Sometimes you just cannot wait for the U.S. Government to do the right thing.

In anticipation of the US Government acknowledging and being held accountable for the use of torture and extralegal detention at Guantánamo, the Fund for Guantánamo Survivors is sending financial relief directly to Guantánamo survivors. This people-led endeavor cannot wait. There is great need among survivors.

Contributions for this fund are being accepted through the nonprofit Healing and Recovery after Trauma. Please select the reparations fund when contributing. You can also contribute through their site linked here (hrtlaw.org/donate).

GOALS

We reached out first fundraising goal! 39 teacups for the 39 people extralegally imprisoned till 2022.

Going forward, everyone who donates $500 or more will receive one porcelain teacup. Artists Aaron Hughes and Amber Ginsburg are donating an edition of 780 porcelain cast Styrofoam teacups. Each cup is based on the creative acts of resistance by people imprisoned at Guantánamo drawing on Styrofoam teacups, one for every man held since 2002.

Anyone donating $100 or more will receive a limited artist edition tea package that includes a special tea blend and preparation instructions based on one of the 48 recipes collected by the Tea Project.

Ultimate Goal: 780 cups

The ultimate goal is to secure reparations for Guantánamo survivors. As we organize for reparations we are setting out to raise $100,000 from donations for 780 cups. These funds will go directly to survivors to support their needs as they define them. In speaking with survivors some of the needs they have identified include: Health Care, Housing and Living Expenses, Training and Education, and Family Support.

[Updated January 2023]

The International and Domestic Connections

In 2002, following the start of the "Global War on Terror," the United States established an extralegal military prison at the US Naval Base in Guantánamo. The location was chosen intentionally to avoid U.S. and international law. Since then it has been the site of major human rights violations, including holding people for indefinite periods of time without trial, subjecting them to extreme interrogation methods, torture, and even death. Extralegal imprisonment and torture at Guantánamo is also directly connected to the Chicago Police Department through detective and Navy Reserves Lt. Richard Zuley. After years of subjecting poor, Black, and brown Chicagoans to torture, Zuley was involved in torture at Guantánamo from 2002 to 2004.

But this was not the first exchange of the violence of wars abroad and local policing. Under the direction of police commander and Vietnam veteran Jon Burge, police subjected hundreds of predominantly Black men and women to torture between 1972 and 1991. In 2015, after years of activism by torture survivors, mothers, artists, educators and attorneys, Chicago passed the first tangible reparations for racially motivated police violence in the United States.

Taking inspiration for the fight for Reparations for the Police Commander Jon Burge torture survivors, this fund attends to some of the direct needs of Guantánamo torture survivors while also working towards Reparations for Guantánamo survivors.

The Cups

Each cup is carved with the number of men imprisoned from a specific country. For example, the 220 cups bearing the names of Afghan citizens have 220 tulips carved into them. One flower for each of the 220 Afghan men.

When you hold your cup, you hold a part of this history and a vessel to share stories, time with friends and family, while also supporting some of the people most impacted by the Global War on Terror and related forms of state violence.

Above Images: "During a 2014 Lawrence Arts Center Project Based Artist in Residency Aaron and Amber along with many incredible volunteers opened a cup factory to produce 779 porcelain styrofoam cups." Photographs by Marlo Angle.