai’i.

100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day Statement and Invitation

2010-03-06T12:12:00.001-08:00

Honoring the 100^th Anniversary of International Women’s Day, March 8, 2010

On the 100^th Anniversary of International Women’s day, the O'ahu women of 3^rd Path for Reproductive Justice commemorate and honor the collective cultural survival and wisdom of our female ancestors and she-roes. We know our her-story is a key resource which guides us in our work to secure reproductive justice for ourselves, families, and daughters, aunties, mothers, and grandmothers of Ka Pae `Aina Hawai`i.

On this special day, we continue to stand and hold a vision of reproductive justice: the complete physical, mental, spiritual, political, economic, and social well being of women and girls. And we call you to join us in working towards securing the economic, social, and political power and resources to support women and girls in making healthy decisions about their bodies,their sexuality, and their lives.

Please join us in celebration!

When: March 8, 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm

Where: Ho`oulu `Aina, Kalihi Valley Nature Park, 3659 Kalihi Street,

Honolulu, HI 96819

What: Move the Movement with Adela Chu, Poetry with Darlene, Melanie, Keisha and Angela, and circle time for connection and sisterhood! Come in comfortable, warm clothes!

WHO WE ARE:

As indigenous, immigrant, and local women living in Ka Pae`Aina Hawai`i, we are united in supporting women’s ability to exercise their self determination. In supporting this inalienable human right, we share in Kanaka Maoli’s pursuit of being able to freely determine the political status of the lahui, while simultaneously, acknowledging the ancestral places where Hawai`i residents come from, the places they now live and honoring the historical migrations that bond us all together.

When we began, we started as women working primarily in the field of domestic violence. At that time, we first organized under the Hawaii State Coalition for Domestic Violence as the Women of Color Caucus. In 2009, we recognized the need to also address the violence directed at our communities through marginalization, lack of language access, and unspoken forms of exclusion and exclusivity. We also saw the need to draw critical connections between land and the freedom of women’s bodies--something way beyond the scope that the current DV movement in Hawaii could not address.

Today we have reorganized as the 3^rd Path for Reproductive Justice to expand our coalition and fully address the web of our concerns. We are doulas, child and family advocates, workers in the domestic violence and sexual violence field, students, lawyers, social workers, parents, caregivers to elders, demilitarization activists, marriage equity advocates, artists, mentors, and youth. We welcome you in sisterhood, while sharing and collectively organizing for the above concerns.

I Kareran I Palåbran Måmi (The Journey of Our Words)

2010-02-09T18:46:00.000-08:00

WHAT: I Kareran I Palåbran Måmi (The Journey of Our Words)
WHO: Poets, Angela T. Hoppe-Cruz (MSW/MA Pacific Islands Studies Candidate) & Kisha Borja-Kicho`cho` (MA Pacific Island Studies Candidate). Both women are Chamoru and were born and raised on the island of Guåhan (Guam).
WHERE: University of Hawai`i at Mānoa, Campus Center, Executive Dining Room
WHEN: Friday, February, 12, 2010
TIME: 5:15-8:00pm

We will be reading pieces we have collaborated on as well as our own individual poetry. Much of our work centers on the impact U.S. militarization and colonialism have had on our home island community of Guåhan and the other Micronesian islands, much of which is manifest in social, economic, and environmental injustice. Our work also focuses on Chamoru culture and identity. Immediately following the reading, there will be a facilitated discussion.

Food will be served (sponsored by the UH Marianas Club and C.E.J.E.).

The event is free and open to the public!

Your support is greatly appreciated!

Women Vets of Color Speak Out

2010-01-29T08:54:00.000-08:00

Colorlines, News feature, Michelle Chen, Posted: Aug 02, 2008

Women veterans of color who have returned home from the military. Three of them shared their stories with Colorlines.

WHEN KRISTINA MCCAULEY LOOKS BACK on her time in boot camp, one scene sticks out: she’s standing in the sun as blood flows down her wrist, hoping no one will notice her among the rows of trainees chanting and brandishing bayonets.

Thinking back, she’s not sure why she grabbed her weapon the wrong way during that drill. But when she saw that the bayonet on her rifle had sliced cleanly across her hand, she knew calling for help would only invite her drill sergeants to make her life more miserable.

“I was just standing out there in the heat of the day and bleeding and trying to be quiet about it,” she recalled later in an interview. Soon, a female drill sergeant came over to berate her for her stupidity—as a lesson to the other trainees—and tossed a few bandages at her.

Today, McCauley, a half-Japanese lesbian, has a degree in international peace studies. She’s not your “typical” veteran. As a mixed-race girl with a boyish streak in a straight-laced suburb, McCauley signed up for the military hoping “to belong somewhere.” The service promised respect, power and a chance to test her physical and mental limits.

Today, McCauley, a half-Japanese lesbian, has a degree in international peace studies. She’s not your “typical” veteran. As a mixed-race girl with a boyish streak in a straight-laced suburb, McCauley signed up for the military hoping “to belong somewhere.” The service promised respect, power and a chance to test her physical and mental limits.

But putting on the greens didn’t bring the transformation she had sought. Instead, she discovered the Army’s veneer of uniformity masks deep fault lines of culture, class and sexuality. She eventually emerged from the military’s rigid hierarchy to embrace what she had tried to escape—by reconnecting with her Japanese heritage, coming out to her family and reorienting her political perspective.

“I made a conscious effort to educate myself more deeply,” she said. “I began to study race, sexuality and gender, with a hope to understand my own place in the world more clearly.”

McCauley’s quest resonates throughout the growing ranks of military women of color. Though their decision to enlist is often inspired by hopes of self-empowerment, they may quickly stumble on a landscape of familiar impediments where the rules of race and gender still dictate who fights, who wins and who suffers.

There are about 200,000 active-duty military women today, some 14 percent of the total force, according to federal data. About half of them are women of color. Women of color also now make up around a third of former service members. Of a little more than 1.7 million women veterans nationwide, about 19 percent are Black and 7 percent are Latina. Asian American, Pacific Islander, American Indian and mixed-race women each comprise up to 2 percent or less. Proportionally, people of color comprise a greater share of female veterans than of male veterans.

Women of color, like others, are drawn into the armed forces by both needs and ideals. Some are spurred by patriotism or a desire for adventure; others just want a stable job or money for college. Whatever their economic or social motives, the recruitment rhetoric pushed to youth across the country markets the military as a way out of their current circumstances and on toward where they need to go.
But the soldier’s path leads many women of color back to where they started—to the turbulence and entrenched discrimination besetting their home communities. And for some, the journey veers unexpectedly toward a new political consciousness.

Maricela Guzman, a Latina Navy veteran who now works as a counter-recruitment activist in California, urges youth of color to look past the sales pitch of economic opportunity.

“You’re going to this environment thinking you’re going to make all this money,” she warned, “but you’re going back to a system that is going to keep you down.”

For many young people, spending a 21st birthday in boot camp would be a sobering experience. But Eli PaintedCrow had grown up early; passing a birthday in the Army was one way to ensure her children would spend theirs under better circumstances.

She joined the Army to get off welfare and support her young sons. She also sought a kind of camaraderie she never had growing up in the barrios of San Jose, estranged from her ancestral community, the indigenous Yaqui Nation.

