Resisting Empire: understanding the Role of Space in U.S. Global Domination
Excerpts from the 12th annual space organizing conference in April
Global Network member Cris Gutierrez chairs a panel on reports from around the world.
A Letter to the Bath Ironworks ManagementWe are gathering at Bath Ironworks on this day, April 23, 2004 in order to sound the alarm about the dangerous and destabilizing role of the Aegis destroyer in U.S. foreign and military policy.
Last year the Bush administration walked away from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic (ABM) Treaty with Russia that outlawed testing and deployment of so-called "Theatre Missile Defense" systems, a part of the new Star Wars program. The Aegis destroyer is now testing, and will soon deploy, these new interceptor systems just off the coast of China. The U.S. intends to deploy Aegis interceptors in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan (just 90 miles off the coast of mainland China), and in Australia. This will be a provocative move that will essentially negate China's 20 nuclear missiles thus forcing them to build more. Today the U.S. has 7,500 nuclear weapons of our own.
We understand that the role of the Aegis destroyer is not to defend the shores of the U.S. Instead, its job is to forward deploy offensive capability in order to protect U.S. "interests and investments" overseas. The Pentagon's planning document called Vision for 2020 calls for U.S. "control and domination" of the Earth and space in order to protect corporate interests around the world.
The Pentagon predicts that the gap between rich and poor around the world will widen as corporate globalization expands. As these corporations move overseas, they also are attempting to control the natural resources (oil, water, etc) and workers. This "new world order" is all about creating a world where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
We are all concerned about jobs, especially in Bath and throughout Maine. The question is: What is the best way to create good jobs in Maine? Aegis destroyers are built with our tax dollars and it is clearly a political decision that keeps us from using those same dollars for other kinds of job creation.
Studies by the National Commission for Economic Development have long shown that the most effective way to create lots of good jobs is to invest in those things that are socially and environmentally beneficial. Military spending is capital intensive, thus creating fewer jobs than any other kind of job investments.
Assembled at BIW today will be people from 10 countries and 20 states. Some come from places that the Aegis, with new interceptors, will be deployed: Japan, South Korea and Australia. Our friends from those countries tell us that voices are loudly protesting these U.S. Aegis deployments, saying they will create more tension in the Asian-Pacific region and start a new, expensive, and deadly arms race.
In a true democratic society, it is the responsibility of citizens to publicly debate how our taxes should be used. Weapons are today the number one industrial export of America. When weapons are your top industrial export, what is your global marketing strategy? Are endless wars and violence going to make life better for our families in Maine?
We oppose the construction of the offensive Aegis destroyer at BIW. We believe that BIW, which uses public tax dollars, should be converted to build ships of peace, wind mills for sustainable energy creation, rail cars for public transportation, and the like.
We urge the administration and workers at BIW to become more engaged in this historic debate that calls for a new direction. We urge the community at large to become advocates for a new foreign policy that does not make weapons of destruction our number one industrial export . The soul of America is on the line.
In peace,
Bruce K. Gagnon, Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
Defending Against U.S. Military Might
Notes from International Conference Participants
Our work continues here in the UK to protest the presence of two U.S. space warfare bases. One, called Menwith Hill, here in Yorkshire, is a satellite down-link base that the U.S. uses to spy on the people of Europe and Africa. It is now being upgraded as part of Star Wars. The second one is Fylingdales which is a key radar facility that will be upgraded to help direct the Star Wars attack program. It is located on the moors, inside our national park, and we are not very happy about that.
Dave Webb, Yorkshire Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, England
The conference was amazing with so many leading activists from the world. We talked about a lot of serious issues, about the planned base construction for Missile Defense in Alaska, coming deployment of the Aegis destroyer with missile "defense" interceptors in the East Asia region, a new communication system built in Germany, etc. The U.S. is now trying to get Japan to drop our constitutional pledge to only have defense forces.
But in the rally and demonstration at BIW, we were inspired by each other. We were touched by the Raging Grannies choir of local women, and how Dr. Caldicott inspired us all!
