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On Saturday, April 14, SOA Watch hosted a one-day conference entitled "International (In)Security", to debunk the lies behind the War on Drugs, the War on Terror and the War on Immigrants, and deepen our understanding of U.S. militarization. We thank all the speakers, interpreters, volunteers and conference organizers who made this event possible. Video greetings from Cartagena and the People's Summit of the Americas kicked off the conference and set the tone for a day of solidarity and power-building.

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The conference took place from 9am-5pm at the Metropolitan Community Church of DC, located at 474 Ridge St, NW.

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On Sunday, April 15, around 50 SOA Watch organizers gathered at Georgetown Law School in DC. Local organizers were represented from across the country including California, Georgia, New York, Florida, and DC! The morning started out with a movement timeline looking at SOA Watch in the context of what was happening throughout Latin America and the United States. We discussed how the movement has evolved over time and the shifts in tacts that people observed. We then split up into four breakout groups, Direct Action, Legislative, Education and Outreach, and Local Organizing. Each group discussed these different areas, shared experiences and success stories, and focused on concrete plans to enhance our organizing work.

More to come on updates and work plans coming out of the strategy session to follow in the next couple of weeks. Contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information or questions.

Thanks to Georgetown Law School's Students for a Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) for hosting the strategy sessions.

Read below for the report backs from Legislative, Education and Outreach, Direct Action and Local Organizing!

Legislative Strategy

Facilitators: Legislative Working Group (Rebecca Kanner, Alison Snow, Ellen Barfield, Theresa Cameranisi)

This session focused on identifying ways to support various aspects of the legislative work. We wanted to come up with specific ideas and plans for achieving the following three goals:
1. Making the legislative work to close the SOA/WHINSEC a key component of the movement and putting the SOA on the national agenda
2. Building alliances with and working with groups doing similar legislative work (both on the the locally level and nationally)
3. Empowering local groups to do legislative work throughout the year, not just in April and November

After discussing the history of the legislative work to close the SOA and where we are now with that work, we talked about the three goals and how they relate to the work. Then we broke up into three small groups. Each group brainstormed around one of the goals, sharing ideas on how to reach it and further flushing out what it means. (See below for the brainstorm ideas generated by each group.) Before the break, each group reported back on their brainstorm ideas.

During part two of the session, we worked on taking the ideas generated in the brainstorms and developing concrete plans for each goal. First, we shared our own successes and perceived failures in the legislative work. Pam Bowman joined us to give a briefing on the current political atmosphere in Congress, particularly in the House, and how this can impact our strategies. She talked about the emphasis on budget and spending, the upcoming required cuts to the
military budget, and the lack of bipartisanship.

Then we prioritized the ideas from the small group brainstorms by having each participant identify their top three ideas for each goal. Each person made three tally marks for each goal. Then we counted the tally marks each idea received. (The number in parentheses by the ideas under each goal in the brainstorm shows the number of tally marks that idea received; no number means no one chose that idea in their top 3.)

The group rated the following as the highest priority for 2012:

1. Organizational Sign-on Letter
2. Develop relationships with Congressional staffers in district and DC offices
3. Educate ourselves on issues/get facts
4. Approach allies to lobby together
5. Research and ally with groups working on military training issues and collaborate
6. Bringing Latin American speakers to US to lobby

We wanted to come up with a list of concrete tasks for each of these priorities. However, there wasn't time to address them all. The organizational sign on letter idea received the most votes and was on each of the three goal lists so we put that as number one. Then we took the top rated idea from each goal. These are the actions we came up with for each and this was our report back to the larger group:

Organizational Sign-On Letter ~ topic: cut SOA funding as part of mandated military spending cuts

1. Draft letter
2. Identify groups ~ national, regional, local
3. Develop sign-on procedure
4. Distribute letter to movement
5. Identify key Representatives; how cuts to be made

Develop Relationships with Congressional Staffers ~ District and DC Offices

1. Follow-up visits with thank you note within 1 week
2. Follow-up visits with calls, email, letters within 1 month
3. Research Congressional Members and find thing(s) to connect on
4. Go to at least one of their (Representatives/Senators) events within 6 months
5. Find other connections ~ schools, religious, interests, organizations
6. Focus on local power centers

Educate Ourselves (movement, grassroots)

1. Have a teach-in
2. Learn history/facts re SOA

Approaching Allies to Lobby Together

1. Who are our allies? Identify local groups ~ Veterans, Union, Religious, Groups working on Latin America, anti-militarization, immigration, others
2. Go to their events (local events)
3. Partner on related issues
4. Build relationships

Nonviolent Direct Action
Facilitators Kathleen Desautels and Elizabeth Deligio

At the heart of the SOA Watch movement lies a willingness to use our bodies to demonstrate our opposition to the deadly training taught at the SOA.