“It really did make me feel like I belonged somewhere and that I could be good at something,” she said.

As a fresh Navy recruit a few weeks into basic training, Maricela Guzman shouldn’t have been surprised to find herself facedown on the floor, frantically doing push-ups. She had not followed proper procedure for addressing a commander in his office—knocking before entering and asking permission to speak. Accordingly, he told her to “drop” as punishment.

But while the penalty was routine, the circumstances were not: she had come to tell him she had been raped.

Before she could say anything, though, she had to repeat the drill to her commander’s satisfaction. “I think it was 20 minutes later after I was able to do it right,” she said. “And I was so numb afterwards that I couldn’t even say anything.”

In the late 1990s, Guzman, a child of Mexican immigrants, was getting back to her education at a Los Angeles community college after leaving high school to work, when a young Black man approached her and told her enthusiastically about the Navy. Guzman researched the military’s education benefits and grilled the recruiter on what the service would be like. In the end, she signed up, confident she wasn’t making her decision blindly.

But she never saw him coming.

One night at boot camp, on watch duty, she recalled, “I passed a dark corner, somebody grabbed me, and I was raped.” Though she only caught a glimpse of her attacker in the darkness, she said, “It had to be one of the drill sergeants. Just the type of uniform that he had.”

Continue reading here.

*****

To read full article, visit: http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=8e5a5122253a424bdedb43fac6acd95f

Constancy & Change: The Movement to Demilitarize Okinawa - from the 1950s to the 21st Century

2010-01-16T12:01:00.000-08:00

Center for Okinawan Studies Lecture Series

"Constancy & Change: The Movement to Demilitarize Okinawa - from
the 1950s to the 21st Century"

Two doctoral students at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa will make presentations on sixty-five years of diverse resistance by the movement to demilitarize Okinawa.

Mami Hayashi's presentation, "Military Bases in Okinawa: A Pressure for Migration," covers the contrast between pre-war and postwar emigration and how a desire to defuse domestic dissent led the pre-Reversion U.S. military and the U.S.-controlled Ryukyu Government to encourage migration from
Okinawa.

Rinda Yamashiro's presentation, "Women's Rights Perspective: A New Direction in the Anti-U.S. Base Movement in Okinawa," draws on empirical research to articulate how the contemporary Okinawan women have engaged in resistance against U.S. military bases.

Presenters:
Mami Hayashi (Ph.D. Student, American Studies)
Rinda Yamashiro (Ph.D. Student, Sociology)
Discussant:
Vincent Pollard (Lecturer, Asian Studies)
Vincent Pollard teaches in the Asian Studies Program and conducts research on anti-bases movements.

Date:
January 21, 2010 (Thursday)

Time:
3:00-4:30 pm

Location:
Center for Korean Studies Auditorium

Event is free and open to the public.
For more information, contact Center for Okinawan Studies, tel. 956-0902 /
956-5754
For disability access, please contact the Center for Okinawan Studies.
University of Hawai'i at M?noa
An Equal Opportunity/ Affirmative Action Institution
website: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~pollard/conference.html

Guam says "No Deal!"

2010-01-09T12:50:00.000-08:00

From email message by K Kajihiro on listserve ~

The U.S. military currently is conducting public hearings on its draft environmental impact statement for its military buildup in Guam and the Northern Marianas islands. At the first hearing, residents overwhelmingly opposed the plan. Here is a powerful testimony by prophet-poet Melvin Won Pat-Borja, a former mentor with YouthSpeaks Hawai’i who now teaches in Guam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzmXU6u5CTE
Description from the YouTube page:

Melvin Won Pat-Borja, representing the community organization “We Are Guahan” presents his official testimony against the U.S. Military’s plans to transfer thousands of marines from Okinawa to Guam. The Department of Defense has published a draft of the Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) detailing their plans. The DEIS is about 11,000 pages long, and the public only has until February 17, 2010 to submit comments on the document.
“We Are Guahan” is a group of community members dedicated to reading and disseminating information in the DEIS to the public, including details of the devastating effects of the military buildup on the island’s culture, water sources, coral reefs and marine habitats, family lands, historical and archeological sites, and social environment. Furthermore, despite common belief that the buildup will benefit Guam’s economy, the DEIS reveals that majority of new jobs and contracts will be given to off-island workers and companies.
Most importantly, the U.S. military’s decision is a blatant violation of human rights for Guam’s residents, who have not been allowed to participate in any aspect of the buildup plans. “We Are Guahan” encourages everyone, in and outside of Guam, to stay informed about the military buildup! Read the EIS and make your voice heard! You can submit comments online, by mail, or in person at public hearings.
For more information, please visit www.WeAreGuahan.com.

Living Along the Fenceline: Women Resisting Militarism and Creating a Culture of Life

2009-12-03T00:29:00.001-08:00

This powerful documentary tells stories of women from communities around the world which "host" long-term US military bases. These women and their families have personally suffered the tragic hidden costs of US military bases to their environment, health, land and personal safety. This beautiful film, produced by Women for Genuine Security and directed by award-winning filmmaker, Lina Hoshino, captures seven wome's courageous stories of transformation as they emerge as inspiring leaders who create hope, change and genuine security for their people.

Hawaii Premiere:

Friday, Dec. 4, 6:30PM
Harris United Methodist Church, Miyama Hall
(Corner of Nu'uanu and Vineyard, Honolulu)

Suggested donation: $5-10 (no one turned away)
Proceeds going to completing Hawaii segment.

contact rev.deb.lee[at]gmail.com

Statement of the PWNPS on the Maguindanao Massacre

2009-11-28T00:21:00.000-08:00

The Philippine Women's Network for Peace and Security (PWNPS) condemns in the strongest possible terms the perpetrators of what is now referred to as the Maguindanao Massacre. Never in the most recent history of this bloodied nation have we seen this brutality of carnage, all for a possibility of a three year term as an official of this land!

As the figures continue to rise as bodies continue to be unearthed from the wasteland called Sharif Aguak, the municipality where more than 60 maimed and dismembered bodies of women, men and children have been recovered, we grieve and clench our fist in solidarity with the families and friends of those who died in this unbelievable massacre. As Fr. Jun Mercado (OMI) wrote:

"November 23rd is now etched in the history of the province as the day of shameless ignominy. On that day, a convoy of the women folks of the Mangudadatu clan accompanied by media people and their women lawyers on their way to the Capitol of the Province in Sharif Aguak municipality was stopped by PNP forces with hundreds of armed civilian volunteer organizations (under the command of the PNP) along the national highway in Ampatuan municipality. The convoy was directed to take the farm road leading to a deep hole meant to be the mass grave of the entire members of the convoy and also the other vehicles that happened to follow the convoy...

"... This COMELEC decision [to transfer its satellite office in Sharif Aguak and the requirement to file the certificates of candidacy in the `capitol' ] has forced the Mangudadatu to go into the heartland of the Ampatuan clan. The Vice Mayor Toto Mangudadatu decided to go and file his certificate of candidacy. But he was prevailed upon by the mother to let the women do the filing… The mother and the religious leaders believed that an all-women delegation accompanied by media people and women lawyers would be respected. Islam strongly enjoins believers to respect women and children even during times of war."

