Create Your Own Petition to Make Change

A group of around 50 people from more than 12 countries drafted the Manifesto in recent weeks. Many prominent people are supporting it. People in general are more awake to the absurdity of a planet in which the richest 8 people have more wealth than the poorest 3.8 billion than ever before as this pandemic spreads. We are circulating this widely in multiple languages to help frame the debate and actions moving forward, raising global demands that address the inequity resulting from decades of neoliberal economic policies and rampant and unbridled militarism.

More than 25,000 military personnel from 20 countries will gather from June through August 2020 in Hawaii waters for the 27th Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise, the world's largest international maritime exercises, The international naval war practice in Hawaiian waters is provocative in regional affairs and with the COVID19 virus, military personnel from 20+ countries arriving in Hawaii will endanger citizens of the isolated island state of Hawaii. Since 1971, RIMPAC has been held in Hawaii where in 2018 military personnel from 24 other countries, including Australia, Canada, India, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam came to Hawaii. With COVID19 virus rampant around in all countries around the world, the isolated islands of Hawaii must be protected from military visitors. This petition is sponsored by Hawaii organizations: Hawai'i Peace and Justice; Veterans for Peace-Chapter 113-Hawai'i; Malu Aina Center for Nonviolence Education & Action-Big Island; Maui Peace Action; Kauai Alliance for Peace & Social Justice; Catholic Worker Honolulu; Campaign Nonviolence-Hawaii; Democratic Socialists of Honolulu; Young Progressive Demanding Action (Hawaiʻi); Hawaiian Unity and Liberation Institute; Malama Makua; International Women's Network Against Militarism; Women's Voices, Women Speak; Cancel RIMPAC Coalition; U.S. National Organizations: Peace Action; United for Peace & Justice; United National Anti-War Coalition; Nuclear Age Peace Foundation; CODEPINK, San Francisco Bay Area chapter; Veterans For Peace chapter 69-San Francisco; Donald and Sally-Alice Thompson Veterans For Peace Chapter #63-Albuquerque, New Mexico; Shut Down Creech campaign; International Organizations: Veterans for Peace; Jeju Committee for the Inter-Island Solidarity for Peace of Sea (South Korea); Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND-UK); Vrede vzw (Belgium); International Coalition for a Ban on (depleted) Uranium Weapons (Berlin Germany); Activists for Peace- Sweden; VD AMOK (Netherlands); Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILFP)-Italy; Peace & Neutrality Alliance in Ireland; CNGNN Italy; "No to war - no to NATO"; Center for Encounter and Active Non-Violence, Bad Ischl, Austria; Swedish Peace Council; Roma Social Forum; Teatroinnatura-Italy; Frente Antiimperialista Internacionalista (Spain); Dutch section of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF NL); WILPF Germany; Mouvement de la Paix (France); Gangjeong Peace Network; Inter-Island Solidarity for Peace of the Sea; Jeju Comittee People Making Jeju a Demilitarized Peace Island; Association of Gangjeong Villagers Against the Jeju Navy Base; Seongsan Committee against the Jeju 2nd Airport Project; Jeju People Living in the Main Land of Korea; TID TIL FRED - aktiv mod krig, Danmark (TIME FOR PEACE - active against war, Denmark);

Human remains, the bones of Monacan ancestors, have been found multiple times at the Rassawek site. Rassawek is also one of the most important Monacan towns, its political center and the place where its chiefs lived. If the pump station project is not built on Rassawek, it would be a sacred place for the tribe. The Army Corps should not force the tribe to endure the traumatic and somber process of repatriating and reburying their ancestors. At a time when the Commonwealth and the nation are working to preserve and interpret the historic capital of the Powhatan Confederacy, Werowocomoco, it is disturbing to see such willingness to destroy the Monacans’ capital. We ask that the leadership of Virginia and the Army Corps conduct a systemic review to identify other options for the water intake and pump station project that do not destroy this irreplaceable history.