September 29

ANTI-WAR MARCHES OF NEW TYPE: Washington, D.C.: Protest hits FEMA, ICE

2007-10-05T09:36:00.001-07:00

By LeiLani Dowell

Published Oct 4, 2007 2:28 AM

Two months of anti-war activity culminated at the end of September in dynamic encampments to stop war at home and abroad and militant, anti-imperialist and anti-racist demonstrations in both Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

D.C. march steps off from Encampment.

photo: Deirdre Griswold

Here in Washington, during the Sept. 22-29 Encampment to Stop the War at Home and Abroad, more and more participants arrived and staked their tents in front of the Capitol building as the Sept. 29 mass march approached. A real sense of unity could be felt among the many activists from varied struggles who share a common enemy.

A FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) trailer brought by Katrina survivors direct from New Orleans joined the Iraq Veterans Against the War bus, which had been parked in front of the Encampment since Sept. 22. The tent city was treated to a delicious meal of shrimp, crawfish and sausage cooked by the Common Ground Collective organizers who, after traveling more than 17 hours to get to the Capitol from New Orleans, spent the next day cooking the meal.

Encampment participants, mostly women from Code Pink, disrupted a Senate Appropriations Hearing on Sep26 in which Secretary of Defense Robert Gates requested an additional $42 billion in funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Gates’s appeal brings the 2008 request for war funds—above and beyond the even larger Pentagon budget—to a record high of almost $190 billion.

Members of the cast of “SiCKO”—Michael Moore’s movie exposing the exploitative for-profit health care system—arrived on Sept. 28 to augment the demand for “Health care, not warfare.”

Other events in the last three days of the Encampment included a meeting on the struggle of survivors for justice in the wake of Hurricane/Rita, and immigrant rights; a delegation that called on the acting Attorney General to free the Cuban Five; a health care vigil; a militant youth action with several targets; and a concert to demand an end to martial law in the Philippines. Rock the Rulers, the week-long concert series of the Encampment, brought cultural inspiration and resistance every night.

Mass march ties issues together

WW photo: Gary Wilson

A preliminary report issued by the Troops Out Now Coalition states: “The march on Saturday, Sept. 29 was a departure in tone and make-up from many past anti-war demonstrations. It was a serious and highly successful effort to involve more community-based organizations and issues and to link the struggle against the war with the struggles against racism, oppression and economic injustice at home.”

A multinational crowd of some 10,000 to 15,000 included contingents from organized labor; lesbian, gay, bi and trans activists; Katrina survivors; International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal; the Peoples Organization for Progress; Iraq Veterans Against the War; the Green Party of the U.S., BAYAN USA; and more.

The march route included stops to protest at the offices of FEMA, where Katrina survivors accused the agency of neglect; Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where protestors shouted “Melt ICE” and “Stop the raids;” the Department of Social Services; and the Department of Education, where Code Pink, chanting “Books not bombs,” covered up part of the “No child left behind” slogan to read “Every child left behind.”

Speakers and performers at the rally all drew clear links between the war in Iraq and the war at home, including a labor delegation with Brenda Stokely of the Million Worker March Movement, Charles Jenkins and Larry Adams of the New York City Labor Against the War, and members of District Council 37; political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, via a recorded greeting from death row; Malik Rahim, Common Ground Collective; Medea Benjamin, Code Pink; Bernadette Ellorin and Christine Hilo, BAYAN USA; Larry Hamm, People’s Organization for Progress; and David Swanson, After Downing Street.

Also speaking were Ardeshir Ommani of the Stop the War On Iran Campaign and American Iranian Friendship Committee; Ignacio Meneses, National Network on Cuba; Walter Sinche, May 1st Immigrant Rights Coalition; Rosita Romero, Dominican Women’s Development Center; Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Hip Hop Caucus; Adam Kokesh, Iraq Veterans Against the War; Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army veteran and 16-year diplomat who resigned in opposition to the Iraq war; Victor Toro, Chilean leader of MIR being threatened with deportation; Debra Sweet of World Can’t Wait; and Teresita Jacinto Oliva of Mexicanos Sin Fronteras.

Continuing the short, punchy talks were Jared Ball, and Sara “Echo” Steiner, Green Party members; Charlotte Kates of Al-Awda New York, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition; Pam Africa, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal; political prisoner Leonard Peltier, via a statement; Sonia Umanzon of the FMLN (Faribundo Martí National Liberation Front); Katrina survivors Ivey Parker and Christine Gavin-Lathan; Mohammad Awdallah, U.S. Popular Palestine Conference Network; Ricardo Prado of the Colombian political party Democratic Pole; Tyneisha Bowens of FIST—Fight Imperialism, Stand Together; Larry Holmes, Teresa Gutierrez and Sara Flounders for TONC and the International Action Center; Omowale Clay, December 12 Movement and Friends of Zimbabwe; and Milton St. Germaine, New England Human Rights Organization for Haiti.

Independent media part of movement

While the capitalist media practically boycotted the marches on Sept. 29 and provided limited coverage of the Encampments, independent media was there in force to convey the event’s message to the world. In Your Face radio broadcast daily interviews from the Encampment throughout the week. Pacifica’s KPFK radio was the media sponsor for the Los Angeles march and Encampment.

An enthusiastic report on the march in Washington, D.C., can be heard on the local Indymedia affiliate (dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/141002/). The commentator states: “On the 29th of September, the campaign against the war in occupied Iraq once again took to the streets ... demanding an end not only to the war in occupied Iraq, but the global war on the poor, as fought in New Orleans, fought in Jena, fought on the Mexican border. This was a surprisingly militant march that tied the different aspects of George Bush’s crimes together.

“Apparently Troops Out Now understands that this is not just about Iraq; the same regime that wages war on the people of Iraq is also the regime that sponsors gentrification in our cities and the wholesale incarceration of African-American youth, the vicious fascist crackdown on Latin@ immigrants, and so many other evils. ... All this noise can certainly be heard in Central Cell Block where prisoners are being held.”

The report quoted Larry Adams, who expressed “solidarity with the historic Iraqi resistance, who are on the frontlines of the fight against our common enemy, which is U.S. imperialism.”

Describing the youth action that took place at the end of the rally—which blocked the streets in front of the Capitol until 10 p.m. that night—the reporter concluded: “You can think of the long occupation of Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues as target practice for things that are surely going to come as people get more and more pissed off about this war that is one war from occupied Iraq, to occupied New Orleans, from occupied Palestine to Jena, to the neighborhoods right here in occupied Washington. ... George Bush says ‘Bring it on’; well that’s exactly what we’re gonna do!”

How the Troops Out Now rally rocked!

2007-10-05T09:32:00.001-07:00

By U-Savior
and
Nana Soul

Published Oct 4, 2007 2:00 AM

Pam Parker at D.C. Sept. 29 rally. " border="0">

Larry Holmes, Dani Gale, Nana Soul and
Pam Parker at D.C. Sept. 29 rally.

WW photo: Liz Green

If polls showed the average person saying that the traditional protest—complete with marches, placards, chants and permits—no longer has a potent effect on an apathetic government and that bureaucrats simply bide their time until the rabid moon bats that have descended upon their provinces return to the trailer parks, projects, flooded wards and mortar-ravaged ghettos that they came from, most activists would be hard pressed to prove them wrong.

But on Sept. 22, something magical began to happen.

The Troops Out Now Coalition began a weeklong Encampment in front of the reflecting pool at the Capitol building. In contrast to the one it held last March, the Encampment would be infused with music. Unlike every other demonstration that took place this year, culture would not simply be a careless afterthought, but rather would provide the fuel needed to draw thousands of people to the demonstration.

Each day, activists spread through the neighborhood, engaging the community, and each night the Encampment grounds sprouted more tents and music filled the hearts of everyone who heard it.

From punk rock to poetry to hip hop, the Troops Out Now Coalition rocked the rulers—hence the name of the weeklong concert, reminiscent of Woodstock minus the psychedelic mushrooms (in most cases).

On Sept. 29, a rally featuring dozens of speakers from across the world addressed several issues, including the right to return for Palestinians and Katrina survivors alike, freedom for political prisoners, the need for health care, housing, better education, an end to the war in Iraq and a halt of plans of impending conquest in Iran, women’s rights, police brutality and more.

Punctuated by live music performances, the gathering alternated between lulling people and firing them up. By 2 p.m. thousands were ready to march on Washington. But the people didn’t walk alone. Thanks to a sound truck that cranked out not only chants and slogans, but anti war anthems like “War” by Edwin Starr and “I’m Black and I’m Proud” by James Brown, marchers couldn’t help but dance their way down the route.

What resulted was a parade with fire, an energetic display of dissent and culture that had people who observed it hanging from their windows waving and cheering and passing cars blaring horns in solidarity. In the front holding the lead banner were elders, youth, whites, Blacks, Latin@s, women and men. On the sidelines women went shirtless, hefting signs that said “Breasts Not Bombs!” When the throng snaked its way around a construction site, labor activists immediately began to flier and converse with the workers. And when those in front made a turn and caught sight of the tail end of the march, complete with a bus proclaiming “Iraq Veterans Against the War,” they were sent into a triumphant frenzy. The sound was deafening, empowering and mighty.

But none of this would compare to the moment when the march reached an underpass close to Third Street and Constitution Avenue. Taking advantage of the natural echo, the protestors began to bellow, letting loose all the rage and frustration against the inept and corrupt U.S. government. They mourned dead soldiers, Iraqi civilians and victims of police brutality and FEMA. They celebrated their own courage and the love with which they championed the people’s rights.

Something spread through the crowd then, something that can never be explained. Whatever it was, it was beautiful and it called for action. And so, hundreds of youth tore away from the procession and commandeered a stretch of road and blocked city traffic claiming it in the name of Freedom for several hours. The more experienced activists responded by making sure they had food, water and legal representation.

Those who attended witnessed an important piece of history, where the gaps between the old and young were bridged, where all colors spoke in the same voice, danced to the same rhythms and carried the same banner.

Black Power! Revolution, then peace!

Power to the people!

The writers are artists and activists with Black Waxx Recordings.

2007-09-28T17:01:00.001-07:00

March Route

March out on Maryland Avenue
Left on 3rd St.
Go to Department of Health and Human Services
Right on Independence Avenue
Left on 4th St.
Go to Department of Education
Right on C Street
Right on Maryland
Right on Independence
Left on 3rd St.
Left on Massachusetts
Right on I Street
Stop at ICE
Right on 4th St.
Left on Massachusetts
Right on 3rd St.

from the Green Party: All out for D.C. and L.A., September 22-29th

2007-09-28T13:29:00.000-07:00

Over four years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Greens continue to call for an immediate end to this war, and accountability at home. Our Gulf Coast remains in shambles, nooses are hung by white children in school yards to intimidate black children, and immigrant families are rounded up in the middle of the night.

As Greens, we must come together to say - the United States needs to get its priorities straight, clean house, and we must bring the troops home NOW! Beginning Saturday, September 22, the Green Party of the United States have a tent set up at the Troops Out Now Coalition's week-long encampment to end the war, on the lawn in front of the Capitol building. We invite all Greens to come to D.C. and L.A. to join with others to resist the continuing war abroad and demand accountability at home.

Jared Ball of the DC Statehood Green Party will speak at the rally on the 29th http://www.voxunion.com/jaredball/ . Ball is a nominee for the Green Party Presidential candidacy. Green Party of the U.S. Co-Chair, Echo Steiner (FL), will co-emcee the rally in Washington D.C. In Los Angeles, GPAX co-chair, Deanna Taylor (UT), and SKCM-Curry of the California Green Party will speak at the rally September 29 in front of the Federal Building. During the D.C. Encampment on Wednesday, September 26 at 5pm, the DC Statehood Party will lead a discussion on D.C. statehood, affordable housing, and preserving neighborhood libraries.

We honor the courage of those thousands who converged this week in Jena, Louisiana, to call out injustice -- we seek to continue in that spirit by calling on Greens to assemble at the halls of power, to speak, to act, and to work together to take our country back for the people.

For information on transportation centers, events like the week of hip hop shows, the youth and student day of action, Impeachment Rally, Stop the War at Home Day, and more, visit www.troopsoutnow.org

To support the Green Party presence at the Encampment and rally, visit the GPAX website at www.gp.org/committees/peace -- and use it to let us know you're coming!

Anti-war protestors bring music to Capitol

2007-09-28T08:16:00.000-07:00

from The Daily Colonial:

Posted Thursday, September 27 2007 11:48:58 pm

By Morgan Davis
The Daily Colonial

Music with a message hit Washington this week as anti-war activists hosted a concert series to raise awareness for their cause.

"Rock the Rulers" is part of a week-long encampment next to the Capitol's West Side reflecting pool hosted by the Troops Out Now Coalition, a New York City-based grassroots movement, along with Artists and Activists United for Peace.

The movement will hit its peak Saturday, with a march beginning at noon at the Capitol. This is the second encampment this year for Troops Out Now, who teamed up with other organizations to reach a broader range of supporters through music and entertainment.

"We want to make the connection between the war abroad and the war at home," said Troops Out Now Media Liaison LeilLani Dowell. "We realize that culture is a very important part of this too."

Dowell and other organizers and volunteers spent the week putting up tents, booths, and a small stage to vie for attention while debates for war funding rage in Capitol Hill.

"They could force the issue," said Dowell, referring to the Democrats elected to Congress last November. "We are trying to hold them accountable."

The event attracted a wide variety of visitors. Topics of interest brought up at tables and during the entertainment include support for Katrina survivors, Code Pink (a movement of women against war in Iraq), immigrant workers' rights, money for health care, and education.

Each night, from 8 p.m. until midnight, musicians from around the country performed on stage, expressing frustrations and hopes for peace. Though many performers are scheduled for specific slots throughout the week, organizers encourage anyone to come and share their art and passions on stage.

Carol Ann Moccio ’10 is one of the people attracted to the encampment by the prospect of joining music with the anti-war movement. A self-proclaimed Beatles fan and peace activist, Moccio said she found out about "Rock the Rulers" after seeing the movie "Across the Universe" with friends. The Beatles-inspired musical featured the struggle of young Americans during the Vietnam War as they attempted to give peace a chance.

"I was like 'Wow, I want to continue that'," said Moccio. "Hopefully our generation can be as motivated as theirs."

Moccio said looking up "D.C. peace marches" on the Internet led her to the "Rock the Rulers" Web site.

Dowell said she thinks the currently college-aged generation and older ones are fed up with war and are responding to the music.

"We've seen a lot more people come through than the last time," she said. "It's time to heighten the struggle as much as possible."

Moccio said that she thinks that the appeal of music is going to help more students identify with the cause.

"Music is something that is special for everyone," she said, noting that many students may not be incredibly passionate about the anti-war movement, but will find the music a great incentive to become involved.

Michelle Dar of Portland, Ore., biked across the country with her partner and three daughters to participate in the protests. They were part of the "bike for peace" that ended in Washington with participants getting involved in actions for peace.

"We refuse to be silent," Dar said. "We'll put our bodies and our families out there."

Dar says that she and her family have been enjoying the nightly music outside the Capitol. Her daughter Tala danced and sang along to the Black Eyed Pea's "Where is the Love?" on stage Tuesday night. Dar finds the enthusiasm of those at the encampment empowering.

"It's tremendously inspiring, and reminds us why we are here," Dar said. "It gives us the courage to do more. The people have had enough. The people are rising up."

Encampment targets FEMA, ICE & Congress

2007-09-28T08:15:00.001-07:00

By LeiLani Dowell
Washington, D.C.

Published Sep 27, 2007 12:26 AM

Anti-war activists, veterans, military families and community organizers from across the U.S.—from as far away as Oregon, Florida and Maine—arrived here beginning Sept. 22 for the Encampment to Stop the War at Home and Abroad, a tent city positioned in front of the Capitol building organized by the Troops Out Now Coalition (TONC).

WW photos: LeiLani Dowell

The Encampment will culminate in a march on Sept. 29 with multiple targets: Congress for its complicity in funding the war; the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for its continued racist neglect of the survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) offices for the anti-worker raids and detentions against immigrants.

On Sept. 22, a large banner was erected that reads, “Congress, the whole world is watching: CUT OFF WAR FUNDS.” The Encampment is timed to coincide with the expiration of the current round of funding for the war and the ongoing debates in Congress. The appropriations passed in the last session of Congress are due to expire on Oct. 1.

Parked in front of the Encampment is the tour bus of Iraq Veterans Against the War, which features large signs reading, “Don’t attack Iran” and “Impeach Bush.” Along with TONC, Code Pink—Women for Peace, the Green Party and others have pitched their tents. More tents will be pitched as Katrina survivors, youth and students, Cuba solidarity and immigrants rights activists arrive in the coming days.

Press conference announces Encampment

Organizers held a press conference Sept. 24 to announce the Encampment and the mass march on Sept. 29. TONC spokesperson Larry Holmes opened, saying, “The Democrats say they want to cut war funding but they can’t get past a veto. But they could simply make sure the funding question doesn’t get to the floor.”

Rev. Lennox Yearwood spoke about unity in the struggle: “I’m so pleased to see support here for the struggle in Jena; I was pleased to hear, in Jena, people talking about how the bombs in Baghdad are affecting people in the United States. ... Our struggles will continue, but we will win.” Yearwood was recently beaten by D.C. police at an anti-war press conference.

Adam Kokesh, co-chair of the board of directors of Iraq Veterans Against the War, described his organization’s demands, including immediate withdrawal of all forces from Iraq—”and we mean Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Blackwater, Halliburton”—and full payment of reparations to the people of Iraq.

Nana Soul of Artists and Activists United for Peace described the weeklong concert being held as part of the Encampment. “The movement needs cultural inspiration, talent and creativity. We know that [Iraq] isn’t the first time that the United States has invaded a sovereign nation. ... We have a chance to translate the [U.S. government’s] actions.”

Representing the Green Party, Vietnam War veteran Rick Clemens stressed: “This war is about imperialism, about the exploitation of labor power and markets of other peoples. There is no thing as ending the war without ending the economic system that perpetuates war—capitalism.”

WW photo: Dustin Langley

Toby Blomé of Code Pink described the encampments their group has undertaken at Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s house, after months of her refusing to meet with them to discuss war funding. They plan on visiting her office regularly during the Encampment and will be fasting throughout the week; the group hosted an organizing meeting on Sept. 24 at the Encampment.

Vernon Hoffman, who biked 4,500 miles with his family from Portland, Ore., to join the Encampment, said he’d “rather bike for peace than kill for oil.”

Lastly, a young war resister described how he enlisted in the military in 2005 because of limited career opportunities in his rural hometown. However, he says, “I happened to join at the same time as Hurricane Katrina, and I saw on TV the bodies floating in the streets. It really hit home to me. I got out of training 25 weeks later and nothing had changed. Despite all the rhetoric about homeland security and national security, this government’s priorities are not for the people.”

Hub of anti-war activity

The Encampment has become a veritable hub of anti-war activity in the D.C. Metro area. At daily morning and evening meetings, activists converge to plan their outreach strategies to build for the mass march on Sept. 29.

From the Encampment, teams have fanned throughout the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Md., areas putting up posters, handing out leaflets, riding in sound cars and talking to students on campuses and workers on the streets. The response has been overwhelmingly positive.

In addition, passersby to the Encampment, including many tourists, have been appreciative of its work. An activist reported that one such person showed his identification card—as an employee of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. He assured the activist that many people in the Green Zone in Iraq are in agreement with the sentiments of the Encampment.

‘Get out of Iraq! Stay out of Iran!’

Responding to the venomous attacks against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his visit to New York for a UN General Assembly meeting, Encampment activists piled into the IVAW bus on Sept. 26 and rode to the White House, where they held a picket line to demand, “Get out of Iraq! Stay out of Iran!” Recalling the demonization of former Iraqi President Sassam Hussein, activists denounced the attacks on Ahmadinejad as an attempt to prepare the U.S. population for an expansion of the war to Iran.

Upcoming events include a discussion on the war at home in Washington, D.C.—where libraries are closing, thousands of units of affordable housing have been lost, and residents can’t vote—hosted by the Green Party; an event entitled “Justice for the Jena 6, Katrina/Rita survivors and immigrant workers: Fighting racism is building solidarity”; a vigil with the cast of the movie “SiCKO” for those who have died due to inadequate health care; a youth and student day of action; and events to free the Cuban 5 and to demand an end to political repression in the Philippines.

