"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Martin Luther King, Jr.
The poem below, Pledge of Resistance, is a statement of conscience that is associated with Not in Our Name project. Unfortunately, the project itself came to an operational close over a year ago. The work of the group is still captured on their website: notinourname.net and the beliefs they espoused shared by many. The group which came into existence soon after 9/11 worked collectively on three points of unity: no war on the world, no detentions and roundups and no police state restructions. The Pledge of Resistance is read by hip hop artist, Saul Williams. Williams is also seen in the documentary, Voices in Wartime.
The Pledge of Resistance
We believe that as people living
in the United States it is our
responsibility to resist the injustices
done by our government,
in our names
Not in our name
will you wage endless war
there can be no more deaths
no more transfusions
of blood for oil
Not in our name
will you invade countries
bomb civilians, kill more children
letting history take its course
over the graves of the nameless
Not in our name
will you erode the very freedoms
you have claimed to fight for
Not by our hands
will we supply weapons and funding
for the annihilation of families
on foreign soil
Not by our mouths
will we let fear silence us
Not by our hearts
will we allow whole peoples
or countries to be deemed evil
Not by our will
and Not in our name
We pledge resistance
We pledge alliance with those
who have come under attack
for voicing opposition to the war
or for their religion or ethnicity
We pledge to make common cause
with the people of the world
to bring about justice,
freedom and peace
Another world is possible
and we pledge to make it real.
