Home > This Fall, We Declare Peace!
Movement Wars and conflicts International USA
by united for peace
Fear is in the air again. From Dick Cheney to Joe Lieberman, the proponents of the Iraq War are once again playing the fear card to try to shore up support for their failed policies — policies that have only made us more vulnerable to attacks like the one thwarted last week in England.
Neither their overheated rhetoric, nor their color-coded warnings, nor their bloated and ineffectual "homeland security" apparatus are doing anything to keep us safer. They’re just designed to keep people in fear and keep pro-war politicians in office.
Shameless Dick Cheney said Ned Lamont’s victory in the Connecticut primary might encourage "the al-Qaida types" who want to "break the will of the American people in terms of our ability to stay in the fight and complete the task."
Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman — defeated at the polls last week because of his support for Bush’s war — said, "If we just pick up like Ned Lamont wants us to do, get out [of Iraq] by a date certain, it will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England. It will strengthen them, and they will strike again."
It’s time to answer fear with courage — to step out of our personal comfort zones and take more resolute action than ever to end the War in Iraq.
This fall, United for Peace and Justice and our many member groups and allies are declaring peace. We are using a variety of tools designed to help our movement tap into the broad antiwar sentiment that exists in every corner of the nation. There is an unprecedented opportunity to reach out more broadly, bring more people into the work at whatever level of activity they are comfortable with, and raise the political costs of the war.
The Declaration of Peace DECLARATION OF PEACE
We will declare peace by putting our bodies on the line in a variety of acts of peaceful resistance to the war, including with a powerful week of nonviolent civil disobedience and direct action from September 21-28, targeting pro-war members of Congress and coordinated by the nationwide Declaration of Peace campaign.
* Check the calendar of activities to see what’s already being planned in your city or town, and find out how you can get involved.
* If you are planning something for that week, be sure to list it on the calendar as well.
* Sign up to serve as the point person to help coordinate visits or protests at the offices of your members of Congress.
* Now is the time to start planning an action in your community for Monday, September 25, when there will be local nonviolence civil disobedience actions around the country, targeting pro-war members of Congress. Click here for more information.
* And begin making plans to join the national civil disobedience actions scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, September 26 & 27, in Washington, D.C.
VOTERS FOR PEACE
We will also declare peace by voting our consciences at the ballot box — and refusing to support politicians from any party who will not take a clear, public stand on ending the Iraq War. UFPJ is part of a nationwide effort urging outraged voters to sign the Voters for Peace pledge: "I will not vote for or support any candidate for Congress or President who does not make a speedy end to the war in Iraq, and preventing any future war of aggression, a public position in his or her campaign."
You can join this effort by signing the pledge on our website and/or by printing out pledge forms and encouraging people in your community to sign. The more signatures you collect, the greater pressure we can put on all of the candidates for Congress, be they incumbents or people running for the first time.
The policies of permanent, pre-emptive war and the empire-building agenda of this administration have done nothing but waste thousands upon thousands of U.S. and Iraqi lives, squander billions of U.S. tax dollars, and inspire more hatred toward the United States.
Every step of the way, the Bush Administration has faced a vocal and visible peace movement. We have taken to the streets time and again in massive numbers to call for immediate withdrawal from Iraq. We have called and petitioned and lobbied our elected officials. We have challenged the media to tell the whole story. And we have reached out to our neighbors and co-workers and fellow students building this movement step by step.
Now, as the killing and devastation continues in Iraq and threats of new wars emerge every day, we must go further. Now, is the time to expand our efforts by taking part in peaceful acts of nonviolent civil resistance that will interfere with business as usual, and by making sure that those who support the war suffer the same sort of electoral defeat that Joe Lieberman experienced last week.
You can also help move this work forward by making a much-needed financial donation to United for Peace and Justice. Click here to donate by credit card online, or call our national office at 212-868-5545 to make a credit card donation by phone. You can also send a check or money order by mail to UFPJ, P.O. Box 607, Times Square Station, NY NY 10108.
Thanks for your support — together we will end this war!