For more information, visit www.troopsoutnow.org.

E-mail: ldowell@workers.org

SEPT 29: NATIONAL MARCH ON WASHINGTON

2007-09-28T08:13:00.001-07:00

SEPT 29: NATIONAL MARCH ON WASHINGTON

Gather at reflecting pool on west side of Capitol at 11 a.m for rally
March will step off between 1 and 2 pm, and will pass by the Department of Health and Human Resources, FEMA headquarters and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency headquarters before returning to the Capitol for an ending rally. The purpose of this route is to draw attention to the resources that should be invested in health care instead of being spent on war; the ongoing injustices in the wake of Hurricane Katrina; and the campaign against immigrants.
Volunteers needed at 8:30 am.

Nearest METRO stop: Federal Center SW (on Blue line and Orange line)
Bus dropoff: west side of 3rd Street between Constitution and Independence (which is at the site of the Encampment to Stop the War)
Bus pickup: same location.
Buses should make their own parking arrangements at Union Station garage, 40 Massachusetts Ave NE (3 blocks from the rally and march site). Union Station information: 202-371-9441.

Press Conference announces Encampment and Mass March

2007-09-25T10:24:00.001-07:00

A press conference was held Sept. 24 to announce the Encampment and the mass march on Sept. 29. Larry Holmes of the Troops Out Now Coalition opened the conference, saying, "The Democrats say they want to cut war funding but they can't get past a veto. We know this isn't true. They could simply make sure the funding question doesn't get to the floor. Meanwhile, Bush is prepared to veto $30 to $35 billion for health care for children."

Holmes also discussed the serious threat of a new war on Iran: "Iranian President Ahmadinejad is being demonized in the media, and we're not naive. We know that they are preparing the population for an expansion of the war in Iraq to war in Iran. But the biggest terrorists are in the world sit in the White House."

Rev. Lennox Yearwood spoke about unity in the people's struggle against multiple wars: "I'm so pleased to see support here at the Encampment for the struggle in Jena; I was pleased to hear, in Jena, people talking about how the bombs in Baghdad are affecting people in the United States. ... If it calls for getting arrested, getting in the way, then we'll get arrested and get in the way. Our struggles will continue, but we will win." Yearwood was recently beaten by D.C. police at an anti-war press conference.

Adam Kokesh, Co-Chair of the board of directors for Iraq Veterans Against the War described his organization's demands, including immediate withdrawal of all forces from Iraq, "and when we say all forces, we mean Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Blackwater, Halliburton"; and full payment of reparations to the people of Iraq.

Nana Soul of Artists and Activists United for Peace, a TONC member organization, described the weeklong concert that is being held as part of the Encampment. "The movement needs cultural inspiration, talent and creativity. Iraq may be the issue today, but we know that this isn't the first time that the United States has invaded a sovereign nation. They use tools at home like not funding health care and education. We have a chance to translate these actions."

Rick Clemens, Ann Wilcox and Joyce Robinson-Paul represented the Green Party. Clemens, a Vietnam War veteran, stressed: "This war is about imperialism, about the exploitation of labor power and markets of other peoples. There is no thing as ending the war without ending the economic system that perpetuates war--capitalism." Wilcox discussed the effects of the war at home in Washington, D.C., where neighborhood libraries are being closed and thousands of affordable housing units have been lost.

Toby Blomé of Code Pink Women for Peace described the two encampments their group has undertaken at Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's house, after she refused to meet with them to discuss war funding for three months. They plan on going to her office regularly during the Encampment and will be fasting for the week as "another way to show commitment to ending the occupation and bringing the troops home."

Vernon Hoffman, who biked 4,500 miles with his family from Portland, Oregon to join the Encampment, said he'd "rather bike for peace than kill for oil." He described how throughout the country, people took opened up their homes for the family and their anti-war message.

Lastly, a young war resister described how he enlisted in the military in 2005 because of limited career opportunities in his hometown. However, he says, "I happened to join at the same time as Hurricane Katrina, and I saw on TV the bodies floating in the streets. It really hit home to me. I got out of training 25 weeks later and nothing had changed. Despite all the rhetoric about homeland security and national security, this government's priorities are not for the people."

Other actions at the Encampment today included an event on Pelosi hosted by Code Pink, and an outreach sound truck caravan through the streets of D.C. to mobilize for the march on the 29th.

Press Conference 9/24 3PM

2007-09-24T08:47:00.001-07:00

ENCAMPMENT TO STOP THE WAR

7 days of Resistance & Protest

In front of the Capitol
3rd & Constitution

** Press Conference 9/24 3PM **

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contacts:
LeiLani Dowell 1-917-701-7593
Dustin Langley 1-646-354-8056
Frank Neisser 1-617-792-8136
http://troopsoutnow.org

When: Monday, September 24, 3:00 p.m.

Where: Anti-war Encampment on the West Side of the Capitol Reflection Pool,
near 3rd Street on the Capitol Mall

THE DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS HAVE THE POWER TO CUT OFF WAR FUNDING--THE MOVEMENT MUST MAKE THEM DO IT

MARCH ON WASHINGTON
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29
STOP THE WAR BY CUTTING OFF WAR FUNDING

The Troops Out Now Coalition (TONC) will be holding a press conference on Monday, Sept. 24 at 3 pm at the site of a weeklong anti-war Encampment, on the Capitol mall at the west side of the reflection pool.

Participants in Monday's press conference will include:

• Adam Kokesh, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and other Iraq veterans
• Members of the Hoffman family, which traveled 4,500 miles by bicycle from Portland, Oregon to attend the Encampment
• Rev. Lennox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus
• Nana Soul, Artists and Activists United for Peace
• Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler, Plymouth Congregational Church, DC
• Anne Wright, career Army veteran and former State Dept. official
• Larry Holmes, Vietnam War GI resister and spokesperson for TONC
• Representatives from Code Pink, the Green Party, the student movement, labor and the community.

This week, Congress begins preparation for voting on President Bush and the Pentagon's request for $200 billion more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. On Saturday, Sept. 29, thousands will gather at the anti-war Encampment to march and demand that not one more dollar be approved for war.

TONC spokesperson Larry Holmes said: "The Democrats in Congress don't need enough votes to override a presidential veto in order to cut off all war funding. All the leadership of Congress has to do is simply keep any vote on war funding from coming to the floor, or even getting out of the Senate or House Appropriations committees."

Participants at the press conference will discuss plans for the Sept. 29 march and the five days of action at the Encampment before the big march.

-30-

NYC Outreach Meeting and Updates

2007-09-24T08:45:00.001-07:00

NYC Outreach Meeting and Updates

There will be a volunteers outreach meeting this week on Wednesday at 7PM. Some of us will already be in Washington at the Encampment. We still need to try to do last minute leafleting at rush hour. When we were out leafleting at Times Square on Saturday afternoon, we met some people who decided to go to March. One man who is an EMS worker came back to tell us that he had called in to his work to get the day off and it was granted.

We will also need many volunteers for many tasks at the demonstration on September 29th. If you are able to take on a task, please come to the table with the "Volunteer sign-in" sign.

Remember to purchase your bus tickets if you haven't already. .

For more information, call 212.633.6646

Family bicycles 4500 miles to join Encampment to Stop the War

2007-09-22T12:49:00.001-07:00

Vernon Hoffman, Michelle Darr, Tala, Willow and Grace bicycled all the way from Portland,

for more information see www.catalystsofhope.org Oregon to join the Encampment to Stop the War. They will be with us all week and will participate in the national march on September 29.

Momentum for encampment and September 29 growing in DC-MD-VA area

2007-09-19T19:25:00.001-07:00

Activity and excitement for the week long encampment against the war at home and abroad and the mass September 29th march is growing here in the MD-DC-VA area as the encampment and march draw closer. Posters and stickers are appearing all over the DC area letting people know about the activities. Local schools and universities are being leafletted and postered, and the response is enthusiastic. The students are excited to hear about the continuous rock the rulers concert that will be happening at the encampment, and the student actions on the 28th and the 29th. There is a great response to the idea that actions and contingents will focus on how the war in Iraq is also a war at home -- that the cast of SiCKO will particpate saying the money for the war needs to go toward health care; that there will be activities focusing on Katrina, saying money should go to enabling the victims of Katrina and Rita to return to their homes, not for killing people in Iraq and Afghanistan. Outreach will be continuing every day this week and on during the week of the encampment itself. Crews will participate in the demonstration that will happen here in DC tomorrow (Thursday the 20th) in solidarity with the Jenna 6, and also at universities and around the city. Your help is needed. If you can help out with outreach in the DC-MD-VA area, log on to the tonc site and fill in the volunteer form or the "contact us" comments form and let us know!

Frank-- DC TONC

Schedule for Encampment to Stop the War: Sept 22-29

2007-09-16T12:41:00.000-07:00

Schedule for Encampment to Stop the War: Sept 22-29

Below is a preliminary schedule of events for the Encampment to Stop the War, beginning on Saturday, September 22:

ACTIONS ALL WEEK

People from around the country will start arriving on Saturday, September 22 and Sunday, September 23. The Encampment will expand to major actions on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, culminating in a mass march on Saturday, September 29.

Saturday, 9/22 & Sunday 9/23
Help erect scaffolding for a giant billboard demanding: 'Congress: Stop Funding the War - Fund Peoples' Needs.' Music and work at the site on tents, canopies, and displays. Crews will be doing outreach throughout neighborhoods in the DC/Baltimore area with sound cars and leafleting brigades.

Monday, 9/24 & Tuesday, 9/25
Actions demanding:
- Impeachment of Bush & Cheney for War Crimes
- Stop War on Iran - action and a strategy meeting on Emergency Network to focus on the growing threat of a U.S. attack on Iran

Wednesday, 9/26 - Turn up the heat
Actions TBA in the halls and offices of Congress to confront their political complicity in the war - Funding the war is a war crime.

Thursday, 9/27 - Stop the War at Home Day
- Katrina survivors from New Orleans & Immigrant Rights activists from around the country organizing actions challenging FEMA & ICE. Events at the Encampment focusing on funding people's needs, not war.

Friday, 9/28 - Youth actions challenge military recruiters, war funding & police repression. 'Money for Education, NOT War.'

- Join Evening Vigil with SiCKO cast members at the Lincoln Memorial to remember those who died because they were denied health care.

- A concert of hip-hop and spoken word at the Encampment with BAYAN Philippine Alliance to oppose U.S. military in the Philippines.

Other actions & meetings TBA. Set up, banner & sign making, outreach & organizing all day.

2007-09-16T12:28:00.001-07:00

Legal Support Needed

The Troops Out Now coalition has requested legal support from the
progressive legal community for their encampment & march in Washington DC from
Sept 22-29 . We especially need legal observers for the Sept 29th march.

If you are available to be in DC anytime during the or be on-call, or have additional questions, please contact Imani Henry imani@troopsoutnow.org with your availability and contact information. There is a need for on-call attorneys the entire week, but especially on the 29th.

CALL FOR HOUSING

Housing is desperately needed for encampment participants. City policy prevents participants from actually sleeping on the campsite. Therefore, we need to find free and cheap housing in/around DC for the period of the encampment, in order to make participation in the encampment as broad as possible.

If you can share any space (bed, floorspace, sofa/bed) in your apartment, house, organization or other space, please email housing@troopsoutnow.org. If you are unable to email, please call (917) 279-9720.

Please try to include at least the following information in your email:

* Your Name & Email
* Your phone (& best times to call)
* Your location
* How many people you can house, and what dates
(We mainly need housing starting 9/21, but may need some housing earlier for key organizers)

Other helpful information:

* Nearest Metro line/station
* Sleeping conditions
("i.e. 1 queen bed plus floorspace for 3 sleeping bags")
* Other considerations
(i.e. "I have cats/dogs", "It is a 4th-floor walk-up", "Not near any public transportation", etc.)

Drivers/Cars Needed

Attention drivers with vehicles:

If you live in and/or are familiar with the DC-metro area, your help is greatly needed. We will need experienced drivers during then week, to help transport people to/from motels, food from restaurants, equipment, and various other events. If you have availability during the encampment, to help out with this task please contact us at logistics@troopsoutnow.org with the following information:

* Your name and email
* Your phone(s) and best times to call
* Your Availability to drive from 9/21 to 9/30
* Your vehicle type / how many it seats
* Storage space in vehicle.

Other helpful information:

* Your location / distance from Downtown DC

Even if you do not have much time available, but can make your vehicle available, we would greatly appreciate it, as that would greatly reduce rental costs.

Call for Medical Workers for S29 and the Encampment

As part of the preparations for the encampment and the march and rally, we are asking for volunteer health care workers who are doctors, nurses, first aiders and medics to assist at the first aide tent at the encampment and at the demonstration on Saturday.

We will have a bus at the back of the march that will pick up people who are unable to walk the march route. This vichicle will have water and first aide equipment. There will be an orientation the morning of the march.

If you are able to help out please call the International Action Center at 212-633-6646 and ask for or leave a message for Sharon Eolis. You may also email sharone@wwpublish.com.

Sharon
Eolis RN/FNP

LA Troops Out Now on KPFA

2007-09-16T11:46:00.000-07:00

Namibia Donadio, youth organizer for Troops Out Now and FIST (Fight Imperialism, Stand Together), discussed the struggle for encampment permits at the LA Federal Buildings and the September 29 demonstration to Stop the War - at home AND in Iraq, Afghanistan and everywhere.

Donadio stressed that the encampment and march will go on as planned! Also interviewed was Fernando Suarez whose son was killed in Iraq. Suarez also spoke at the TONC press conference at the Veterans' Cemetery. Listen to the interview on Enfoque Latino con Ruben Tapia at

www.kpfk.org (archives - Sept. 15 program).

Call for activist video trainees

2007-09-14T14:12:00.001-07:00

*Calling for Activist video trainees and volunteers! *

*Work with Peoples Video Network! *

*Train to use cameras, large and small! Edit! Use DVD technology! Stream and distribute your work!*

*
*First Workshop Series coordinated with Sept 22-29 Anti-War Encampment and demonstrations in Washington DC: http://www.troopsoutnow.org

Series of workshops in video documentation, camera, editing and distribution. Work with Peoples Video network in hands-on classes and field-work in video activism. Mentoring with seasoned video activists.
Final presentation to an appreciative audience. Opportunity to learn distribution to wider audiences.

Our goal is to encourage you to take this course from beginning to end and to participate in Peoples Video Network on an ongoing basis.

Camera:

Workshop 1: handling a small camera in action situations. Care of equipment and safeguarding footage. Coordination with field editors, camera crew

Workshop 2: Learning the Canon XL1 series. Focus, lighting, sound, care
of equipment. Work with a team

Workshop 3: Interview technique. Lighting, sound, conducting interviews.

Field-Work:
Field-work will go on throughout training and provide the raw material for viewing, editing and discussion. Document the encampment Sept 22-29 in Washington DC. Learn to shoot at demonstrations and in other action situations. Shooting formal events. Working with the sound crew. Interview technique. Opportunity for independent work as well as mentoring andfeedback sessions.

Workshop 4: Viewing the raw footage. Group comments and feedback in a supportive environment.

Editing:

Workshop 5: Basics of Final Cut Pro. Beginning the editing process; using raw footage from field-work and also from archival material.

Workshop 6: More basics of Final Cut Pro

Distribution:

Workshop 7: Finishing a project and exporting it. Streaming, printing, dvd making

Workshop 8: More concepts of distribution. Discussion of festivals,internet, grants

Final Workshop Presentation

Each video activist will present a sample of work to be shown at a commencement recital event with invited guests.

Sign up for PVN WORKSHOPS: pvn@action-mail.org <mailto:pvn@action-mail.org> or call (212) 340-1286. Leave your name, phone number and e-mail and the best time to reach you.

To learn more about Peoples Video Network go to www.peoplesvideo.org

http://www.peoplesvideo.org/ or www.peoplesvideo.tv

http://www.peoplesvideo.tv/

Encampment to stop wars gathers steam in D.C. and L.A.

2007-09-14T08:18:00.000-07:00

Encampment to stop wars gathers steam in D.C. and L.A.
By Scott Scheffer
Los Angeles
Published Sep 9, 2007 10:36 PM

The mainstream media has been writing about the upcoming Congress sessions as if some epic battle between anti-war forces and the Bush/Cheney cabal will take place there.

Not many are as excited about it as the media is. After the last national election, newly elected Democrats wasted no time in making it clear that they would not cut war funding, and that calls to impeach Bush and Cheney for war crimes would be ignored.

The real momentum against the war comes from the people, and there is growing excitement over parallel anti-war/social justice mobilizations during the week of Sept. 22-29 in Washington, D.C., and in Los Angeles. Activists will set up ‘tent cities’ on the lawn of the Capitol in the week leading up to major demonstrations on Sept. 29. In Los Angeles, there will be a three-day tent city at the Westwood Federal Building, followed by a 15-mile walk across Los Angeles on Sept. 25 to the Downtown Federal Building. Another tent city will be set up and will remain there until the mass march and rally on Sept. 29.

The walk across town itself will be a day-long protest with stops at the Israeli Consulate, to demand liberation and the right of Palestinian people to return to their homes, and at the Salvadoran consulate, where the local FMLN will demand that Salvadoran troops pull out of Iraq. Other stops may be added as plans develop.

The actions were called by the Troops Out Now Coalition to carry out an anti-war event that includes organizations and activists fighting for immigrant rights, those who are struggling against the heightening assault on workers, and all others affected by the war. This is reflected in the list of endorsers and participants (see troopsoutnow.org).

In Los Angeles, the events will be kicked off a day earlier with an important action at the Filipino Consulate to mark the anniversary of the imposition of martial law and to protest the arrest of Filipino people’s leader Jose Maria Sison, organized by BAYAN-USA.

Code Pink plans actions in Washington, D.C., and in Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles chapter of American Friends Service Committee, which shut down a Hollywood military recruiting center last year, will carry out a civil disobedience action.

Healthcare will be a major issue at the protests, and some of the people who were featured in Michael Moore’s film “SiCKO” will organize a vigil in Washington on Sept. 28th.

Sept. 27 has been selected to be the day for major immigrant rights actions at both encampments.

As a result of efforts by the Los Angeles chapter of U.S. Labor Against the War, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor has endorsed. Union officials will join Ron Kovic, other anti-war veterans and military resisters such as Agustin Aguayo in a press conference to push the encampment next week. L.A. USLAW plans a teach-in on the war and labor solidarity.

Other actions will highlight the connection between racism and violence against the Iraqi people and others victimized by U.S imperialism, and repression, racism and sexual and gender oppression in the U.S. In Los Angeles, there will be a special event to honor Victoria Arellano, a transwoman who was denied access to AIDS medication by jail officials and died as a result.

From across the country people are boarding buses, flying and driving long distances to get to Washington, D.C., or Los Angeles with their tents and their protest signs to join in these unique and important actions to stop the war against workers and the poor, and to stop the U.S. wars abroad.

Senators posture, but will they vote war funds?

2007-09-13T12:31:00.000-07:00

PETRAEUS REPORT

By Deirdre Griswold

Published Sep 12, 2007 11:43 PM

Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, has made his long-awaited report to the U.S. Senate. As expected, it was crafted to bolster the Bush administration’s claims that, having sent tens of thousands more troops into combat over the last few months, it is now making “progress” in that ravaged country. Indeed, the report had been “vetted” by the White House itself.

Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, also testified in a similar vein.

The administration’s vow to prolong the war is sure to be answered by tens of thousands of protesters who will descend on Washington in September to demand an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Senate Democrats and a few Republicans asked Petraeus the kinds of questions that showed their extreme skepticism with his claims. Five of the senators on the panels that heard the general’s testimony are candidates for president. They are very aware of the mass anti-war sentiment in the U.S. that is also growing among the troops themselves. They took advantage of this forum to make thinly veiled campaign speeches.

According to the U.S. Constitution, it is Congress, not the White House, that has the right to declare war and to raise the money for it. Less than a year ago, completely disgusted with this war, the electorate voted out enough Republicans to give both houses of Congress a Democratic majority. Ever since grammar school, they had been taught that this was how you change the government and its policies.

