This is a speech of Joanne Landy, co-director of Campaign for Peace and
Democracy that she made at the New York City solidarity rally on May 20,
2008:

We are here today to support the brave hunger strikers in Prague, Jan Tamas and Jan Bednar. The two Jans have taken this serious action out of their frustration at the Czech government’s stubborn insistence in proceeding with plans to accept the U.S. military radar base, despite the opposition of two thirds of the country’s people.

I’d like to talk a bit about some of the issues that come up as we discuss with other Americans about why we join with the Czech people in opposing the military base.

It’s not that we think there are no threats in the world. The question is, how do you deal with these threats. We believe that the militaristic, imperial foreign policy that U.S. has had for decades, offers no answer to such threats. In fact, this foreign policy, with its vast network of 737 foreign military bases, exacerbates those dangers, and produces the exact opposite of the claimed results. For example, the Iraq war, supposedly part of the “War on Terror,” actually strengthens terrorism. Even the CIA has admitted this. As far as the nuclear threat from Iran that is the purported justification for the proposed U.S. military bases in Poland and the Czech Republic is concerned, the National Intelligence Estimate released in December 2007 stated that Iran had discontinued its nuclear weapons program in the fall of 2003. And U.S. nuclear militarism makes nuclear weapons the accepted currency of international relations, providing both an incentive and a rationale for Iran to develop its own nuclear weapons in the future.

Those of us who oppose the nuclear arms race need to oppose the kind of nuclear escalation represented by the U.S. “anti-missile” bases in Poland and the Czech Republic, and promote disarmament instead. This is the only way to create an international political climate that will discourage Iran and others from developing nuclear weapons in the future.

We need a new democratic foreign policy for the United States
- A policy of peace, not war
- A policy that is for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia as well as Iran
- A policy that is for labor rights in Pakistan as well as China – and right her in the United States as well.
- A policy that favors an equitable distribution of the world’s wealth
- A policy that promotes global democratic economic planning to avert environmental catastrophe
- A policy of consistent and genuine solidarity with movements for social justice, democracy and peace around the world

Détente from below is the only effective alternative to the reckless, elite-driven governments that are the major players in the world today. The Campaign for Peace and Democracy has tried to build this détente from below. Our campaigns represent the embryo of the kind of popular alliances we propose. For example.

- Leading Iranian democratic critics of the current Iranian government -- Akbar Ganji, Nader Hashemi, and Mansour Farhang --  signed the CPD statement against the U.S. planned U.S. radar in the Czech Republic.

- Jan Tamas (one of today’s hunger strikers), Jana Glivicka, and Ivona Novomestska from the Czech “No Bases Initiative” all signed the CPD open letter to Ahmadinejad and the Iranian government protesting the arrest of Iranian students.

- And here at home in the United States we can’t rely on pro-corporate governments from either of the two major political parties to initiate a democratic foreign policy. Movements from below — movements for peace, social justice and labor and democratic rights are needed to pointing toward a real change in our country’s foreign policy.

Finally, we have statements of support for the Czech hunger strikers that have come in from Noam Chomsky, Meredith Tax, Ariel Dorfman, Nancy Holmstrom, Adam Hochschild, and Alice Slater. Let’s divide them up and read them aloud. (The next morning we also received a statement from Chris Hedges.)

5/20/08 RALLY TO SUPPORT
CZECH HUNGER STRIKERS
Edited remarks given by Joanne Landy
Co-Director, Campaign for Peace and Democracy

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