We were all wrong. Even in "peace time", women are not given dignity. In Islam where women and children are supposedly not to be harmed even in war, the massacre showed us that the murderers had no heart, no soul to follow this revered moral and religious tradition.

To date, except for the supposed "voluntary surrender" of one Ampatuan guy, which was done in the most civil, kids' gloved manner, no one has been charged. Despite all the bravura of announcements upon announcements from Malacañang calling for justice for the victims, no one has been able to tell the Filipino people who masterminded the massacre. Despite the presence of the backhoe officially traced to the local government offices. "Circumstantial evidence", says our officials and probers. Cannot hold water in court, they say in haste even before any proper and genuine investigation could happen. How could they think that all Filipinos are naive or stupid!

It appears, as eyewitness accounts slowly come out, that the "grave" meant to hold people and vehicle, had been dug days before.
More than 20 journalists were killed. Women and children from the Mangudadatu clan are dead. Two women lawyers, Concepcion “Connie” Brizuela 56, and Cynthia Oquendo 35, died. How many more bodies does Malacanang want to have to begin in earnest, and with deep respect for the victims' families and the entire nation, arresting the mastermind and the implementers of this crime!

On November 29th, women's organizations and human rights group commemorate the fourth International Day for Women Human Rights Defenders and anniversary of the First International Consultation on Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs), organized in 2005 by several human rights organizations in SriLanka. From November 25 to December 10 is the global commemoration of the “16 Days of Activism Campaign to Eliminate Violence against Women and Children”. On December 10, the world celebrates International Human Rights Day.

With the Maguindanao Massacre, these commemorations are more deeply felt and assume greater significance. These in fact are not simply events to remember; these are the gruesome reminders that despite the modernity of our civilization, uncivilized evil reside in our midst.

The GMA Administration must take full responsibility for the Maguindanao Massacre. The blood of the victims lay on the doors of Malacañang.

Justice for the victims of the Maguindanao Massacre!
Justice for our journalists and media people!
Justice for our Women Human Rights Defenders!
Justice for the Filipino people!

November 28, 2009
WeDpro, Inc.
PWNPS Secretariat
Ref: wedprophils1989@yahoo.com; admin.wedprophils.org

Here is a petition that lists demands for justice for the Ampuatan massacre!

Sign Strike against impunity, Strike for Peace and Democracy Petition here:

http://www.petitiononline.com/Ampatuan/petition.html

Obama's Denuclearization Policy in N. Korea

2009-11-15T10:16:00.000-08:00

Sung-Hee of No Base Stories of Korea shares information on President Obama's policy regarding North Korea's denuclearization.

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/11/text-fwd-obama-warns-n-korea-of.html
Friday, November 13, 2009
Text Fwd: Obama warns N. Korea of continued sanctions unless it denuclearizes

But, I just want to remind us how Obama has threatened the North Korea and the world.

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/09/text-fwd-us-braces-for-possible-nuke.html
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Text Fwd: 'US Braces for Possible Nuke War With NK'

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/11/text-fwd-print-conversation-print-open.html
Friday, November 13, 2009
Text Fwd: Obama to Retain "Nuclear Overkill" Capacity

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/11/video-fwd-who-threatens-peace-north.html

And how about his pressure to South Korea(re-dispatch) and Japan (fund) for the war in Afghanistan? Koreans had a rally yesterday. Even though I need more compensation in it.

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/11/koreans-protest-no-re-dispatch-to.html

Otherwise, I was informed the excellent video today. It is a must-see video! A Gift from Malaysia!

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/11/video-fwd-war-crimes-multimedia.html

Healing from the Center: Decolonizing the Self and our Communities.

2009-11-05T20:22:00.000-08:00

Healing is a process of taking back control for our selves, our communities and the land. This conference is a way for participants to deal with different forms of violence that are the results of colonization and to move forward. Real healing begins from the center of each individual and is created through dialogue that changes how we relate to one another while working to decolonize our selves in hope of a better world.

Keynotes: Monisha Das Gupta, Ha`aheo Guanson, Kaleo Patterson

Workshops featuring women activists: Terri Keko`olani, Angela Cruz, Kisha Borja, Grace Caligtan, Jennifer Rose, and many, many more!

Workshop Topics: (see below)

Featuring Workshops as follows:
1) Pacific Women and Demilitarization Struggles
--Perspectives from women activists on organizing strategies, political analysis, personal and spiritual insights on demilitarization and decolonization work at various sites in the Pacific, especially with respect to environmental, economic, political, and cultural sovereignty and justice.

2) Strategic Storytelling
--Situating and practicing the use of narrative and the sharing of our personal/political stories in order to create social change and foster intergenerational, multidimensional levels of healing, reconciliation, recovery of genealogies, and the creation of new possibilities.

3) Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Human Trafficking: Transnational Perspectives on Violence Against Women
--Creative, locally-based, grassroots analyses and strategies of social change and the transformation of social norms impacting gender-based violence, and violence against women as it manifests within and between national/international borders.

4) Race, Poverty, and the Law
--Critical perspectives identifying the intersections of race, class, and gender subordination in specific communities, especially with respect to the role of the state, the law, and other institutions of power in exploiting these intersections in ways that concretely and severely affect women in communities of color in very specific ways.

5) Environmental Justice
--Context-specific analysis and strategies on achieving environmental justice in the midst of conditions of pervasive militarism and a highly unequal capitalist economic system in illegally occupied Hawaii.

"Healing from the Center: Decolonizing the Self & Our Communities"

Conference hosted by the Collective for Equality, Justice & Empowerment

Saturday, November 14, 2009

9 am - 2 pm
Lunch Provided!!!

Location: UH Manoa, Hemenway Courtyard (a.k.a. Manoa Gardens, or Ba-le)

Website: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~ceje

Website at http://sites.google.com/site/cejesite/

Email: ceje@hawaii.edu

2009-11-05T20:13:00.000-08:00

Below are videos of the "I Maga`Haga" Conference which was held on Guahan a while back in response to the U.S. military buildup. This particular conference was composed of a group of Chamoru women, i maga`haga of Guahan. We should all become more aware about what's happening in our islands and to our people and know what some of our people are doing in speaking out against this injustice - Kisha

The parallels that the women speaking draw between health, economics and environmental impact is the shared story of our Pacific Island brothers and sisters -Hawai`i, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Belau and Republic of the Marshall Islands. - Anghet

Musas Desprovistas

2009-11-04T17:26:00.000-08:00

Women in Puerto Rico resist the privatization of their government, which is cutting public services, such as the Office of Women's Affairs

Women at War

2009-10-21T08:14:00.001-07:00

October 21, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor

By PAULA BROADWELL
One ill-informed social norm that has stymied U.S. effectiveness in counterinsurgency operations relates to the efficacy of having female military personnel serving on the frontline. While many women in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown their ability to use force, one particular group exemplifies how women are essential to winning local hearts and minds. The apparent success of the Marine Corps Female Engagement Teams, or F.E.T.’s — first established last February in Afghanistan — illustrates that the odds of success significantly improve when we use these forces to establish bonds with the other half of Afghanistan’s population — its women.

