Santa Cruz Secession

Santa Cruz, California:
People against the war in Afghanistan will stage a secession from the United States of America, November 11th, 2001, at 2 PM. The event will take place at the Doug Rand Peace Park (at the corner of Pacific and Water Streets). The action will demonstrate the disagreement of these people with the United States government’s decision to bomb Afghanistan specifically and with injustice generally. The action will also honor the Collateral Damage sculpture located within the Peace Park.
Contact information: dissentmatters [at] yahoo.com .

Statements prepared by event organizers follow.
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The Unanimous Declaration of those wishing to Secede from the United States of America, from Nationhood, and from Nation building

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, to sunder the bonds from this nation and nationhood all together, a respect to the opinions of the world requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the revolution.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed with certain fragile rights that exist only when they take responsibility to defend them, that among these are life, liberty, dignity and health, an it harm none. That to secure these rights, Governments have been instituted, often claiming to derive their just powers from the consent of the Governed. That when any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to Abolish it, and to create an alternative, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing itself in a new space of possibilities.

As happened before, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, not random but aimed at the same purpose which is part of a plan to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right and it is their duty to throw off such Government, and to provide: a new space of hope; and a connection to a rich history of non-violent creation and vigorous critical thought.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these people; and such is now the necessity which constraints them to abolish their former system of Government. The history of the United States government is a history of oppression, war, imperialism, genocide, slavery, thievery, hypocrisy, and bigotry, all advancing an absolute Tyranny over its States and over other peoples. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world:

Its President has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

It has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their substance.

It has kept among us, in times of peace, standing Armies without the Consent of our people.

It has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

It has plundered the seas, ravaged the Coasts, burnt towns, and destroyed the lives of people.

It is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of the Head of a civilized people.

It has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with its measures.

Its Judges have usurped the power of the Electorate.

It has betrayed its own Bill of Rights, and threatened its own citizens who take issues with such treachery.

It has collaborated with corporations in efforts to alienate workers both economically and psychologically.

Its history of lies has eroded the confidence of its people.

In times of crisis, it uses incidents to its own ends, attempting to divert attention and push its own agenda.

Its penal system has abandoned rehabilitation and has become a series of internment camps which serve economic and racist motives.
It remains deaf to the voice of injustice and of consanguinity.

We, the people, therefore, appealing to the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do solemnly publish and declare that this Peace Park is, and of right ought to be Free and Independent; that we are absolved from all Allegiance to the United States and to Nationhood, on this date, November 11th, 2001.
We claimed the Doug Rand Peace Park in the city of Santa Cruz, California as a space no longer subject to the laws and policies of the US government. We are driven by a belief that the best way to protect our civil liberties is to exercise them. We are not represented by our government, yet its policies are putatively practiced in our name. We offer our bodies as monument to that contradiction.

This secession is not engineered to generate a new Nation, but is rather intended to clear the spaces, both conceptual and political, that Nationalism occupies. We are explicitly non-violent as we aim neither to harm human beings, nor to dismiss their foundational beliefs out of hand. Rather, we aim to challenge those beliefs with the creation of a truly public space. In this space, the symbolism and iconography that supports the equation “patriotism = support for political violence” is negated. Many (although probably not all) of us believe that such symbolism is itself a potent form of violation.

An important objective in our secession is to defend the memory of all those who have died under the chilling designation collateral damage. It is therefore significant to us that the plot of land we occupy has within its boundaries a sculpture dedicated to the victims of the US bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to the civilian casualties of all wars. The continued destructive character of the United States is not worthy of such a work of art. In defense of the memory of the dead and the ethical conscience of the living, we liberate the Collateral Damage sculpture from the confines of U.S. soil.
We offer this secession as sanctuary for what we have been told is impossible.