(This article is a transcription of Flanders’ talk at a presentation in Nicaragua of her new book Sanctions: A Wrecking Ball in a Global Economy. To view the presentation of the book, click here.)
Sara Flounders presented her book remotely at the Miguel D’Escoto House of Sovereignty in Managua on March 14, 2023.
Sara Flounders is introduced and begins her talk:
Thank you. My special thanks not only to the House of Sovereignty, but to the National Autonomous University, to Sofia Clark, whom I’ve known for years, to UN Ambassador Jaime Hermida, to Colleen Littlejohn, and to each of you whom I met just recently on my visit to Nicaragua. The Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann House of Sovereignty, it was so exciting to see, is now housed in the building formerly of the Organization of American States (OAS), a U.S.-dominated institution that exists to attack the sovereignty of Latin America’s countries. What could be more appropriate?
I am an activist. I’m the editor of this anthology that is written by many authors, a collection of activists. And I’m not an academic or a doctor. I’m an activist.
And as the editor of this anthology, we wanted to show many different ways to approach the crime of sanctions and provide an explanation of how sanctions function.
So, this this is a book and a project organized by a number of different solidarity activists to explain and teach. It’s a campaign to expose what is a silent and deadly killer. [To order the book, click here.]
And the book is dedicated to the memory of the work of Padre Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann and to Ramsey Clark.
Both of these courageous voices focused world attention on sanctions as a crime against humanity.
I think this is the most appropriate place just to read our dedication. “To the work of Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann and to Ramsey Clark”.
We said: “They used their positions of political, religious and diplomatic power in their home countries and in the international arena to expose sanctions as a crime against humanity. Again and again, they met with people living under sanctions, seeing firsthand how sanctions affected them.
Then they exposed the realities of life under sanctions to the people in the countries that were imposing the sanctions. Ramsey Clark and Miguel D’escoto made it clear that it is the most vulnerable who are affected and that sanctions are not some gentle alternative to bombing, but are a deeply destructive, totally cruel weapon against humanity.
They led the way against the inhumane use of sanctions in our late 20th century, early 21st century. And we will continue that work.”
I had the honor of working with Padre Miguel on building wider support outside the United Nations during the stormy year when he was president of the United Nations General Assembly. He was a voice of conscience in this body.
Today we are seeing maybe the same thing with banks collapsing that Padre Miguel faced in 2008.
He called an international conference at the United Nations. It was called the UN Conference on World Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development. He explained the big banks were bailed out, but not the people.
And this was our call on the outside of the United Nations—to bail out the people, not the banks.
The sanctions they fought and exposed have become far worse since 2008. There are now sanctions on 40 countries. One third of the world population is in a country hit by sanctions, U.S. sanctions.
We need a voice opposing sanctions inside and outside the United Nations. The Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations is a voice inside the United Nations. This must be part of a global campaign.
Countries are being intentionally starved down. They are also finding incredibly creative ways to resist.
Small Nicaragua is showing the way! It is 90% food self-sufficient.
And while Nicaragua may lack some of the high-tech medical equipment, health care is door to door, personal attention. And education is free. What an accomplishment!
The Sanctions Kill campaign has a similar low tech and no budget approach. It is a people’s campaign. It’s using fact sheets and teaching tools and sample petitions and statements and links to past webinars.
So the book has both analysis and an exposé of the impact on different countries and concrete measures that activists can take.
It lists each of the 40 countries that are now sanctioned. And has specific information on them. And information on the US bodies imposing the sanctions.
Sanctions, depending on the country, are imposed by different departments, different agencies in the United States, in the European Union, and in the United Nations, depending on the country and when the sanctions were imposed. We are explaining a web that is meant to strangle countries in hundreds and hundreds of laws and regulations.
Sanctions always come coordinated with regime change operations organized by the National Endowment for Democracy and USAID programs and US funded mercenaries.
During the Covid pandemic, vaccines were used as part of the weapon against sanctioned countries.
As Nicaragua knows, no vaccines came from the United States during that time. So, Nicaragua was forced to mobilize its own resources. And they certainly did.
I want to say also that now the sanctions are losing their impact. There were more than 5,000 sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and the European Union.
But the response from the global South was to open and reinforce trade, currency exchanges and essential supplies. We are in a new day where US hegemony is slipping. And U.S banks: their power is slipping.
But we still have to continue the resistance. In our little time left, I wanted to just address three efforts.
There is a statement out now responding to the United Nations Human Rights Council report that is so flawed and meant as an attack on Nicaragua. And many organizations and committees that work in solidarity with Nicaragua are circulating this.
There is an effort to build an International Tribunal on Sanctions that will be holding a specific hearing on Nicaragua in June, dealing with these violations of international law.
A Chinese American activist, Lee Siu Hin, has helped with an arrangement in China to translate into Chinese this sanctions book. And we hope it will be translated into several other languages. Lee Siu Hin also brings with him a documentary made in China that has English, Spanish and Chinese. It’s called “Vaccines and Sanctions”.
So, we can see that there are new ways to cooperate in the world today among activists. To produce material and books and petitions and statements and connect with each other in a wider way to proceed. And none of this will receive one word of coverage in the corporate media.
But we’re not discouraged because it’s the people’s efforts that make the historic difference. So, it’s in that spirit that we bring you Sanctions: A Wrecking Ball in a Global Economy.
I thank you for this time and your attention.
* Sara Flounders is an organizer and the author of ten books. She is a Contributing Editor of Workers World Newspaper, Co-Director of International Action Center, helps coordinate the UNAC – United National Antiwar Coalition and the SanctionsKill Campaign. She is Editor and a co-author of the book SANCTIONS – A Wrecking Ball in a Global Economy. She just returned from a “wonderful visit” to Nicaragua.