DEMILITARIZE THE PACIFIC

HUMANITY & THE PLANET COME FIRST!


Rally, March and Signholding; Saturday, September 3


9am:  Rally at Old Stadium Park; March to Convention Center
10am: Signholding at the Hawai`i Convention Center

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Congress, the world’s largest conservation organization, will meet in Hawai`i from September 1-10, 2016.  10,000 participants and 1,000 journalists are expected to attend.    Its theme is "Planet at the Crossroads" and sustainability, climate change, biodiversity, and indigenous rights will be among its focuses.   Yet nowhere is there mention of the horrors of military expansion in the Pacific.   This is unacceptable!

 The U.S. Military:

• is the single largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels in the world and a major contributor of climate change
  
• is responsible for egregious and widespread pollution of the planet, including uninhibited use of fossil fuels, massive creation of greenhouse gases, and extensive release of radioactive and chemical contaminants into the air, water, and soil
  
• has bombed entire islands into oblivion.  It has poisoned both water and soil, making sea-life, fruit and vegetables dangerous to health.   It has routinely dredged harbors and destroyed life-sustaining reefs.  Its wanton destruction of the land and sea has undermined cultural practices of indigenous people throughout the Pacific.
  
•   has bases throughout the Pacific which have been responsible for the removal of hundreds of thousands of  indigenous people from their native lands, forcing them to live in poverty in countries not their own, and have been responsible for increased prostitution and rape throughout the Pacific.
  
•  Through its actions it has ravaged biodiversity, resources and indigenous populations throughout the world. 

Think about Kwajelein, the Philippines, Hawai`i, Okinawa and Guam.  Think about the bombing of Bikini, Kaho`olawe, Makua, Pohakuloa.   The list goes on and on and on. 

These horrors are not horrors of the past.   They continue, and are escalating today as the U.S. implements its “Pivot to the Pacific.”   The U.S. is building and expanding bases, bombing more islands, and destroying more harbors and reefs.

That the IUCN is not taking a position against these crimes is UNACCEPTABLE.  We demand that the voices and concerns of the people of the Pacific who oppose this expansion of the military be heard and that meaningful action be taken.
                                                                                 
To sign this Call contact us at worldcantwaithawaii@yahoo.com.