SHUT DOWN DRONE WARFARE
CORE VALUES:
- TO ALWAYS ACT FROM A PLACE OF LOVE & RESPECT & TO COMMIT TO NONVIOLENCE in all our actions, recognizing that these are essential guiding principals necessary to achieve meaningful social change and correct injustices. All participants will pledge to abide by our nonviolent guidelines during Shut Down Drone Warfare actions.
- BREAK THE SILENCE - In keeping with our pledge to nonviolence, we are called to take personal responsibility for the crimes committed by our government and will break the silence by using nonviolent resistance to oppose the violence of U.S. drone killing and global militarization.
- WE ARE ALL VICTIMS OF A MILITARISTIC & PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY - We stand in solidarity with ALL victims of militarized drones: those killed by drone attacks, both intended and unintended targets; those who are living under the terror of militarized drones; those who have lost loved ones from drone attacks; and those working in the US drone program, who sustain great moral injury by participating in the inhumanity of hunting human beings
SHUT DOWN DRONE WARFARE
GOALS:
1. To HOLD DAILY VIGILS DURING COMMUTE HOURS at designated drone bases (Holloman & Creech AFB), (6:30-8:30am & 3:30-5:30pm, M-F), using signs and banners, and creative vigil themes, street theater and art, in order to create a unified resistance to drone warfare and US led global militarization. Our messaging will “connect the dots” to demonstrate the direct and tragic impacts U.S. militarization has on important global and local problems (climate disaster, poverty, racism, environmental destruction, homelessness and other social and political injustices). In addition, when able, we will explore, plan and execute other actions/activities in communities near these drone bases, to help reach our other goals.
2. To PROVIDE OUTREACH & SUPPORT to DRONE BASE PERSONNEL, via leafletting, messaging on signs and banners, dialogue, etc., by:
- Using “We Love You” Messaging: (Some of our daily banners and signs will convey this, such as: YOU ARE LOVED; Love the Troops, Hate the Mission,” etc.).
- Offering info about Alternatives to Military Service, GI Rights Hotline, Veteran Support Groups, Local counseling in area, etc. (AskVets.org)
- Encouraging and Assisting with obtaining Conscientious Objector status.
- Developing ways to increase contact with drone base personnel, especially with drone operators and pilots. To include organizing roundtable discussions with younger vets, doing outreach to military living nearby (i.e.leafletting military housing, facilitating opportunities for dialogue with drone base personnel, and developing or supporting “GI Coffee Houses,” if able.)
3. To PLAN and EXECUTE NONVIOLENT COLLECTIVE ACTS OF CIVIL RESISTANCE:
· On at least one day during our Fall and Spring action week, we will strategically organize nonviolent interruptions of “business as usual” at the drone base for as long as possible.
· Additional civil resistance in nearby communities may also be planned and implemented.
Participation in nonviolent civil resistance is always voluntary, and those unable or unwilling to participate can choose to play a support role (peace keeper, legal observer, jail support, etc), or may choose to not be present during the planned direct action(s). These actions serve to communicate on a personal, spiritual and social level: "YOU DO NOT HAVE OUR CONSENT.” In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., these acts of nonviolent direct action serve to “create and foster such a tension” as to demand a response. He wrote "nonviolent resistance was one of the most potent weapons available to oppressed people in their quest for social justice.
4. To EDUCATE & EXPOSE THE TRUTH about the U.S. Drone Program, via street theater, vigiling, leafletting, and conversation with drone base personnel, the local police, local jail staff & detainees during our own detention, the public traveling along the highway, and local residents in nearby communities. To include education about the impacts of militarized drones and global militarization, while simultaneously connecting the dots to climate chaos, environmental destruction, and economic, racial and gender inequality.
LONG TERM GOALS:
Ban Militarized Drones, Close All Foreign Bases, Abolish War.
Some may say this is impossible, but we say our very survival depends on it.
Note: This document was initially created by a group of longtime "Creechers" through consensus process in the winter of 2021, and adapted in January 2023 to be generalized to all drone base resistance actions.