Guantanamo International Day of Action Begins with Warsaw

Guantanamo International Day of Action Begins with Warsaw

Approximately 40 people from various anarchist groups, including the Warsaw Anarchist Federation, Anarchist Black Cross, and the Pupil's Initiative gathered at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw at 12 noon on Saturday January 6th (I know, 5 days early!) in solidarity with the International campaign to Shut Down Guantanamo.
5 activists dressed in orange overalls ( and with sensory depriving blackened goggles, face masks, ear muffs)acted as the prisoners, 1 person acted as CIA torturer of the month while anotgher 'US soldier' co-ordinated their sadistic practices - in addition to this, a short street theatre action was staged with 2 young anarchists playing 2 acts:

1) Warsaw 1943: A German interrogator with a Warsaw citizen/resister who is being tortured, beaten, killed;

then

2) Guantanamo 2007: A U.S. interrogator and unknown Guan. detainee who is being tortured, beaten, killed.

A narrator conveyed the similarities in tactics/ideologies applied by the respective repressive regimes .

We had a banner 'End State Terrorism' and 10 placards with prisoners' names, photos, arrest dates and places of arrest under the title, 'Guantanamo Torture Victim'. A number of other placards depicted the tragically well-known photos of the torture methods used in Abu-Ghraib and other military brigs.

After our CIA candidate rounded up and black-hooded 5 spectator/participants and made them stand in stress positions, etc. we walked a 1/2 kilometre to the Polish Ministry of Defence at 12.45pm past the British embassy, Ministry of Justice and Prime Minister's office. When we eventually reached the Ministry the 5 prisoners lined up once again holding placards of Guan. inmates while Polish complicity in the extraordinary rendition programme and it's facilitation through Szymany airport, assistance in the War on Terror through troop deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan was addressed by speakers.

The ever reliant Food Not Bombs crew then served us a beautiful soup to revive our drooping body temperatures. The weather was miserably damp and cold.
Finally, we headed to our local anarchist Infoshop where we showed the documentary 'Gitmo' with Polish dubbing to about 15 people.

The mainstream newspapers' websites have done lengthy reports of the action and as all lazy journalists like to do, they took long extracts from our press release:)) We expect that the Monday print editions will carry reports of the action. An internet poll on whether Guantanamo should be closed down is currently at Yes, 57%; No, 37%: No opinion, 6%.
The poll can be followed here:
Online Polish Poll


You can find them pictures of the action at:

Indymedia Pictures
CIA'a Pictures