Satomi Oba, Director of Plutonium Action, Hiroshima, Japan
Colleen Ashworth, a fellow member of the Halifax Peace Coalition, and I are so glad that we made the 10-hour drive south to Portland, Maine to attend Global Network's Resisting Empire: Understanding the Role of Space in U.S. Global Domination Conference. With the other conference delegates, we attended our first demonstration in the U.S. in front of Bath Iron Works, where the weapon-laden Aegis destroyers are built. Colleen and I learned so much from the presenters and the keynote speakers, Dr. Craig Eisendrath and Dr. Helen Caldicott. We were inspired by the peace activists who had come from all over the U.S. and the world and who are working hard to end the militarization of our world. We were especially moved by American conference delegates, both men and women, who had tears in their eyes telling us how ashamed they were of the belligerent actions of the U.S. administration. Some even said they would move up north to Canada if President Bush gets elected again! The conference provided us with many valuable contacts and resources to help us in our struggle to prevent Canada from joining the American missile defense system and from forming stronger military ties with the U.S. However, Colleen and I would like to build closer bonds of solidarity with our fellow American and international peace activists and we warmly welcome you to visit us in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Email: hfxpeace@chebucto.cahfxpeace@chebucto.ca / Web site: http://hfxpeace.chebucto.org/) .
Tamara Lorincz, Halifax Peace Coalition, Nova Scotia, Canada
We are now trying to get the media to pay attention to the Missile Defense issue by continuing to put pressure on Parliament and the House of Lords. We are also planning our annual "Independence from America Day" demonstration at NSA Menwith Hill (U.S. military spy satellite base in Yorkshire) on July 4. Lindis Percy. Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases, United Kingdom The first thing I want to say is how impressive the conference and the presentations were and, in particular I want to highlight the following: Loring Wirbel's masterful synopsis of the US political scene and what it means for us who oppose the militarization of space. Stacey Fritz's analysis of Alaska's place in the US plan to dominate space. Her detailed knowledge was an absolute knockout. Joseph Gerson's historical analysis of America's desire to conquer the world, beginning with Seward's purchase of Alaska through to Gerson's interview with Joseph Nye and his chilling amoral plan to surround China with missile "defenses" was enlightening. Regina Hagen's update and analysis of the European situation was very valuable, particularly her underlining of the constitution of the European Space Agency's apparently beneficial view of space as a commons, which serves to obscure latent defense interests. Also the US switching off the GPS satellite navigation system during the Kosovo war, leading to the development of a European alternative, called Galileo. It reminded me of the French development of the DORIS satellite network so that they could have autonomy in nuclear targeting. Lindis Percy's absolute cool in describing her historic climb up the Buckingham Palace gates just made her protest so absolutely reasonable that one can't explain why all of Britain's middle class womanhood didn't join her. Helen Caldicott demonstrated her grasp of missile defense technicalities and charged up our passion batteries for the challenge of saving life on planet Earth. Bruce Gagnon's historical tracing of Project Prometheus and his legal attempts, helped by the Christic Institute, to thwart plans to put nukes into space was inspiring. His question whether space is the domain of opportunity for the nuclear industry is a very provoking thought which will no doubt drive more investigation. It was not all doom and gloom though. Finally, CND's former chair, Dave Knight gave a valuable and humorous summing up, the focus of which was a radical shift in thinking so that we should be asking how we can help the US to feel secure enough to ease up on its power fixation. We are now pressing our Attorney-General about the nature of the US's jurisdiction in Iraq and the fact that it has not ratified the Convention Against Torture. This is an issue we should all be pushing hard. We will also be planning for a return to the U.S. military spy satellite base, Pine Gap, that will be upgraded for use in Star Wars. Two years ago we organized 500 activists to make the two-day trip, 1,500 km out into the bush country, to protest the base.
Gareth Smith, OzPeace, Byron Bay, Australia
Back to Peace Talk Index, Summer, 2004
