In addition to providing support for war’s devastation and suffering, these military bases bring insecurity, violence, and environmental hazards to the communities and countries into which they intrude.

These effects include:

* The undermining of the sovereignty of nations-from the establishment of US bases in Cuba and Hawaii more than a century ago, to the newest bases in Iraq and the Philippines.
* The suppression of democracy and human rights by American support of repressive governments.
* Imposing unwanted foreign social, cultural, and economic transformations on local populations.
* The dehumanizing and violent treatment of women and girls, including sexual assaults by military personnel upon  civilians in places like Okinawa.
* Severe environmental destruction and contamination endangering the health of communities living in the toxic shadow of bases.

Around the world, communities impacted by US bases have organized to resist new military outposts and to demand the closure, cleanup, and transformation of existing bases to sustainable and peaceful uses.

In Los Angeles, on Tuesday, April 15 we invite you to a forum seeking to build support for vibrant grassroots movements around the world that oppose these military bases. Hear arguments for closing these bases and
bringing our troops home.

Andrea Licata (Italy) is the editor of an anthology creating plans for
converting the long-standing mammoth US airbase in Aviano to peaceful
civilian purposes. He is one of the leading organizers of the
community-based campaign against the expansion of the US air base in the
Dal Molin suburb of Vicenza-in which the US is putting state-of-the-art
weaponry to be able to launch rapid-response attacks in the region.
Andrea was an organizer of demonstrations that occurred in December
2007, in which hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in
Vicenza in protest against the US base expansion.

Annalisa Enrile is the National Chairperson of GABRIELA Network, an
organization she has been with since 1994. She is a professor at the
USC School of Social Work where she teaches human behavior, community
practice, and feminist theory and social action. Annalisa has had
extensive experience in the area of trafficking, militarization, and
global violence against women. She spent a year in the Philippines on a
Fulbright Fellowship examining domestic violence and grassroots
responses where she trained with GABRIELA Philippines. She continues to
work with GABRIELA Philippines and fights injustice on both sides of the
Pacific.

Maricela Guzman served in the US Navy on the Indian Ocean island of
Diego Garcia and in Naples, Italy from 1998 - 2002. After she left the
military, she came out against invasion of Iraq and participated in
marches over budget cuts to the VA. Maricela is a member of Service
Women Action Network (SWAN). She has collaborated with other
organizations in promoting military benefits for our troops and
veterans, women’s rights in the military, the antiwar movement, and is
involved in the counter-recruitment of youth in Los Angeles. Her goal is
to become a psychologist and someday hopes to work with veterans that
are dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. She will describe the
militarization of the US border with Mexico.

Kelly Hayes-Raitt spent February in the Philippines and the first week
of March in Guam, where she experienced firsthand the impact of the US
military. She interviewed dozens of community activists, which she
blogged about at www.PeacePATHFoundation.org. She will spend this summer
in Syria identifying programs to help Iraqi refugees. Kelly joined a
women’s delegation to Iraq just five weeks before the US-led invasion.
The experience touched her so deeply that she returned a few months
later and provided on-air commentaries from Baghdad, Basra and Falluja
to KFWB news radio, KNBC local evening news, and NPR. During the next
two years, Kelly addressed over 200 audiences about her experiences in
Iraq-including a group of Congresswomen in the US Capitol.

Please join us on Tuesday, April 15th at 7:00 PM.