Solidarity with Millitary Resisters - Glenton Released, Manning Imprisoned!

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Sunday August 01, 2010 23:27

by Ciaron O'Reilly - Catholic Worker/ Ploughshares

They're in There For Us, We're on the Loose for Them!

Last Monday I went to Conway Hall in downtown London to welcome Joe Glenton out of 4 months in a military prison in Colchester.

By the end of his 7 month tour with the British military in Afghanistan, Joe was traumatised and was opposed to the war. When he was being redeployed to Afghanistan he went AWOL and moved to Australia to avoid the British authorities. He was not in good shape when he landed in Australia. He then met a woman, who he was to marry, who helped him process what he had been through in Afghanistan. After two years in Australia they resolved to return to England to publicly denounce the war on Afghanistan. Joe surfaced at an anti-war demonstration in London last year. He was arrested and sentenced to 9 months in March 2010.

Report on Joe Glenton's Conway Hall speech July 2010
http://www.connection-ev.de/z.php?ID=1117

Youtube of Joe Glenton Speech before Court Martial July 2009 (3 mins)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1X9HsotKag

Last Monday was also the day Wikileaks released 90,000 secret military reports from U..S. forces in Afghanistan. The other 6 anti-war speakers at Conway Hall mentioned and celebrated this significant event. I was pretty distressed that none of the speakers mentioned the 22 year old soldier who was at that moment in a Kuwaiti jail cell accused with the leak to Wikileaks. Brad Manning had been fingered by a U.S. hacker working with the Feds.

Brad Manning has been charged with 7 military violations in relation to the earlier release of footage of U.S. helicopter gunship slaughtering unarmed Iraqis. See footage here...
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/61771,life,video,video-us...leaks

Brad Manning will probably face further charges in relation to the Wikileakes expose. He may face up to 52 years in jail. Last week he was transfered from Kuwait to military prison in Maryland, U.S.A.

The "Courage to Resist" folks are helping to organise a legal team for Brad and are calling for solidarity Check their website for tips on how you can show solidarity with Brad Manning and oppose the war on Afghanistan
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/blogcategory/6.../122/

The present reality is that more serious resistance to the war on Afghanistan is coming out of the U.S. and British military than the U.S. and British civilian peace movements. We have to be ready with proactive solidarity whereever nonviolent resistance to this war surfaces. Without nonviolent resistance the wikileak revelations become merely words.

**GUARDIAN FILM - 15 MINUTES
Endgame in Afghanistan: 'It's taken a year to move 20km'
As the war in Afghanistan enters its final chapter, Sean Smith's brutal, uncompromising film from the Helmand frontline shows the horrific chaos of a stalemate that is taking its toll in blood. Warning: contains distressing scenes and strong language

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2010/jul/29/afgha...itary