Diane Wilson is an environmental activist, anti-war activist, an author, and a fourth generation shrimper from Texas. She is a co-founder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace. She began her water-only hunger strike in solidarity with the prisoners in Guantánamo from May 1st to May 24, 2013. On May 10, Diane, a grandmother, was arrested at the White House for chaining herself, by her neck, to the fence. She began drinking juice every other day on May 25 until June 5 and travelled to her home in Seadrift, Texas to be with her ailing sister who later past away.
On June 6, 2013 she continues her open-ended, water-only hunger strike in solidarity with the prisoners and intends to continue her strike until the prisoners in Guantánamo put an end to their hunger strike and those cleared for release begin to be freed.
She will remain in on the Gulf Coast of Texas until June 20 when she will travel to Washington, DC and continue her vigil in front of the White House. On Wednesday, June 26, UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, she plans to be one of the 86 people who risk arrest in front of the White House in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience to call attention to the 86 prisoners in Guantánamo who have been cleared for release, but have not been freed.
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Diane Wilson, A Warrior’s Tale
Director: Ilana Trachtman Producer: Roberta Morri
ABOUT THE FILM
Diane Wilson, A Warrior’s Tale is one of several short subjects that appeared in an hour-long Lifetime Television
special called “Our Heroes, Ourselves.” The program profiles everyday heroes with the goal of inspiring viewers to take action in their own lives. It was shot on location in Sea Drift, Texas in December of 2001 and directed by award winning documentary television producer Ilana Trachtman. Since Diane’s triumph in Texas, she has continued to fight for zero discharge from chemical companies across the country.
Portrait by Robert Shetterly, from his portrait series Americans Who Tell the Truth.
When Diane Wilson, fourth-generation shrimp-boat captain and mother of five, learns that she lives in the most polluted county in the United States, she decides to fight back. She launches a campaign against a multibillion-dollar corporation that has been covering up spills, silencing workers, flouting the EPA, and dumping lethal ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride into the bays along her beloved Texas Gulf Coast.
In an epic tale of bravery, Wilson takes her fight to the courts, to the gates of the chemical plant, and to the halls of power in Austin. Along the way she meets with scorn, bribery, character assassination, and death threats. Finally Wilson realizes that she must break the law to win justice: She resorts to nonviolent disobedience, direct action, and hunger strikes.
Wilson’s vivid South Texas dialogue resides somewhere between Alice Walker and William Faulkner, and her dazzling prose brings to mind the magic realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, replete with dreams and prophecies.
An Unreasonable Woman
A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters, and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas
by Diane Wilson
Read and delight in the story how one fierce and feisty fisher-woman wrestled the corporate polluters and won. Diane Wilson’s pit-bull
tenacity when it comes to defending Mother Nature is the stuff of legends. Hip to the fact that well-behaved women rarely make history, Diane hasalready inspired a new movement of totally uncontrollable, irresistible and unreasonable women!
— Medea Benjamin, cofounder of CODEPINK and coauthor of Stop the Next War Now
by 
Hunger Striker's Blog
U.S. Faster in Solidarity w/Gitmo & Pelican Bay Prisoners
Foreground: EMT prepares the tool for the nasal intubation. Background: U.S. Embassy, Buenos Aires, Argentina Middleground:...agony awaits.
The feeding demo is extremely painful, yet it is done with consent. The long-term solidarity fast continues with nasogastric nourishment in front of U.S. governmental symbols of power. The twice-daily force-feeding of Gitmo hunger strikers is nonconsensual and therefore real torture by the standards sponsored by U.S. taxpayers and authorized by members of Congress who just raised the debt ceiling to nearly $17 trillion. President Obama's actions continue to belie his empty words "Close Guantánamo." As Commander-in-Chief, he could easily order an end to what the Pentagon refuses to call "forced-feeding." The force-feeding is premeditated relentless forced penetration of plastic into their innermost sacred cavities !
Andrés Thomas Conteris - fasted on water and coconut water with vitamin and electrolyte supplements. Solidarity fast began July 8, 2013 with 30,000 hunger striking California prisoners urging fulfillment of 5 Core Demands of the Pelican Bay supermax prisoners. Force-feeding protests began Sept. 6 & Sept. 25 in front of the White House & later in front of the Oakland Office of CA Dept of Corrections and Rehab (CDCR) to depict how prisoners in Guantánamo are tortured with force-feeding twice-daily and how CA prisoners as future hunger strikers have been threatened with a court order authorizing force-feeding. On Oct 4 and Oct 8 he was tube-fed in front of the U.S. Embassies in Montevideo, Uruguay and Buenos Aires, Argentina. On Oct 15 a similar protest took place in Santiago, Chile. On Friday, Oct 18 the feeding protest returns to Washington, DC outside a Federal Court hearing on the lawsuit challenging force-feeding in Guantánamo. He is now on a maintenance fast losing about 1 pound per week, unlike the 5 pounds/week the first 11 weeks. In January 2014 with the anniversary of Guantánamo on Jan. 11, the force feeding protests will recommence. Please spread the word.
U.S. Hunger Strikers who have suspended their fast
Diane Wilson - Water only 58 days (lost 48 lbs). Diane, co-founder of CodePink and member of Veterans for Peace, suspended her hunger strike on June 27, 2013 after detention following her arrest for scaling the White House fence the day before. She faced a jury trial in DC District Court on Sept. 5th, 2013.
S. Brian Willson - Suspended Hunger Strike on June 10, 2013 after 31 days on 300cal/day, when a car accidentally hit him. Supporters continue a vigil with a rolling fast, in Portland, OR.
Elliott Adams - Went 80 days on 300 cal/day from May 18, to August 4, 2013 losing 45 lbs. He is past President of Veterans for Peace.
Tarak Kauff - Ended fast on August 4, 2013 after 58 days on 300 cal/day since June 7. He lost 29 lbs. On Board of Directors for Veterans for Peace.
Cynthia Papermaster - After 84 days on 300 cal/day, Cynthia suspended her hunger strike on Sep. 6 which began June 15, 2013. Code Pink member, lost 35 lbs. The transfer of two Algerian prisoners on Aug. 29, 2013, inspired her to suspend her fast.
Collaborative of CloseGitmo.net Organizations
- Campaign for Alternatives to
- Meta Peace Team: "Pursuing peace
- Metta Center for Nonviolence
- NRCAT
Daily Updates
- Articles: Guantánamo: Where Being Cleared for Release Means Nothing January 26, 2014
- Articles: Video: Washington D.C. Protest on the 12th Anniversary of the Opening of Guantánamo January 16, 2014
- Articles: Join Us in Washington D.C. on Jan. 11 to Tell President Obama, "Close Guantánamo Now!" January 6, 2014
