Photos and Report: The Coordinated Global Vigils for the Closure of Guantánamo on November 1, 2023

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One month ago, on October 4, 2023, when campaigners across the US and around the world held the ninth monthly coordinated vigils calling for the closure of the prison at Guantánamo Bay, which take place on the first Wednesday of every month, there was, I think, a dimly flickering hope that the Biden administration might be recognizing that dealing definitively with the poisonous legacy of Guantánamo would be a useful thing to do before the end of President Biden’s first term in office.

Just the week before, former prisoners, lawyers, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism, and others, including myself, had spoken at “Close Guantánamo!”, a powerful event in the European Parliament hosted by the wonderful Irish MEPs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, with Fionnuala, following the first ever visit to the prison by a UN Rapporteur, which took place in February, providing a summary of her devastating report about what she and her team found there, which she summarized as “ongoing cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment” that “may also meet the legal threshold for torture.”

Then, however, out of nowhere came the terrible events of October 7, when Hamas militants broke out of the “open air prison” of the Gaza Strip — where the Israeli government has held a captive population of 2.3 million civilians since 2007 — killing over 1,500 people, according to Israel accounts, and sparking a response that, by any objective measure, is horrendously disproportionate, with the Israeli military bombing the Gaza Strip relentlessly, and, as of today, having killed 9,061 people — almost all civilians — including 3,760 children and babies.

And yet, even as what is clearly a genocide unfolds before the eyes of the world, the Biden administration, and most leaders in the west, are refusing to recognize it as such, and are not only refusing to call for an immediate ceasefire, but are also continuing to support Israel, and, in many cases, to provide it with the weapons that are enabling its ceaseless genocidal onslaught.

As Islamophobia once more rears its ugly head, recalling the horrific racism towards Muslims that followed the 9/11 attacks, Guantánamo and the plight of the 30 men still held there — 19 held for between 14 and 21 years without charge or trial, and eleven  caught up in the broken military commission trial system — is undoubtedly slipping down the list of political priorities for the Biden administration, although globally we must take heart from the fact that there has never been so much popular support for the oppressions of Muslims as there currently is for the Palestinians of Gaza.

Given this highly charged atmosphere, I’m delighted to report that, on Wednesday, ten vigils took place around the world calling for the closure of Guantánamo — in London, Washington, D.C., New York City, San Francisco, Mexico City, Copenhagen, Detroit, Minneapolis, Cobleskill, NY and Los Angeles, and photos from all of these vigils are posted above and below, with the exception of Los Angeles, where the sole campaigner, Jon Krampner, held a lonely vigil outside the Federal Building in  Downtown L.A., and where his best efforts to be photographed went unheeded. In Brussels, where it was a public holiday, campaigners skipped this month’s vigils, although Marie France Deprez sent a collage of photos taken at home which are also included.

Regarding the Los Angeles vigil, Jon Krampner sent me a message in which he said, “There weren’t that many people and most ignored me, although about two thirds of the way through, a white SUV drove past and the driver read my Amnesty International sign saying ‘Close Guantánamo’ and then laughed. I guess that was a vote for keeping it open.”

Jon added, “At one point I asked a young woman standing nearby if she would take a picture of me. She said that ordinarily she would, but it was a work phone. Right before I was wrapping up, a guy took a photo of me, so I asked him to send me a copy, conveniently providing him with a copy of my e-mail address in 16 point type (boldfaced) to eliminate the risk of mis-transcription. He said he’d send it, but didn’t. This has happened five or six times over my vigils and is an utterly mystifying phenomenon. So no pix.”

Next month: the big one, marking 8,000 days of Guantánamo

For next month’s vigil, on Wednesday December 6, our coordinated global efforts will coincide with a grim anniversary — 8,000 days of Guantánamo’s existence — and we’re preparing to make it as big an event as possible. If you’re involved in the vigils, please print off the 8,000 days poster from the Close Guantánamo campaign’s Gitmo Clock page, and take photos with all of you holding posters, and if you’re an individual who wants to help out, take a photo of yourself — or get a photo taken of you with the poster — and send it to info@closeguantanamo.org.

All the photos that have been taken this year can be found on two dedicated pages on the Close Guantánamo website, here and here, and I hope you’ll agree that they provide a powerful testament to the commitment of so many people around the world to the closure of Guantánamo, which lest we forget, will mark the 22nd anniversary its opening in just two months’ time, on January 11, 2024.

Please, please, please spread the word, and please join us on December 6!

POSTSCRIPT: On November 16, Jon Krampner finally received a photo from the passer-by he asked to take a photo of him on November 1, and I’m delighted to post it below!

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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.