Skip to main content

ATTENTION: This site is no longer active but remains as an archive.

Iraq Veterans Against the War has become About Face: Veterans Against the War. About Face can be found at aboutfaceveterans.org

Iraq Veterans Against the War

Join IVAW

Donate to IVAW

  • About
    • Founding of IVAW
    • Mission, Values, and Vision
    • War in Afghanistan
    • Why We Are against the Wars
    • Resolutions
    • IVAW Timeline
    • Board of Directors
    • Advisory Committee
    • Staff
  • Events
  • Campaigns
    • Operation Recovery
    • Winter Soldier
      • Breakdown of the Military
      • Civilian Testimony
      • Corporate Pillaging
      • Cost of War at Home
      • Crisis in Veterans Healthcare
      • Future of GI Resistance
      • Gender and Sexuality
      • Legacy of GI Resistance
      • Racism and War
      • Response to DoD
      • Rules of Engagement
      • Press Coverage
      • Press Releases
    • Right to Heal
  • Members
  • Resources
    • AWOL
    • Active Duty
    • Conscientious Objector
    • Depleted Uranium
    • History of Resistance
    • IRR Reactivation
    • Lariam
    • PTSD
    • Profiles of Resisters
    • Resources for Veterans
    • Stop Loss
    • Women's Resources
    • Mesothelioma
  • Press
  • Contact
    • Press
    • Speaker Request

We Support Freedom for Oscar Lopez, and this is why.

published by Joyce Wagner on 03/10/15 11:13am

Iraq Veterans Against the War stands behind Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera. Oscar contributed to the GI Resistance movement during Vietnam that helped to inspire IVAW’s mission. IVAW also values the self-determination of all people impacted by US militarism and colonialism. This includes Puerto Rico, the oldest colony in the world, and one of the United States’ unincorporated territories, or “colonial possessions” along with Guam, American Samoa and the US Virgin Islands -and the military enclave of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. You can read more about IVAW’s mission and values here.

According to David Cortright’s book, Soldiers in Revolt, much of the GI movement of that era was led by minorities, especially Black and Puerto Rican soldiers who saw the contradiction between their own limited rights and the idea of “fighting for freedom.” Oscar’s family moved from Puerto Rico to Chicago when he was 14 in search of work. After that he was drafted into the military and his experience reflects Cortright’s observations:

Like many young Puerto Rican men, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to Vietnam. It was there that he began to understand his identity as a Puerto Rican, seeing other Puerto Rican soldiers with Puerto Rican flags on their helmets and talking about independence and self-determination for Puerto Rico. He began to see that he had more in common with the Vietnamese people, fighting for their own independence and self-determination, than he had with the U.S. armed forces. He was decorated with the Bronze Star for his courage and valor.

Like many IVAW members, Oscar’s experience in the military inspired him to become a community organizer and an agent for change.

Honorably discharged from the Army, he returned home to find the plight of the Puerto Ricans in Chicago in dire straits: many close friends and neighbors had succumbed to the drug epidemic; the problems of education, housing, unemployment and health had reached catastrophic levels; and the power structure responded with negligence and bigotry.

Unwilling to ignore these unjust conditions, he became a talented community organizer, helping to implement bilingual education; integrate the universities; offer educational programs in the prisons; found alternative schools, health and drug rehabilitation clinics and other community institutions; and convince the government and utility companies to hire people of color.

Later, Oscar became involved in the movement to Free Puerto Rico from its status as a US colonial possession and the struggle for the Independence of the People of Puerto Rico. This is what led Oscar and 17 others to be imprisoned for seditious conspiracy - the same charge brought upon Nelson Mandela for participating in the struggle to end apartheid. Bishop Desmond Tutu has spoken publicly on multiple occasions, declaring that Oscar is a Political Prisoner.

Despite never being accused of, or charged with a violent crime, Oscar has been held in prison for 33 years and was sentenced to 75 years. Oscar was offered clemency by then-President Bill Clinton but refused to be pardoned himself until everyone was free. As each of them age, they have been freed one by one and only Oscar remains. It is time to free him now.

Oscar sets an inspiring example for members of Iraq Veterans Against the War and we are proud to make this statement of our support for his freedom. You can read more about Oscar and the movement for his freedom at boricuahumanrights.org

IVAW member mud stenciling

#VeteransDay Social Media Dialogue: Broadening the conversation on the War at Home and Abroad

Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and Civilian Soldier Alliance are launching a social media campaign to shift the dialogue around this upcoming Veteran's day, Monday, November 11th this year from one that implicitly...
Emily Yates's picture

"Yellow Ribbon"

I wrote this song in early August, following my umpteenth conversation with some fellow veterans about those yellow ribbon magnets everyone seems to have on their gas-guzzlers these days, and what, if anything, symbols like...

In response to the Deceased Service member & Veterans, the Fight for Dignity of our Humanity!

In light of recent events of the government shut down, as well as the travesties of the and having worked at Dover Port Mortuary and DOD Office of Causality Affairs, I feel it is my moral duty to speak clearly in regards to...
Scott Olsen's picture

Statement of Support for the Short Corridor Collective and other prisoners in resistance in California prisons from the Bay Area chapters of Iraq Veterans Against the War and Civilian Soldier Alliance

Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and the Civilian Soldier Alliance celebrate the resistancedemonstrated by California prisoners at the suspension of their third hunger strike organized to protest the cruel, inhumane and...

POSTERS & GRAPHICS AGAINST US MILITARY INTERVENTION IN SYRIA

Please share your favorite image on facebook and/or email your friends, co-workers, and family. Please download and print these posters. Use them at protests, put them in your windows, post them on public messaging boards,...

CALL FOR POSTERS & GRAPHICS AGAINST MILITARY INTERVENTION IN SYRIA

Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) is an organization of Global War on Terrorism veterans, many of whom have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, that historically has opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, demanded...

Pages

  • « First
  • ‹ Prev
  • …
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • …
  • Next ›
  • Last »

Supporter Newsletter!

Donations

Make a single donation or become an IVAW sustainer by making your donation a recurring one. Please consider making your generous gift right now.
Donate Online Today!

Speaker Request

Please be advised that we get many speaker requests, but regret that we are sometimes unable to fill them.
Speaker Request

Joining IVAW

Iraq Veterans Against the War is open to Active Duty, National Guard and Reservists who have served since 09/11/2001.
Join IVAW

Navigation

  • About
  • Events
  • Campaigns
  • Committees
  • Chapters
  • Members
  • Resources
  • Contact