Yet the unanimous view of all the big capitalist media today is that none of the political theater now happening in Washington will lead to any significant withdrawal of troops from Iraq, nor will the Democratic Party lead a struggle to stop the funding of the war—which will be up for a vote within the next month.

Partisan politics and posturing

Looking at what happens in Washington purely from the point of view of partisan politics, all this can seem quite puzzling. Aren’t the Democrats the opposition party? Don’t they know they’ll get more votes if they seize the golden opportunity Bush has given them and voice their opposition to this most unpopular war?

Yes, they know it very well. And so they talk quite eloquently about the lying, the deceit and all the “blunders” that caused the war to go ahead. Of course, they voted to make it happen in the first place, so they have to excuse themselves by saying they, too, were deceived.

Talk is one thing. Voting to stop the funding of the war is quite different. When that subject comes up, the now-majority party suddenly pleads weakness and invokes the probability of a presidential veto.

None of this should be surprising. Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992 promising a health care plan that would cover everyone in the country. He won the election and the Democrats also took both houses of Congress. But the health care plan was dropped after running into stiff opposition from industry lobbyists. His administration also gutted the welfare system, which had been a safety net for the very poor since the Depression.

And, far from pursuing a peaceful foreign policy, the Clinton administration, together with Europe’s imperialist powers, also launched a war against Yugoslavia that saw the merciless U.S. bombing of the capital city of Belgrade—a prelude to “shock and awe.”

Vietnam: similar but reversed

More and more, the present war is being compared to Vietnam. Then, the political situation was reversed from what it is now.

It was two Democratic Party administrations—under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson—that started the war. The public had to be deceived, of course, so in 1964 an “incident” was cooked up that later was proven to be phony. But the Senate passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which gave the president the authority and funds to vastly escalate the war. Only two senators opposed it.

When Richard M. Nixon ran for president in 1968, he claimed to have a plan to end the war. It dragged on for seven more years under two Republican administrations. Millions of Vietnamese were killed in combat and by abuse and torture; the land was poisoned by Agent Orange and other chemicals that are still causing birth defects and lingering deaths today; nearly 60,000 U.S. soldiers were also killed and a huge number disabled by both physical and psychological injuries.

The determining factor in both these wars is not which party controls the White House or the Congress. It is how the ruling class of the United States sees its interests. If the super-rich think a war will open up vast new areas for exploitation and profit, their attitude is: Go for it.

This view then becomes the dominant one in the corporate media and among the politicians of both capitalist parties. All kinds of justifications are invented to convince ordinary working people, the ones who have to do the fighting and dying, that the war is for a noble cause, that their way of life is threatened and that the targeted people are an evil enemy.

If, however, the war fails to achieve its objectives despite overwhelming U.S. military superiority, if the heroic resistance of the Vietnamese or the Iraqis prevents the kind of stability that would allow for “orderly” capitalist exploitation of their labor and natural resources, then voices of dissent begin to be heard even within the U.S. ruling establishment itself.

This is where things are at now with the war in Iraq. Even more than Vietnam, the economic stakes are immense. Iraq’s strategic location in the Middle East—at a time when the huge oil companies and the military-industrial-banking complex see control over the world’s petroleum as vital to their immense wealth and power—is the main reason why few politicians have taken a definite stand for immediate withdrawal. To do so would bring down the wrath of the corporate media, which is so embedded with the military-industrial complex that it still uses phrases like “cut and run.”

At the same time, the military can’t recruit, so it has to send soldiers back to Iraq for a third tour, risking potential mutiny. Immigrant workers are told that joining the military is the only way to get legal documents. Senators can still be forced out through anti-gay entrapment but not because they voted for a criminal war. Police shootings and overstuffed prisons show where the racist brutality behind Abu Ghraib comes from.

And the U.S. economy is turning sour, disproving the idea that war brings prosperity for the many along with the profits for a few.

Even the puppet government in Iraq chosen by the U.S. occupation is being criticized for not being able to carry out its master’s orders to “pacify” the country.

With all this, won’t the ruling class establishment just decide it’s in their interests to end the war?

Not yet. There is no easy way to end this war. The first thing to understand is that the people, not the capitalist political establishment, will do it. The orders to really bring the troops home will be written only when the ruling class has become convinced that it will never win, no matter how many soldiers it grinds up and no matter how much suffering and destruction it inflicts on the Iraqi nation.

That will take more than the resistance in Iraq. It requires a storm at home, a rebellion of the type that swept this country in the sixties and seventies.

The youth, facing the military draft, joined forces with returning GIs to rock the establishment. Rebellions against racism in hundreds of cities were also huge de-facto demonstrations against the war. The military chain of command broke down as soldiers deserted, demonstrated, disobeyed orders and even “fragged” their officers.

Several anti-war demonstrations are coming up in Washington—a march called by ANSWER on Sept. 15, followed by the Troops Out Now Coalition’s Sept. 22-29 Encampment on the Mall and march to Congress to say NO to war funding. TONC is also organizing an encampment and mass march in Los Angeles. These protests must let the real rulers of this country know that they face another period like the sixties if they don’t end this abominable war.

PETRAEUS REPORT

2007-09-12T08:24:00.000-07:00

PETRAEUS REPORT
Senators posture, but will they vote war funds?
By Deirdre Griswold
Published Sep 12, 2007 11:43 PM

Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, has made his long-awaited report to the U.S. Senate. As expected, it was crafted to bolster the Bush administration’s claims that, having sent tens of thousands more troops into combat over the last few months, it is now making “progress” in that ravaged country. Indeed, the report had been “vetted” by the White House itself.

Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, also testified in a similar vein.

The administration’s vow to prolong the war is sure to be answered by tens of thousands of protesters who will descend on Washington in September to demand an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Senate Democrats and a few Republicans asked Petraeus the kinds of questions that showed their extreme skepticism with his claims. Five of the senators on the panels that heard the general’s testimony are candidates for president. They are very aware of the mass anti-war sentiment in the U.S. that is also growing among the troops themselves. They took advantage of this forum to make thinly veiled campaign speeches.

According to the U.S. Constitution, it is Congress, not the White House, that has the right to declare war and to raise the money for it. Less than a year ago, completely disgusted with this war, the electorate voted out enough Republicans to give both houses of Congress a Democratic majority. Ever since grammar school, they had been taught that this was how you change the government and its policies.

Yet the unanimous view of all the big capitalist media today is that none of the political theater now happening in Washington will lead to any significant withdrawal of troops from Iraq, nor will the Democratic Party lead a struggle to stop the funding of the war—which will be up for a vote within the next month.

Partisan politics and posturing

Looking at what happens in Washington purely from the point of view of partisan politics, all this can seem quite puzzling. Aren’t the Democrats the opposition party? Don’t they know they’ll get more votes if they seize the golden opportunity Bush has given them and voice their opposition to this most unpopular war?

Yes, they know it very well. And so they talk quite eloquently about the lying, the deceit and all the “blunders” that caused the war to go ahead. Of course, they voted to make it happen in the first place, so they have to excuse themselves by saying they, too, were deceived.

Talk is one thing. Voting to stop the funding of the war is quite different. When that subject comes up, the now-majority party suddenly pleads weakness and invokes the probability of a presidential veto.

None of this should be surprising. Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992 promising a health care plan that would cover everyone in the country. He won the election and the Democrats also took both houses of Congress. But the health care plan was dropped after running into stiff opposition from industry lobbyists. His administration also gutted the welfare system, which had been a safety net for the very poor since the Depression.

And, far from pursuing a peaceful foreign policy, the Clinton administration, together with Europe’s imperialist powers, also launched a war against Yugoslavia that saw the merciless U.S. bombing of the capital city of Belgrade—a prelude to “shock and awe.”

Vietnam: similar but reversed

More and more, the present war is being compared to Vietnam. Then, the political situation was reversed from what it is now.

It was two Democratic Party administrations—under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson—that started the war. The public had to be deceived, of course, so in 1964 an “incident” was cooked up that later was proven to be phony. But the Senate passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which gave the president the authority and funds to vastly escalate the war. Only two senators opposed it.

When Richard M. Nixon ran for president in 1968, he claimed to have a plan to end the war. It dragged on for seven more years under two Republican administrations. Millions of Vietnamese were killed in combat and by abuse and torture; the land was poisoned by Agent Orange and other chemicals that are still causing birth defects and lingering deaths today; nearly 60,000 U.S. soldiers were also killed and a huge number disabled by both physical and psychological injuries.

The determining factor in both these wars is not which party controls the White House or the Congress. It is how the ruling class of the United States sees its interests. If the super-rich think a war will open up vast new areas for exploitation and profit, their attitude is: Go for it.

This view then becomes the dominant one in the corporate media and among the politicians of both capitalist parties. All kinds of justifications are invented to convince ordinary working people, the ones who have to do the fighting and dying, that the war is for a noble cause, that their way of life is threatened and that the targeted people are an evil enemy.

If, however, the war fails to achieve its objectives despite overwhelming U.S. military superiority, if the heroic resistance of the Vietnamese or the Iraqis prevents the kind of stability that would allow for “orderly” capitalist exploitation of their labor and natural resources, then voices of dissent begin to be heard even within the U.S. ruling establishment itself.

This is where things are at now with the war in Iraq. Even more than Vietnam, the economic stakes are immense. Iraq’s strategic location in the Middle East—at a time when the huge oil companies and the military-industrial-banking complex see control over the world’s petroleum as vital to their immense wealth and power—is the main reason why few politicians have taken a definite stand for immediate withdrawal. To do so would bring down the wrath of the corporate media, which is so embedded with the military-industrial complex that it still uses phrases like “cut and run.”

At the same time, the military can’t recruit, so it has to send soldiers back to Iraq for a third tour, risking potential mutiny. Immigrant workers are told that joining the military is the only way to get legal documents. Senators can still be forced out through anti-gay entrapment but not because they voted for a criminal war. Police shootings and overstuffed prisons show where the racist brutality behind Abu Ghraib comes from.

And the U.S. economy is turning sour, disproving the idea that war brings prosperity for the many along with the profits for a few.

Even the puppet government in Iraq chosen by the U.S. occupation is being criticized for not being able to carry out its master’s orders to “pacify” the country.

With all this, won’t the ruling class establishment just decide it’s in their interests to end the war?

Not yet. There is no easy way to end this war. The first thing to understand is that the people, not the capitalist political establishment, will do it. The orders to really bring the troops home will be written only when the ruling class has become convinced that it will never win, no matter how many soldiers it grinds up and no matter how much suffering and destruction it inflicts on the Iraqi nation.

That will take more than the resistance in Iraq. It requires a storm at home, a rebellion of the type that swept this country in the sixties and seventies.

The youth, facing the military draft, joined forces with returning GIs to rock the establishment. Rebellions against racism in hundreds of cities were also huge de-facto demonstrations against the war. The military chain of command broke down as soldiers deserted, demonstrated, disobeyed orders and even “fragged” their officers.

Several anti-war demonstrations are coming up in Washington—a march called by ANSWER on Sept. 15, followed by the Troops Out Now Coalition’s Sept. 22-29 Encampment on the Mall and march to Congress to say NO to war funding. TONC is also organizing an encampment and mass march in Los Angeles. These protests must let the real rulers of this country know that they face another period like the sixties if they don’t end this abominable war.

No more phony deadlines!: Response to Gen. Petraeus

2007-09-11T19:38:00.001-07:00

No more phony deadlines!
Not another day. Not another dollar.
Bring the troops home now!

Congress: Don't use the report from Petraeus to betray us!

Today, Sept. 10, Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, gave his much-anticipated assessment of the results of the "surge." The recommendations General Petraeus made were no surprise. As expected, he said that that U.S. troop levels need to remain at high levels until next summer.

This report by General Petraeus, who has consistently supported and echoed the failed policies of the Bush administration, is just the latest ploy to continue the occupation by creating phony deadlines that provide political cover for members of Congress--from both parties--to continue voting to fund the war.

Last November, after voters in the U.S. gave Congress a clear mandate to bring the troops home and end the criminal occupation, the Bush administration and its allies in Congress repeatedly said, "Wait for the Baker-Hamilton report."

After the report was published, rather than bring the troops home the Bush administration deployed more troops to Iraq in a "surge" supported by both parties in Congress.

Then, in March, as anti-war sentiment continued to grow, the response from Bush and Congress was: "Wait until September for the report by General Petraeus."

Now that report has been made and Petraeus is proposing a new vague deadline: next summer, when he says that it may be possible to reduce troop levels.

We should recognize that these deadlines and reports are political theater, designed to dampen anti-war mobilizing. Even the way the "debate" is framed is a lie. The administration and its generals are saying that the surge is meant to stem the violence; critics in Congress are saying that it has failed. But the surge IS violence, at an unprecedented level. It is the U.S. occupation that has brought this daily blood-letting to Iraq, along with the total disruption of daily life.

Every day that the war continues, more Iraqi people and U.S. soldiers are killed.

Every day that the war continues, the Pentagon spends another $720 million on war in Iraq--money that is robbed from working people here, who need healthcare, education and affordable housing, not war and occupation.

While Congress pretends to debate whether or not the surge is working, it is important to note that the invasion of Iraq was a crime from the very beginning, and that “success” means the subjugation of the people of Iraq, along with Wall Street’s control of their vast petroleum reserves.

We must demand that the troops be brought home now. Not another day. Not another dollar. No more phony deadlines.

We call upon activists to support the many acts of protest and resistance planned for this month. We should escalate the protests as they have escalated the war.

The protests started with anti-war chants as Petraeus was speaking.

Then, on Sept. 15, a march in Washington organized by the ANSWER coalition will demand an end to the war and the impeachment of Bush.

On Oct. 1, current funding for the war expires. This spring, the Democratic leaders in Congress betrayed their mandate and voted to continue to fund the war against the people of Iraq. As Congress debates Bush's new funding request, we must be there to let them know that we're not going to let them betray us again.

During the week of Sept. 22-29, activists from across the U.S. are organizing an Encampment to Stop the War, directly in front of the Capitol. The Encampment, sponsored by the Troops Out Now Coalition, will include daily acts of protest and resistance, building for a massive March from the Capitol to the White House on Sept. 29.

We cannot wait for more phony deadlines--we need to set a deadline and demand that the troops be brought home now. Here's how you can help:

1) Help get the word out - download leaflets: http://troopsoutnow.org/downloads.html

2) Donate to help with organizing expenses: http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml

3) Become a local organizer:
http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml

4) Link to us - graphic buttons available at:
http://troopsoutnow.org/buttons.html

Troops Out Now Coalition
55 W. 17th St. #5C
NY NY 10011
www.TroopsOutNow.org
212.633-6646

CALL FOR MEDICAL WORKERS for the S29 and ENCAMPMENT

2007-09-11T18:54:00.003-07:00

CALL FOR MEDICAL WORKERS for the S29 and ENCAMPMENT

As part of the preparations for the encampment and the march and rally, we are asking
for volunteer health care workers who are doctors, nurses, first aiders and medics
to assist at the first aide tent at the encampment and at the demonstration on Saturday.

We will have a bus at the back of the march that will pick up people who are unable to walk the march route. This vichicle will have water and first aide equipment. There will be an orientation the morning of the march.

If you are able to help out please call the International Action Center at 212-633-6646
and ask for or leave a message for Sharon Eolis. You may also email sharone@wwpublish.com.

Sharon
Eolis RN/FNP

Join the cast of SiCKO in Washington DC

2007-09-07T10:44:00.001-07:00

Join the cast of SiCKO

Julie Pierce & Tracey Jr., Donna & Larry Smith, Adrian Campbell, Dawnelle Keys, Rev Andy Bales, Dr. Linda Peeno, who courageously shared their lives, vision and pain in Michael Moore’s film “SICKO” will be taking a stand. They will be coming to Washington D.C. to protest the war on September 28 and marching for Healthcare, Not war on Sept. 29th. Take a stand too and come to Washington D.C.

for more information, see TroopsOutNow.org/healthcarenotwarfare.com

Healthcare Not Warfare

2007-09-07T10:43:00.003-07:00

Say NO to War Funding -
Demand Money for Health Care, Jobs, & Education
NOT War and Occupation - SEPT 22-29

Join the cast of “SICKO” for a vigil on Friday evening to honor the life of Tracey Pierce and to demand justice for him and all of the many other victims of the profit first, people last – healthcare system. (See box below.)

AND MARCH WITH THE CAST OF “SICKO” ON SEPTEMBER 29TH to demand Healthcare, Not Warfare. People from all over the country who are sick of seeing billions of dollars wasted on war and occupation and who feel that people’s needs must come first will be forming a giant contingent to demand healthcare for all at the Sept. 29th march to stop the war in Washington D.C.

They will be joining trade union and community activists who are tired of seeing layoffs, mortgage foreclosures and cuts; students and youth who are questioning the injustice of the war; veterans and active duty GI’s who are courageously speaking out against the war; Katrina/Rita survivors who are still fighting for their long over due rights; immigrant workers who are facing unfair deportations; and the tens of thousands of other people who simply want to bring the troops home now.

IT IS URGENT TO ACT NOW because funding for the war and occupation of Iraq will expire on Oct 1st. At this time Congress will be considering the largest increase ever to fund the war. They will be voting on an additional $50 billion on top of the $147 billion already allocated to continue the war.

We cannot be silent! One fourth of the Iraq war budget alone could pay for health care for close to 47 million uninsured people. Join the Encampment across from Congress, in front of the Capitol from Sept 22 to 29 to demand that NO WAR FUNDING; attend the Friday evening vigil; and MARCH ON SATURDAY.

If you cannot come to Washington, you can still help. Please donate (http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml) whatever you can to help others join the march. Every single dollar helps to make our voices stronger. Your donations can help pay for buses, flyers, picket signs, mailings and all of the necessary costs. Everyone can be a part of this effort.

For more information see: www.TroopsOutNow.org/HealthCareNotWarfare.html

Outreach Help Needed!

2007-09-07T10:43:00.001-07:00

Now that the summer’s over, we need to ramp up the mobilizing for the September 29th March on Washington and the Encampment.

We only have 15 days left until the Encampment begins. To help with the mobilizing for the demonstration there are weekly volunteer meetings on Wednesday nights at 7PM at the Solidarity Center at 55 West 17th Street, 5C in Manhattan. We have been leafletting and postering on Saturdays and throughout the week. Our next important outreach day is Saturday, September 8th at 11AM at the office. If you are not able to come in on Saturday, please come by to pick up leaflets, stickers, and posters to get up in your community. The office is open from 1- 8 PM Monday through Friday and 11AM until 5 PM on Saturday.

Troops Out Now Coalition
55 W. 17th St. #5C
NY NY 10011
212.633.6646
www.troopsoutnow.org

Sept 28th and 29th Youth and Student Actions

2007-09-06T10:53:00.000-07:00

for updates on more information on youth actions, see: http://youthantiwarweek.wordpress.com

Sept 28th and 29th Youth and Student Actions

As part of the national effort to build towards September being a truly ‘Anti-War Month’ we are building a united set of actions that involve youth and students.

From September 22 to 29, activists working on a number of different struggles from around the country will be coming together in Washington, D.C. and setting up an encampment in front of Congress to raise the stakes in the anti-war movement during a week of direct actions against the war.

We want to make Friday, September 28, a Youth and Student Day of Action in which autonomous, student- and youth-led direct actions originate from this space.

Then, we will all be marching together in a youth and student contingent in the September 29th anti-war demos in Washington and LA.

In order to be able to have conversations about what types of actions will happen on the 28th in a way that is both democratic and safe (ie-not on the internet), organizers will be convening consultas in the coming weeks in different regions of the country for folks to come together and plan. We will hopefully have all the dates of the consultas sorted out within the next week and will post that information here. If you as an individual or your campus organization would like to hold a consulta or endorse the youth day of action, please let us know.

Chapters of anti-war youth and student groups from all over the nation including various SDS, CAN, FIST and Campus Greens chapters have already begun to organize around these actions. Please add your name to the endorsement list by emailing youthantiwarweek@gmail.com

Please keep checking back here in the coming days and weeks as we will continue to update this page with more information.

Cut Off ALL War Funding!

2007-09-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

from Protest to Resistance...
Cut Off ALL War Funding!
Fund People's Needs -
NOT War!

