[olympiaworkers] End the Occupation of Afghanistan, celebrating the localization of resistance, Sun., Oct. 7, Sylvester Park, 1-7PM

Localization NOT Occupation, this Sunday, October 7, 1-7pm, at Sylvester Park, is the 11th anniversary of the Afghanistan Occupation and the 1st anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street Together Movement that will end it! The 1% profit off wars and then profit off the occupations afterwards. This demonstration is joining together the 99% and localizing our efforts at resistance to the Afghanistan Occupation. Sylvester Park, the birth place of Occupy Olympia, will feature music, speakers, poetry, artwork, tabling organizations, street theater, artful activism, solidarity calls with Afghanistan people, veterans against the war and breakout workshops put on by knowledgeable local people.

Facebook event! SHARE IT! https://www.facebook.com/events/396399460423317
Demanding politicians and war profiteers end the military occupations is not enough. Localization builds community strength, by working on developing the grassroots organizations we are creating the mechanisms for a popular movement that can take direct action aimed at ending the Afghanistan Occupation. When the people lead the leaders follow. Come down to Sylvester Park and be part of something that is great!

WEBSITE: http://www.localizationnotoccupation.org/
Welcome! It is time that we end this war and occupation once and for all! Thanks to Jusby the Clown, Kayla Perez and Terry Zander for MC'ing the event! Thanks to our speakers and musicians who are listed online. Special thanks to the many people who have volunteered to make this happen. You are the messengers of hope that another world is possible and by your actions you are ensuring that another world is happening! THANK YOU!

***MORE INFO ON WHY YOU SHOULD COME AND INVITE YOUR FRIENDS***
October 7th, is the 11th anniversary of the Afghanistan war: the unhappy day when America used its collective pain from 9/11 to inflict suffering and occupation upon the poor people of Afghanistan. Eleven years later, with 42% of their population below the age of 15 and their access to information severely restricted, ninety percent of Afghan people have never even heard of 9/11. Within this country the reasons for the war is similarly confused. Not one of the 9/11 hijackers were from Afghanistan and the former Taliban government did not participate in 9/11 either. With US soldier deaths in the Middle East surpassing the number who were killed that day, it is time to end the war and occupation.

On the main stage, speakers will share much more about the enduring reasons why the US government has made the choice to stay far too long there. US corporate interests are making lucrative profits off of oil pipelines, mineral deposits and development work while the indigenous Afghanistan people are treated as second class citizens of their own country that they are severely restricted and suffering in. The continuing racism and stereotypes in the US against the Afghanistan people serve to back up their continued oppression. While the 1% grow wealthy off of Afghanistan, including those profiting off the 90% of the world's opium that is produced there, the US and NATO troops face extensive deployments, increasing danger, PTSD, increasing numbers facing a lifetime with severe war injuries, suicide and other brutal ways of death.

Finally, demanding an unresponsive government end an unconscionable war and occupation is not enough to absolve us from responsibility. We are the 99%, this disgraceful occupation in Afghanistan ends with the soldiers refusing to fight backed by the support of the people. It ends with the people blockading the mechanisms of war with support of the soldiers. It ends with the corporations and banks that profit off of the military industrial complex brought to their knees for their crimes against humanity by the community that has resolved itself to finally acting responsibly when their representatives have refused to.

In the United States many adults now were children when this war started. Some who were adults have children who have never lived in the US without it being at war. The war has had a severe and lasting effect on our society and it effects our children the most. Protecting the children of today and the children we raise of tomorrow from a lifetime of living in a country responsible for the injustice of the Afghanistan occupation is our strongest motivation for change. Though the Afghanistan war is the very definition of extreme violence, resistance to war and occupation within the US doesn't have to be violent and the long lasting restorative change that we need to heal this country, Afghanistan and the world will be a process that is overall restorative. We are going to demonstrate in a way that creates bonds, ensures space for diverse conversation, respects personal boundaries and supports the long high road to a just peace through community building and restorative change. Come prepared to listen, chant, learn and become involved. Leave feeling empowered, informed, activated and with a greater responsibility to a loving community.

Thanks and solidarity!

Bruce Wilkinson
bruce@afgj.org
360-742-0864