For Immediate Release:
September 27, 2006
Contact: Timi Gerson,
(202) 822-5200 (office); (202) 360-7801 (cell)
Declaration of Peace week of action ends in Washington, DC with 26 arrests at the House of Representatives; hundreds arrested for civil disobedience nationwide
375 anti-war actions coast-to-coast continue as campaign prepares next steps
Washington, D.C. Immigrant rights advocate Renée Saucedo joined today with peace movement leaders in the third action in Washington, DC during this past week designed to pressure the Congress to end the war and occupation in Iraq.
Twenty-six protesters were arrested after a “die-in” in front of the Rayburn House Office Building as members of the national Declaration of Peace campaign called on the House of Representatives to pass legislation that includes prompt troop withdrawal and support for a comprehensive plan for peace in Iraq. The nonviolent civil disobedience action followed a solemn procession where participants carried flag-draped coffins representing American and Iraqis who have died in Iraq. Today’s protest follows on the heels of the arrests of seventy-one religious leaders and activists at the Hart Senate Office Building yesterday for civil disobedience against the Iraq occupation.
“The Latino community is over-represented in the body bags that come back from Iraq and under-represented in the policymaking that has led to these disastrous results,” said Renée Saucedo, attorney and organizer of the La Raza Centro Legal in San Francisco and a national leader of the immigrant rights movement. “Our communities suffer with no funding for education, healthcare and jobs while the government spends billions of dollars on the Iraq occupation.”
The House of Representatives action is part of a series of events taking place nationwide urging Congress to pursue a new course on Iraq. Current legislation addressing the goals of the Declaration of Peace campaign include H.R. 4232, the End the War in Iraq Act of 2005 introduced by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA); H.Con.Res. 348, expressing the sense of Congress with respect to accomplishing the mission in Iraq, introduced by Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA); and its Senate companion resolution, S.Con.Res. 93, introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA). Members of Congress who have signed the Declaration of Peace Congressional Pledge include Reps. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Danny Davis (D-IL), Sam Farr (D-CA), Chaka Fattah (D-PA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), John Lewis (D-GA), Jim McGovern (D-MA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA).
The Declaration of Peace initiative was created through discussions last January between religious leaders and secular peace groups and draws half of its membership from faith-based organizations. It is backed by more than 500 groups, including the Roman Catholic Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Methodist Federation for Social Action, the United Church of Christ (Justice and Witness Ministries), American Friends Service Committee, the Unitarian Universalist Association, Pax Christi USA, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, U.S. Labor Against the War, United for Peace and Justice and Iraq Veterans Against the War.
The campaign’s goal is for Congress to legislate and implement a comprehensive, concrete and rapid plan to end the war and occupation in Iraq, including a prompt timetable for withdrawal of troops, a peace process for security, reconstruction and reconciliation and the shifting of war funding to meet education, healthcare and employment needs. The September 21-28 Week of Action is only days before Congressional recess, when members of Congress return to their home districts for mid-term elections.
More than 375 individual actions have occurred across the nation during the past week, including in unlikely places such as Lincoln, NE, Fayetteville, NC, Houston, Des Moines, Little Rock and Cincinnati. The activities range from vigils and fasts to sit-ins and marches with nonviolent civil disobedience in Seattle, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Des Moines, Portland, Indian Island, WA, Bangor, ME and elsewhere resulting in hundreds of arrests as of today.
For a full list of DOP endorsers, go to http://declarationofpeace.org/endorsements
For a full list of events by date and state, go to http://declarationofpeace.org/files/DOP-events-list.pdf
For images and video from events, go to
http://imageportal.afsc.org
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