It's time to turn up the heat! Funding for the criminal war in Iraq will expire on October 1. The month of September will see the next big struggle over war funding, but this time the antiwar movement needs to be there to demand the immediate cut off of all war funding.

We have all seen that the Democratic leadership in Congress, despite being elected with a clear mandate to end the war, has completely capitulated to the Bush Administration. We cannot wait for politicians to end the war.

In addition to the enormous cost in human lives - more than 600,000 Iraqis and nearly 4,000 U.S. soldiers - the attempt to occupy and colonize Iraq has already cost more than $1 trillion. Every day, the Pentagon spends another $720 million.

This is money that is stolen from working people who need funding for human needs.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported last week that:

• 36.5 million people in the U.S. lived below the official poverty line in 2006.

• 47 million people in the U.S. were without health insurance in 2006, up from 44.8 million in 2005.

• The number of uninsured children increased from 8 million (10.9 percent) in 2005 to 8.7 million (11.7 percent) in 2006.

Meanwhile, infrastructure is crumbling. Schools are understaffed and falling apart. Affordable housing is disappearing. And almost nothing has been done to rebuild the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina.

Let's bring the occupation to Washington and demand money for human needs, not war! On September 29, tens of thousands of activists, community organizers, youth and students, veterans, military families, and health care activists will march on the White House to Demand: Cut off ALL War Funding! Fund People's Needs, NOT War!

Buses, vans, and car caravans are coming from more than 75 organizing centers, with more than 100 buses already scheduled, and more being added every day. Organizing a mobilization of this scale is enormously expensive -- please consider making a donation online at http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml.

Also, during the week of September 22-29, antiwar activists will erect an Encampment on the Lawn directly across from the Capitol. The site of the Encampment is a square of land directly in front of the Capitol, where we will maintain a determined, visible 24-hour antiwar presence as a direct challenge to the politicians - both Republican and Democrat - who voted for the war and vote to continue to fund the war.

Organizing a week-long enccampment and a national march is an enormous organizational challenge, and we need your help. Please consider helping with the costs by making an online donation at http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml.

Activists, military families, veterans, trade unionists, and community organizers from activists from across the U.S. are planning to erect a tent city, in Washington, DC, which will be a center of organizing, resistance, and action for the week. At the same time, activists will also be converging in Los Angeles for a West Coast week-long antiwar Encampment and March (see http://www.iacenterla.org for more information and to get involved.)

If you want the social justice issues you are fighting for to be seen and heard around the world and by the national media, then bring your displays, art, graphics and signs to the week long encampment.

Many local and national organizations are planning to have their own tents for the Encampment. There will be actions, protests, and speak outs organized by health care activists, military family members, immigrant rights organizers, and more.

Each day will have a variety of different activities, focused on the impeachment of Bush and Cheney for war crimes, student and youth action, political prisoners, Katrina, stopping a war against Iran, and more. Each night will feature "Culture and Resistance," including spoken word artists, musicians, poets, and more.

Many of the working people that Michael Moore featured in SICKO are planning a special candle-light vigil for all those who have died for lack of health care.

Youth are meeting and planning resistance actions in the Congressional office buildings and streets of DC.

At the end of the week, activists at the Encampment will join tens of thousands of people from across the country for the massive March on Washington on September 29.

Organizing a week-long encampment and a national demonstration is a major challenge, and we need your help with the enormous expenses. Please consider making a donation online at http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml.

We need your input planning giant displays, literature and organizing tents, skill sharing sessions, and acts of creative protest and resistance. Please contact us to share your ideas and to volunteer to help organize for the encampment.

Over the next few days, we will be posting a calendar of events for the Encampment. If your group would like to organize a tent, protest action, teach-in, etc. please contact us.

We are developing a list of inexpensive housing in the area and will be posting it soon -- activists who are able to join us all week, should also line up housing in the area. We can be a presence on site around the clock but we can not actually sleep at night or cook on-site.

If you are in the Washington DC - Maryland - Virginia area, we need your help with housing, food, transportation and help on set-up. Please contact us online or by phone at 212-633-6646.

Calling for Activist video trainees and volunteers!

2007-09-04T10:45:00.000-07:00

Calling for Activist video trainees and volunteers!
Work with Peoples Video Network!
Peoples Video Network

Train to use cameras, large and small! Edit!
Use DVD technology! Stream and distribute your work!

First Workshop Series coordinated with Sept 22-29 Anti-War Encampment
and demonstrations in Washington DC: http://www.troopsoutnow.org

Series of workshops in video documentation, camera, editing and distribution. Work with Peoples Video network in hands-on classes and field-work in video activism. Mentoring with seasoned video activists. Final presentation to an appreciative audience. Opportunity to learn distribution to wider audiences.
Our goal is to encourage you to take this course from beginning to end and to participate in Peoples Video Network on an ongoing basis.

Camera:
Workshop 1: Learning the Canon XL1 series. Focus, lighting, sound, care of equipment. Work with a team
Workshop 2: handling a small camera in action situations. Care of equipment and safeguarding footage. Coordination with field editors, camera crew
Workshop 3: Interview technique. Lighting, sound, conducting interviews.

Field-Work:
Field-work will go on throughout training and provide the raw material for viewing, editing and discussion. Document the encampment Sept 22-29 in Washington DC. Learn to shoot at demonstrations and in other action situations. Shooting formal events. Working with the sound crew.
Interview technique. Opportunity for independent work as well as mentoring and
feedback sessions.

Workshop 4: Viewing the raw footage. Group comments and feedback in a supportive environment.

Editing:
Workshop 5: Basics of Final Cut Pro. Beginning the editing process; using raw footage from field-work and also from archival material.
Workshop 6: More basics of Final Cut Pro

Distribution:
Workshop 7: Finishing a project and exporting it. Streaming, printing,
dvd making
Workshop 8: More concepts of distribution. Discussion of festivals,
internet, grants

Final Workshop Presentation

Each video activist will present a sample of work to be shown at a commencement recital event with invited guests.

Sign up for PVN WORKSHOPS: pvn@action-mail.org or call (212) 340-1286. Leave your name, phone number and e-mail and the best time to reach you.

To learn more about Peoples Video Network go to www.peoplesvideo.org or www.peoplesvideo.tv

2007-09-01T10:42:00.000-07:00

Endorse | Donate | Volunteer

Join Stop War in Iran in Washington DC
September 22-29 for the

Encampment to Stop the War
directly in front of the Capitol

and the
Sept 29 March on Washington

Today President Bush once again threatened to use the Pentagon’s weapons of mass destruction by refusing to ‘rule out the use of force.” against Iran. Yesterday, speaking before the American Legion, he said,"Iran’s actions threaten the security of nations everywhere, and the United States is rallying friends and allies to isolate Iran's regime, to impose economic sanctions."

We must take action now to stop the Bush Administration's drive towards a new war.

During the week of September 22-29, antiwar activists will erect an encampment on the Lawn directly across from the Capitol. The site of the Encampment is a square of land directly in front of the Capitol, where we will maintain a determined, visible 24-hour antiwar presence as a direct challenge to the politicians - both Republican and Democrat - who voted for the war and vote to continue to fund the war. The Stop War on Iran Campaign will be there all week, with displays, a Stop War on Iran tent, special programs, and teach-ins.

On September 29, we will join tens of thousands for a massive march on the White House. There are now more than 75 organizing centers from more than 32 states for September 29, and more than 1,600 endorsers.

Now, more than ever, it is vital that we be in the streets to demand an end to the bipartisan program of endless war. President Bush continues to threaten the people of Iran, using (once again) claims about "weapons of mass destruction." And once again, Congress is unwilling to oppose the Bush agenda in the Middle East.

There are now 3 aircraft carrier groups in the Persian Gulf area and almost half of all the ships in the U.S. Navy are withing striking range of Iran. Vice President Cheney and others in the Administration are pushing hard for military action.

We have all seen that the Democratic leadership in Congress, despite being elected with a clear mandate to end the war in Iraq, has completely capitulated to the Bush Administration. We cannot wait for politicians to end the war. And we can't wait while they plan to launch a new war.

With the confrontation in September over the Iraq war gaining momentum, there is the growing risk that a weakened and isolated administration will risk wider war as a reckless way of overwhelming opposition to his criminal policies.

Please consider joining us for the week of the Encampment, September 22-29, even if only for a day or two. There will be a Stop War on Iran program at the Encampment in the early part of the week - Monday or Tuesday.

Then, help build a Stop War on Iran contingent in the September 29 March on the White House.

Buses, vans and cars are coming from around the country and from a city near you. Momentum for the Encampment to Stop the War (Sept. 22-29) and the March on Washington (Sept. 29) is growing, with Organizing Centers in 75 cities, more than 100 buses scheduled and many more expected. The list of endorsers is growing daily, with more than 1,600 organizations, community groups and organizers. Recent endorsers include World Can't Wait, the Green Party of the U.S., Carlos Arredondo, Not In Our Name, former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, Michael Parenti, MECAWI, Charles Barron, Ramsey Clark, Code Pink, After Downing Street, Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star Families for Peace, Ron Kovic, Michael Berg, numerous chapters of Military Families Speak Out and Veterans for Peace and more.

www.StopWarOnIran.org

2007-08-31T09:09:00.001-07:00

Stop the War at Home & Abroad
Troops Out Now!
Impeach Bush & Cheney for War Crimes!
End All Occupations -- from Iraq to Palestine to Haiti to the Philippines!

Get your buses for the antiwar march on Washington -
Saturday, September 29

Attention Students

-Campus-based groups
-Activists who work at schools
-Anyone associated with a campus community

You have less than one month to organize a bus (or buses) from your school for the march against the war abroad and at home on Saturday September 29.

To get more information about the march, go to http://www.troopsoutnow.org

To get information about student organizing, and the student day or resistance go to http://youthantiwarweek.wordpress.com

Prior to the Sept. 29 march - there will be a week long encampment against the war on the mall in front of the capital - starting on Saturday September 22 - for more information the encampment go to: http://www.troopsoutnow.org

2007-08-24T09:01:00.000-07:00

The Government is trying to silence
antiwar resistance in September

Defend our right to erect
antiwar tents on the Capitol Mall!

Stop the War at Home & Abroad -
Stop the War Against the Movement

SIGN THE PETITION ONLINE

Three months ago, the Troops Out Now Coalition applied to the National Parks Service for permits to erect an anti-war tent city on the Mall across from the Capitol in Washington DC from September 22 to September 29, as a build up to the March against the war at home and abroad on September 29.

As some of you might recall, we organized a tent city (encampment) on this same area last spring, as a part of the fight to end all war funding.

In a meeting with representatives of the National Parks Service, on Thursday, August 23, we were informed for the first time that we would not be allowed to erect the tents because suddenly, it had been decided that all of the areas on the Mall where tents could be erected would be fenced off and would under go “re-soding” at the very time that we planned to use the mall.

We don’t believe that it’s a coincidence that the Mall area closest to the Capitol is suddenly off limits to protest during the very time when Congress will again be voting to spend another $145 billion dollars on the war and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Everyone knows that September is going to be a crucial month for the struggle to end this criminal war. The anti-war movement has been mobilizing all summer for the fall.

Momentum for the September 22-29 Encampment to Stop the War and the September 29 March on Washington is growing, with more than 70 organizing centers and 32 states across the U.S. actively mobilizing. Every day we learn of new cities that are organizing buses, car caravans, and vans. Every day, activists are calling and emailing to let us know that they will be joining the Encampment.

Apparently, the government has also been preparing for the fall, preparing to silence mass resistance to the war unless we do something about it. Recently the ANSWER Coalition was hit with $10,000 fines for postering for the Sept. 15 march. And now, we learn that the Mall is off limits. Make no mistake about it, the efforts on behalf of the government to squelch resistance to the empire are real and dangerous, but they will not work if we unite and fight back.

WE ARE CONFIDENT THAT WE WILL WIN WITH YOUR SUPPORT

What you can do:

Join us in a campaign to let the politicians in Washington D.C. know that we will not be silenced. Please sign the petition online at http://www.troopsoutnow.org/grantencampmentpermit.shtml
Please call Mary A. Bomar, Director of the National Park Service at (202) 208-6843 and Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne at (202) 208-6416
Make a donation to help us with the enormous costs of organizing for the Encampment to Stop the War and the March on Washington. In addition to printing hundreds of thousands of leaflets, organizing buses, purchasing or renting equipment for the Encampment, we now face the expenses of mounting a political and legal challenge to stop Washington's attempt to silence dissent. You can donate online at http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml

With your continued help and support, we are continuing to organize and mobilize for the Encampment to Stop the War and the September 29 March on Washington. If you haven't made plans to participate, please contact a local organizing center at www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2907orgcents.shtml

2007-08-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

In this message:

1) Saturday, AUG 25 – NEWARK,NJ The People's March for Peace, Equality, Jobs & Justice

2) Saturday, August 25 - Kennebunkport, Maine

Saturday, AUG 25 – NEWARK,NJ The People's March for Peace, Equality, Jobs & Justice

Troops Out Now Coalition urges all out support for the rally and march this Saturday, August 25 in Newark, NJ. The march will commemorate the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Members and groups in the Troops Out Now Coalition are active participants in the Peace & Justice Coalition based in Newark. The Peace & Justice Coalition is a coalition of now more than 150 organizations concerned about the war on Iraq and the impact of the war on our community.

On August 25, at 12:00 Noon the Peace & Justice Coalition is planning a mass march down Broad Street in downtown Newark beginning at Lincoln Park. The march, from Lincoln Park up Broad Street to Military Park and back, will be followed by a festival in Lincoln Park, with speakers, entertainment, information tables, and exhibits.

It is easy to reach the Newark Rally from anywhere in the NYC/NJ area. PATH trains out of New York City, Jersey City, and Hoboken or buses from Port Authority or NJ Transit trains from NYC and most places in NJ. It is a 15 minute walk on Broad St from the Newark train and bus station to Lincoln Park.

Vans are leaving from the Troops Out Now office at 55 West 17th St on Saturday morning at 9am. Call 212-633-6646 to reserve a seat.

Meet up with Troops Out Now ( http://www.troopsoutnow.org/ ) at our table at Lincoln Park and help distribute flyers and placards for the Sept 29 Stop the War at Home and Abroad demonstration in Washington DC.

READ: Why We March - Peoples March for Peace, Equality, Jobs and Justice, by Larry Hamm: http://www.peaceandjusticecoalition.org/call.pdf

August 25th: Video Message from Larry Hamm:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FYYKOOpiyjY

Check for more information: http://www.peaceandjusticecoalition.org/

2007-08-20T08:59:00.000-07:00

AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL

Unity and solidarity in the face of government repression and right wing threats is our greatest strength and our best defense..

The ANSWER Coalition has put out an alert regarding the heavy fines in Washington DC for postering and the threats by right-wing and fascist organizations against anti-war march scheduled for Sept 15 and other actions taking place in DC. These threats are not only a danger to ANSWER Coalition but to the whole progressive movement.

Troops Out Now, who is organizing a major March in DC on Saturday, September 29 and a week-long Encampment in front of Congress from Sept 22 to 29, calls upon the movement to take the threats on the ANSWER Coalition seriously and to respond with demands to end to the fines, harassment and repression on the anti-war movement.

ANSWER in their e-mails and on their web site: www.answercoalition.org has stated that: “the best way to take action is to call the Director of Department of Public Works, William O. Howland, Jr. at 202-673-6833, and the Mayor of DC, Adrian Fenty, at 202-724-8876

They suggests saying something along the lines of: "I am writing to protest the fines levied against the ANSWER Coalition for putting up posters for the September 15th March on Washington. The government does not fine politicians who put up campaign posters, or commercial and business interests that plaster Washington, DC with posters. It is outrageous that the city, in concert with FOXNews, are attempting to suppress the antiwar movement. Stop the harassment. Stop the fines."

Respond to Bush’s war surge with a SURGE of resistance

Troops Out Now Coalition notes that the next two months will see many acts of protest and resistance against the war. Let’s view this as a Two-Month Surge of Resistance Against the War at Home and Abroad.

An injury to one is an injury to all. We will be a stronger force against the lawless criminal Bush regime if we do not allow any one political or activist group to become isolated. Let’s make every effort to create unity in the anti-war movement and rebuild solidarity with many progressive movements struggling against racism, discrimination and for social justice here at home. If we unite and support each other, we can make the month of September a period of decisive action. Let's make it impossible for Congress, which has a clear mandate to end the war, to once again betray the people and vote to continue funding for Bush's criminal occupation.

Troops Out Now Coalition urges the movement as a whole to organize, mobilize, and support as many of the upcoming actions as you can. Many other actions such as student strikes and growing spontaneous resistance may also develop.

August 25 - March Against the the war at home and abroad - Newark - http://www.peaceandjusticecoalition.org

August 25 - Protest the war criminals - Kennebunkport Maine http://www.kportprotest.org

August 27 - Stop the War Against Women - http://iacenter.org/images/womennyc082707a.pdf

August 29 - September 2 - International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina & Rita in New Orleans - http://internationaltribunal.org

September 11 - "Day of Outrage" against police terror - NYC - called by the D12 Movement http://troopsoutnow.org/sept11.html

September 15 - March Against the War - Washington DC - http://www.answercoalition.org

September 21 - National Moratorium Day with actions around the country http://www.IraqMoratorium.org

September 22 - 29 - Encampment in front of Congress to Stop the War - Actions every day. http://www.troopsoutnow.org

September 29 - March Against the War - at Home and Abroad - http://www.troopsoutnow.org

October 27 and 28 - Regional antiwar protest around the country - http://www.unitedforpeace.org

2007-08-17T08:53:00.000-07:00

A Two-Month Surge of Resistance Against the War at Home and Abroad

The next two months will see many acts of protest and resistance against the war. We encourage you to organize, mobilize, and support as many of these actions as you can. Let's answer Bush's surge with a surge of resistance.

August 25 - March Against the the war at home and abroad - Newark - http://www.peaceandjusticecoalition.org

August 25 - Protest the war criminals - Kennebunkport Maine - http://www.kportprotest.org

August 27 - Stop the War Against Women - http://iacenter.org/images/womennyc082707a.pdf

August 29 - September 2, 2007 - International Tribunal on
Hurricanes Katrina & Rita - http://internationaltribunal.org

September 11 - "Day of Outrage" against police terror - NYC - called by the D12 Movement

September 15 - March Against the War - Washington DC - called by the ANSWER Coalition http://www.answercoalition.org

September 15 - 22 - Week of Antiwar action in Washington DC - http://www.answercoalition.org

September 22 - 29 - Encampment to Stop the War in Washington - http://www.troopsoutnow.org

September 29 - March against the war at home and abroad - http://www.troopsoutnow.org

October 27 and 28 - Regional antiwar protest around the country - called by United for Peace & Justice - http://www.unitedforpeace.org
Let us join forces with the movements struggling to:

STOP THE WAR ABROAD &
STOP THE WAR AT HOME

SAME STRUGGLE SAME FIGHT!

* No War against Iran
* End all occupations now - from Iraq to Palestine, the Philippines, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Afghanistan
* Support The Right to Return - from Palestine to New Orleans
* Impeach Bush & Cheney for War Crimes
* No to U.S. intervention - Hands off Cuba, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and the Sudan
* Stop the raids against immigrant workers -- Full rights for undocumented workers
* Justice for Katrina survivors - End racist police terror - Stop the war against Muslims
* Free Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners
* Money for health care, jobs and education, not endless war

National March on Washington SEPT 29

2007-08-12T08:52:00.000-07:00

from Protest to Resistance...
It's time to Occupy the Occupiers!

It's time to turn up the heat! Funding for the criminal war in Iraq will expire on October 1. The month of September will see the next big struggle over war funding, but this time the antiwar movement needs to be there to demand the immediate cut off of all war funding.

We have all seen that the Democratic leadership in Congress, despite being elected with a clear mandate to end the war, has completely capitulated to the Bush Administration. We cannot wait for politicians to end the war.

Let's bring the occupation to Washington! During the week of September 22-29, antiwar activists will erect an encampment on the Lawn directly across from the Capitol. The site of the Encampment is a square of land directly in front of the Capitol, where we will maintain a determined, visible 24-hour antiwar presence as a direct challenge to the politicians - both Republican and Democrat - who voted for the war and vote to continue to fund the war.

