Today is the seventh anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, the terrorist attack that ripped through the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building, killing 168 people.

Today is also the anniversary of the death of David Sanes Rodriguez, a civilian security guard killed in US bombing “exercises” on Vieques. He died three years ago, when a Navy pilot misfired two 500-pound live bombs during a training session. Rodriguez’s death ignited a wave of protest throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, and sparked an ongoing campaign to halt Navy bombing practice in Vieques. That struggle still continues today.

Vieques is the training ground for many of the soldiers now fighting in the so-called war on terror. Thousands of people will be protesting that war this weekend in Washington DC. They will be joined by thousands more from several points on the activist compass, including anti-globalization activists protesting the spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Palestinian rights demonstrators rallying against U.S. aid to Israel, and others calling for an end to injustice in Colombia.

Guests:

• Brenda Stokely, President AFSCME, local 215, DC 1707. She is also one of the co-chairs of Labor Against the War. Her union is the only one nationwide to have endorsed the campaign against the so-called war on terrorism.
• Ron Daniels, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR).
• Salih Booker, executive director of Africa Action, the oldest US-based advocacy group on African affairs.
• Reverend Lucius Walker Jr., executive director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO). IFCO is the only national ecumenical foundation committed exclusively to the support of community organizing.
• Mario Murillo, professor of communications at HOFSTRA and longtime producer at WBAI. For years he has produced and hosted the weekly news-magazine “Our Americas”. He is the author of the book, ??Islands of Resistance: Vieques, Puerto Rico, and US Policy.
• Verna Avery Brown, Deputy Executive Director, Pacifica.

Related links:

• Africa Action
• Center For Constitutional Rights
• Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization
• Stop the War–A20
• War Resisters League
• Pacifica

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