Success Story

Four former Guantánamo prisoners now relocated to Bermuda

Since the opening of the U.S. military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a well-orchestrated propaganda campaign has stoked our fears of those held in the prison, who have been routinely referred to as the "Worst of the worst." After President Obama announced a plan to transfer Guantanmo prisoners to a prison within the U.S., the fear-mongering kicked into high gear and Congress capitulated, blocking funds for the transfer, based on the irrational belief that no prison could be secure enough to protect us from Guantánamo's super-terrorists.

But some towns are now shaking off the fear and fighting back against the fear-mongers with an unusual tactic: Town-hall resolutions that invite the Federal government to relocate a released Guantánamo detainee in their town.

Student activists at UW-Madison are celebrating a victory after playing key role in winning restitution for 1200 Honduran workers who had been employed manufacturing Nike merchandise and then were fired without being paid millions in back wages. In April, after a months-long campaign by the Student-Labor Action Coalition, the UW became the first university in the U.S. to cancel its apparel contract with Nike over the issue of back pay for the fired workers. Cornell University then threatened to cancel its Nike contract as well and officials at other universities warned Nike that it would face larger student protests once the fall semester began, ultimately forcing Nike to agree to pay back wages to the Honduran workers.

Army announcement made just days before planned protest.   

A coalition of thirty peace groups has proven triumphant in their goal of forever shutting down the “Army Experience Center” in a suburban shopping mall in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the Army plans to permanently close the facility.

In Wisconsin, peace groups were successful in greatly scaling back a "Virtual Army Experience" exhibit, a smaller traveling version of the video game-based recruitment effort, at Milwaukee's  Summerfest in 2008 and 2009.

Protesters in 2008 punctured a cover at the Waihopai satellite station in New Zealand. Photo: New Zealand Herald

In New Zealand, three peace activists have been found not guilty of breaking into and damaging a spy base used in the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. In April 2008, the three activists entered the Waihopai facility and deflated a plastic dome used to cover a satellite dish.

After the verdict, one of the three acquitted activists, Dominican friar Peter Murnane, said they acted to help mitigate the human suffering caused by the Iraq war.