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We Stand for Peace and Justice

“We see an organized anti worker, anti minority, anti immigrant, anti woman, anti gay, anti ecological, pro imperial, incarceration minded, surveillance employing, authoritarian reaction proliferating around the world. It calls itself right wing populist but is arguably more accurately termed neofascist. It preys on fear as well as often warranted anger. It manipulates and misleads with false promises and outright lies. It is trying to create an international. 

“Courageous responses exist and will proliferate around issue after issue, and in country after country. These responses will challenge the unworthy emotions, the vicious lies, and the vile policies. They will reject right wing rollback and repression. But to ward off an international, multi issue, reactionary assault shouldn’t we be internationalist and multi issue? Shouldn’t we reject reaction but also seek positive, forward looking, inspiring progress? 

“To those ends, we stand against the rising reactionary usurpers of power around the world and their lies, manipulations, and policies, and we stand for the growing activism on behalf of progressive change around the world, and their positive campaigns for a better world.

“We stand for peace, human rights, and international law against against the conditions, mentalities, institutions, weapons and dissemination of weapons that breed and nurture war and injustice. We stand for healthcare, education, housing, and jobs against war and military spending. We stand for internationalism, indigenous, and native rights, and a democratic foreign policy against empire, dictatorship, and political and religious fundamentalism.

“We stand for justice against economic, political, and cultural institutions that promote huge economic and power inequalities, corporate domination, wage slavery, racism, gender and sexual hierarchy, and the devolution of human kindness and wisdom under assault by celebrated authority and enforced passivity.

“We stand for democracy and autonomy against authoritarianism and subjugation. We stand for prisoner rights against prison profiteering. We stand for participation against surveillance. We stand for freedom and equity against repression and control. We stand for national sovereignty against occupation and apartheid. We oppose overtly brutal regimes everywhere. We oppose less overtly brutal but still horribly constricting electoral subversion, government and corporate surveillance, and mass media manipulation. 

“We stand for equity against exploitation by corporations of their workers and consumers and by empires of subordinated countries. We stand for solidarity of and with the poor and the excluded everywhere.

“We stand for diversity against homogeneity and for dignity against racism. We stand for multi-cultural, internationalist, community rights, against cultural, economic, and social repression of immigrants and other subordinated communities in my own country and around the world.

“We stand for gender equality against misogyny and machismo. We stand for sexual freedom against sexual repression, homogenization, and homophobia.

“We stand for ecological wisdom against the destruction of forests, soil, water, environmental resources, and the biodiversity on which all life depends. We stand for ecological sanity against ecological suicide.

“We stand for a world whose political, economic, and social institutions foster solidarity, promote equity, maximize participation, celebrate diversity, and encourage full democracy.

“We stand for and pledge to work for peace and justice.”

We the initial signers of this “We Stand” statement, upon reaching 100,000 total signers (by all electronic and personal, media, and face to face means we can muster) will consult all signers and collectively discuss both online and wherever we live, work, and organize, and use vote tallying from all signers to arrive at more specific demands worth fighting for to ward off reaction, win worthy gains in the present, and develop grounds upon which to pursue more fundamental changes in the future. 

Upon reaching 150,000 signers, we will all together begin, if we haven’t already, coalescing with our neighbors and work and schoolmates to explore how to best fight against reaction and for our positive demands. 

Upon reaching 200,000 signers–and after culling significant shared experiences to discern the merits or inadequacies of our demands and of our local ideas and efforts to begin fighting for them–we will begin to organize if possible to hold gatherings and even conventions in our various countries to create lasting organizational vehicles and program to continue pursuing our collective agendas.

We will not be a least common denominator single issue or single focus coalition. We will be a massive movement of movements with a huge range of concerns, ideas, and aims, united by what we stand for and against. 

We will enjoy and be strengthened by shared respect and mutual aid while we together reject sectarian hostilities and posturing. We will stand – and we will fight.

We initial signers will seek support, promote unity, and collectively facilitate the emergence of effective means for collective participatory policy making and program development by all signers as best we can.

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