ELEVEN OCCUPY FEDERAL BUILDING OFFICES IN ROCHESTER, NY MARCH 16TH

Rochester New York, Friday, March 16, 2007.
Keating Federal Building, State Street— Eleven people calling themselves the “War No More 11 ” occupied the offices of Senators Hillary Clinton, Charles Schumer, and Congressperson Louise Slaughter.

These groups now consider any further delay to ending the Iraq war unacceptable. One of the eleven, Eli Yewdall of the Catholic Workers, said prior to going into Slaughter’s office, “The Democrats plan for troops staying in Iraq an additional 18 months…[that] means at least another 1200 U.S. soldiers killed, and countless more terribly wounded. It means another 100,000 Iraqi war dead.”

The eleven are representative of over thirty secular and religious anti-war and peace organizations active in the Rochester area. The eleven are demanding that Clinton, Schumer, and Slaughter not allow U.S. military aggression on Iran, and that they fulfill their November election promise to bring the troops home from Iraq.

During the office occupations, the eleven delivered a list of demands previously ignored by the representatives. The eleven also read the names and ages of the war dead in memoriam. Demands delivered to the representatives today include that our government defund the war and occupation in Iraq, co-sponsor legislation calling for the safe and rapid withdrawal of all U. S. troops from Iraq, closure of all military bases in Iraq, establishment of a comprehensive plan for peace including an Iraqi-led peace process, return of the control of Iraqi economy to the Iraqis, and opposition to all plans to attack Iran.

The eleven took action locally in solidarity with hundreds of peace and antiwar groups who began occupying congressional offices across the nation, and took part in protests and non-violent civil disobedience in Washington on March 16-19 with groups organized by The Declaration of Peace, The Christian Witness for Peace, The Occupation Project, Voices for Creative Non-violence, United for Peace and Justice, and A.N.S.W.E.R. at the Pentagon, the White House and other locations in the nation’s capitol.

Discussing the occupation of Senator Clinton’s office before entering the Keating Federal Building Jan Bezila, local director of Pax Christi, said “If the Democratic leadership feels embarrassed by this interruption of business as usual, we feel that many Americans feel embarrassed and betrayed by congressional inaction on issues the Democrats were given a majority to attack assertively.”