SOA PILGRIMAGE: NOVEMBER 12-17, 2008!

Watch the newest update of our popular SCM Canada-produced video, Pilgrimage of Resistance! (June 2008)

See reports and photos from the 2007 pilgrimage!

Every year, a caravan sets out from Winnipeg, Toronto and Chicago on a journey to the gates of a notorious base at Fort Benning, Georgia - joining over 25,000 others.

We call it a ‘pilgrimage’: we visit communities of resistance & faith in Canada & the USA, learn about issues of justice, oppression and nonviolence, and form friendships and networks to help transform our world.

The School of the Americas (renamed WHINSEC) was founded during the Cold War to battle communism in Latin America. In half a century, graduates from its base in the U.S. have been accused of grave human rights abuses, massacres, torture and assassination against church people, students, unionists and indigenous people.

“The annual convergence on Fort Benning has become not only a protest, but also a time for networking and organizing community, solidarity, spiritual reflection, and a time to remember those killed. It is a space where we can begin to envision alternatives.“ - Pat, pilgrimage participant

	Register now! (Space limited. Please register by Oct 20)
	View SCM’s pamphlet for more info about the SOA Pilgrimage (PDF)
	Download our poster (PDF)
	See photos from past Pilgrimages to the SOA
	Watch videos about the SOA!
	Frequently Asked Questions
	Itinerary & Route

In 2007, we had students depart from both Winnipeg and Toronto, meeting up at a Catholic Worker community house in Chicago. We’ll be departing from both cities again this year.

In 2006, we sent 6 carloads on a caravan to the gates of the base, calling for its closure and visiting Christian communities of resistance on the way - our band of pilgrims is growing year by year since we began the pilgrimage 3 years ago.

Will you join us this year? Or, can you take part in local vigils, film screenings and actions?

Contact Us for details or register here! Travel bursaries available.

It is a transformative and inspiring annual event, where faith and justice go hand in hand - you can go on the caravan, or be part of local solidarity actions! Our caravan welcomes people of all faiths (or no faith) who are willing to explore and live justice.

The students of this school have been instrumental in almost every dictatorship and violent regime in Latin America in the last 30 years, including Pinochet, the Contras in Nicaragua, paramilitary groups in Colombia, the murderers of Archbishop Romero in El Salvador….and on and on and on.

The protest dates commemorate the 1989 assassinations of 6 Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her 14-year old daughter, who were massacred in El Salvador by graduates of the SOA/WHINSEC. The weekend will be a place of peaceful protest - a record 22,000 turned out in 2006, with 11 arrests for nonviolent civil disobedience. The atmosphere is peaceful and spiritual and fiercely resistant!

Winnipeg local units hold a prayer vigil on a busy downtown corner, in solidarity with SCMers on pilgrimage to the SOA gates.