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COUNTDOWN TO 1st JUNE! PROTEST TO DEFEND INTERNATIONAL WHISTLEBLOWER |
Each week we highlight different aspects of what Bradley Manning has done for the movement.
Thank You Bradley Manning!
“If the public, particularly the American public, had access to this information, it could spark a debate on the military and our foreign policy in general as it applied to Iraq and Afghanistan, it might cause society to reconsider the need to engage in counter-terrorism while ignoring the human situation of the people we engaged with every day … I felt I accomplished something that would allow me to have a clear conscience.”
No Pride in the Slaughter of Others – Bradley Manning our Gay Hero!
Queer whistleblower Bradley Manning is part of a proud tradition among LGBTQ sisters and brothers who refuse to be killers. Gay Filipino/Native American Stephen Funk was the first US soldier to be convicted and jailed for refusing to fight in Iraq. Gay Kurdish military refuser Mehmet Tarhan in Turkey was tortured and imprisoned until this was stopped by an international campaign in which grassroots LGBTQ organizations were prominent.
Anti-war grassroots groups like Queer Strike have long challenged the promotion of queer people’s’ right to be “out” in the military as one of the movement’s main demands. Not surprisingly, many of those who championed our “equal right” to kill have been less keen to defend a gay brother’s right to “refuse to kill”. Most mainstream LGBTQ organisations have shamefully ignored or refused to support Bradley Manning throughout his three year fight against incarceration and torture.
In a statement he read in court on 28 February 2013, gay US Army PFC Bradley Manning proudly admitted having leaked information to Wikileaks in order to inform the public of US war crimes and government skulduggery that was being kept from us.
He faces charges up to life in prison. He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the third time in a row.
But Bradley’s example has been applauded among the Queer grassroots. His recent election to Grand Marshall of San Francisco Pride 2013, swiftly annulled by Board President Lisa Williams, is prompting ongoing explosive protests. These events have revealed the military-industrial corporate interests undermining our movement. They are also showing the great and growing number of grassroots people determined that the gay elite who have dominated the LGBTQ agenda will not prevail this time.
Many lesbian women along with women generally have been the backbone of the anti-war anti-occupation movement in the US. Everyone who stands for justice, but first of all Bradley Manning’s LGBTQ sisters and brothers and their organizations, must join this campaign for his freedom. We expect gay people in positions of authority to support the rest of us or be exposed as serving the 1%. They could never have got where they are without a massive grassroots movement ranging from whistleblowers like Bradley Manning, to all the other “outlaws” and “outcasts” who have fought for survival and justice. Stonewall was a Riot!
Bradley Manning for Grand Marshall, not Court Martial!
1st June: International Actions to Free Bradley Manning