The F.E.T. units are comprised of female marines with various operational specialties who conduct liaison work with Afghan women in remote villages. Their assignments range from searching women at checkpoints to running medical clinics to their core mission of engaging rural Pashtun women, often in their homes.

According to a September Marine Corps After Action Review, the teams have been most effective when Afghans perceive their intent as one of establishing a relationship of mutual trust and interest, rather than one of gathering intelligence. They often are welcomed into village homes while dressed in military drab and headscarves. Afghans purportedly view these American women as a “third gender” — female marines are extended the respect shown to men, but granted the access reserved for women. This access has shown the Americans that indigenous women wield significant influence with their husbands, brothers and, especially, their adolescent sons. The presence of F.E.T.’s sends a strong signal of peaceful engagement to local villages. As one village elder put it, “Your men come to fight, but we know the women are here to help.”

Employing women directly on the front lines in this manner may be critical to meeting our objectives. However, significant impediments inhibit the engagement teams from having a broader impact: The Defense Department’s ground combat policy that excludes women, the ad hoc nature of the teams, and the readiness and quantity of available female troops and qualified Pashto linguists.

The Defense Department’s most recent version of the “ground combat exclusion policy,” established in 1994, states: “Service members are eligible to be assigned to all positions for which they are qualified, except that women shall be excluded from assignment to units below the brigade level whose primary mission is to engage in direct combat on the ground.” The policy goes on to define “direct combat” as “engaging an enemy on the ground with individual or crew served weapons, while being exposed to hostile fire and to a high probability of direct physical contact with hostile force’s personnel.

“Direct ground combat takes place well forward on the battlefield while locating and closing with the enemy to defeat them by fire, maneuver, and shock effect.”

However, the persistent threat of counterinsurgencies combined with evidence of women’s proven effectiveness in such situations serve as powerful reasons for updating the law.

The U.S. military’s Central Command recently published a “Memorandum of Law Concerning Women in Combat Support Operations.” It explicitly condones the use of the F.E.T.’s. The Defense Department’s general counsel is scheduled to consider the matter in the near future.

For now, these F.E.T. initiatives are confined to the Marines and there are relatively few women available for these jobs — only 6 percent of Marine Corps personnel are women. Moreover, given the ad hoc nature of the teams — F.E.T. members have “day jobs,” serving as logisticians or intelligence officers or in other vital positions — their commanders are often understandably reticent to give up an individual for an additional duty.

While their efforts pay high yields for the military, the missions are hazardous: F.E.T. convoys have been the target of I.E.D.’s and enemy rifle fire. To prepare for such missions, female marines must find time to pursue supplemental training — in immediate action drills, search techniques and cultural nuances — beyond their own operational specialty. Fortunately, the success of the peaceful engagement teams has created incentives to establish improved training for team members, although the dearth of women Pashto translators remains a critical problem.

The success of the F.E.T. initiative illustrates how the Marine Corps is adapting to the counterinsurgency threat in an innovative way. Now it is time for Defense Department to adapt its regulations as well.

Paula Broadwell, a former U.S. Army officer, is a research associate at The Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University and a board member of Women in International Security.

CONFERENCE STATEMENT INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S NETWORK AGAINST MILITARISM

2009-10-04T20:05:00.000-07:00

September 27, 2009

With the theme “Resistance, Resilience and Respect for Human Rights” [CHinemma', Nina'maolek, yan Inarespetu para Direchon Taotao], the International Women’s Network Against Militarism concluded its 7th International Women’s Conference held in Guam on September 14-19, 2009. Participants from Australia, Belau, Chuuk, Guahan, Hawai’i, Japan, Okinawa, Northern Marianas Islands, Palau, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, South Korea and mainland United States, took notice of the increasing militarization in their countries and its impact on the socio-cultural, political, economic and environmental aspects particularly on women and their communities. Country reports as well as panel presentations showed the pattern of militarization in said countries, as well as in other parts of the world. Some reports also emphasized the relationship between militarism and colonialism and called attention to the negative effects of such relationship.

The US military’s ‘global defense posture” means more military intervention by seeking more access to more territories through “visiting” agreements, basing agreements, expansion of bases and waging both conventional and unconventional wars, thus undermining the sovereignty of peoples, denying them of their right to self-determination and of their patrimony.

Amidst global financial and economic crises that has shaken the whole world and the global superpowers led by the US and aided by its allies in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia and Japan, military build ups in the region continue. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which have claimed thousands of lives especially from the civilian populations, are continuing. Apart from creating a culture of violence that especially affect women, youth and the elderly, environmental impacts have been noted by the participants, contributing significantly to the destruction of indigenous societies and global climate change. War exercises and trainings continue, in the name of the “anti-terrorism” campaigns in many parts of the world, particularly with former colonies in the Asia-Pacific region. We are aware that the legitimate actions against terrorist acts against the civilian populations are necessary, but must not be used as a pretext to justify military interventions that in the end terrorize civilian populations and create a culture of violence.

The US government in its realignment plan is expanding military power in Asia-Pacific, including the relocation plan of 8,000 Marines and their 9,000 dependents from Okinawa to Guahan that would go with building a new military facility in Okinawa. The meeting denounced this military expansion package plan in either place, and is firm in standing in solidarity with the Guahan people. The meeting forwards the following demands:

We ask women of “host” countries to push their governments to send foreign troops back to the US.
We urge the American people especially women to urge the US government for policies that respect the sovereignty of other countries and denounce the continuing wars of aggression and for demilitarization; instead the US government and its superpower allies to rechanneling a big portion of their military budgets towards health programs for its peoples especially women and children, for livelihood programs and secured jobs, and for the general welfare of their citizens.

Stop the expansion of bases in Guahan and other parts of the world!
End all military agreements that support US military hegemony!
Demand US responsibility to clean up the toxic wastes they left behind in the Philippines and Puerto Rico.
Pull out US troops from the Philippines and other countries!

Typhoons and Tsunami in the Pacific: How To Respond

2009-09-30T23:26:00.000-07:00

News on grassroots relief efforts on the Typhoon and Tsunami sweeping across the Pacific are being built at this website:

http://www.genuinesecurity.org/actions/okinawa2007.html#typhoonondoy

As these changes are sweeping across the Eastern Pacific, we are collecting information about any news, information, relief efforts that want to be circulated. Please contact wvws808 (at) yahoo (dot) com.

The Day of the Tsunami
By Sia Fiegel
New York Times, September 30, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/opinion/01figiel.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Fatalities Increase After Earthquakes in Samoa, Indonesia
By VOA News
30 September 2009

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-09-30-voa22.cfm

Asia typhoon toll 350, floods in Vietnam, Cambodia (Reuters)
Posted on 30. Sep, 2009 by Yahoo! News: Weather News in Weather, World
http://www.newslish.com/2009/09/asia-typhoon-toll-350-floods-in-vietnam-cambodia-reuters/

The Insular Empire: America in the Marianas

2009-09-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

Follow The Insular Empire's Blog at http://theinsularempire.blogspot.com/.

RENEGOTIATE OR TERMINATE THE VISITING FORCES AGREEMENT

2009-09-23T21:31:00.000-07:00

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiage questions if the Visiting Forces Agreement should continue to be enforced by the Philippine legislature.

By Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago
Chair, Legislative Oversight Committee on the VFA
(Sponsorship speech on 16 September 2009)

Mr. President, distinguished colleagues:

On behalf of the Legislative Oversight Committee on the Visiting Forces Agreement (LOVFA), Senate panel, I have the honor to seek approval of Senate Resolution No. 1356, entitled “Resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that the Department of Foreign Affairs should seek to renegotiate the Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States, and in case of denial, should give notice of termination of the VFA.”

Constitution Bans Foreign Military Presence

After the Marcos rule, the renewal of the country’s constitutional regime prioritized the supreme concern of putting an end to foreign military presence, and an end to the continuity of US hegemony. Thus, the Constitution, Article 18, Section 25 provides in part: “Foreign military bases, troops, or facilities shall not be allowed in the Philippines, except under a treaty duly concurred in by the Senate, and . . . recognized as a treaty by the other contracting State.”

This supreme concern to free the country’s armed forces from the control of a foreign power intended to transform the AFP into a real backbone of Philippine sovereignty, instead of the hired spine of a foreign sovereign. The prospect of realizing the program of AFP modernization generated considerable expectation of independence right in the AFP itself.

But the advent of the VFA spelled the restoration of the AFP dependence on America. Hence, the fate of modernization has ceased to be a politically appropriate topic in civilized circles.

2009 Supreme Court Case: Doctrinal Confusion

In the 2009 case of Nicolas v. Romulo, the Supreme Court held, by a split vote of 9-4, that the VFA is constitutional. The dissenters were led by no less than Chief Justice Puno, who began by saying: “This slur on our sovereignty cannot continue, especially if we are the ones perpetuating it.”

As a student of constitutional law, I humbly submit that the Nicolas ruling suffers from doctrinal confusion, and that it will not stand the test of time. I pointed out earlier that the Philippine Constitution requires that foreign military bases, troops, or facilities shall not be allowed in the Philippines, except under a treaty recognized as a treaty by the other contracting State.

Has the US government recognized the VFA as a treaty? The answer is no.

The US Constitution provides that the US President has the power to make treaties, but only “by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur.”1 Has the VFA been concurred in by two-thirds of the US Senate? The answer is no.

The Nicolas majority opinion claimed that the VFA was submitted to the US Senate. This is misleading. The VFA was submitted as a compliance with an American law called the Case-Zablocki Act. This Act requires the US President, through the Secretary of State, to transmit to the US Congress, the international agreements entered into by the US government, or by its officials or agencies, which are not characterized as treaties. Thus, the US government does not characterize the VFA as a treaty. Therefore, the VFA, since it does not comply with the requirement of the RP Constitution, is unconstitutional and void in our country.

But because of the Nicolas opinion, the VFA is now part of the law of the land, to use RP constitutional language. By contrast, since the VFA is not characterized as a treaty in the US, it is not the supreme law of the land, to use US constitutional language. The US does not consider the VFA as a treaty, and it certainly does not consider the VFA as a self-executing treaty. Thus, US courts are not necessarily bound by it, because the US government considers the VFA as a mere executive agreement.

VFA Void for Vagueness

In the language of constitutional law, the VFA is void for vagueness, because it fails to define the terms “visit”, “temporary”, and “military activities.” Under the vagueness doctrine, it is impermissible for a statute to delegate basic policy matters to administrators, to such a degree as to lead to arbitrary and discriminatory application.

a. No Definition of “Visit”

Filipino political leaders involved in the signature and ratification of the Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States (VFA) appear to have limited themselves to the title of the VFA, and never bothered to explain the term “visit” in the text. They gave the impression that under the VFA, the US military forces would be just “visiting”.

The document is officially titled: “Agreement between the government of the Republic of the Philippines and the government of the United States of America regarding the treatment of US armed forces visiting the Philippines.” But there is no definition of a visit.

Before the VFA was signed by the two governments, President Ramos described the VFA as intended for military exercises of US and Philippine forces. Endorsing the VFA for Senate concurrence, President Estrada emphasized in his press statements that the VFA pertained only to “military exercises”. Then Secretary of Foreign Affairs Siazon, who signed the VFA for the Philippines, expressed himself more clearly: “The VFA only speaks of American military forces who come to the country to conduct joint military exercises with Philippine troops.”2 Deliberate or not, these pronouncements, authoritative as they are, give a false or even deceptive impression of the VFA.

b. No Definition of “Temporary”

The VFA, Article 1 titled “Definitions” does not define what is “temporary.” It merely states: “’US personnel’ means US military and civilian personnel temporarily in the Philippines.”

Black’s Law Dictionary, 8th edition 2004, defines “visit” in international law as a naval officer’s boarding of an ostensibly neutral merchant vessel from another state to exercise the right of search. The same law dictionary defines “temporary” as continuing for a limited (usually short) time.

The Oxford Dictionary of Law, 6th edition 2006, defines “visiting forces” as: “forces from abroad, including their civilian components.” It does not bother to define “temporary.”

In the absence of conventional dictionary definitions of the words “visit” and “temporary” as terms of international law, it becomes necessary to define these terms in any international agreement. When the VFA failed to define these terms, then the failure to do so was done willfully and in bad faith. These undefined terms are each a lacuna, a blank space. These lacunae in substantive information are purposely devious, in order to allow the US forces to stay indefinitely in our country.

Thus, built into the VFA is a mechanism of flexibility that can deploy the US military forces in Philippine territory in a broad spread of strategic purposes, making the VFA an omnibus of US military presence of various forms and of varying objectives.

The history of the Senate contains certain defining moments, and one of them was Senate rejection of a new proposed agreement for the retention of the US military bases. But that defining moment appears to have been blurred, if not erased, by the VFA, which restores US military presence in our country.

c. No Definition of “Activities”

The political leadership that has given a deceptive description of the VFA as designed only for “military exercises” will be put to shame by their own reading of the VFA text, which NEVER uses the term “military exercise”. The Preamble merely states: “Reaffirming their obligations under the Mutual Defense Treaty of 30 August 1951.” By contrast, the text of the VFA uses the term “activities,” without defining it or setting its limits.

Although the “activities” of US military forces under the VFA are unbounded, not one office or agency of the Philippine government – including the Senate – has ever raised the fundamental issue as to the magnitude of US military presence that the VFA allows. Similarly, the unlimited “activities” that the Philippine government may approve under the VFA has not been publicly discussed. And yet, the determination of the true nature and extent of the VFA hinges on what “activities” are contemplated by its object and purpose.

The VFA, Article 1, makes mention of “activities approved by the Philippine Government,” which may justify the presence of United States military and civilian personnel in the Philippines. Under Article 3 (1), the Philippine Government is under duty to facilitate the admission of US personnel into the Philippines “in connection with activities covered by this agreement”. What “activities” are subject to approval by the Philippine Government; and what are the “activities covered by this agreement” are questions that determine the nature, purpose, scope, and frequency of “visits” that actualize the US military presence.

The result is that the VFA, in circumvention of the prohibition against foreign military presence under the Constitution, opens the way to all forms of military activities of the US forces in Philippine territory, short of establishing a permanent military base.

