Aug. 12, 2005

"Llevamos un mundo nuevo en nuestros corazones." – Durruti

Orlando Food Not Bombs and Orlando Direct Action stand in solidarity with St. Pete for Peace and our comrades from St. Petersburg Food Not Bombs, who participate in St. Pete for Peace, and pledge them mutual aid in their struggles.

We call upon the authorities to immediately drop all charges against the six participants in the St. Pete for Peace anti-war protest who were arrested on Sat., Aug. 6 at the Baywalk complex, and to return any property, including photographic equipment and film, confiscated during the arrests. We feel these arrests were meant to have a chilling effect on the ability and willingness of citizens to express their opinions through protest and public dissent from State policies. The authorities' actions on Aug. 6 are part of the trend toward ever-greater authoritarianism in our society and the placing of the profit interests of private property above the interests of citizens in being able to freely exercise their civil liberties. If we are to have an enlightened and free society, individuals and their rights must always take precedence over private property and profits.

We also call upon the authorities in St. Petersburg to:
a) respect the rights granted by the U.S. and Florida constitutions to freedom of speech and the freedom to peaceably assemble for the purpose of protesting;
b) to cease harassing, intimidating, surveilling and arresting citizens who exercise their free speech rights on the public sidewalks and other public areas around Baywalk;
c) to remove all barricades and other devices that have been placed in the public areas around Baywalk for the purpose of limiting the space available for citizens to peaceably exercise their free speech rights; and
d) to scrap any plans to cede ownership of public sidewalks or other publicly-owned areas around Baywalk, which were created and have been maintained through the use of public tax monies, to the privately-owned company that operates Baywalk. Turning over the sidewalks to this company would represent the granting of special privileges to a corporation and would be undemocratic.

Orlando Food Not Bombs and Orlando Direct Action oppose war, poverty, and violence, and we oppose the U.S. war and occupation in Iraq, and call for the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. military forces from that country; and we stand in solidarity with similar anti-war sentiments expressed by members of St. Pete for Peace and St. Petersburg Food Not Bombs.

We oppose any form of oppression, and we believe that resistance to State oppression and the State's abuse of its power are necessary in order to create a free society. We commend the actions of the members of St. Pete for Peace who non-violently resisted the arrests of their comrades on Aug. 6. We believe that movements need a diversity of tactics in order to be effective and we call upon activists to respect each other's autonomy to use the tactics they feel are proper and necessary to advance their struggles.

For liberty, equality and mutual aid,

Orlando Food Not Bombs

and

Orlando Direct Action