Nearly 100 people filled the pews at the First Methodist Church on Tuesday evening to listen to speakers advocate using social justice to stop U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan.
“The U.S. government is using the attack to enhance its vision of the world,” Martin Hart-Landsberg, a Lewis and Clark College economics professor, said.
He said current government policies are not being carried out to stop terrorism, but for a different purpose.
“It’s maximum freedom for private profit-making,” he said. “It’s being used to push through trade agreements.”
Hart-Landsberg, along with two other speakers, came to Eugene at the request of the Community Alliance for Lane County.
Organizers handed out tip sheets on writing letters to Oregon’s congressional representatives, urging them to support halting the bombing of Afghanistan. Zaher Wahab, a professor of education at Lewis and Clark College, emigrated from the country to the United States. He said the current military action is only harming an already impoverished people.
“If we care about our own people, then think about all the people who haven’t had a decent meal in three years, let alone a year. Work on ending the bombing,” he said.
“We are a peace and social justice organization,” alliance member Carol Van Houghton said. “We used to be called Clergy and Laity Alliance — back in the days of the Vietnam War when we first started.”
The alliance designed the hour-and-a-half forum to be the first of a series of discussions and invited out-of-town speakers to stimulate the community.
“Because there have been other presentations on this subject, we did not want to repeat speakers,” she said.
Community alliance spokesman Dan Goldrich said the next forum is tentatively set for January and will focus on crimes against humanity.