Strategy of Forward Operating Bases

It must be emphasized that following the end of the Cold War with the implosion of the Soviet Union, the United States shifted its strategic policy from maintaining a permanent military base. It could be that changing power relations may require basing arrangements, in particular because of the emergence of an Enemy State, in sharpening conflict situations that may develop in US-China relations. But that is for the future.

For the present, the US policy is in favor of flexible military responses toward the development of “hybrid warfare” that calls for quick mobilization of small specially trained contingents, directed to specific incidents. This is also called “crisis response, rapid deployment unit”.

These are part of the new American military strategy of fighting so-called asymmetrical wars. Under this new lexicon, US forces establish Cooperative Security Locations where they pre-position logistical support. The Americans keep these locations small to avoid detection, but are prepared to convert them into larger military bases, when it becomes necessary.

Under cover of the VFA, the US in effect operates these mobile and flexible forward operating bases. These bases are not limited to training and capacity building. They go further by allegedly providing “logistical and intelligence support.” This term is so broad that under US interpretation, it allows actual immersion in combat operations.3

An American writer, in an article in the publication Atlantic Monthly, said:4

There is high probability as well as existing accounts that the US forces are engaged in combat operations. The US Institute for Peace, a US government funded institution, describes the role of the US forces deployed in Mindanao in its February 2008 report. The deployment of US forces in Mindanao was not for humanitarian missions or civic actions, but for specific military objectives.

US Task Force Engages in Combat

Two categories of military activities under the VFA have been established:

· The regular joint military exercises, which require temporary stay of US forces for the duration of each joint exercise; and

· The Joint Special Operations Task Force Philippines (JSOTF-P), here known as Task Force. The Task Force is intended to target “terrorists”, i.e. the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which are both listed by the US Department of State as “foreign terrorist organizations”. By its nature, the Task Forces, such as the JSOTF-P, normally operate in war zones as US instruments in its “global war against terror”.

The first commander of the Task Force, Col. David Maxwell, has clearly implied that combat operations are part of its business. He wrote in a military review journal this jaw-dropping example of constitutional illiteracy: 5

The deployment of U.S. troops was contentious in-country, because the local press asserted that U.S. forces could not legally participate in combat operations. However, a correct reading of the Philippine Constitution reveals that it prohibits only the stationing of foreign forces in the Philippines… The Constitution does not prohibit combat operations and provides an exception to this if there is a treaty in force and a treaty has been in force between the two countries since 1951. (Emphasis added.)

Newspaper reports, internet sources, and US military accounts indicate that through the Task Force, US forces are engaged in unconventional warfare and combat operations. Col. Maxwell has described the Task Force that he once led as conducting operations “under the guise of an exercise”. 6 It is widely believed too, through US and Philippine sources, that US forces have established small-scale military bases in Zamboanga City and Sulu.

Detailed accounts of US military presence in the Philippines are too extensive to be treated in a short sponsorship speech. Accordingly, I am prepared with an Annex “A” that gives a sampling of the sources available, in particular from US military accounts.

Adding to the expansive meaning of the term “activities” as used in the VFA, US Defense Secretary William Cohen once declared that the VFA would enable US ships to have port calls or regular calls, aside from military training. In the period April 2001 to October 2007, more than 50 US warships entered Philippine territory and docked in various parts of the Philippine archipelago.7

Mutual Defense Treaty Irrelevant

Since this Senate failed to raise the fundamental issue as to the scope or magnitude of US military forces under the VFA, what “activities” have been performed in practice in the course of the VFA implementation?

By decision of the Mutual Defense Board, the US-RP Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) has been retooled into an anti-terrorism instrument, presumably on the basis of agreement between President Bush and President Arroyo. Quite remote from the object and purpose of the MDT, anti-terrorist activities have assumed a formal vehicle in MDT.

This gives the impression that the anti-terrorism measures by US military forces in Philippine territory are being carried out as a matter of treaty obligation on the part Philippine government. Thus, there would be no need of a separate agreement on combating international terrorism, and consequently there would be no need of Senate approval through constitutional concurrence. It is under the US policy against terrorism that the US-RP joint military exercises have been conducted through the years, such as the Balikatan exercises.

It is routinely argued that the 1998 VFA merely implements the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty. These two instruments are 50 years apart. How could the RP and the US provide in 1951 for the problem of terrorism in 1998? And if this agreement is to be taken seriously, why is there no mention of the Mutual Defense Treaty in the text of the VFA? The MDT is only mentioned in the Preamble.

The Philippine Supreme Court considers that the preamble is not an essential part of a statute: “The preamble can neither expand nor restrict its operation, much less prevail over its text. Nor can a preamble be used as basis for giving a statute a meaning not apparent on its face.”8

In any event, the MDT merely declares in Article 4: “Each party recognizes that an armed attack in the Pacific area or either of the parties would be dangerous to its own peace and safety, and declares that it would act to meet the common dangers in accordance with its constitutional processes.”

Thus, the MDT is irrelevant to the VFA. There is no armed attack against the Philippines; what we have in Mindanao is an insurgency. In case of armed attack in the Philippines, US response would not be automatic, but would have to undergo US constitutional processes, whatever the Americans will conceive it to be.

If China launches an armed attack against the Philippines over ownership claims to the Spratleys, will the US come to the aid of the Philippines? No. During this year’s visit to the Philippines, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates was quoted as saying: “There are a number of security challenges and obvious concerns on conflicting claims in the South China Sea. The US takes no position on these claims.”9

But in realpolitik, Gates was merely saying that the US at this time cannot afford to antagonize the US. China has bought US treasury bonds worth US$1 trillion. These so-called treasuries are documents of loans borrowed by the US. Hence, the US owes US$1 trillion to China.

Benefits Are Illusory

The Philippines is not even among the Top Ten Military Aid Recipients of the US compiled by the Center for Public Integrity three years after the 9-11 bombings of the Twin Towers in New York.10 The following list uses round figures:

1. Israel - $ 9 B

2. Egypt - $ 6 B

3. Pakistan - $ 4.6 B

4. Jordan - $ 2.6 B

5. Afghanistan - $ 2.6 B

6. Colombia - $ 2 B

7. Turkey - $ 1 B

8. Peru - $445.8 M

9. Bolivia - $320.6 M

10. Poland - $313 M

From Malacañang, the VFA Commission has produced the following list of financial aid from the US, as follows:

Foreign Military Financing since 1999 - US$250 M

Foreign Military Sales 2001-07 - 76.5 M

Excess Defense Articles 1999-2007 - 76.7 M

The US calls the Philippines as a major non-NATO ally, but treats us like a shabby country cousin. In return for the VFA, what we receive is paltry, mostly in the form of Excess Defense Articles, in other words, US military junk. According to the Federation of American Scientists: “Not wanting to pay the cost of things or destroying the surplus, the US Department of Defense dispenses most of it for free, or at deep reduction through the excess defense articles (EDA) program.”

It is said that despite years of American military aid to the Philippines, the AFP remains the most poorly equipped in Asia. Paano, akala natin bibigyan tayo ng Amerikano ng pampagara, yon pala, ukay-ukay ang inabot natin!

Conclusion

This Senate should at best express the desire of the thinking Filipino to renegotiate or else terminate the VFA, for the following reasons:

1. It violates the Philippine Constitution, which provides that the US as the other contracting state should have recognized the VFA as a treaty, not as a mere executive agreement.