Activists, military families, veterans, trade unionists, and community organizers from activists from across the U.S. are planning to erect a tent city, in Washington, DC, which will be a center of organizing, resistance, and action for the week. At the same time, activists will also be converging in Los Angeles for a West Coast week-long antiwar Encampment and March (see http://www.iacenterla.org for more information and to get involved.)

If you want the social justice issues you are fighting for to be seen and heard around the world and by the national media, then bring your displays, art, graphics and signs to the week long encampment.

Many local and national organizations are planning to have their own tents for the Encampment. There will be actions, protests, and speak outs organized by health care activists, military family members, immigrant rights organizers, and more.

Each day will have a variety of different activities, focused on the impeachment of Bush and Cheney for war crimes, student and youth action, political prisoners, Katrina, stopping a war against Iran, and more. Each night will feature "Culture and Resistance," including spoken word artists, musicians, poets, and more.

We have commitments from several hip-hop groups and other musicians for resistance music at the encampment each evening - if you or your group is interested in performing at the Encampment, see www.troopsoutnow.org/cultureandresistance.html for details.

Carlos Arredondo will be erecting a tent with boots and crosses in honor of his son, who died in Iraq. Other members and chapters of Military Families Speak Out will be a determined presence with exhibits and demands to bring their sons and daughters and ALL the troops home now. Code Pink, the Green Party of the US, World Can't Wait, and other national and local organizations will be on site and organizing creative confrontations in the halls of Congress.

Many of the working people that Michael Moore featured in SICKO are planning a special candle-light vigil for all those who have died for lack of health care.

Youth are meeting and planning resistance actions in the congressional office buildings and streets of DC.

At the end of the week, activists at the Encampment will join activists from across the country for a massive March on Washington on September 29. Buses, vans, and car caravans are coming from more than 55 organizing centers, with 80 buses already scheduled, and more being added every day.

We need your input planning giant displays, literature and organizing tents, skill sharing sessions, and acts of creative protest and resistance. Please contact us to share your ideas and to volunteer to help organize for the encampment.

Over the next few days, we will be posting a calendar of events for the Encampment. If your group would like to organize a tent, protest action, teach-in, etc. please contact us.

We are developing a list of inexpensive housing in the area and will be posting it soon -- activists who are able to join us all week, should also line up housing in the area. We can be a presence on site around the clock but we can not actually sleep at night or cook on-site.

If you are in the Washington DC - Maryland - Virginia area, we need your help with housing, food, transportation and help on set-up. Please contact us online or by phone at 212-633-6646.

Endorse | Donate | Volunteer | Let us know you're coming to the Encampment

National March on Washington SEPT 29

2007-08-11T08:51:00.000-07:00

ENCAMPMENT to STOP the WAR
SEPT 22-29
Washington DC - Los Angeles

National March on Washington SEPT 29

Stop the War at Home & Abroad
Troops Out Now!
Impeach Bush & Cheney for War Crimes!

from Protest to Resistance...
It's time to Occupy the Occupiers!

Encampment to Stop the War Sept 22-29

It's time to turn up the heat! Funding for the criminal war in Iraq will expire on October 1. The month of September will see the next big struggle over war funding, but this time the antiwar movement needs to be there to demand the immediate cut off of all war funding.

We have all see that the Democratic leadership in Congress, despite being elected with a clear mandate to end the war, has completely capitulated to the Bush Administration. We cannot wait for politicians to end the war.

Let's bring the occupation to Washington! During the week of September 22-29, antiwar activists will erect an encampment on the Lawn directly across from the Capitol.

Activists, military families, veterans, trade unionists, and community organizers from activists from across the U.S. are planning to erect a tent city, which will be a center of organizing, resistance, and action for the week.

Many local and national organizations are planning to have their own tents for the Encampment. There will be actions, protests, and speak outs organized by healthcare activists, military family members, immigrant rights organizers, and more.

Each day will have a variety of different activities, focused on the impeachment of Bush and Cheney for war crimes, student and youth action, political prisoners, Katrina, and more. Each night will feature "Culture and Resistance," including spoken word artists, musicians, poets, and more.

We need your imput planning giant displays, literature and organizing tents, skill sharing sessions, and acts of creative protest and resistance. Please contact us to share your ideas and to volunteer to help organize for the encamapment.

Over the next few days, we will be posting a calendar of envents for the Encampment. If your group would like to organize a tent, protest action, teach-in, etc. please contact us.

Sept. 22-29 mobilizations: End wars at home & abroad

2007-08-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

U.S. troops out now!
Sept. 22-29 mobilizations: End wars at home & abroad

By John Catalinotto
Published Aug 8, 2007 11:19 PM

As anti-war mobilizations are building toward the early fall, a pattern is taking shape: Activists are merging the struggle against the wars abroad with the struggles against the war directed against the poor and workers at home.

The main issues raised so far have been health care, some of the momentum impelled by the release of Michael Moore’s documentary “SiCKO”; the question of relief for oppressed communities; and, following the collapse of the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis, a push to stop war funding and start repairing the domestic infrastructure.

Anti-war forces in North America have continued mobilizing against the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and against U.S. President George W. Bush, and the governments of Canada and Mexico.

Protests planned include a week of action around a security summit Aug. 20-22 in Montebello, Quebec; a majority African-American protest in Newark, N.J., on Aug. 25; and a New England mobilization on the same day at the Bush family home in Kennebunkport, Me.

Organizers from the Troops Out Now Coalition (TONC) have focused attention on the expected “debate” over war funding in the U.S. Congress in mid-to-late September. TONC has called an encampment for Sept. 22-28 and mass marches for Sept. 29 in Washington and Los Angeles as the arguments in Congress are expected to climax.
Summit in Quebec Aug. 20-22

Canadian President Stephen Harper, Mexican President Felipe Calderón and Bush are meeting Aug. 20-22, just 90 miles from Montreal on the Quebec-Ontario border for a discussion of their so-called Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). The last big agreement between the ruling classes of the three countries introduced NAFTA, which eliminated job security in Canada and the U.S. and drove millions of Mexican peasants off the land, giving them the choice of emigrating without papers or starving.

Anti-globalization, pro-socialist and other progressive forces in Canada and Quebec are mobilizing to protest despite the expected presence of thousands of police. Canada’s heavy participation in the war on Afghanistan and its military’s growing casualties have aroused strong anti-war sentiments.
Aug. 25: Newark and Kennebunkport

The Peace and Justice Coalition—a united front of 120 mostly African-American and other people-of-color community organizations—has called an anti-war protest for Aug. 25 in Newark, N.J. Polls show that an estimated 90 percent of African Americans oppose the war and the Bush administration, which is reflected in the Pentagon’s growing difficulty in attracting Black youths as new recruits despite the absence of opportunities for them as civilians.

The Peace and Justice call stated clearly: “In the U.S., another type of war is going on, a war on our communities. The Bush administration, while increasing war spending, has decreased domestic spending for education, health care, housing, employment, veterans’ care and other social programs.” This call is a strong appeal to stop the war against oppressed communities at home, a demand that the anti-war movement as a whole needs to take up.

The Northeast organizers are seeking out Bush and his ruling-class cohorts in their lair at Kennebunkport, Me., where many of the rich have their family estates. This activist effort is drawing support throughout New England.

Jamilla El-Shafei, an anti-war activist in Kennebunkport, told media that Cindy Sheehan, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and former Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia plan to attend the event, which will be a “symbolic protest” because Bush isn’t expected to be there.
Organizing for Sept. 22-29

While protests have been called for throughout the congressional debate in September, the culminating activities are expected to be from Sept. 22-29.

TONC organizer Maggie Vascassenno reports that Los Angeles mobilizers for Sept. 22-29 held a meeting Aug. 4 at the Sugar Shack, an artist collective. “Organizers from the March 25 Coalition, Bayan USA, Code Pink, Latinos Against the War, the International Action Center and the American Friends Service Committee participated and joined committees to plan the encampment and demonstration,” she said.

The group called a news conference for Aug. 9 at the downtown Federal Building demanding money for “bridges not war,” said Vascassenno. “Activists took leaflets and posters, and mailings and phone-banking are scheduled. There’s a potentially huge health care rally sponsored by SEIU Aug 11 where we will distribute the SiCKO leaflet.” This is a TONC leaflet linking the war costs to the lack of adequate health care insurance.

TONC issued a statement on the cost of the war and the great needs of the crumbling U.S. infrastructure on Aug. 4. At the same time, an anti-war coalition in Minneapolis, where the bridge collapse cost at least five lives, held a protest raising the same issues while Bush was visiting the collapsed bridge area.

TONC organizer Frank Neisser told Workers World: “There are now 51 organizing centers that we expect will organize at least 65 buses to come on Sept. 29. There are also now at least 1,250 organizational and individual endorsers of the call.

“Some of the new endorsers include World Can’t Wait, the Green Party of the U.S., Not In Our Name, former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, Michael Parenti, MECAWI, Charles Barron, Ramsey Clark, Code Pink, After Downing Street, Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star Families for Peace and Ron Kovic.”

SEPT 29: 47 Organizing Centers, 65 buses, 1,000+ endorsers

2007-08-06T08:50:00.000-07:00

Politicians Won't Stop the War - Only the People Will Stop the War

SEPTEMBER 29: MARCH ON WASHINGTON
SEPTEMBER 22 -29: ENCAMPMENT
directly in front of Congress to demand Congress stop funding the war

STOP THE WAR AT HOME AND ABROAD!
TROOPS OUT NOW!
IMPEACH BUSH & CHENEY FOR WAR CRIMES!

Last November, the Democratic Party took control of the House and Senate as voters made clear their overwhelming opposition to the policies of the Bush Administration. Many looked to the Democratic Party to take bold action to end the brutal war in Iraq. Some expected that the Democrats would push forward with the impeachment of Bush and Cheney for their crimes.

Instead, as soon as the Democratic leadership was sworn in, they announced that they had no intention of cutting off the war funding and that impeachment was "off the table," as they ignored the mandate of the people and began to strategize for the 2008 Presidential Election.

In March of this year, while more than 70% of the people in the U.S. were opposed to the war, Congress completely capitulated to Bush and voted to approve funding for the war.

Meanwhile, as Congress gives Bush a blank check for endless war, there is no money to provide more than 40 million people in the U.S. with health care. Our cities are collapsing, our schools are not preparing our youth, our seniors are abandoned. Only the prisons and police repression are growing.

The next battle over war funding: September

Currently approved funding for the war will expire on October 1. This time, we cannot wait for the Congress to "do the right thing." The antiwar movement must be there in massive numbers to demand the cut off of all war funding and the end to this criminal war. And it's time for us to explore new tactics -- marches alone will not end the war, no matter how big they are. It's time to move from protest to resistance.

September will be a month of escalating protest and resistance. Many local and national organizations are planning actions in Washington DC, beginning in early September. Thousands of people are coming in from around the country. The month of protest will culminate in a massive march on September 29, timed to coincide with the next struggle over funding for the war.

During the week of September 22-29, the antiwar movement will "Occupy the Occupiers," with an Encampment directly in front of the Capitol. Youth, veterans, military families, community organizers, and antiwar activists from across the country are planning now to be in DC for the week of the Encampment. The Encampment itself will be an organizing hub all week, with teach-ins, music, displays, and more. Activists are also planning creative acts of disruption and direct action throughout the week as Congress debates the funding for Bush's war.

On September 29, activists from all over the U.S. will assemble in Washington for a massive march to demand "Troops Out Now! Stop the War at Home and Abroad! Impeach Bush and Cheney for War Crimes!"

Buses, vans and cars are coming from around the country and from a city near you. Momentum for the Encampment to Stop the War (Sept. 22-29) and the March on Washington (Sept. 29) is growing, with Organizing Centers in 47 cities, more than 65 buses scheduled and many more expected. The list of endorsers is growing daily, with more than 1,000 organizations, community groups and organizers. Recent endorsers include World Can't Wait, the Green Party of the U.S., Not In Our Name, former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, Michael Parenti, MECAWI, Charles Barron, Ramsey Clark, Code Pink, After Downing Street, Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star Families for Peace, Ron Kovic, along with what you list of World Can't Wait, the Green Party of the U.S., Not In Our Name, former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, Michael Parenti, numerous chapters of Military Families Speak Out and Veterans for Peace and more. for a complete list, see http://troopsoutnow.org/encampmentendorsers.html

We need your help - Only the People Will Stop the War!

We cannot wait for Congress to act on its own and cut off war funding. We cannot listen to those who would tell the antiwar movement to stand down and wait for the 2008 Presidential elections. Politicians won't stop the war until we make them stop it, and that requires a massive outpour of resistance in the streets of Washington. We're counting on your help to make this happen.

Money for Bridges and Cities, NOT War! Sept. 29 in DC

2007-08-03T08:48:00.001-07:00

"The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that the USA needs to spend $1.6 trillion over five years to put its infrastructure — which includes some 590,000 bridges — in good condition."

Money for Bridges and Cities, NOT War! Sept. 29 in DC

On October 1, Congress is scheduled to authorize over $100 billion for continued war in Iraq, and estimates for the long term costs of the war are over $2 trillion. Already more than $500 billion has been spent.

Meanwhile, as the tragedy following this week's collapse of a bridge in Minneapolis reminds us, we face daily danger from our collapsing infrastructure. This includes, not only 590,000 bridges, but roads, rail lines, subways, levees, preparedness for natural disaster emergencies, schools, hospitals, etc.

Almost five years of U.S. occupation has destroyed the cities and towns of Iraq, killed more than 1 million Iraqis, created 4 million refugees (2 million displaced inside Iraq and 2 million refugees in nearby countries) left 70% of the population without potable water, electricity, schools or hospitals. Almost 4,000 U.S. GIs have died, many thousands are injured and maimed.

Billions spent for endless war means that there is no money to provide more than 40 million people in the U.S. with health care. It means that our cities are collapsing, our schools are not preparing our youth, our seniors are abandoned. Only the prisons and police repression are growing.

JOIN US on Saturday, SEPT 29 in a massive march from Congress to the White House to demand that the billions spent for War in Iraq be used to rebuild the crumbling cities of the U.S., rebuild the bridges and the highways, hospitals, schools, fire stations, utilities, parks, recreation centers and much more. This would mean millions of jobs and providing those with new skills.

Join us in a week long Encampment right in front of Congress (September 22 -29) to expose the real cost of Endless War and to demand that Congress use its constitutional authority to stop funding the war.

Despite overwhelming opposition from the people and a clear mandate to end the war, members of Congress from both major parties have continued to vote for more funds for the war, while robbing people here, who need money for healthcare, affordable housing, jobs with a living wage, schools, and much more.

Join with forces who are demanding funds for the rebuilding of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast and to demand full rights for immigrant workers. Join with organizers from Healthcare not War Campaign and with activists calling for the Impeachment of Bush and Chaney for War Crimes.

Together we will demand Bring ALL the Troops home NOW!

An Encampment in Los Angeles during the same week - SEPT 22 to 29 will help to highlight this issue. -

Buses, vans and cars are coming from around the country and from a city near you. Momentum for the Encampment to Stop the War (Sept. 22-29) and the March on Washington (Sept. 29) is growing, with Organizing Centers in 47 cities, more than 65 buses scheduled and many more expected. The list of endorsers is growing daily, with more than 1,000 organizations, community groups and organizers.

Click here to find a local organizer near you.- http://troopsoutnow.org/sept2907orgcents.shtml

Click here to become a local organizer. - http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml

What you can do to help:

Endorse the Encampment to Stop the War and the March on Washington: http://www.sept29.org/

Download leaflets and distribute them in your school, workplace, union hall, community center, church or mosque, etc.: http://troopsoutnow.org/S29now.pdf

Donate to help with organizing expenses: http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml

Become a local organizer: http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml

Volunteer: http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml

REGIONAL ORGANIZING AND PLANNING MEETING AUGUST 11

2007-08-03T08:48:00.000-07:00

Stop the War at Home and Abroad!
Bring the Troops Home Now!
Impeach Bush & Cheney for War Crimes!

REGIONAL ORGANIZING AND PLANNING MEETING
AUGUST 11
Join us on Saturday, August 11,
from 3:00 to 5:30 pm
at the
Solidarity Center - 55 W. 17th St. 5th Fl.
in Manhattan, btw. 5th & 6th Ave

Momentum for the Encampment to Stop the War (Sept. 22-29) and the March on Washington (Sept. 29) is growing, with Organizing Centers in 47 cities, more than 65 buses scheduled and many more expected. The list of endorsers is growing daily, with more than 1,000 organizations, community groups and organizers.

But we still have a lot of work to do in the next few weeks. Please join us for this important planning meeting - bring your ideas for the Encampment, for the March, for Outreach, etc.

No rest for anti-war movement

2007-08-03T08:22:00.000-07:00

By Workers World New York bureau
Published Aug 3, 2007 8:51 PM

The U.S. Congress is preparing to recess. The White House moves to Texas. The puppet Iraqi Congress is set to take the month of August off. But the occupation, the war, the murder of Iraqis and the dying of U.S. troops goes on, and more money goes to the U.S. military-industrial complex.

Shaeed Comrade. " border="0">

Grannies for Peace and Pakistani activist
Shaeed Comrade.

WW photos: John Catalinotto

All the more reason that the anti-war movement in the U.S. must keep active throughout the summer in preparation for the confrontations in the early fall, especially the Sept. 22-28 encampment and Sept. 29 mass marches in Washington and Los Angeles organized by the Troops Out Now Coalition (TONC). That’s when the U.S. Congress will reopen its limited debate on funding the war and mass anti-war opinion in the U.S. will again have an opportunity to intervene.

Newark, N.J., Aug. 25

A month before that, on Aug. 25, another important local anti-war action—with a unique character—is planned for Newark, N.J. The Peace and Justice Coalition, an alliance of 120 peace and justice organizations, mainly organizations representing people of color, will march. According to a press meeting held July 31 at the Bethany Baptist Church in Newark, “The People’s March for Peace, Equality, Jobs and Justice will draw connections between the funds and resources being used to conduct a war abroad and the problems in our communities here at home.”

Vinie Burrows

Lawrence Hamm, chair of the People’s Organization for Progress (POP), a member of the Peace and Justice Coalition, said, “Everyone who wants peace in Iraq and social and economic justice at home should participate in this march on August 25 in Newark.” (See peaceandjustice.org or call: 801-457-4998)

In New York City, organizers campaigning against the war on Iraq and for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney held a series of rallies from July 26 to July 29, including an afternoon rush-hour rally at the south end of Union Square that drew hundreds of anti-war activists and attracted the attention of sympathetic passersby. Speakers included actor Vinie Burrows, TONC leader Larry Holmes, Cindy Sheehan and others from the World Can’t Wait organization, which called the action.

Planning meeting Aug. 11

Dustin Langley, a TONC spokesperson staffing a table at the Union Square rally, told Workers World that “There has been a momentum developing around the Sept. 29 action and lots of interest in the encampment scheduled for the preceding week. People want a big march, but they want to do something more. There is so much anger throughout the population at the Bush gang for refusing to leave Iraq and so much frustration that the Democratic Party leaders are doing nothing to stop Bush.”

Larry Holmes, TONC.

Langley said that there were over 40 organizing centers for the September actions listed on the TONC website and that these organizers had already scheduled more than 60 buses to go to Washington. “Of course that is just the beginning,” said Langley, “and we are holding a planning meeting on Aug. 11 at 3 p.m. at the Solidarity Center here in New York—that’s at 55 West 17th Street in Manhattan. This meeting will help connect with some of the hundreds of people who have volunteered with us since May, when we started organizing for the actions, and find a way for them to fit into the effort.

“In addition to the more than 1,600 organizations and individuals who have endorsed, including World Can’t Wait, Cindy Sheehan, Not In Our Name, Fernando Suarez del Solar, Cynthia McKinney and Code Pink,” Langley said, “one of the most promising fronts has come from our attempt to link the fight against the war to the struggle for adequate and affordable medical care. When Michael Moore’s film, “SiCKO,” hit the theaters, one of our organizers who is a nurse, Sharon Black, came up with a leaflet linking the struggles. It’s a natural, first because people are as mad about the health care situation as they are about the war, and second because it is obvious that the money wasted killing people in Iraq could more than pay for adequate health care at home.”

