Weekly Activist Alert - Iraq Anniversary Special Alert
Action: US Out of Iraq (for real!!)
Resource: Contact Your Elected Official
Featured Article: Obama's Other War
WPC Iraq Anniversary Forum: Different Shades of Militarization
Iraq Anniversary Events [scroll down for full details]:
March 7-8: Grassroots Advocacy Training and Lobby Day
March 10-13: Split This Rock Poetry Festival : Poems of Provocation and Witness
March 13-20: Peace of the Action's Camp OUT NOW
March 19: Funk the War: Bad Romance
March 19: Different Shades of Militarization: Peace Center Forum
March 19-21: Proposition One: Thomas Memorial in Lafayette Park
March 19: Lenten Witness for Peace
March 20: ANSWER March, Lafayette Park at noon
March 20: Women in Warzones
March 21: Fair Immigration Reform March and Rally
Other Events in DC this week:
Mo 3/1 - Fr 3/5: A Journey for Economic Empowerment Worldwide
We 3/2: Help Keep Northrup Grumman our of Washington DC
We 3/3: Reckoning with Torture: Memos and Testimonies from the War on Terror
Th 3/4: Public Briefing on Haiti
Th 3/4: "Stop Femicide in Guatelama" with Norma Cruz
Th 3/4: From Buffalo Soldier to Revolutionary Communist
Fr 3/5: Haiti: An Eyewitness Account
Su 3/7: War, Racism and Economic Injustice: The Global Ravages of Capitalism
Su 3/7: From the United Mine Workers to the Movement against Mountain Top Removal
Tu 3/9: Community Organizing 101 S.A.L.S.A Training
Hey D.C.,
As we draw a little close to spring, where plants and other things of the earth begin to bloom, we must also remember that in 2003 along with this season of rebirth commenced the war in Iraq. Seven year later, the death toll keeps rising - claiming the lives of over 100,00 Iraqi people and close to 5,000 US troops. To add insult to injury, there are vague promises of exact numbers and dates for when to expect the promised withdrawal from Iraq. It appears that all peace-loving and freedom-fighting peoples in the US have a duty to insist on an end to this war.
Just as millions of people took to the streets in the 1960s and 1970s to oppose the War on Vietnam, and an impressive number of demonstrations emerged from 2003 to 2006 to oppose the current invasion of Iraq, today we must match and increase efforts at ending US imperialism. Even with the demoralization caused by the disappointing Presidential announcement earlier this year of deploying 30,000 by 2011 to Afghanistan, we must remain fiercely vigilant to the continuous and increasing vague military agenda in Iraq.
To do this effectively we must take take action in as many avenues available to us. This week's Activist Alert lists all programs known to us happening in the DC area that address the many March events area and demonstrations to address the war in Iraq and other places. So do your part: send a letter, attend an educational event and come out to the mass rally by the ANSWER coalition on Saturday March 20th.
Featured WPC Resource this week...
Contact Your Elected Official
Do you know who represents you or your loved one in other areas in Congress? Or are you organizing or advocating an issue that requires the attention of a specific person in Congress? Check out our Contact Your Elected Offical page and please let us know if you have anything to add!
Appreciate this service? Please DONATE to support the movement for a more just and peaceful world.
EVENTS
Grassroots Advocacy Training and Lobby Day
Sunday, March 7 - 8:30am
(American University-Ward Building
Donate button
Monday, March 8 - 8:00pm
(Capitol Hill - The Methodist Building Meeting Room
100 Maryland Avenue NE)
GAIN IMPORTANT SKILLS FOR YOUR ACTIVISM & MAKE AN IMPACT IN CONGRESS!
The popular program is back for the second year! In February 2009, nearly 200 people came from across the country to join Interfaith Peace-Builders and the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation for the first Grassroots Advocacy Training and Lobby Day. In 2010, we will again be gathering in Washington DC.
READ MORE
Split This Rock Poetry Festival:
Poems of Provocation and Witness
March 10-13, 2010
The festival will feature readings, workshops, panel discussions, youth programming, film, activism - opportunities to speak out for social justice, imagine a way forward, and celebrate the many ways that poetry can act as an agent for social change. There will also be a Social Change Book Fair on the 13th.
