8.9.23
On Wednesday September 6, the latest monthly coordinated vigils for the closure of Guantánamo took place in ten locations worldwide — London, Washington, D.C., Mexico City, Detroit, Cobleskill, NY, Brussels and Copenhagen, and with San Francisco and Saratoga Springs, NY joining us for the first time. Aaron Tovo held a solitary vigil in Minneapolis, after some last-minute cancellations, although no one was there to photograph him, and campaigners in New York City have delayed their vigil to September 13.
The vigils take place on the first Wednesday of every month, and began in February, when I asked friends and colleagues across the US, and in Mexico City, Brussels and Copenhagen, to join the monthly vigils for the prison’s closure that campaigners in London had been undertaking since September last year, drawing on a long tradition of Guantánamo vigils outside the Houses of Parliament.
For the development of the vigils, please see my reports from March, April, May, June, July and August, all accompanied by numerous photos.
In London, where the vigils are organized by the UK Guantánamo Network (involving numerous Amnesty International groups, Close Guantánamo and other campaigners), 16 intrepid campaigners from across the capital and south east England braved the heatwave that is currently gripping parts of the UK, where the 32°C heat was made almost unbearable by 75% humidity, eventually — and very appropriately — seeking shade and a photo opportunity by the statue of Nelson Mandela, which was unveiled in 2007.
In Washington, D.C., six campaigners — Helen Schietinger, Steve Lane, Art Laffin, Judith Kelly, Frank Panopoulos and David Barrows — gathered by the Capitol, the most poignant location for the monthly vigils, as US lawmakers, shamefully, remain largely responsible for Guantánamo’s continued existence.
As Helen explained, “The arbitrary nature of the ‘rules’ was apparent today: the Capitol Police made us move away from the Capitol to the ‘green area’ on his map because we were ‘demonstrating.’ If we stayed where we were, he said he would have to call his supervisor to come tell us to move, give us three warnings, and then arrest us if we didn’t leave. We’ve been in this same area on other Wednesdays with no problem. We moved.”
While we were all calling for the closure of Guantánamo, a specific focus of campaigning is to urge the Biden administration to stop dragging its heels when it comes to freeing the 16 men (out of the 30 still held) who have been unanimously approved for release by high-level US government review processes. At some locations campaigners were holding a poster I prepared showing how long they have been held since those decisions were taken — yesterday, shamefully, between 348 and 1,013 days, and, in three cases, 4,975 days.
The next vigils are on Wednesday October 4, Wednesday November 1, and Wednesday December 6 — and that latter date also marks 8,000 days of Guantánamo’s existence. For many years now, via the Close Guantánamo campaign, I’ve been inviting people to send in photos of themselves with posters marking every 100 days of the prison’s existence, so December 6 will be the perfect opportunity to have 8,000 days posters at the vigils, to accompany what I hope will be a significant response from other individual supporters around the world. Please do join us!
POSTSCRIPT September 18: Photos below from the vigil in New York City, held on Wednesday September 13 on the steps of the main branch of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue, featuring representatives of groups and organizations including the World Can’t Wait, Amnesty International, the War Resisters League and the Raging Grannies.
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Andy Worthington is a freelance investigative journalist, activist, author, photographer (of an ongoing photo-journalism project, ‘The State of London’), film-maker and singer-songwriter (the lead singer and main songwriter for the London-based band The Four Fathers, whose music is available via Bandcamp). He is the co-founder of the Close Guantánamo campaign (see the ongoing photo campaign here) and the successful We Stand With Shaker campaign of 2014-15, and the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. He is also the co-director (with Polly Nash) of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (available on DVD here, or you can watch it online here, via the production company Spectacle, for £2.50).
In 2017, Andy became very involved in housing issues. He is the narrator of the documentary film, ‘Concrete Soldiers UK’, about the destruction of council estates, and the inspiring resistance of residents, he wrote a song ‘Grenfell’, in the aftermath of the entirely preventable fire in June 2017 that killed over 70 people, and, in 2018, he was part of the occupation of the Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden in Deptford, to try to prevent its destruction — and that of 16 structurally sound council flats next door — by Lewisham Council and Peabody.
Since 2019, Andy has become increasingly involved in environmental activism, recognizing that climate change poses an unprecedented threat to life on earth, and that the window for change — requiring a severe reduction in the emission of all greenhouse gases, and the dismantling of our suicidal global capitalist system — is rapidly shrinking, as tipping points are reached that are occurring much quicker than even pessimistic climate scientists expected. You can read his articles about the climate crisis here.
To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to Andy’s RSS feed — and he can also be found on Facebook (and here), Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. Also see the six-part definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, The Complete Guantánamo Files, the definitive Guantánamo habeas list, the full military commissions list, and the chronological list of all Andy’s articles.
Please also consider joining the Close Guantánamo campaign, and, if you appreciate Andy’s work, feel free to make a donation.
Investigative journalist, author, campaigner, commentator and public speaker. Recognized as an authority on Guantánamo and the “war on terror.” Co-founder, Close Guantánamo and We Stand With Shaker, singer/songwriter (The Four Fathers).
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6 Responses
Andy Worthington says...
When I posted this on Facebook, I wrote:
Here’s my latest article, featuring photos from, and my report about the ten coordinated global vigils for the closure of Guantanamo that took place on September 6, 2023 in London, Washington, D.C., Mexico City, Cobleskill, NY, Detroit, Brussels, Copenhagen and Minneapolis, and, for the first time, in San Francisco and Saragota Springs, NY.
The ongoing vigils take place on the first Wednesday of every month, and, as well as calling for the closure of the prison, also highlight the plight of the 16 men (out of the 30 still imprisoned) who have been approved for release but are still held — as of September 6, between 348 and 4,975 days since the US authorities first decided that they no longer wanted to hold them.
...on September 8th, 2023 at 7:33 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Kevin Hester wrote:
You’ve created an “International Brigade”; well done, Andy.
...on September 10th, 2023 at 12:39 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Kevin. I like that description. There’s no mainstream media interest, sadly, but we’re used to that, of course. Hopefully we can get a really big turnout for the vigil on Dec. 6, which also marks 8,000 days of Guantanamo’s existence. The 8,000 days poster is here: https://gtmoclock.com/posters/GTMO-Clock-8000.pdf
And people can take a photo with it and send it to info@closeguantanamo.org
...on September 10th, 2023 at 12:39 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Dez Mundie wrote:
Cheers for the update Andy and kudos to you and your crew for the dedication and raising awareness ❤
...on September 10th, 2023 at 12:40 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks for the supportive words, Dez. Good to hear from you.
...on September 10th, 2023 at 12:40 pm
Andy Worthington says...
For a Spanish version, on the World Can’t Wait’s Spanish website, see ‘Fotos y Reportaje: Vigilias mundiales por el cierre de Guantánamo el 6 de septiembre de 2023’: http://www.worldcantwait-la.com/worthington-fotos-y-reportaje-vigilias-mundiales-cierre-gtmo-6-9-23.htm
...on October 4th, 2023 at 1:43 pm