A group fights for the political rights of the US Pacific

Transcript

An American non-profit group hopes people from US Pacific territories will soon get more political power.

President of the We The People Project, Neil Weare, is a former Guam resident and is trying to bring attention to the rights of territorial residents.

He told Koro Vaka'uta the sheer distance between the territories and the US mainland makes his task difficult.

NEIL WEARE:  Pacific territories of Guam, the Northern Marianas, American Samoa have more than 200,000 Americans living in these areas who are denied the right to vote for the US President and lack any voting representations in Congress.  Yet at the same time the Federal Government makes important decisions that affect the day to day lives of these Americans in everything from health care to environmental concerns to other economic issues.  It's important that these Americans in these areas have the same access to democracy and the same access to representation that Americans anywhere else in the United States has.

KORO VAKA'UTA:  Is there a push for this from the islands themselves?

NW:  We're a national organisation that works with elected officials and organisations in each of these areas and what we are doing that is a little bit different from what we've done before is actually bringing all these areas together to have one voice rather than each of them trying to each on their own raise its individual issues.  That's something that I think we've had some success already.  It's a lot easier to have the voice head of nearly 5 million people than when particularly for the Pacific territories, populations are each less than 200,000.

KV:  But there is a move for more political power or a want for more political power or a want for more political power from the islands themselves?

NW:  Absolutely.  We have on our advisory board prominent leaders from each of the areas and are working with them closely to advance their issues in Washington DC.

KV:  You mentioned that you guys through litigation to make some sort of impact.  What's happening at the moment on those grounds?

NW:  We have a case now before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington DC on behalf of individuals born in American Samoa who are recognised as US Nationals but denied recognition as citizens based on a broad interpretation of centuries old Supreme Court cases that have been criticised for the racial undertones that they had when they were decided.

KV:  What's the timeline for that action?

NW:  We're expecting an decision later this summer or early this fall.  We're also working on developing new cases that focus on voting rights issues in each of these areas.

KV:  How about the consciousness of those in the American mainland?  Do the general AMerican public care about this issue?

NW:  A very popular American programme called 'Last Week Tonight' with British comedian John Oliver focussed on voting rights issues and other constitutional issues in the territories.  The clip that is available on YouTube has already attracted well over a million views so that's been a really exciting opportunity to get the story of these Americans out because I think once most people hear that there are over 4 million Americans living in the territories, the territories have some of the highest rates of military service of anywhere in the United States, that if they are serving and defending democracy overseas surely they should be able to fully participate in democracy at home.