READ MORE
Peace of the Action Camp Out NOW Week of ActionDonate button
From Thursday, March 11- 5:00pm
To Monday, March 22- 7:00pm
During the week of March 3-21, we will have regularly scheduled non-violence training, teach-ins and outreach during the day and in the evenings, we will be having: "Dining with a dose of reality".
READ MORE
Funk the War: Bad Romance
Friday, March 19
3:00PM
Farragut Sq. (17th & K St. NW), Washington DC
second meet-up at 4PM, TBA
Funk the War is a roving youth & student power street party bumping the phattest of beats and reclaiming the streets to stop the war and break off the love affair between our government and the corporate parasites who Obama's been cheating with: war profiteers, climate criminals, and blood-sucking bankers.
Funk the War, light the bed on fire, and break free from this bad romance! Washington, DC. March 19, the 7th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq.
For more info, contact:
funkthewar9@gmail.com
READ MORE
Lenten Witness for Peace and Justice Vigil
Friday, March 12
12:00pm - 1:00pm
White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC
As in previous years, we will hold an Ash Wednesday witness. And we encourage as many people as possible to participate in the Friday vigils at the White House. Weekly Friday vigils have been held at the White House by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker since 1998. Here is a proposed schedule for the Lenten Witness.
Please join us for some or all of this important Lenten Witness.
contact Art Laffin: artlaffin@hotmail.com.
Different Shades of Militarization: an Iraq Anniversary Forum from the Washington Peace Center
Friday, March 19, 2010 - 6:00pm - 8:00pm
5th and K Busboys and Poets, 5th and K st NW
In honor of the 7th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, the same weekend as a huge immigrant rights march in DC, come learn how militarization and the US military in particular affects oppressed populations.
We'll discuss the experience of Iraqis after 7 years of US occupation and on the verge of US pulling out some of their troops; the experience of Latino immigrants in DC; and, making the local-global connection, the impact of over-policing that targets black communities here in DC.
READ MORE
Anti-War March on Washington
People across the United States will converge on Washington, D.C., on March 20 and demand "No Colonial-type Wars and Occupations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Haiti!" We will march together to say "No War Against Iran!" We will demand funds so that every person can have a job, free and universal health care, decent schools, and affordable housing.
March 20 is the seventh anniversary of the criminal war of aggression launched by Bush and Cheney against Iraq. One million or more Iraqis have died. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops have lost their lives or been maimed, and continue to suffer a whole host of enduring problems from this terrible war.
READ MORE
Women in WarzonesDonate button
Saturday, March 20
8:00 pm
Busboys and Poets
on the corner of 14th and V Streets NW
After the ANSWER march, come to Women in Warzones with excellent speakers and talent you won't want to miss! Organized by CODEPINK, co-sponsored by the Washington Peace Center and others.
READ MORE
Fair Immigration Reform March and Rally
Sunday, March 21
Interfaith Service at 1:00pm
March begins at 2:00pm at the Lincoln Memorial
People from all across America will lend their voice in the fight for reform. We will come together as one voice on the National Mall for a strong America - for families, for workers, for businesses, and for security.
Join thousands from across the country in the March For America in DC on March 21st, and demand Congress act NOW to pass immigration reform and move quickly to put all Americans back to work
READ MORE
Featured Article: Obama's Other War
Written by Jon Berger, WPC Intern
Posted March 2, 2010 on www.washingtonpeacecenter.org
With Obama's recent announcement of an influx of 30,000 troops into Afghanistan, the occupation of Iraq seems to have fallen off the radar despite the looming 7th anniversary of the US invasion coming up on March 19th. However with elections coming up on March 7th, rising sectarian tensions, conflict over oil, and a population devastated by unemployment and decimated infrastructure, we feel it's important for anti-war activists to know what's going on in the country.
There are currently about 100,000 U.S. military personnel in Iraq, in addition to 120,000 contractors - with no clear exit plan in sight on when these forces will be leaving the region. In a recent memo from Defense Secretary Robert Gates to U.S. Central Command chief General David Petraeus, Gates recommends changing the official name of the Iraq war from "Operation Iraqi Freedom" to "Operation New Dawn". Along with the name change is the speculated plan to begin withdrawing troops from the country this spring and summer, leaving about 48,000 troops and 75,000 contractors by September. Although Obama has said in speeches that he plans on bringing all US troops home from Iraq by 2011, and this is the agreement stipulated in the Status of Forces Agreement, there is currently no plan to do so.
READ MORE