For more information, see troopsoutnow.org or call 212-633-6646.

Important Message from the Campaign for Healthcare, Not Warfare

2007-08-02T08:46:00.000-07:00

Important Message from the Campaign for Healthcare, Not Warfare

Dear Friend,

Your help is urgently needed!

On September 29, there will be a massive march in Washington D.C. to STOP THE WAR. Prior to this march, protesters will set up an encampment in front of the Capitol with the message to cut off the war funding and fund people’s needs.

As healthcare workers, patients, nurses, doctors, and healthcare advocates, we will be building a marvelous contingent that will highlight the issue of HEALTHCARE FOR ALL. We will also participate in the encampment where we will set up a special tent called: “HEALTHCARE AND THE WAR ARE ‘SICKO’”.

You don’t need to be a healthcare worker or a patient. If YOU are just plain fed up with the for-profit, anti-people, no healthcare system and YOU are sick of seeing billions of dollars used to cause suffering, death and destruction abroad, JOIN US!

In any case, HELP US!

Without your donations both small and large, we cannot make our voices heard. To be able to print the literature, signs, and banners; to be able to erect tents and more importantly provide transportation for people all across the country—we need funds.

It is the people that can and will make the difference. It’s your help that will make our voice powerful in Washington on September 29th.

Yours for a better world,

Sharon Black, R.N.
Troops Out Now Coalition

Ramsey Clark
former U.S. Attorney General

Dr. Hillel Cohen
Doctor of Public Health

Ajamu K. Sankofa, Esq.
Healthcare Now New York City Chapter

Donna Smith
from the film SiCKO

P.S.
We need to give a heartfelt thanks to Michael Moore for his ground breaking film ‘SICKO’ that stood up to the lies that are so prevalent about the U.S. healthcare system and that also allowed those who have suffered so badly at it’s hands to come forward with honesty and dignity.

Many of us who saw the movie cried and felt angry as we saw our own lives portrayed. The important task will be to turn our pain into action. Here (http://troopsoutnow.org/HWN.pdf) is a flyer that the campaign has been distributing at movie theaters and community events. If you haven’t seen the movie, go - and give everyone there a copy of the Healthcare Not Warfare flyer.

Healthcare Not Warfare
Get Involved Today

Endorse - Join the Campaign for Healthcare, Not Warfare - http://www.troopsoutnow.org/healthnotwarendorse.shtml

Donate - Help send buses to Washington DC
http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml

Become a local organizer
http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml

Download the Healthcare and the War are SICKO leaflet
http://troopsoutnow.org/HWN.pdf

Find a local organizing center
http://troopsoutnow.org/sept2907orgcents.shtml

Healthcare Not Warfare
55 W. 17th St. #5C
NY NY 10011
212.633-6646

A Proposal for a September 29 Unity Coalition for an Antiwar March on Washington, D.C.

2007-08-01T08:44:00.000-07:00

Take the fight to stop the war back into the streets -- this time our number can be bigger and more powerful than ever!

It's not too late to unite around a major antiwar mobilization in Washington this fall!

A Proposal for a September 29
Unity Coalition for an Antiwar March on Washington, D.C.

Endorse the S29 Call for Unity http://www.sept29.org/sept29endorse.html

Mass anger over the criminal war is at an all time high. People are not only steaming mad at Bush and Cheney, they are also outraged with Congress for betraying the antiwar mandate of the November 2006 elections and caving into Bush on war funding. It’s hard to find anyone who supports the war, and if antiwar pressure is big now, it will be even bigger in September. Yet, instead of a unified massive demonstration this fall, the time when it will have the most impact, the various antiwar coalitions have scheduled at least 4 or 5 separate dates in the fall for separate protest.

Under other circumstances, separate protests in the fall would not constitute a problem, and there are probably good reasons why the different protests should happen. However, it is imperative that everyone unite around one major date because it’s the only way that we can liberate the antiwar struggle from the halls of congress and help it to re-emerge as independent mass pressure from below instead of empty rhetoric from above.

If there’s ever been anything close to a critical tipping point in public outrage over the war, we have entered that period now. However, without the kind of powerful protest in Washington DC to give life and expression to this popular anger, antiwar rage will be reduced to opinion poll statistics used by politicians who are far more interested in using opposition to the war to win election than to end the war.

The central crises confronting all who want to end the war is that after the elections last November, the leadership of the antiwar movement was effectively taken over by politicians in Congress and mainstream presidential candidates. The politicians who have anointed themselves the substitute for all of us who have been working hard to get the people out into the streets, support most of Bush’s war but are weary of the war in Iraq because it has turned into a disaster. What’s more these politicians will continue to pass resolutions and give speeches, but not really stop the war or bring the troops home because the prize that their eye’s are really focused on is the 2008 elections. (This is not an argument against anyone who believes or hopes that the 2008 elections will be important. That's another issue. The issue right now is that we must not let an event that is 16 months away be a factor in taking the fight against the war out of the streets precisely when the people may be ready to get in to the streets right now, in marches bigger than the marches we’ve been to since the beginning of the war.)

The high jacking of the antiwar movement is not the fault of most grass roots activists who have been doing a lot of great things like occupying recruitment stations, or the offices of members of Congress, and organizing student strikes, and supporting the growing GI resistance movement. The mainstream media has played its role in the coup by deliberately suppressing coverage of much of the action in the streets and focusing their camera’s instead on the “war of words between Congress and the White House”.

The fragmentation within the antiwar movement has helped the politicians take over. More specifically, there are influential and well financed forces in the antiwar movement that are more invested in the Democratic party and the outcome of the 2008 presidential elections, than they are in keeping the antiwar heat in the streets. This fact has enabled the takeover.
.
This fall, we need a united antiwar human tidal wave in the streets of Washington. We need it to send the message to the war makers in both the Republican and Democratic parties that the war is not an issue to exploit for electoral reasons; it’s a crime that must end completely and immediately! (At the moment that the movement is potentially at its greatest strength, let's make sure that the movement isn’t sidelined and diss-empowered, until after 2008. Unity this fall may be the key to keeping the movement alive.)

THE SOLUTION: A SEPTEMBER 29 UNITY COALTION The protest dates that have been announced (besides September 29) include and a national protest called by the ANSWER on Sept. 15, regional antiwar protests in late October called by United for Peace and Justice, and an antiwar moratorium scheduled for Sept. 21. There are also many other important local and national events planned in the fall, including a major anti war march in Newark N.J. called by POP, Peoples Organization for Progress .There is nothing magic about a particular date, however of all the dates that groups are organizing around in the fall, September 29 is the best date. It’s late enough in the fall to give every one, particularly students, time to organize mass participation (the huge D.C. protest on Sept.24, 2005 proved this), and it’s not so late in fall that it diminishes the sense of urgency for action that will be overwhelming by September. In addition, Sept. 29 has got a lot of momentum already, thousands of endorsers, and activists across the country have been organizing for S29 since it was announced 2 months ago (the September 29 mobilization will be preceded by a week long antiwar encampment in Washington DC starting on Sept.22).

Agreeing on the best date in the fall for a truly united and massive turnout solves one problem. The next problem is pulling the major antiwar coalitions together in support of it. When Unity is paramount, no one coalition should seek domination over a serious or decisive mass mobilization. Groups have critical political differences, but there are occasions when it necessary to reduce barriers to collaboration. Ultimately, the various antiwar coalitions should serve the needs of the movement and not merely their own organization. In order to facilitate the participation of other major coalitions on an equal basis in all aspects of mobilization, TONC proposes the formation of a September 29 Unity coalition for a national antiwar march on Wash. D.C. Through a coalition, all forces should be able to work out the basis for everyone making a serious commitment to the mobilization. No one or even two coalitions will "own" the march, the whole movement, from the grassroots up will have collective ownership of the mobilization. With respect to demands, the best policy is an understanding that all groups whether they are part of the coalition or not shall be free to bring there own signs and banners reflecting the demands and issues that they want. The demands for the lead banner and perhaps a certain number of additional signs will be determined by the coalition.

BROADEN THE MOVEMENT AND BE INCLUSIVE Unity between coalitions is a short term practical necessity, but it is not a substitute for the deeper, more fundamental, and decisive unity that will change the composition of the antiwar movement. Part of making the antiwar movement more inclusive with respect to class and race, necessitates connecting the struggle against the war, to the struggle against the war at home, the war against Black and Latino youth, immigrants, Hurricane Katrina survivors, women and LGBT people. We need to connect the billions spent on war to the needs of working people for health care, education, secure pensions and union jobs. Raising different demands is one way of achieving this. Moreover those of us who want to help transform a movement against the war into a movement that comes to understand that war is a symptom, and imperialism is the root cause, antiwar events are one of the main forums for expanding knowledge through demands, and rallies. It is only through expanding instead of limiting the messages, that mass opposition to the Pentagon's occupation of Iraq develops into opposition to the occupation of Afghanistan and Palestine, the Pentagon plans to attack Iran, the war against Latin America embodied in Plan Colombia and threats against Venezuela and Cuba; and includes calls to impeach Bush and Cheney for war crimes. Antiwar events must be a forum for sharing the information, ideas and analysis that are censored by the mainstream media.

It is not necessary for everyone to agree on all demands. But we do need to agree not to censure those raising progressive social demands and demands opposing war and occupation.

Within all of this lies the basis for uniting this fall, lets grab hold of it now so that no more time is wasted.

Bring your medical bills to Washington

2007-07-31T08:40:00.000-07:00

SEPT 29 - Massive National March on Washington
Buses from around the country!
SEPT 22 - 29 - A week long Encampment in front of Congress to Stop the War

Bring Your Medical Bills to Washington!

Stop the War at Home and Abroad!
Troops Out Now!
Impeach Bush & Cheney for War Crimes!
Fund People's Needs, Not War!

During the week of September 22-29, antiwar activists from across the U.S. will mass in front of Congress in Washington, DC to demand the complete cut off of war funding. On September 29, there will be a mass march from the Capitol to the White House.

Healthcare, Not Warfare will be at the Encampment all week. Please join us at the Healthcare, Not Warfare tent and bring your medical bills. During the week, health care workers, nurses, doctors, patients and patient advocates will be holding teach-ins, speakouts, and protests to demand: "Fund Healthcare, Not War!"

Join us and let's bring your medical bills to the floors of Congress to demand that they fund human needs, not war!

HOW TO GET INVOLVED:

1) Endorse: http://www.troopsoutnow.org/healthnotwarendorse.shtml

2) Become a volunteer organizer:
http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml

3) Donate:
http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml

4) Download "Healthcare and the War are SiCKO" leaflets at: http://troopsoutnow.org/HWN.pdf

Or call or write us at:
Campaign for Healthcare, Not Warfare,
c/o TONC,
55 W. 17th St. 5C,
New York, NY 10011
212-633-6646

Did you know?

One fourth of the Iraq war budget alone could fund healthcare for every uninsured person in this country.

Think what the trillions of dollars wasted on war,
occupation and destruction could do for the people:

• Provide free medicine for all of our seniors and chronically ill.

• Change the dismal statistics of infant mortality in major cities like Detroit, Baltimore and Washington D.C. where the mortality rates for African American and poor children rival impoverished countries abroad;

• Provide adequate healthcare and counseling for veterans wounded and traumatized by Bush's war in Iraq;

• Stop the epidemic of hospital closings;

• It could provide healthcare and treatment for the physical and psychological trauma that the survivors of Katrina and Rita are still suffering from;

• Make healthcare for low wage workers and immigrant families a priority.

HEALTHCARE & THE WAR ARE “SICKO”

2007-07-08T08:40:00.000-07:00

Another reason to March on September 29th...

HEALTHCARE & THE WAR ARE “SICKO”

Did you know?

One fourth of the Iraq war budget alone could fund healthcare for every uninsured person in this country.

Think what the trillions of dollars wasted on war,
occupation and destruction could do for the people:

• Provide free medicine for all of our seniors and chronically ill.

• Change the dismal statistics of infant mortality in major cities like Detroit, Baltimore and Washington D.C. where the mortality rates for African American and poor children rival impoverished countries abroad;

• Stop the epidemic of hospital closings;

• It could provide healthcare and treatment for the physical and psychological trauma that the survivors of Katrina and Rita are still suffering from;

• Make healthcare for low wage workers and immigrant families a priority.

While the war is bleeding us at home it is miniscule in comparison to the bloodshed, misery and pain that is being inflicted on the Iraqi people. The Lancet medical journal documented that 655,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed during the war (Oct, 2006). The health of the Iraqi people and the entire region has been destroyed. Solidarity demands that we act now to stop the war, end the occupation and bring the troops home now!

GET INVOLVED:

1) Endorse: http://www.troopsoutnow.org/healthnotwarendorse.shtml

2) Become a volunteer organizer:
http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml

3) Donate:
http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml

4) Download "Healthcare and the War are Sicko" leaflets at: http://troopsoutnow.org/HWN.pdf

Or call or write us at:
Campaign for Healthcare, Not Warfare,
c/o TONC,
55 W. 17th St. 5C,
New York, NY 10011
212-633-6646

UNITE!

2007-07-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

UNITE!
Take the Antiwar Struggle Back to the Streets in September

SEPT 29: Mass March on the White House

SEPT 22- 29: Encampment in front of Congress. Cut off the War funds

Stop the War at Home and Abroad!
All Troops Out Now!
Impeach Bush & Cheney for War Crimes!

September: The next big confrontation over the war

According to the Washington calendar, September will see the next big political confrontation on the war. This is when the House and Senate debate war funding for 2008. And it is when General David Petraeus reports to Congress on the status of Bush's troop "surge."

We must make sure that the antiwar movement is in Washington to make our voice heard and demand an end to the criminal war and occupation of Iraq.

This is a time of great opportunity for the antiwar movement. The Bush plans to colonize Iraq have clearly failed and the overwhelming majority of the people are against the war. Now is a time when the people can have a real impact, if we act decisively and in a spirit of unity.

In April of this year, the Troops Out Now Coalition proposed that September 22-29 be a week of resistance, with an Encampment to Stop the War and a mass March on the White House on Saturday, March 29.

We believe that this is the necessary next step to take the struggle against the war to a new level of resistance. The encampment has the potential to ensure that another war vote does not go unchallenged. The proposal opens an opportunity for an independent intervention representing the people, who are overwhelmingly against the war.

The call for a National March and Encampment in Washington DC has already received wide support. In the past few weeks, activists and organizers from across the U.S. have contacted TONC, demonstrating a groundswell of enthusiasm for the call to go from protest to resistance. Some of the proposals we have heard in the past few days include:

* Student organizations in several cities are discussing plans for a student strike that would include protests and direct action on their campuses, before joining the Encampment and March in DC.

* Organizers are already planning car caravans and "peace trains" to Washington DC for the Encampment.

* Local organizations are planning to set up their own tents at the Encampment, with displays, teach-ins, literature, and protests to highlight various issues, including: immigrant rights, counter-recruiting, Katrina, Palestine, and more.

* A Peoples' Peace Congress to challenge to corporate war Congress in Washington. At such a gathering, different groups could put forth concrete proposals for desperately needed social, environmental and health programs that are gutted to pay for endless war. The Peoples Peace Congress can become a challenge to and an expose' of the present corporate-ruled war congress.

Only the people will stop the war: The Democratic Party bait & switch

Despite being elected to bring the troops home and end the criminal occupation, the Democrats in Congress have completely capitulated to Bush on the issue of continuing to fund the war. Even a determined congressional minority of Democrats could have blocked the funding for the war—if they had really decided to end the occupation. Instead, while posing as the “anti-war” majority party, the Democrats have completely capitulated to Bush and the Pentagon.

Building an independent movement is more important than ever, as pressure grows to abandon struggle on the streets and surrender the antiwar movement to the Democratic Party, a party that now completely shares in complicity for the criminal war and occupation in Iraq. Wall Street and their mouthpieces always want to divert the mass movement into safe channels—into lobbying and voting and trusting in the bought-and-paid-for politicians. Our challenge is to develop clear demands that move the struggle into the streets.

Back to the streets:
Unite to shut down the war

As we move forward in a period of great opportunities and challenges, we are compelled to frankly address the lack of unity in the antiwar movement.

During the last struggle over the issue of war funding in March, the movement had a real opportunity to intervene if it acted decisively. Instead, organizations and coalitions called competing events in different venues, deliberately timed to undermine participation in other actions. This sort of cynical maneuvering for organizational advantage weakens the movement, demoralizes activists, and only plays into the hands of Bush and the warmongers in Washington.

In conversations with activists across the country, we find that everyone wants unity in the movement to stop the war. It is clear that the division doesn't come from the grassroots activists who are actually building the movement, but from those who have other goals and agendas.

More than 600,000 Iraqi people and 3,500 U.S. soldiers have died in this brutal war -- petty divisiveness and sectarianism can no longer be tolerated. Activists want unity. The times demand unity. Progressives in the U.S. have a special responsibility to stop this war -- Now is the time for all coalitions and organizations, national and local, to find ways to work together in principled unity around the demand to stop the war immediately.

Building unity also means working to unite the struggle against the war abroad with the struggle against the war at home. Linking the fight against the war with the struggles against racism, LGBT oppresssion, immigrant bashing, and the struggles of working people will only strengthen our movement. Our movement becomes stronger as we widen the struggle against the war at home and abroad.

Together we can and must change the political agenda

The struggle to stop the war has made tremendous gains. The vast majority of the people are now opposed to the occupation. G.I. opposition is growing as soldiers increasingly oppose being sent to fight and die in this horrific war, in which they have no interest. The politicians in Washington are clearly on the defensive, as their dreams of Empire in the Middle East crumble, their lies about the war are exposed, and as the vast majority of people here and worldwide oppose their heinous war.

But we must do more. The war in Iraq is not a “failed policy;” it is a horrendous crime against the Iraqi people. It must be stopped. Every day the occupation brings more death and destruction to the Iraqi people. It brings more deaths and serious injuries to U.S. youth who are trapped in this war, and return home to find inadequate medical care and benefits.

It will take an independent movement to stop the war, a movement that takes an independent road geared to mobilizing people in this country to challenge all of the warmakers in Washington, that strongly demands the withdrawal of all U.S. troops NOW and calls for ending ALL war funding immediately.

This is a crucial time. What is needed now is an unprecedented outpouring of resistance. We must demonstrate to the politicians in Washington that we will not allow business as usual to continue.

The Troops Out Now Coalition encourages all of the antiwar coalitions on the local and national level to engage each other and where communication has broken down, to open new lines of communication so that our combined efforts will make us stronger.

Let us strengthen the anti-war movement and build unity by reaching out to and joining forces with movements struggling for:

- Stop the raids against immigrant workers -- Full rights for undocumented workers
- No War against Iran
- End all occupations now - from Iraq to Palestine, the Philippines, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Afghanistan
- Impeach Bush & Cheney for War Crimes
- No to U.S. intervention – Hands off Cuba, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and the Sudan
- Justice for Katrina survivors
- End racist police terror
- Free Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners
- Money for health care, jobs and education, not endless war

We have less than 3 months until the Encampment, and we still have lots of work to do. Here are some ways you can help:

1) Help spread the word.

You can download a single page leaflet or the 4-page leaflet from the TONC website, and distribute them in your school, workplace, church or mosque, community center, union hall, and neighborhood.

2) Form a local organizing center.

Sign on at http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml. We can help you organize buses or vans from your area - contact us for more information.

3) Donate to help with organizing expenses.

We urgently need your help - please consider making a financial contribution to help us cover all of the vast expenses involved in this massive mobilization. Your donation will help organize buses

You can donate online at http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml

4) Organize your campus to participate in the Student Strike during the week of the Encampment.

Student organizations are already planning for actions during the week of Sept 2-29. If you would like to become a student organizer, contact us at http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml.

5) Organize a tent for the Encampment.

