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On July 4, 2007, over 300 delegates from diverse activist organizations and concerned citizens across America joined together at the Philadelphia Emergency Antiwar Convention to form a United Front, dedicated to resolving our national crises of endless war and presidential dictatorship.
These organizations included: Allentown Armory Activists, Alliance for a Sustainable Future, Boston 9/11 Truth, Coalition for Voting Integrity, DCOI Youth Group, DC 9/11 Truth, Delaware Valley Veterans for America, Family Victims of 9/11, Granny Peace Brigade, Green Party Philadelphia, Green Party Vermont, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Los Angeles National Impeachment Center, Military Families Speak Out, Northeast 9/11 Truth, Peace Action - Delaware Valley, Philly 9/11 Truth, Restore the Republic, Student Scholars for 9/11 Truth, Troops Out Now Coalition, Vermont 9/11 Truth, Vermont Coalition for 9/11 Truth, We Are Change, World Can’t Wait Philadelphia, Washington Grove Institute, 911truthsquads.org.
This is only the beginning; others are welcome to add their names and work toward our common goals.
Write to:
info@actindependent.org.
At the end of the convention, the Philadelphia Platform was discussed, amended and adopted by unanimous acclaim. The following are abbreviated highlights of the five policy goals and five action points detailed in the Platform. See full text of document.
FIVE POLICY GOALS
We appeal to leftists, progressives, conservatives, libertarians, independents, and those entering or re-entering politics to transcend the artificial divisions that have diminished their impact. The antiwar, impeachment, anti-globalization, labor, civil rights, veterans, anti-tax, civil liberties, honest election, and 9/11 truth movements—along with civic and progressive religious groups and other issue groups—have been weakened too long by single issues and narrow focus. It is time for these movements to unite as a national coalition on a common platform for independent action. We call for a united front of all organizations and persons of good will based on the following:
1. Impeach, remove, and indict Bush, Cheney and their henchmen.
2. End all wars. All U.S. troops must be brought home at once from Afghanistan and Iraq by any means necessary, including the immediate cutoff of funding.
3. No Bush police-state dictatorship. Repeal the Patriot Act, restore full habeas corpus, respect the Bill of Rights and the Geneva Convention.
4. Government by the People, not by cliques of bankers and financiers.
5. 9/11 truth. Publish the full 9/11 documentation, and re-open the investigation.
FIVE ACTION POINTS
At a minimum, we aim to shape the climate of public opinion. We may become the focal point of a new political regroupment. These questions will be decided in the struggles that lie ahead. We suggest that questions of economic and social policy be deferred for now, and that they become the object of ongoing discussion. We also urge that organizational questions be postponed until a later time. We call on all organizations to join in launching the following urgent actions in support of the policies outlined:
A. We will nominate and support independent political candidates for public office at all levels of government in the 2007 and 2008 elections. Because of the problems of ballot access, such candidate may need to enter the primary elections of the Republican, Democratic, Green, Libertarian, or other political parties.
B. Truth squad interventions taking advantage of the new media (using camcorders to capture political content which is then posted on the internet) to intervene in the ongoing presidential primary campaigns of the Democrats, Republicans, and others, to focus public attention and political debate on the urgent questions outlined above, rather than on the divisive and artificial wedge issues preferred by the corporate media.
C. Mass political education through internet web sites, conferences, books, DVDs, and a sustained campaign to write our own fairness doctrine by using radio, cable access, and call-ins to take back the public air waves from the right-wing extremists and left gatekeepers.
D. This united front will exist as a process of political discussion, deliberation, mass organizing, and open debate open to political forces of all types who agree with its platform of ideas. Special attention will be given to campus organizing.
E. Carefully selected legal actions, as typified by the civil RICO suit against Bush-Cheney as a continuing criminal enterprise.
THE PHILADELPHIA EMERGENCY ANTIWAR CONVENTION: A RESOUNDING SUCCESS!
DECLARATION OF INTENT
(A Draft)
Our nation is in crisis. Our Constitution has been shredded. The peace movement has run aground, and impeachment is “off the table.” The war machine continues to trample the will of the people and crush any opposition in its murderous drive toward global domination.
The Democratic Party has betrayed its mandate to end the Iraq War and bring the troops home, exposing the two-party system for the elite corporate tool it is.
We no longer have a free press. Our major media are owned and controlled by the same few corporations that manufacture arms and feed off billion-dollar contracts handed to them by Bush appointees.
Where are the checks and balances?
Where is Government by the People?
Where is the public outrage?
It’s time to demand truth and accountability from our elected representatives. It’s time to insist that they answer to the people, not corporate lobbyists or well-funded ideological fanatics.
It’s time to eliminate election fraud and ensure that the sanctity of the voting process is never again compromised.
It’s time to bring our troops home and stop funding pre-emptive wars of aggression.
It’s time to support our soldiers’ rights when they refuse to obey unlawful orders.
It’s time to resist the curtailment of our civil liberties based on color-coded fear, and to reclaim the rights guaranteed by our Constitution.
It’s time to impeach the President and Vice President, based on overwhelming evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors.
It’s time to challenge the official account of 9/11 as scientifically and logically implausible, and to demand a new, fully independent investigation of the foundational event for the war on terror, that if exposed, would awaken Americans out of a collective trance of complacency and fear.
It’s time to examine the historical, political, social, and psychological roots of September 11—and all false flag terrorism—repeatedly invoked to justify an endless war on terror and virtual dictatorship by the Executive Branch.
We call on all activists and concerned citizens across America to come to Philadelphia on July 4th and present a United Front to reclaim our Government.
We will send a message that will once again crack the Liberty Bell as it resonates across America, in the spirit of freedom, with truth, peace and justice as our honorable goals. We will launch a campaign to stop these wars at their source. And we will prevail.
This is the time for action, not apathy; for union, not division.
This is the start of the Second American Revolution—a new beginning for hope on the planet.
Forum posts
28 July 2007, 14:38
Hello I just wanted to say that this sounded like a wonderful and meaningful convention, wish that I could’ve attended. If there is anything that I can do, a person of little means, one little voice, then I will be happy to participate locally and possibly travel if the timing is right. My email address is tinam462@charter.net and would like to hear more about what I can do, even if it is writing emails or letters or phone calls. Thank you for your diligence and good intentions concerning these United States and all of the people that should and will definitely have a strong collective voice. Tina
29 July 2007, 00:24
i think another strong point to be addressed could be organizing an independent party hopefully led by candidates such as ron paul and mike gravel and find a candidate for each house race and all open senate seats. i think a great campaign could be had on the cheap by using a party name such as the ’purple party"a slogan such as where red and blue come back together to return americas values back. its obvious by pelosi and reid actions that democrats are salivatating at the thoughts of bush cheney totalitarian authority powers. i dont agree with every thing paul and gravel say they stand for , but at least they seem to believe in defending the original constitutional intent of americas founding fathers , also this style campaign could be done on the cheap by word of mouth and associated dressware campaign , where you give away cheap purple shirts to wear that draw attention to the fact you are a purple power partyer, they could also be worn on election day to take away the fascist engineered electronic voting machines, if 8 out of 10 voters on election day are wearing their purple shirts,its going to be pretty hard for diebold or ees to explain how the gop won 51 to 49. face it bush divided this country by playing up red and blue , what better name for a political party to return america back to old american century values where we really try to share our wealth of knowledge and diversity for everyones betterment not just the bush elitist ultra wealthy and their newage liberal idea of welfare only for the ultra nouveau rich. lets defeat both political partys who seem to cater to the same lobbyists at the expense of everyone else.