2. The VFA, to use a constitutional law term, is void for vagueness, in that it fails to define the crucial terms “visit”, “temporary,” and “activities.”

3. The Supreme Court opinion in the 2009 case of Nicolas v. Romulo suffers from doctrinal confusion.

4. American military forces constitute so-called forward operating bases.

5. Only the preamble, not the text, of the VFA mentions the ancient Mutual Defense Treaty, which does not even provide for automatic US help in case of actual attack on the Philippines.

6. The alleged financial benefits under VFA for the most part constitutes US military junk.

7. The VFA is a failure, because after 10 years, the AFP has not modernized sufficiently to keep up with our Asian neighbors, and the terrorist groups are still active.

To top it all, on 21 August 2009, the New York Times reported: “Defense Sec. Robert M. Gates has decided to keep an elite 600-troop counterinsurgency operation deployed in the Philippines.” Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, this unilateral statement, issued with the usual American military hubris, without consultation and without the consent of the proper Philippine authorities, is no less than an act of provocation against our sovereign country. Please, President Obama, say it’s not true.

And please, ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, do not continue to look the other way, because history is looking us straight in the face. We have tried the VFA for ten years and found it wanting. It is not for this Senate to determine the life expectancy of the VFA. That power belongs to the Philippine President. Therefore, at the very least, this Senate should ask the executive branch of government either to renegotiate or to terminate the VFA.

For, as the immortal Justice Holmes said: “It must be remembered that in quite as great a degree as the courts, legislatures are the ultimate guardian of the liberties and welfare of the people.”

-End-

FOOTNOTES

1 US Constitution, Art. 2, Sec. 2.

2 With sources from M. M. Magallona, Legal Issues in the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement, U.P. Law Center, 1998, p.1.

3 John Hendren, “Rebels shoot at US Troops in the Philippines,” Los Angeles Times, 18 June 2002.

4 Robert D. Kaplan, “Imperial Grunts,” Atlantic Monthly, October 2008, available online.

5 Military Review Journal, May-June 2004, as quoted in Focus on the Global South, Unconventional Warfare, No. 1 January 2007, pp. 8-10.

6 Focus on the Global South, At the Door of All the East, No. 2, November 2002, pp. 60-61.

7 International Herald Tribune, 4 August 1998.

8 People v. Garcia, 85 Phil. 663 (1950).

9 Ellen Tordesillas, June 2009 online.

10 Center for Philippine Integrity, “Collateral Danger: Human Rights and US Military Aid After 9/11,” issued 22 May 2007 online.

Guam Faces Americanisation

2009-09-20T16:03:00.001-07:00

Read reports from the 7th International Women's Network Against Militarism gathering in Guam at genuinesecurity.blogspot.com.

Na Wahine Koa (Women Warriors)

2009-09-11T18:44:00.001-07:00

Activist poetry of Summer Nemeth speaking in resistance to the militarization of Hawaii.

Read the poem here.

Also, see a Video Montage of Mokapu created by Terri Keko'olani.

Watch our ways of preserving and transmitting our knowledge through binding our own books of poetry.

Watch Mapping Histories, points in time that link people's experience and resistance across the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific.

Writing our Herstory

2009-09-09T03:47:00.000-07:00

As we move forward to the 7th IWNAM meeting in Guam, we have updated our blog to present the herstory of WVWS.

Read about our participation in the previous IWNAM meetings.
5th Meeting in the Philippines
6th Meeting in the Bay Area U.S.
and read news about the upcoming
7th Meeting in Guam

Be part of IWNAM Guam Meeting at genuinesecurity.blogspot.com

2009-09-07T14:20:00.000-07:00

To read up on topics being discussed at the 7th International Women's Network Against Militarism meeting happening in Guam, this September 2009, visit genuinesecurity.blogspot.com.

A reversal of 1991: Bayan slams "permanent presence and combat functions" of US troops in RP

2009-08-23T14:42:00.000-07:00

News Release
August 22, 2009

For all intents and purposes, US troops have been based in the Philippines since 2002 sans any basing treaty, in violation of the Philippine Constitution. They have been engaged in other activities that go against the Constitution. Eighteen years after the Philippine Senate rejected a new bases treaty with the US, the American forces are again well entrenched in the country.

This was the reaction made by the umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan amid news reports from the New York Times that some 600 American troops will be retained in Mindanao, according to US Defense Secretary Robert Gates.Bayan accused Arroyo of single-handedly reversing the gains of the 1991 bases treaty rejection.

“The retention of US troops in the Philippines is an affront to our sovereignty, disguised as some questionable humanitarian mission. They have based themselves in the Philippines, particularly in Camp Navarro in Zamboanga since 2002, without any basing treaty. There’s not even a time frame for the deployment. It’s open ended. It could be forever,” said Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr.

“Under the regime of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, US troops are no longer just visitors. They are now permanently deployed here, 365 days a year, 24/7. The Visiting Forces Agreement covers the supposedly the temporary stay of American forces, but these US troops have been here seven years now. These US troops in Mindanao are also operating outside the Balikatan exercises or any other training program for that matter,” Reyes added.

Bayan said that the continued presence of foreign troops, even if only 600, sets a dangerous precedent. “The US troops might decide to stay longer. They might decide to deploy more troops, maybe thousands. What’s to stop them from doing that? What’s to stop them from setting up de facto bases in Mindanao?” Reyes said.

The militant group said that it will raise before the Supreme Court these new developments as part of their petition to declare the VFA unconstitutional. Bayan along with Gabriela and Bayan Muna were among the petitioners questioning the validity of the VFA.

“What we know is that 1) the American troops have overstayed, beyond the period supposedly contemplated by the VFA, 2) they have set up de facto bases and permanent structures in Mindanao, and 3) they are engaged in combat functions,” Reyes said.

“All these violate the constitution and are an insult to our sovereignty. They have managed to get basing rights even without a treaty concurred in by the Senate. If the US and Philippines invoke the VFA as the basis of the prolonged stay, then the Senate has been duped by when it ratified the VFA.. The Senate should then seek the termination of the VFA,” he said.

The VFA has been in effect since 1999 and has encountered many controversies, including the treatment on American marine who was convicted for rape but later on acquitted by the appeal court.

“The latest development affirms the warnings aired by critics of the VFA in 1999, that the pact will allow US troops permanent presence in the country. These warnings were not taken into account by previous rulings of the Supreme Court. It is our hope that they will consider these now that the US government has announced that the US troops are staying,” Reyes said.

Senate should probe activities of JSOTFP

Bayan doubted the real activities of the Joint Special Operations Task Force Philippines, a special forces unit under the US Pacific Command, based in Camp Navarro in Zamboanga.

“The JSOTFP is composed of the elite fighting units of the US armed forces. Their primary function is combat, so it is really doubtful when the US government says that these troops are engaged primarily in humanitarian efforts. Even if the US says 80% of their work is focused on alleged humanitarian work, that would still mean 20% of their work is combat-related,” Reyes said.

“The question is, does the Philippine constitution allow foreign troops to have ANY combat role in the Philippines? It is our view that the US troops’ activities are not limited to training and that they are operating together with AFP combat units in actual combat operations or in conditions were armed adversaries are present,” Reyes said.