If your organization would like to organize a tent during the Encampment to highlight an issue(s) that you are working on, contact us: http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml

Endorsers include:* * Rep. Cynthia McKinney; Medea Benjamin, CoFounder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace; Fernando Suarez del Solar, founder of Proyecto Guerrero Azteca por la Paz; Bishop Filipe C Teixeira, OFSJC; Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General; Brenda Stokely of the NYC Solidarity Committee For Katrina / Rita Evacuees; Sarah "echo" Steiner, Green Party of the U.S. National Co-Chair; Ron Kovic, Vietnam veteran, author; Liz Arnone, Co-Chair, NJ Green Party; Abayomi Azikiwe, Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice; Jack Balkwill, Chair, Liberty Underground of Virginia; Teresa Dawson, Coordinator, MFSO Central Ohio; Joan Gibbs, Jericho Movement; Efia Nwangaza, Founder/director, Afrikan Amerikan Institute for Policy Studies & Planning; Jose Luis Diaz, President, Casas las Americas; Leslie Feinberg, author and activist; Teresa Gutierrez, NY May 1 Coalition for Immigrant Rights; LeiLani Dowell, FIST (Fight Imperialism - Stand Together); Berna Ellorin, BAYAN USA; Ben Carroll, UNC SDS; and hundreds more. for an updated list, see TroopsOutNow.org
*organizations listed for ID purposes only

Troops Out Now Coalition
55 W. 17th St. #5C
NY NY 10011
www.TroopsOutNow.org
212.633-6646

SEPT 29: Mass March on the White House

2007-07-04T08:37:00.000-07:00

SEPT 29 - March on Washington
Troops Out Now!
Stop the War at Home & Abroad!
Congress: Cut off all war funding Now!
Impeach Bush & Cheney for War Crimes!

SEPT 29: Mass March on the White House

SEPT 22- 29: Encampment in front of Congress - Cut off the War funds - Build a People Peace Congress

Congress will not end the war

Marches alone will not end the war

It's time to shut down Washington DC -

No more business as usual!

Momentum is growing for the national mass March on Washington on September 29, with hundreds of endorsements pouring in. Since April, when TONC proposed the Encampment to Stop the War and the March on Washington, activists across from across the U.S. have been contacting us to support the call for united, grassroots action to put an end to Bush's criminal war.

It is now painfully clear that waiting for the Democrats to "do the right thing" is a waste of time and energy. Despite being elected with a clear mandate to end the war, Democrats in Congress have continued to fund the war. If they had any intention whatsoever of ending the criminal occupation of Iraq, the troops could already be home now; instead, they have bent over backwards to vote for the funding, while counting on the antiwar movement to stand down and follow them blindly into the voting booth next November. Meanwhile, every 10 minutes another Iraqi dies, and the U.S. spends $100,000 a minute on the war, money that is desperately needed for health care, housing, education, jobs at a living wage, rebuilding the Gulf Coast, and many other human needs.

Only a massive grassroots tidal wave of resistance will put an end to the brutal occupation of Iraq. September will be the next big struggle over funding for the war - and the next opportunity for us to unite to go from protest to resistance. It is not enough to just march and go home; we need to occupy the occupiers.

The Troops Out Now, working with other national and local organizations, is moving forward to build a week of resistance in Washington DC. Beginning on September 22, we will erect an Encampment to Stop the War, directly in front of the Capitol. Activists from across the U.S. are planning to set up tents and displays at the Encampment. Grassroots and community organizations are organizing their own tents to highlight issues they are focusing on. Musicians, spoken word artists, and poets are organizing "Culture and Resistance" for the Encampment. Youth activists are organizing a student strike. During the week of the Encampment, activists are planning a series of dramatic protests and direct actions as part of the move from protest to resistance. We cannot allow the corporate politicians (of both parties) to continue with 'business as usual' as they continue to orchestrate the deaths of more Iraqi people and U.S. soldiers.

Then, to cap off this first week of a new phase of struggle, we will march from the Capitol to the White House on September 29, to demand the immediate, complete, and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq.

As we are building for the national March on Washington on September 29 and the Encampment to Stop the War, it is vital that we work to link the struggles against the war abroad and the war at home. The movement is stronger and more effective when the struggles are united:

- Stop the raids against immigrant workers -- Full rights for undocumented workers
- No War against Iran
- End all occupations now - from Iraq to Palestine, the Philippines, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Afghanistan
- Impeach Bush & Cheney for War Crimes
- No to U.S. intervention – Hands off Cuba, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and the Sudan
- Justice for Katrina survivors
– End racist police terror
- Free Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners
- Money for health care, jobs and education, not endless war

We have less than 3 months until the Encampment, and we still have lots of work to do. Here are some ways you can help:

1) Help spread the word.

You can download a single page leaflet or the 4-page leaflet from the TONC website, and distribute them in your school, workplace, church or mosque, community center, union hall, and neighborhood.

2) Form a local organizing center.

Sign on at http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml. We can help you organize buses or vans from your area - contact us for more information.

3) Donate to help with organizing expenses.

We urgently need your help - please consider making a financial contribution to help us cover all of the vast expenses involved in this massive mobilization. Your donation will help organize buses

You can donate online at http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml

4) Organize your campus to participate in the Student Strike during the week of the Encampment.

Student organizations are already planning for actions during the week of Sept 2-29. If you would like to become a student organizer, contact us at http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml.

5) Organize a tent for the Encampment.

If your organization would like to organize a tent during the Encampment to highlight an issue(s) that you are working on, contact us: http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml

Endorsers include:* * Rep. Cynthia McKinney; Medea Benjamin, CoFounder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace; Fernando Suarez del Solar, founder of Proyecto Guerrero Azteca por la Paz; Bishop Filipe C Teixeira, OFSJC; Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General; Brenda Stokely of the NYC Solidarity Committee For Katrina / Rita Evacuees; Sarah "echo" Steiner, Green Party of the U.S. National Co-Chair; Ron Kovic, Vietnam veteran, author; Liz Arnone, Co-Chair, NJ Green Party; Abayomi Azikiwe, Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice; Jack Balkwill, Chair, Liberty Underground of Virginia; Teresa Dawson, Coordinator, MFSO Central Ohio; Joan Gibbs, Jericho Movement; Efia Nwangaza, Founder/director, Afrikan Amerikan Institute for Policy Studies & Planning; Jose Luis Diaz, President, Casas las Americas; Leslie Feinberg, author and activist; Teresa Gutierrez, NY May 1 Coalition for Immigrant Rights; LeiLani Dowell, FIST (Fight Imperialism - Stand Together); Berna Ellorin, BAYAN USA; Ben Carroll, UNC SDS; and hundreds more. for an updated list, see TroopsOutNow.org
*organizations listed for ID purposes only

Troops Out Now Coalition
55 W. 17th St. #5C
NY NY 10011
www.TroopsOutNow.org
212.633-6646

Sept 22 - 29 Washington DC - from Protest to Resistance

2007-06-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

SEPTEMBER 22 - 29

SEPT 29: Mass March on the White House

SEPT 22- 29: Encampment in front of Congress - Cut off the War funds - Build a People Peace Congress

Hundreds of Endorsers - More than 40 Organizing Centers - It's time to Shut Down Washington!
Stop the War at Home & Abroad!

Congress will not end the war
Marches alone will not end the war
It's time to shut down Washington DC -
No more business as usual!

Endorsers include:* Rep. Cynthia McKinney; Medea Benjamin, CoFounder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace; Fernando Suarez del Solar, founder of Proyecto Guerrero Azteca por la Paz; Bishop Filipe C Teixeira, OFSJC; Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General; Brenda Stokely of the NYC Solidarity Committee For Katrina / Rita Evacuees; Liz Arnone, Co-Chair, NJ Green Party; Mohammad Basirul Haq Sinha, Chief Coordinator, We The People United Bangladesh; Abayomi Azikiwe, Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice; Jack Balkwill, Chair, Liberty Underground of Virginia; Barney Richards, National President, New Zealand Peace Council; Teresa Dawson, Coordinator, MFSO Central Ohio; Joan Gibbs, Jericho Movement; Efia Nwangaza, Founder/director, Afrikan Amerikan Institute for Policy Studies & Planning; Jose Luis Diaz, President, Casas las Americas; Leslie Feinberg, author and activist; Teresa Gutierrez of the NY May 1 Coalition for Immigrant Rights; LeiLani Dowell, FIST (Fight Imperialism - Stand Together); Berna Ellorin, BAYAN USA; Ben Carroll, UNC SDS; and hundreds more. for an updated list, see TroopsOutNow.org
*organizations listed for ID purposes only

Since mid-April, when the Troops Out Now Coalition issued a proposal for a week of action in Washington DC in September, activists from across the U.S. and worldwide have contacted us to support the proposal and to volunteer to help with this major mobilization.

More than a hundred activists, from as far away as Los Angeles, Sacramento, and New Orleans, packed the Troops Out Now New York office on June 16 to begin planning for this week of resistance. Momentum is building as more activists realize that it is time to move from protest to resistance:

**We now have hundreds of endorsers and more than 40 organizing centers.

**Activists, community groups, and grassroots organizers are planning to set up tents at the Encampment to highlight issues they are working on.

**Youth activists are working to build a national student strike during the week of the Encampment.

**Regional coordinators are working on organizing transportation to the Encampment and March.

**A committee has been set up to coordinate music and art at the Encampment (see TroopsOutNow.org/resistanceandculture.html for more information)

We still have a lot of work ahead of us in the next few months. This is a peoples' movement, and we are counting on you to help:

1- Volunteer - http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml

2- Endorse the call ( http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207encampmentmarchonwashendorse.shtml) - and then forward it to your list serves, MySpace contacts, etc.

3- If you are a musician, poet, or spoken word artist, contact us about performing at the Encampment. ( TroopsOutNow.org/resistanceandculture.html )

4- Form a local organizing center - http://troopsoutnow.org/cmnt.shtml

5- Donate to help with organizing expenses - http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml

Troops Out Now Coalition
55 W. 17th St. #5C
NY NY 10011
www.TroopsOutNow.org
212.633-6646

National Antiwar Strategy Meeting: Activists call for unified struggle to stop the war

2007-06-17T08:32:00.000-07:00

National Antiwar Strategy Meeting: Activists call for unified struggle to stop the war

Congress will not end the war
Marches alone will not end the war
It's time to shut down Washington DC -
No more business as usual!

SEPT 22- 29: It's time to move from Protest to Resistance:

SEPT 29: Mass March on the White House

SEPT 22- 29: Encampment in front of Congress - Cut off the War funds - Build a People Peace Congress

More than 100 anti-war organizers, including many students and youths, labor, community and immigrant organizers, veterans and GI organizers gathered June 16 at the Solidarity Center in New York City for the standing-room only National Antiwar Strategy and Planning Meeting. They came from as far away as California, Cleveland, North Carolina, New Orleans and Boston to discuss the need to move from protest to resistance and build a grassroots movement to stop the war.

September: The next big confrontation over the war

The meeting focused largely on a proposal from the Troops Out Now Coalition for an Encampment to Stop the War and a Mass March in Washington during the week of September 22-29. According to the Washington calendar, this will be the next big political confrontation on the war. This is when the House and Senate debate war funding for 2008. And it is when General David Petraeus reports to Congress on the status of Bush's troops "surge."

Many applauded this proposal as the necessary next step to take the struggle against the war to a new level of resistance. The encampment has the potential to ensure that another war vote does not go unchallenged. The proposal opens an opportunity for an independent intervention representing the people, who are overwhelmingly against the war.

Many ideas were raised for the week-long encampment, including a proposal for a Peoples' Peace Congress to challenge the corporate war Congress in Washington. At such a gathering, different groups could argue for better uses for the funds now earmarked for war. By demanding funds for health care, education and job creation, for example, they could directly confront the “war Congress” meeting at the Capitol.

Youth activists reported on their work to build a national student strike during the week of the Encampment. Activists volunteered to begin working on logistics, housing, transportation, and the many other tasks involved in bringing an encampment to Washington. Others are working to bring musicians, artists, and poets to DC for the Encampment and March. Activists and organizations have volunteered to set up tents at the Encampment that focus on particular issues.

Only the people will stop the war
The Democratic Party bait & switch

Many took note of how the Democrats had betrayed their clear electoral mandate to end the war.

It was clear to all that despite being elected to bring the troops home and end the criminal occupation, the Democrats in Congress have completely capitulated to Bush on the issue of continuing to fund the war. Even a determined congressional minority of Democrats could block the funding for the war—if they had really decided to end the war. They could disrupt and filibuster. They could call on people from around the country to surround Congress. Instead, while posing as the “anti-war” majority party, the Democrats have completely capitulated to Bush and the Pentagon.

Building an independent movement is more important than ever, as pressure grows to abandon struggle on the streets and surrender the antiwar movement to the Democratic Party, a party that now completely shares in complicity for the criminal war and occupation in Iraq. Participants noted that Wall Street and their mouthpieces always want to divert the mass movement into safe channels—into lobbying and voting and trusting in the bought-and-paid-for politicians. The challenge is to develop clear demands that move the struggle into the streets.

Back to the streets:
Unite to shut down the war

Many present noted that the lack of unity in the antiwar movement is a crisis that must be frankly addressed. Some noted that during the last struggle over war funding in March, the movement had a real opportunity to intervene if it acted decisively. Instead, organizations and coalitions called competing events in different venues, deliberately timed to undermine participation in other actions. This sort of cynical maneuvering for organizational advantage weakens the movement, demoralizes activists, and only plays into the hands of Bush and the warmongers in Washington.

TONC organizers and others stressed that the September struggle over the war funding is a crucial fight that can be a real opportunity to galvanize the struggle against the war, particularly if the movement can unite. There was a broad consensus on the need to reach out to ALL national antiwar coalitions, as well as the many local grassroots organizations, to build a united demonstration that will be as large and as strong as possible. TONC organizers emphasized that they welcome and encourage discussion and suggestions for modifying and improving the proposal for the actions in September.

Many participants also emphasized the importance of uniting the struggle against the war abroad with the struggle against the war at home. Those at the meeting encompassing these struggles included Teresa Gutierrez, a leading organizer of the May 1st Coalition for Immigrant Rights, Brenda Stokely of the Million Worker March Movement, Larry Hales of the Colorado United Communities Against Police Brutality, along with many trade union activists.

Regarding the content of the anti-war call, there was overwhelming sentiment that it should be for immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, with many expressing solidarity with the resistance movements in those countries and in Palestine and Lebanon. The TONC organizers took note of the U.S. threats against Iran and are raising slogans against U.S. aggression against Iran, too.

Together we can and must change the political agenda

The struggle to stop the war has made tremendous gains. The vast majority of the people are now opposed to the occupation. G.I. opposition is growing as soldiers increasingly oppose being sent to fight and die in this horrific war, in which they have no interest. The politicians in Washington are clearly on the defensive, as their dreams of Empire in the Middle East crumble, their lies about the war are exposed, and as the vast majority of people here and worldwide oppose their heinous war.

But we must do more! The war in Iraq is not a “failed policy;” it is a horrendous crime against the Iraqi people. It must be stopped! Everyday the occupation brings more death and destruction to the Iraqi people. It brings more deaths and serious injuries to U.S. youth who are trapped in this war, and return home to find inadequate medical care and benefits.

It will take an independent movement to stop the war, a movement that takes an independent road geared to mobilizing people in this country to challenge all of the war makers in Washington, that strongly demands the withdrawal of all U.S. troops NOW and calls for ending ALL war funding immediately.

This is a crucial time. What is needed now is an unprecedented outpouring of resistance. We must demonstrate to the politicians in Washington that we will not allow business as usual to continue.

The Troops Out Now Coalition encourages all of the antiwar coalitions on the local and national level to engage each other and where communication has broken down, to open new lines of communication so that our combined efforts will make us stronger.

Let us join forces with the movements struggling for:

* No War against Iran
* End all occupations now - from Iraq to Palestine, the Philippines, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Afghanistan
* Impeach Bush & Cheney for War Crimes
* No to U.S. intervention – Hands off Cuba, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and the Sudan
* Stop the raids against immigrant workers -- Full rights for undocumented workers
* Justice for Katrina survivors – End racist police terror
* Free Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners
* Money for health care, jobs and education, not endless war

Together let’s unite to demand:
* Immediate withdrawal of all troops
* Cut off ALL war funding

Join us on June 16

2007-06-11T08:31:00.000-07:00

Dear friends

Please join us on June 16 for an opportunity to discuss challenges and opportunities facing the antiwar movement:

JUNE 16
National Antiwar Strategy Meeting

from PROTEST to RESISTANCE
to Stop the War at Home & Abroad

in New York City
Saturday, June 16
1 to 5 pm
at
the Solidarity Center
55 W. 17th St. 5th Fl.
btw. 5th & 6th Ave. in Manhattan
map here

for information and directions call 212.633.6646

Contact us | Donate | Become a local organizer

This is a very critical moment in the struggle to against the war in Iraq -- a phase of tremendous opportunities and challenges. On one hand, opposition to the war is growing. Every poll shows that over 70%, the overwhelming majority, of the people in the U.S. want the war to end now. President Bush's approval ratings are the lowest of any president since Richard Nixon at the time of his impeachment.

However, this opposition has not yet become the tidal wave of resistance necessary to stop the war, and the Democratic leadership in Congress, which was elected with a clear mandate to stop the war, has once again betrayed the people and completely capitulated to President Bush.

Our responsibility now is to build an independent, grassroots movement that is actually capable of putting an end to this war which has cost the lives of more than 650,000 Iraqi civilians and 3,500 U.S. troops.

On June 16, activists from across the U.S. are gathering in New York to discuss the next phase of united struggle against the war. Organizers are coming from Los Angeles, Raleigh, Cleveland, Boston, Denver, and more. Representatives from local and national antiwar and progressive organizations have been invited to take part in the discussion. Student activists are coming to present plans for a national Student Strike. Labor activists, immigrant rights organizers, and community leaders will present ideas on linking the struggle against the war to struggles facing working people here. Veterans and active-duty members of the military will discuss the prospects of organizing antiwar resistance inside the military.

We know that only an independent grassroots struggle in the streets will stop the war. We certainly cannot wait for politicians from either corporate party to end the war -- if the Congress had any intention of stopping the occupation, they could have already done so. Even a determined congressional minority of Democrats could block the funding for the war. They could disrupt and filibuster. Instead, while posing as the “anti-war” majority party, the Democrats have capitulated to Bush and the Pentagon.

Only the people will stop the war - and we need united, militant action to do that.

Please join us for the discussion on June 16.

Some of the proposed topics for discussion include:

* Assessing the state of the antiwar movement: where do we go from here?
* Congress, Bush and the war funding issue: what's really going on?
* From antiwar to anti-imperialism: making the connections - Iran, Palestine, the Philippines, Cuba, Venezuela, Africa etc.
* The war at home: Immigrant Rights, Katrina, Anti-racist organizing
* Update on the student movement
* The growing GI antiwar movement

This meeting will be an important opportunity to discuss perspectives and plans for the next phase of the antiwar struggle, including the draft call from the Troops Out Now Coalition ( see http://troopsoutnow.org/sept2207call.html ) for a National March on Washington on September 29 and an Encampment to Stop the War, beginning the week of September 22 - 29.

The call for a National March and Encampment in Washington DC has already received wide support. In the past few weeks, activists and organizers from across the U.S. have contacted TONC, demonstrating a groundswell of enthusiasm for the call to go from protest to resistance. Some of the proposals we have heard in the past few days include:

* Student organizations in several cities are discussing plans for a student strike that would include protests and direct action on their campuses, before joining the Encampment and March in DC.
* Organizers are already planning car caravans and "peace trains" to DC for the Encampment.
* Local organizations are planning to set up their own tents at the Encampment, with displays, teach-ins, literature, and protests to highlight various issues, including: immigrant rights, counter-recruiting, Katrina, Palestine, and more.

We urge you to read the proposal from the Troops Out Now Coalition - located online at http://troopsoutnow.org/sept2207call.html. Please consider endorsing the call, and email us with your ideas.

Then, join us on June 16 to continue this discussion and plan for the next phase of resistance to the war at home and the war abroad.

