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Based in Eugene, Oregon, Support Coalition International (SCI) is a coalition of 100 psychiatric survivor groups around the world working for the human rights of people in the mental health system.

SCI has Consultative Roster Status with the United Nations as a Non Governmental Organization.

At the American Psychiatric Association's annual convention in San Francisco on May 18, two dozen members of the group plan to launch "A Hunger Strike to Challenge International Domination by BioPsychiatry." SCI is organizing an alternative convention on May 17.

SCI holds psychiatrists and drug companies responsible for what it claims are the following human rights violations and crimes: Defaming and humiliating people by labeling them with a mental illness, incarcerating the innocent, forcing people to take damaging drugs, destroying brain cells with ECT, and restraining/confining people without cause.

According to SCI, BioPyschiatry is "exceedingly harmful to body and spirit." The group insists that BioPsychiatry is the dominant approach to mental illness; that drugs are overused and people are not informed of the risks they take with drugs. SCI believes that while self-determination is the basis of recovery, BioPsychiatry stifles the development of alternative treatments.

Therefore SCI is fasting until the American Psychiatric Association, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), World Health Organization (WHO), Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America, and the National Institute of Mental Health prove the biological basis of mental illness, show that there is a reliable test for such illnesses, define medically what a normal person is, prove that there is such a thing as a chemical imbalance, and demonstrate that violence can be prevented with drugs.

SCI has assembled its own group of professionals to judge whether the above groups have made the case for BioPsychiatry.

SCI states that it does not judge negatively individuals who take psychiatric medications.

The group also says, "We must act in the nonviolent tradition of Cesar Chavez and Mahatma Gandhi by saying 'No' to oppression with our bodies and spirits through fasting, while affirming the humanity of those people to whom we make our demands."

For more information about the hunger strike and related activities, contact Support Coalition International, David Oaks, Director, 454 Willamette, Suite 216, POB 11284, Eugene, OR 97440-3484; phone: 1-877-MAD-PRIDE; e-mail: oaks@mindfreedom.org; web: www.mindfreedom.org.