Bayan called on the Philippine senate to investigate the gains of the Philippines from the prolonged stay of the US troops in Mindanao. “We want to know, after seven years of having US troops operate in Mindanao, why is it that the Abu Sayyaf group has not been eliminated? Or is it because US troops have other ‘missions’ that we are not aware of and that the ASG is just being used as a pretext for the stay of US forces?” Reyes asked. ###

7TH MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL NETWORK OF WOMEN AGAINST MILITARISM DRAFT AGENDA

2009-08-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

Theme: “Resistance, Resilience, and Respect for Human Rights”
“CHinemma’, Nina’maolek, yan Inarespetu para Direchon Taotao”
Location: University of Guam, Mangilao, Guahan
Dates: September 14-19, 2009

Sponsoring Organizations: Conscious Living; Famoksaiyan; Fuetsan Famalao’an; Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice; Guahan Indigenous Collective; GUAHAN Project; Global Fund for Women; Sage Project, Incorporated; Women and Gender Studies Program, University of Guam

September 14 (Monday)
Pre-Conference Session:
“Human Trafficking 101: Identifying Victims, Examining Policy Frameworks, and Building a Transnational Movement”

This workshop will present a general discussion of human trafficking, explore diasporic trends from Asia to other parts of the world, examine policy frameworks to effectively combat human trafficking, and identify steps towards building a transnational movement in the Asia-Pacific region.
Facilitated by SAGE, Inc. from San Francisco, California
8:30-4:30PM
Facilitators: Annie Fukushima (California), Aida Santos-Maranan (Philippines), and a representative from South Korea
Location: ParaOceana Business Center (Bank of Guam building), 674 Harmon Loop Road, Suite 309

September 14 (Monday)
Participants arrive
6:00-9:00PM- Welcome Reception: Traditional welcome from Saina Benit Dungca, presentation of Legislative Commendation Resolution to the network, and Inetnon Gef Pago
Location: Government House, Haganta Heights

September 15 (Tuesday) CLOSED MEETING
7:30-8:00AM- Shibashi or yoga
8:00-8:45AM- Breakfast and Country representatives’ meeting
9 AM- Network participants’ sharing of country reports focused on activist activities
12 noon- Lunch and meeting of moderators with respective panelists
1-5PM- Review of network goals from 6th meeting and appraisal of progress towards meeting goals AND discussion on network name.
5:00-6:00 PM- Dinner
Location: Carmel on the Hill Retreat Center, Malojloj

6:30-8:30PM- Public Forum: “Strategies of Resistance from Other Countries”
Suzuyo Takazato, Okinawa
______________, South Korea
Carmen Valencia, Vieques, Puerto Rico
Terry Ke’ko’olani, Nation of Hawai’i’
Corazon Fabros or Ana Maria Nemenzo, Philippines
Location: University of Guam Lecture Hall
Moderator: Jamela Santos

September 16 (Wednesday)
7:30-8:00 AM- Shibashi and yoga
8-9AM- Breakfast & Country representatives’ breakfast meeting
9:30AM- Pick-up from the retreat center
All Day Guam Bus Tour- Visits to historical sites, military base gates, war monuments, anticipated site of Marine location, and cultural sites (to include the Hurao Cultural Camp, Lina’la’ Cultural Center, an ancestral desecration site, Gef Pago, etc.).
12 noon- Lunch at Angel Santos Latte Park
5:30-6:30PM- dinner at the Chamoru Village night market

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009 (Thursday)

COMMUNITY CONFERENCE
Location: University of Guam, Leon Guerrero Building Lecture Hall

8-8:30AM
Registration and continental breakfast
Country representatives’ breakfast meeting

8:30-9:15AM
Welcoming remarks/peace prayer/opening chants

9:15- 10AM
Rethinking peace and security: Genuine security as rooted in the United Nation’s concept of human security
Presenter: Dr. Gwyn Kirk, a founding member, Women for Genuine Security, the U.S.-based group of the International Network.

10:AM-12:30PM (break from 11-11:15AM)
Panel presentation: “Beyond the Military Economy: Exploring Alternatives for Sustainability”
Presenters:
Alma Bulawan, Buklod, Philippines
Dr. Hannah Middleton, Australian Anti-Bases Campaign, Sydney, Australia
Dr. Miyumi Tanji, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia
_____________, Republic of Belau
Moderator:

12:30-1:30PM
LUNCH

1:30-3PM
Panel Presentation Titled: “Environmental contamination and toxicity: Reclaiming our physical environments through clean-up, health and healing practices”
Presenters:
You Kyoung Ko, South Korea
Representative from Majuro, Republic of Marshall Islands
___________, Vieques, Puerto Rico
Dolly Yanan, Metro Subic Network, Philippines
Moderator: Sabina Perez

3-3:15PM
BREAK

3:15-5PM
Panel Presentation Titled: “Military training and violence against women and children: How do we keep ourselves safe?”
Presenters:
Suzuyo Takazato, Okinawa, Japan
Vangie Cabacar, President of Victim Advocates Reaching Out, Guahan
Corazon Lotlot Requirzo, Kaisa Ka, Philippines
Moderator: Nicole Santos

5PM
Wrap Up and Announcement of Community Vigil

5:30PM- Community Vigil to Honor the Past and Heal for the Future
Delegations share cultural trauma as a result of militarism
Location: University of Guam

7:00-8:00 PM- Dinner for international participants

SEPTEMBER 18, 2009 (Friday)
COMMUNITY CONFERENCE
Location: Carmel on the Hill Retreat Center, Malojloj
Focus:
Where do we go from here?

7:30-8:00 AM
Shibashi or yoga

8-8:30AM
Registration and continental breakfast
Country representatives’ breakfast meeting

8:30-9:00AM
Welcoming remarks and review of day’s tasks

9-11:00AM
“Human trafficking and Prostitution: Towards a Woman-Centered Policy Framework”
Presenters:
Annie Fukushima, University of California at Berkeley
Bok Nim Yu, Director, Dasi Hamkke Center, South Korea
Aida Santos, WeDpro, Inc., Philippines
Lauri Ogumoro, Karidat Esperanza House, Commonwealth of the North Mariana Islands
Sue Gilbey, Adelaide, Australia
Moderator: Dr. Vivian Dames

11-12:00 Noon
Regional/country working group meetings to develop specific short and long-term goals.

12-1:30PM
Lunch and Premiere showing of “Along the Fenceline: Women’s Voices on Peace and
Security”

1:30-4:30PM
Connecting regional/country working group short and long-term goals to setting national and international initiatives. Discussion of future actions.
Facilitators TBD

4:30-5PM
Conference wrap up and announcement of Public Art Event from 6:30-9PM

5:00-6:00PM- Dinner for international participants

6:30-10 PM- Public Art Event to include: demilitarizing fashion show, sale of international women-made goods, and local art show.
Location: TBD

September 19 (Saturday)
7:30-8:00AM- Shibashi or yoga

8-9AM- Breakfast and country representatives’ breakfast meeting

9AM-5PM- Informal meeting and networking at Urunao Beach.
Explanation of Urunao as a Superfund Site, healing ritual at latte stone site, traditional chanters, and farewells.