* Read the draft call for Sept 22 - 29 : http://troopsoutnow.org/sept2207call.html

* Endorse the call for Sept 22 - 29 : http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207encampmentmarchonwashendorse.shtml

* Volunteer : http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml

* Become an Organizing Center : http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml

* Donate : http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml

National Antiwar Strategy Meeting

2007-06-10T08:30:00.000-07:00

JUNE 16
National Antiwar Strategy Meeting

from PROTEST to RESISTANCE
to Stop the War at Home and Abroad

in New York City
Saturday, June 16
1 to 5 pm
at
the Solidarity Center
55 W. 17th St. 5th Fl.
btw. 5th & 6th Ave. in Manhattan

for information and directions call 212.633.6646

This is a very critical moment in the struggle to against the war in Iraq -- a phase of tremendous opportunities and challenges. On one hand, opposition to the war is growing. Every poll shows that over 70%, the overwhelming majority, of the people in the U.S. want the war to end now. President Bush's approval ratings are the lowest of any president since Richard Nixon at the time of his impeachment.

However, this opposition has not yet become the tidal wave of resistance necessary to stop the war, and the Democratic leadership in Congress, which was elected with a clear mandate to stop the war, has once again betrayed the people and completely capitulated to President Bush.

Our responsibility now is to build an independent, grassroots movement that is actually capable of putting an end to this war which has cost the lives of more than 650,000 Iraqi civilians and 3,500 U.S. troops.

On June 16, activists from across the U.S. are gathering in New York to discuss the next phase of united struggle against the war. Organizers are coming from Los Angeles, Raleigh, Cleveland, Boston, Denver, and more. Representatives from local and national antiwar and progressive organizations have been invited to take part in the discussion. Student activists are coming to present plans for a national Student Strike. Labor activists, immigrant rights organizers, and community leaders will present ideas on linking the struggle against the war to struggles facing working people here. Veterans and active-duty members of the military will discuss the prospects of organizing antiwar resistance inside the military.

We know that only an independent grassroots struggle in the streets will stop the war. We certainly cannot wait for politicians from either corporate party to end the war -- if the Congress had any intention of stopping the occupation, they could have already done so. Even a determined congressional minority of Democrats could block the funding for the war. They could disrupt and filibuster. Instead, while posing as the “anti-war” majority party, the Democrats have capitulated to Bush and the Pentagon.

Only the people will stop the war - and we need united, militant action to do that.

Please join us for the discussion on June 16.

Some of the proposed topics for discussion include:

* Assessing the state of the antiwar movement: where do we go from here?
* Congress, Bush and the war funding issue: what's really going on?
* From antiwar to anti-imperialism: making the connections - Iran, Palestine, the Philippines, Cuba, Venezuela, Africa etc.
* The war at home: Immigrant Rights, Katrina, Anti-racist organizing
* Update on the student movement
* The growing GI antiwar movement

This meeting will be an important opportunity to discuss perspectives and plans for the next phase of the antiwar struggle, including the draft call from the Troops Out Now Coalition ( see http://troopsoutnow.org/sept2207call.html ) for a National March on Washington on September 29 and an Encampment to Stop the War, beginning the week of September 22 - 29.

The call for a National March and Encampment in Washington DC has already received wide support. In the past few weeks, activists and organizers from across the U.S. have contacted TONC, demonstrating a groundswell of enthusiasm for the call to go from protest to resistance. Some of the proposals we have heard in the past few days include:

* Student organizations in several cities are discussing plans for a student strike that would include protests and direct action on their campuses, before joining the Encampment and March in DC.
* Organizers are already planning car caravans and "peace trains" to DC for the Encampment.
* Local organizations are planning to set up their own tents at the Encampment, with displays, teach-ins, literature, and protests to highlight various issues, including: immigrant rights, counter-recruiting, Katrina, Palestine, and more.

We urge you to read the proposal from the Troops Out Now Coalition - located online at http://troopsoutnow.org/sept2207call.html. Please consider endorsing the call, and email us with your ideas.

Then, join us on June 16 to continue this discussion and plan for the next phase of resistance to the war at home and the war abroad.

* Read the draft call for Sept 22 - 29 : http://troopsoutnow.org/sept2207call.html

* Endorse the call for Sept 22 - 29 : http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207encampmentmarchonwashendorse.shtml

* Volunteer : http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml

* Become an Organizing Center : http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml

* Donate : http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml

June 16

2007-06-02T08:29:00.000-07:00

From Protest to Resistance

The Democrats have caved in - Congress won't end the war!
It's up to the People - time to take it back to the streets!

June 16 -- Antiwar Strategy Meeting - Planning for the next "Surge" of Antiwar mass action - Summer and Fall -SATURDAY JUNE 16 - 1 to 5 PM - at THE SOLIDARITY CENTER - 55 West 17 St. 5th Floor -(near 6th Ave. - take all trains to Union Square, or any other 14 street stations)

On June 16, from 1 to 5 pm, the Troops Out Now Coalition is hosting an Antiwar Strategy Meeting at the Solidarity Center (55 W. 17th St. 5th Fl, in Manhattan). All progressive organizations, coalitions, individuals -- anyone interested in mobilizing to shut down the war -- is welcome to join us for the discussion, as we examine and begin planning for the necessary "Surge" of antiwar mass action this Summer and Fall.

Some of the proposed topics for discussion include:

* Assessing the state of the antiwar movement: where do we go from here?
* Congress, Bush and the war funding issue: what's really going on?
* From antiwar to anti-imperialism: making the connections - Iran, Palestine, the Philippines, Cuba, Venezuela, Africa etc.
* The war at home: Immigrant Rights, Katrina, Anti-racist organizing
* Update on the student movement
* The growing GI antiwar movement

This meeting will be an important opportunity to discuss perspectives and plans for the next phase of the antiwar struggle, including the draft call from the Troops Out Now Coalition ( see http://troopsoutnow.org/sept2207call.html ) for a National March on Washington on September 29 and an Encampment to Stop the War, beginning the week of September 22 - 29.

The call for a National March and Encampment in Washington DC has already received wide support. In the past few days, activists and organizers from across the U.S. have contacted TONC, demonstrating a groundswell of enthusiasm for the call to go from protest to resistance. Some of the proposals we have heard in the past few days include:

* Student organizations in several cities are discussing plans for a student strike that would include protests and direct action on their campuses, before joining the Encampment and March in DC.
* Organizers are already planning car caravans and "peace trains" to DC for the Encampment.
* Local organizations are planning to set up their own tents at the Encampment, with displays, teach-ins, literature, and protests to highlight various issues, including: immigrant rights, counter-recruiting, Katrina, Palestine, and more.

We urge you to read the proposal from the Troops Out Now Coalition - located online at http://troopsoutnow.org/sept2207call.html. Please consider endorsing the call, and email us with your ideas.

Then, join us on June 16 to continue this discussion and plan for the next phase of resistance to the war at home and the war abroad.

* Read the draft call for Sept 22 - 29 : http://troopsoutnow.org/sept2207call.html

* Endorse the call for Sept 22 - 29 : http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207encampmentmarchonwashendorse.shtml

* Volunteer : http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml

* Become an Organizing Center : http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml

* Donate : http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml

June 16 -- Antiwar Strategy Meeting

2007-05-31T08:28:00.000-07:00

From Protest to Resistance

The Democrats have caved in
Congress won't end the war!
It's up to the People - time to take it back to the streets!

June 16 -- Antiwar Strategy Meeting - Planning for the next "Surge" of Antiwar mass action - Summer and Fall -SATURDAY JUNE 16 - 1 to 5 PM - at THE SOLIDARITY CENTER - 55 West 17 St. 5th Floor -(near 6th Ave. - take all trains to Union Square, or any other 14 street stations)

On June 16, from 1 to 5 pm, the Troops Out Now Coalition is hosting an Antiwar Strategy Meeting at the Solidarity Center (55 W. 17th St. 5th Fl, in Manhattan). All progressive organizations, coalitions, individuals -- anyone interested in mobilizing to shut down the war -- is welcome to join us for the discussion, as we examine and begin planning for the necessary "Surge" of antiwar mass action this Summer and Fall.

Some of the proposed topics for discussion include:

* Assessing the state of the antiwar movement: where do we go from here?
* Congress, Bush and the war funding issue: what's really going on?
* From antiwar to anti-imperialism: making the connections - Iran, Palestine, the Philippines, Cuba, Venezuela, Africa etc.
* The war at home: Immigrant Rights, Katrina, Anti-racist organizing
* Update on the student movement
* The growing GI antiwar movement

This meeting will be an important opportunity to discuss perspectives and plans for the next phase of the antiwar struggle, including the draft call from the Troops Out Now Coalition ( see http://troopsoutnow.org/sept2207call.html ) for a National March on Washington on September 29 and an Encampment to Stop the War, beginning the week of September 22 - 29.

The call for a National March and Encampment in Washington DC has already received wide support. In the past few days, activists and organizers from across the U.S. have contacted TONC, demonstrating a groundswell of enthusiasm for the call to go from protest the resistance. Some of the proposals we have heard in the past few days include:

* Student organizations in several cities are discussing plans for a student strike that would include protests and direct action on their campuses, before joining the Encampment and March in DC.
* Organizers are already planning car caravans and "peace trains" to DC for the Encampment.
* Local organizations are planning to set up their own tents at the Encampment, with displays, teach-ins, literature, and protests to highlight various issues, including: immigrant rights, counter-recuiting, Katrina, Palestine, and more.

We urge you to read the proposal from the Troops Out Now Coalition - located online at http://troopsoutnow.org/sept2207call.html. Please consider endorsing the call, and email us with your ideas.

Then, join us on June 16 to continue this discussion and plan for the next phase of resistance to the war at home and the war abroad.

* Read the draft call for Sept 22 - 29 : http://troopsoutnow.org/sept2207call.html

* Endorse the call for Sept 22 - 29 : http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207encampmentmarchonwashendorse.shtml

* Volunteer : http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml

* Become an Organizing Center : http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml

* Donate : http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml

DEFEND CINDY SHEEHAN

2007-05-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

Troops Out Now Coalition

DEFEND CINDY SHEEHAN

Cindy Sheehan made public two letters this weekend. The first letter announced her resignation from the Democratic Party over the agreement by the Democratically-controlled Congress to unconditionally fund the criminal and colonial war in Iraq that killed her son Casey and hundreds of thousands of others, mostly Iraqis.

In the second letter, coming a day after the first, Sheehan announced that she would no longer be active in the peace movement. The reason for her first letter is self-evident. Why did she feel compelled to write the second one?

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Sheehan has been the target of endless threats and attacks by pro-war groups, right-wing talk radio, and the corporate media. But they haven’t been the only attackers. As Sheehan has stepped up her criticism of the Congressional Democrats' complicity in the war, she has come under attack, some as venomous and personal as any right-wing Republican attack, by some who insist that the antiwar movement must be limited to protesting against Bush and the Republicans. Some of the same forces, who are closely tied to the Democrats, were happy to use Sheehan as long as she limited her criticism to Bush, but then viciously turned on her after she announced her resignation from the Democratic Party over the war.

Cindy Sheehan has come to the conclusion that she has been pushed out of the antiwar movement and it’s not hard to understand why she feels this way. She feels pushed out by the betrayal of the Democrats on the war funding. She feels pushed out by the isolation and hostility not only from the “right,” but also from many in the orbit of the Democratic Party that Sheehan had once considered allies. She feels pushed out be the failure of the various coalitions in the antiwar movement to put aside egos and narrow agendas in the interest of forging an independent and militant mass movement powerful enough to shut the war down.

Some good can come from this, if the antiwar movement takes this as a turning point. Many of us made a struggle to demand that Congress cut off all war funding and end the war a priority this spring. Some of us did this, not based on any expectation that Congress would actually end Bush’s war, but to clearly expose the Democratic Party and to demonstrate that they are as much of a pro-war party as the Republicans. If the antiwar movement can absorb this reality, as painful as it is, than it will be all the much harder for the movement to be pulled off the streets and made an appendage of the Democratic Party.

The movement owes a debt to Cindy Sheehan for striking a blow against those who plan to mislead the antiwar movement and tie it to the pro-war Democratic Party.

The rank and file of the antiwar movement stands in solidarity with Cindy Sheehan, not with those who are beholden to the Democratic Party. It takes courage for a mother, catapulted into the world spotlight after camping out in Crawford Texas two summers ago to protest the death of her son in Iraq, to stand up to and openly break with powerful politicians who would be all too willing to provide her a platform with all the perks if she simply toed the line.

It is our hope that after Cindy Sheehan had taken the time to re-unite with her family, and do whatever she feels necessary to repair the toll that all of this has taken on her family and herself, that she will once again be a leading voice against war, against empire, and for justice at home and abroad.

The Troops Out Now Coalition

From Protest to Resistance

2007-05-22T08:27:00.000-07:00

The Democrats have caved in
Congress won't end the war!
It's up to the People - time to take it back to the streets!

* June 16 -- Antiwar Strategy Meeting - Planning for the next "Surge" of Antiwar mass action - Summer and Fall -SATURDAY JUNE 16 - 5 PM - at THE SOLIDARITY CENTER - 55 West 17 St. 5th Floor -(near 6th Ave. - take all trains to Union Square, or any other 14 street stations)

* September 29 -- National March on Washington D.C. Assemble at the Capitol -- March on the White House -- proposed by the Troops Out Now Coalition - now endorsed by more than 200 organizations and individuals.

* September 22 – 29 --Encampment to Stop the War in Washington D.C. - Stop the War Abroad and at Home

Today, the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate, who were brought to power with a mandate to stop the war, cut off war funds, and bring the troops home, betrayed that mandate and agreed to continue to fund the war in Iraq.

Their agreement to continue the occupation, without even the pretense of conditions, timetables, or benchmarks, is the culmination of a months-long process during which the Democratic Party has worked to neutralize antiwar sentiment by appearing to oppose the war while maneuvering to continue to vote for the funds. This process began with the "non-binding" resolution earlier in the year; today the Democrats completely caved in and no longer offer even token resistance to the Bush Administration.

This betrayal comes as no surprise - many of us knew all along that this war will not be ended by politicians from either of Wall Street's political parties. Only a massive grassroots mobilization of resistance will bring this criminal occupation to an end.

It is time for the antiwar movement to move from protest to resistance, to become a force actually capable of stopping business as usual and putting an end to this criminal war. And we must do everything within our power to resist those who would chain the antiwar movement to either major party.

On June 16, from 1 to 5 pm, the Troops Out Now Coalition is hosting an Antiwar Strategy Meeting at the Solidarity Center (55 W. 17th St. 5th Fl, in Manhattan). All progressive organizations, coalitions, individuals -- anyone interested in mobilizing to shut down the war -- is welcome to join us for the discussion, as we examine and begin planning for the necessary "Surge" of antiwar mass action this Summer and Fall.

Some of the proposed topics for discussion include:

* Assessing the state of the antiwar movement: where do we go from here?
* Congress, Bush and the war funding issue: what's really going on?
* From antiwar to anti-imperialism: making the connections - Iran, Palestine, the Philippines, Cuba, Venezuela, Africa etc.
* The war at home: Immigrant Rights, Katrina, Anti-racist organizing
* Update on the student movement
* The growing GI antiwar movement

This meeting will be an important opportunity to discuss perspectives and plans for the next phase of the antiwar struggle, including the draft call from the Troops Out Now Coalition ( see http://troopsoutnow.org/sept2207call.html ) for a National March on Washington on September 29 and an Encampment to Stop the War, beginning the week of September 22 - 29.

The call for a National March and Encampment in Washington DC has already received wide support. In the past few days, activists and organizers from across the U.S. have contacted TONC, demonstrating a groundswell of enthusiasm for the call to go from protest the resistance. Some of the proposals we have heard in the past few days include:

* Student organizations in several cities are discussing plans for a student strike that would include protests and direct action on their campuses, before joining the Encampment and March in DC.
* Organizers are already planning car caravans and "peace trains" to DC for the Encampment.
* Local organizations are planning to set up their own tents at the Encampment, with displays, teach-ins, literature, and protests to highlight various issues, including: immigrant rights, counter-recuiting, Katrina, Palestine, and more.

We urge you to read the proposal from the Troops Out Now Coalition - located online at http://troopsoutnow.org/sept2207call.html. Please consider endorsing the call, and email us with your ideas.

Then, join us on June 16 to continue this discussion and plan for the next phase of resistance to the war at home and the war abroad.

Please join us in helping to move from protest to resistance:

Join us on June 16, from 1 to 5 pm for the Antiwar Strategy Meeting at the Solidarity Center (55 W. 17th St. 5th Fl, in Manhattan)

Read the draft call for Sept 22 - 29 : http://troopsoutnow.org/sept2207call.html

Endorse the call for Sept 22 - 29 : http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207encampmentmarchonwashendorse.shtml

Volunteer : http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml

Become an Organizing Center : http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207volunteer.shtml

Donate : http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml

A Draft Proposal from the Troops Out Now Coalition--From Protest to Resistance

2007-05-15T08:25:00.000-07:00

A Draft Proposal from the Troops Out Now Coalition--
From Protest to Resistance

Troops Out Now!
Put the Antiwar Movement
Back on the Streets

September 29 -- March on Washington D.C.
Assemble at the Capitol -- March on the White House

September 22 – 29 --Encampment in Washington D.C.

Stop the War Abroad and at Home

In the spirit of unity, and for the purposes of taking the movement away from politicians and putting it back into the streets, the Troops Out Now Coalition submits this proposal to all antiwar forces:

Our proposal is for an Encampment to Stop the War at Home & Abroad, starting on Saturday, September 22 in Washington D.C., culminating in a mass march in Washington on Saturday, September 29.

This proposal is open to change. TONC welcomes and encourages discussion and suggestions for modifying and improving this proposal. Please endorse the proposal if you are in agreement. All are invited to an Antiwar Strategy meeting in New York City on Saturday, June 16 where there will be more discussion of this proposal, as well as others.

In the fall, (and summer) we must all be focused on jump-starting the mass movement against the war again. Our movement will not be a factor unless we:

* demonstrate our independence from the major political parties;
* make every effort to connect the fight against the wars abroad with the war on the people here in the U.S.; and
* continue to shift from protest to resistance.

Can we not only have a march on Washington, but also occupy the occupiers for a week? The time has come to try it, and that is why our proposal is not only for a march but also for an encampment prior to the march.

It was always clear to some of us, and it’s becoming more and more clear to all of us that Congress is not going to stop the criminal war and occupation in Iraq. Congressional calls for phased withdrawals have done little more than provide a cover for Congress to continue funding the war.

The greater problem is that the political posturing between Bush and Congress has reduced the demand for immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all troops from Iraq to arguing about establishing “benchmarks”. The phony antiwar politicking in Congress has to a large degree diverted and usurped the mass movement on the streets.

It’s absolutely critical that we take the struggle against the war out of the halls of Congress and put it where it needs to be -- back on the streets.

Congress is giving Bush and his generals until September to succeed in Iraq. The Pentagon should not be given another hour to wage their criminal, colonial war and occupation. The only significance that time should have for the movement is the time that it will take to organize so that the next phase of the antiwar struggle will be massive, militant and decisive.

It is essential that we acknowledge and fight Bush’s plans to expand the war into Iran. It’s also critical that we call for an end to the occupation of Afghanistan and an end to the Pentagon’s plans for endless war against the peoples of Asia, Africa, Caribbean and Latin America. We must demand an end to the occupation of Palestine, and support the Palestinian people -- including their right to return.

However, it is just as critical that our movement against the war fully embrace the struggle against racism right here in the U.S. Where undocumented immigrant workers are under attack, we must be with them fighting back. Whether fighting for the freedom of Mumia Abu-Jamal, or marching in New York City against the murder of Sean Bell, we must fight racist police and judicial terror.

The Troops Out Now Coalition encourages all of the antiwar coalitions on the local and national level to engage each other and where communication has broken down, to open new lines of communication so that our combined efforts will make us stronger.

Let us join forces with the movements struggling for:

* No War against Iran
* End all occupations now - from Iraq to Palestine, the Philippines, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Afghanistan
* No to U.S. intervention – Hands off Cuba, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and the Sudan
* Stop the raids against immigrant workers -- Full rights for undocumented workers
* Justice for Katrina survivors – End racist police terror
* Free Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners
* Money for health care, jobs and education, not endless war

Together let’s unite to demand:

* Immediate withdrawal of all troops
* Cut off ALL war funding