We must act now to stop the war. Direct action will be overdue by the time war starts.
Below is a letter I have written calling for immediate direct action. This is in response to the Bush administration's recent declaration of a March 17 deadline for Iraq to disarm. I apologize if this has been sent to the wrong address and I hope you forward it to the correct address.
I am asking for the cooperation and endorsement of different persons and groups to organize this on a national or international scale. Below, I have listed some ideas for what each group can do which are within the usual activities of each group. Please read this, and respond to me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] indicating whether your group or members of it are able and willing to be part of a national movement for pre-emptive anti-war civil disobedience.
- Direct Action to Stop War / Act Against War (organize and delegate the local actions. Don't change a thing except advocate direct action now rather than later)
- US Labor Against War (Worker strikes at oil, military, and shipping sites)
- International ANSWER / International Action Center / Not In Our Name (Publicizing, using its already well organized distribution network used to organize the great protests we've seen this year)
- MoveOn (publicizing through MoveOn's broad email subscribership, organizing protest shifts using the same web-based method used to organize shifts for the virtual march on Washington. We will need a minimum number of people at any given time to occupy each of the targeted sites)
- Democracy Now, Free Speech Radio News, Indymedia, and all sympathetic media (All kinds of journalists and ordinary citizens with camcorders. On site video recording to prevent police brutality)
I understand that there are legality issues which certain organizations cannot risk for fear of legal reprisal. In this case, I urge you to circulate this email and organize outside the guise of whatever group you belong to. This type of action can and should be just an organization of private citizens, and with the use of the internet and existing activist networks and friends, we can do it. I want to put this idea in the hands of the anti-war movement's leaders and then do my part locally to shut down the warmakers.
But you must please respond quickly, and let me know if you would like to receive the responses from other organizations. Time is short and we need all of you.
Yours in Peace,
-Earl Berg Santa Cruz, CA, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] 831-345-0041
----------------------------------------------------------- -- Below is an open letter to all who oppose war in Iraq -- -----------------------------------------------------------
Fellow Resisters,
The time to act directly is now. We have until Monday, March 17 days before the Bush Administration wants to start the war.
The following quotes are from an MSNBC article ( http://www.msnbc.com/news/842500.asp )
"In a last-ditch push to win U.N. support for war against Iraq, the United States, Britain and Spain proposed a deadline of March 17 for Saddam Hussein to disarm, officials said Friday."
"The deadline, disclosed by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, was added to a draft resolution before the Security Council and came on the heels of President Bush�??s statement that he will seek a vote at the United Nations even though the United States doesn�??t need 'anybody�??s permission' to go to war."
In other words, even without the UN, we're going to bomb Iraq. Our time to stop this is extremely limited, and we must act powerfully.
It has been overjoying to see the massive protests against the possible war in Iraq. There is an unprecedented level of organization moving against it which is inspiring to say the least. The huge protests in cities across the globe are a great start, but we need direct action now. The infrastructure for such action is already in place. Some very brave and wonderful people are already organizing direct actions for when the war starts. This is necessary, but it will be too late. WHEN THE FIRST BOMB IS DROPPED, PROTEST WILL BE INEFFECTIVE. IT WILL TAKE ONLY 2 DAYS OF BOMBING TO DESTROY IRAQ, AND THE ADMINISTRATION WILL NOT BE DETERED BY ANYTHING. War will be finished only when Rumsfeld et al have declared a victory, and then still our forces will occupy Iraq for years, probably decades, inflaming worldwide hatred for the US.
The plan of pre-war protests, and mid-war civil disobedience is a great start, but it falls short of what is needed. We must step up our level of resistance. We have the power to stop war, but direct action must occur now. THE WARMAKERS MUST HEAR US LOUD AND CLEAR. WE WILL SHUT YOU DOWN NOW AND NOT LET UP UNTIL THE THREAT OF WAR IS TOTALLY ABANDONED. We must block the entrances to corporate offices, labs, and factories of Lockheed, ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, Halliburton, capitols of states and countries, military bases and storage sites. We must organize labor strikes against these companies, branches of our military, and other vital nerves of the system. The oil refineries can be occupied by the workers and other volunteers. The shipping ports can be blocked by the longshoremen. We must non-violently hit them where it hurts and not let up. If on March 15, we can get those several hundred thousand people per city to march to corporate and military property instead of city plazas, we can actually do something powerful and show the powers that be what non-violence can do.
The great thing about this is that we already have planning in the works for such actions. The problem is that they're scheduled for the day after a war starts. By that time, we will have failed the people of Iraq. What must happen now is a national and international effort to reprioritize and ACT BEFORE WAR.
WE MUST MAKE A NON-VIOLENT PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE AGAINST WAR NOW!
-Earl Berg Santa Cruz, CA, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] 831-345-0041 add your own comments
Say it loud on March 15 (english) AmigaPhil 9:00pm Fri Mar 7 '03 [EMAIL PROTECTED] comment#242664
See this article :
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=242644
amigaphil.planetinternet.be/usa.html
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=242658
