NEW MEXICO
Anti-war feelings high in militarized state
Special
to Workers World
Albuquerque, N.M.
Billboards dot New Mexico highways, saying, "New Mexico:
Number 1 in Poverty, Number 1 in Nuclear Weapons." Placed by
the Los Alamos Study Group, an anti-nuclear organization, these
words aptly describe the Pentagon's dominance over the state
since the world's first atomic bomb was detonated at Trinity
Site in 1945.
The military's role over the years has helped to create the
lowest indices of health care and education in the United
States, while developing the deadliest arsenal of weapons in
world history.
New Mexico is home base to the B-2 Stealth bomber, the Los
Alamos Nuclear Weapons lab, the world's largest nuclear
research and development center, the nuclear dump Waste
Isolation Pilot Project, and numerous military
installations.
But it is also home to a growing number of activists who are
busy organizing against the U.S.-NATO war in Yugoslavia and
U.S.-UN sanctions on Iraq, as well as to stop the environmental
poisoning of poor communities.
Several actions took place in mid-April in Albuquerque, Taos
and Santa Fe, organized by various groups that have joined
together to oppose the two U.S. wars.
Rowan Stanland, a leader of Peace With Iraq in Albuquerque,
said, "We had been holding protests since last October on the
issue of the sanctions. Then, in late January, we showed the
video "Genocide by Sanctions" at a public meeting, and 120
people came. At the next demonstration we doubled our numbers.
I attribute it to people getting informed on the sanctions, and
the video has been a great way to show the truth."
PWI sponsored a week of activities on Yugoslavia and Iraq.
It invited Gloria La Riva, producer of the video and an
International Action Center organizer, to speak in New Mexico
to coincide with the Fifth Annual Taos Talking Pictures
Festival in northern New Mexico.
"Genocide" was accepted for showing at the festival in Taos,
which was just voted one of the top 10 film festivals in the
world. Some 140 films of all genre were showed.
On April 13, a separate film showing of "Genocide" by Peace
with Iraq at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque drew
over 160 people, who also saw the IAC's latest Yugoslavia
footage from Ramsey Clark's recent visit there. Many people
signed up to get involved with PWI and IAC. The local NBC
affiliate showed the Yugoslavia footage and covered the
event.
The next day, Manzano High School teachers in PWI arranged
for students to watch "Genocide" during school classes and to
hear La Riva speak of the campaign against the sanctions. La
Riva is a 1972 Manzano graduate. Over 1,000 students--half the
school--attended, prompting a lot of discussion. Most students
had not been aware of the blockade.
Protest at "Arms Control"
conference
On April 15-April 17, the Sandia Laboratory held an
international "Arms Control" conference at the Sheraton Hotel
in Albuquerque. A better billing would have been "Arms
Proliferation," as it was an event to show off the latest U.S.
weapons technology and justify more arms spending.
Keynote speakers included Richard Butler, chief of UN
weapons inspections in Iraq, and Bill Richardson, former U.S.
ambassador to the UN. Both are strong proponents of the
blockade of Iraq.
PWI, the Accord Foundation, Albuquer que Peace and Justice
Center, Peace Action New Mexico, Veterans for Peace and others
demonstrated all three days of the event.
One of the demonstrators, Damacio Lopez, is a Vietnam-era
veteran who exposed the 20 years of depleted uranium weapons
testing by the Pentagon in his community of Socorro, a poor
town of 7,000 people one hour south of Albuquerque. In the
1970s, Lopez discovered that artillery shells coated with DU
were being fired in the open air. Residents believe this is
linked to high rates of cancer there. In a period when the
whole state experienced 19 cases of hydrocephalus in babies,
three of them were in Socorro. The state's population is 1.5
million.
Lopez wrote a major study and book about the DU testing. His
efforts stopped the Socorro testing. He was invited by Iraq to
attend a December conference on the effects of DU there. "DU
lasts forever, its half-life is billions of years," says Lopez.
"People are dying in Iraq, in Bosnia, and in our own
communities from its effects. GIs came back from Iraq with Gulf
War syndrome, which we believe is due to DU contamination. I'm
very committed to this issue."
"Native America Calling," New Mexico's only national radio
broadcast, is aired in 28 states. It featured La Riva and IAC
coordinator Richard Becker for one hour, speaking on the
Yugoslavia war. Callers phoned in from Native communities in
Alaska, New Mexico, Minnesota, Arizona, California and
elsewhere, with the majority opposing the war. Many expressed a
strong distrust of U.S. government intentions in Yugoslavia,
especially given the history of U.S. genocide against Native
people.
Taos Film Festival
Howard Zinn, noted historian, was key note speaker at the
Taos Talking Pictures Festival. His theme was "the movies that
Hollywood never made." Zinn said, "Hollywood needs to make a
movie that will tell the truth about war, that will forever
make people oppose war." He endorsed the June 5 March on the
Pentagon, sponsored by the newly-formed National Emergency
Mobilization to Stop the War, and began his speech by
announcing the march. Over 550 people attended from the Santa
Fe and Taos area. Each person got a flyer about June 5th.
Over the weekend, the U.S. Air Force held a series of
hearings about planned military flights of B-52 and B-1 bombers
over the Taos and northern state region. The Air Force plans
2,600 flights yearly to practice bombing runs, with flights as
low as 500 feet. In this beautiful mountainous region with
significant Native, Latino and artist communities, 100 percent
of the people who attended spoke out against the bomber
runs.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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