No to APEC! No Militarization of San Francisco!
The People’s Resistance to APEC Continues Despite Promises of Intensified Special Security of Summit
ILPS-US initiated the No to APEC Coalition - as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation's (APEC) true objectives are to advance imperialist economic and political interests and agenda within the Asia Pacific region, and particularly in 2023, the implementation of neoliberal trade liberalization. The No to APEC Coalition officially launched on July 11, 2023 and currently has 55 member organizations.
Statement of the No To APEC Coalition
The international No to APEC Coalition condemns the recent decision by the White House and Department of Homeland Security to designate the APEC summit in November as a “National Special Security Event”, which in effect militarizes the Bay Area and puts local police under the overall control of the Secret Service and other federal authorities. We condemn the declaration of the summit to be “a potential target for a terrorist attack or civil disruption.” Putting these two concepts “terrorist attack” and “civil disruption” together equates the two and is a deliberate attempt to criminalize and chill the exercise of our constitutionally protected and internationally recognized rights to free expression and protest, and to dissuade public opinion from siding with pro-people, pro-worker and anti-APEC voices. This reflects a dangerous, increasingly common trend by federal, state and local authorities throughout the country and internationally to discourage and repress dissent through intensified surveillance, censorship, and criminalization of peoples’ right to protest.
During November 12-18, the heads of state of each APEC member, including US President Biden, will meet in San Francisco to take the next steps in APEC’s consolidation as a vehicle for U.S domination in the Asia/Pacific region including with authoritarian, militarist regimes that are aligned with its interests. . Since APEC has never and will never allow the exploited workers of the world a seat at the table, many labor and pro-people organizations are preparing to take to the streets to expose and oppose the devastating impacts of APEC’s neoliberal policies on their communities. The Department of Homeland Security has therefore declared the APEC heads of state summit a “National Special Security Event"-- one of the only times such an event has been declared outside of Washington, DC and the first time ever in Northern California.
Instead of the City of San Francisco meeting the people’s needs for affordable housing, food security and childcare for working families, it is diverting millions of dollars of city funds to deploy between 2,000 to 5,000 SFPD officers to work 12 hour shifts during the event days to comply with federal security guidelines. This militarization of the city to “protect” the wealthiest and most powerful 1% of the world — the ruling class — spells danger for the people. When the police and surveillance agents are deployed en masse, we are all less safe. Increasing policing and officers being told to be “on guard for terrorism” can only lead to increased violence against oppressed people in the city with racial profiling, and violence against the houseless. They are sending a chilling political message to the people that they will protect the wealthy and powerful corporate elite and their favorite heads of state at all costs and that the poor, marginalized, and exploited workers and communities shouldn’t even think about resisting.
Workers and protesters against APEC in Hawaii (2011), the Philippines (2015), and Thailand (2022) faced snipers and tanks, water cannons, squatter community displacement, and rubber bullets in violent government military repression of the peoples’ resistance. We refuse to allow the same or worse in San Francisco in November!
This act of increasing militarization by the White House shows who APEC is meant to serve: the big business owners, banks, and politicians whose destructive quest for domination of the world knows no bounds. Declaring a de facto military operation under the guise of “preventing terrorism” is not only dangerous, it obscures how APEC and Biden’s centerpiece – the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) – is all about militarizing the region in the U.S.’ favor. Militarizing APEC is an attempt at making an enemy out of organizations uplifting the demands and concerns of the people.
We must focus on the real threat: the neoliberal framework and big corporate interests that put profit over people and the planet, and systematically violate our rights to protest and resistance. The No To APEC Coalition not only denounces the decision by the White House, but reaffirms its intentions to mobilize hundreds of workers, migrants; climate, human rights, anti-imperialist, national liberation, and women’s rights activists, and many more to the streets of San Francisco November 11-12 to protest the Heads of State Summit. We have the right to resist the terror of state violence by upholding people and the planet over their corporate greed and plunder.