The Strategy session started out with a history of nonviolent direct action in the movement to close the SOA. We use nonviolent direct action because it is necessary and effective. In Argentina, daily demonstrations by the Mothers of the Disappeared caused the fall of the SOA-led dictatorship that claimed 30,000 lives. In Bolivia in 2003, campesinos and workers transformed their entire government after the use of strategic nonviolent direct action forced their president to resign.

Creative civil disobedience has a long history in our movement. Father Roy’s original action - climbing a tree on the grounds of Fort Benning to broadcast Oscar Romero’s famous homily calling on soldiers to resist orders to kill their brothers and sisters - was unexpected, creative, and dangerous for him personally. We cross the line at Ft. Benning to stand in solidarity with activists in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Haiti and Mexico and all the places where people are putting their bodies on the line to challenge imperialism, neoliberalism and military domination.

Taking action is indeed the only way to change the current existence of domination and oppression that occurs through military force. Our brothers and sisters throughout the world are putting their lives on the line in order to create change. Consider Chile, for example, where students, workers, environmentalists, and citizens are actively and continuously taking to the street in order to demand change in the neo-liberal policies that were installed under the Pinochet dictatorship. We, too, must take bold and courageous action in opposition to the US hegemonic domination polices.

Following a conversation about affinity groups, and roles for activists in nonviolent direct action, the group slip into two. The first group discussed possible action scenarios at the Fort Benning military base, where - for over twenty years - people from all walks of life have trespassed to call for the SOA's closure. These peacemakers have built a movement undeterred by harsh prison sentences and the Pentagon's smoke and mirrors campaign. Today, 245 individuals have served prison sentences of up to 18 months. These "Prisoners of Conscience"  use their outrageous sentences to educate and awaken the public to the atrocities committed by SOA graduates. The second group discussed other creative actions that affinity groups can carry out within their communities as well as during the April Days of Action in Washington, DC.

Local Organizing Session

Facilitator: Andrew Willis Garcés

This session served to give ideas for local organizing around the SOA/WHINSEC issue. The movement to close the SOA/WHINSEC has always relied on local groups organizing different actions and events in their communities throughout the year, not simply mobilizing for the yearly vigil at Ft. Benning.
The session started out with examples of local organizing in SOA Watch. Representatives from SOA Watch San Francisco (CA), Long Island (NY), Columbus (GA) and Cleveland (OH) shared with the group their successes and problems in organizing. The SOA Watch Columbus chapter talked about their upcoming work to get a local NAACP resolution renewed against the SOA/WHINSEC (leading to a national resolution), as well as their work at the upcoming June SOA/WHINSEC Board of Visitors meeting.
Different ideas for local organizing events and actions were thought up, as well as connecting with the Occupy Movement. We also mapped out groups we have worked with locally, and groups we would like to build more relationships with. Also looking at the electoral year and how we can do events in our communities to connect SOA with other relevant issues.

Ideas for Events/Actions
film screenings
public talk
get allies to endorse
Map connections (labor, religious, anti-war, students, civil rights, immigration, vets, youth, high school
Resources on soaw.org
target Board of Visitors members
school presentations on “human rights”
scholarship program for vigil--require to volunteer/participate
theater/arts
get opinion pieces published
resolutions passed at local level
bird-dogging on presidential candidate campaign trail. Getting local group to get one question about SOA/WHINSEC during town hall meetings, to get candidates on public record

Tips for Building Your Group

Don't expect everyone to be at every meeting
Make meetings social/have food
Plan your work and work your plan
Create opportunities to plug-in
Connect to other issues (i.e., Occupy)
Create connections to staff (Skype events)
Stay in touch! Send/Share relevant news
Have a core planning group/board
Engage people between events

Tips for Building Alliances

Approach on common ground/shared interest
Make it personal
Tell personal stories (Monsanto and SOA)
Think about their interest (financial)
Connect to larger (North-South) struggle
Look for contacts through existing networks
Gestures! Express appreciation
Just show up
Expose (il)logic of militarism

Building Alliances
Groups/sectors you have worked with:

Vets for Peace
Autoworkers
Migrant Workers
Sierra Cluba
Anti-war christians
refugees
CODEPINK
NAACP
Jobs with Justice
Project South
Peace Studies Departments
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Unitarian Universalists
housing rights organizations
OCCUPY
Immigrant detention orgs
Lutherans
Quakers
Health centers


Groups sectors you haven’t worked with:

Academics
schools
Palestine Solidarity
Queers/ LGBT (centers)
Food Justice
Black Student Groups
Congressional Black and LAtino
Panamanian Association
Theatre/ Arts (Alternate Roots)
Animal Rights organizations
anti-violence (V-Day)
Highlander Center
Community Media
Corporate sector
graffiti artists
climate activists
think tanks
Native/First Nation Peoples
Undocumented Youth
City Councils
Political Parties