NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

At the funeral for Maga'låhi Ed Benavente today, I got a chance to talk to former Governor of Guam Felix Camacho. When Felix Camacho was first elected the group Nasion Chamoru was in decline in terms of its political power. Angel Santos had been elected into the Guam Legislature years earlier and formally left the group. Nasion itself had continued to fight and gotten a number of reforms implemented around land for the landless and for families that had lost land after World War II to the US military. Felix Camacho, seeking to make a sort of peace with Nasion Chamoru, which had been a notorious thorn in the side of the previous administration, reached out to Ed Benavente and offered him a position in his cabinet. I remember that time well, as I had already started hanging out with members of the Colonized Chamoru Coalition and so I got to listen in while members of Nasion Chamoru discussed whether or not Ed should join with Camacho. I won't describe the deliberations in detai

A very good overview of the global network of US bases in the world and also the movements against them. It was written in 2008 but still has lots of relevant information for readers today. As I've been teaching my course, articles such as this have been very helpful in giving my students a very brief by thorough overview of US military plans and strategies in terms of their bases. ************** "Resisting the Empire" by Joseph Gerson Foreign Policy in Focus March 19, 2008 Ecuador’s decision not to renew the U.S. lease for the forward operating base at Manta (see Yankees Head Home ) is the culmination of just one of many long-term and recently initiated community-based and national struggles to remove these military installations that are often sources of crime and demeaning human rights violations. A growing alliance among anti-bases movements in countries around the world, including the United States, is preventing the creation of new foreign military

This article represents an important reminder about the consequences of militarism and militarization. It is easy to become enamored by the spiffiness, the shininess of the US military. The advertisements are so sleek and so inspiring. They hit people from so many angles. They appeal to the patriotism, the training, the education, the travel, the need to protect the homeland and one's family. These ads are bolstered by the surface of the US military. The cleanliness, the immaculate surface. Nicely cute lawns. Sharply painted houses. Pressed uniforms, young people and not so young people standing at attention. There is so much clean order. It is no wonder than that in Guam, militarism is such a strong force. Militarism deals with the way that a society relates to military institutions and military force. Do societies see military force, military outposts, military service as being ideal, essential, a last resort? Do they see the military as the ultimate opportunity or an unfortuna

In Guam we are already very accustomed to thinking about military bases as being essential, safe and secure engines for an economy. This is true to some extent. In Guam, the military presence and strategic importance opened many doors in terms of Federal funding that Guam would not have received otherwise. Furthermore, the local economy is supported by the income taxes payments for Federal employees on Guam, and that gives some stability to the coffers of GovGuam. The military is also a chance for economic improvement and was something that played a very significant role in creating a middle class on Guam. One mistake that people often make is believing that the military bases on Guam help tourism. The fact that the U S owns Guam does help support the tourism industry, as Guam is considered to be a part of America and therefore gains some of its credibility, sense of stability and so on, but the bases are not part of that. If Guam were a colony with no bases, it cou