April 11: Protests Demand Closing of Guantánamo and End to Indefinite Detention
April 15, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
On April 11, there were 22 actions around the country in solidarity with the hunger strikers at the U.S. torture camp at Guantánamo. (See Revolution interview with journalist Andy Worthington on the hunger strike.) A reader sent the following on the action in Chicago:
30 people took part in Chicago in the Stand With the Guantánamo Hunger Strikers: Shut it Down Now! Action. People from groups like World Can't Wait, Witness Against Torture, Illinois Coalition Against Torture, and Amnesty International gathered at the downtown Federal Plaza as the work day was ending. Nine people put on the infamous orange jumpsuits and black hoods that symbolize the Guantánamo prisoners, each carrying a sign with the name of a man who died at Guantánamo over the 11 years that the prison has been open. Patricia Bronte, a lawyer who represents several men on the hunger strike, spoke about the urgent situation there—how guards are denying men clean water, playing loud music through the night, and turning up the air conditioning so they're freezing. The important point was made that it is the responsibility of the people living in this country to resist and oppose this ongoing crime …that it's not enough to say you don't like it, but that you actually have to step forward and resist and oppose this. The protesters then processed up State Street, a busy shopping area, to Daley Plaza, causing a stir along the way. Those in orange jumpsuits read aloud the "Hunger Strike Poem" by Adnan Latif, a Guantánamo prisoner who died last September. People then tied 166 orange ribbons, representing the prisoners currently held at Guantánamo, to a fence around a monument at the plaza.
Photo: FJJ
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