The Empire 500

Peace Activists to Set Up Encampment in Washington

Tuesday 22 December 2009

by: Scott Galindez, t r u t h o u t | Report

(Photo: catbagan / flickr)

In August of 2005, Cindy Sheehan, who had lost her son in Iraq, set up camp outside George Bush's vacation home in Crawford, Texas. She had a simple question; she wanted to know what the "noble cause" was for which her son had died. Thousands of people joined Cindy in Crawford, and Camp Casey became a national story that breathed new life into the antiwar movement.

In March of 2010, Cindy Sheehan and other activists from a group calling itself "Peace of the Action" will be converging on Washington, DC, to set up a camp on the National Mall.

When asked how long the encampment will last, Sheehan responded, "as long as it takes, that will be up to the government; we are prepared to stay until our demands are met."

Sheehan went on to say that the demands are simple, "troops out of the Middle East, which includes drones, permanent bases, contractors and torture/detention facilities."

Sheehan said that she has known for years that the peace movement needs to take bolder action and that the group's goal will be to hold multiple civil resistance actions daily throughout the nation's capital.

Sheehan said that participants will be asked to adhere to agreed-upon nonviolence guidelines while standing up and resisting against what she called the "robber class."

She said they will also be reaching out to the homeless in DC by providing them food and clothing. "While there are a lot of long time homeless people with mental illnesses, increasingly there are people joining the ranks of the homeless for purely economic reasons stemming from the war economy" said Sheehan.

Peace of the Action's web site has the following call to action:

We've marched, written, called and faxed but the wars continue.

It is time for new creative strategies and bolder action.

Peace of the Action will bring forward an historic escalation of Peace Activism like we have not seen in the United States in a very long time.

We cannot allow business as usual go on in the Capital of the American Empire.

On a daily basis, Peace of the Action will perform courageous deeds of civil resistance until our demands are met.

We will show our righteous outrage at U.S. militarism by showing our elected officials that "Peace means Business," by clogging up government business. We want an end to Empire so we can build a new economy that is not drained by the costs of Empire and war. This Empire does not create jobs abroad while it has the effect of destroying jobs here on the domestic front. This Empire builds the profits of transnational businesses while Americans go further into debt and fights wars for oil and resources. It's time to stop using militarism as the PRIMARY tool of foreign policy. It's time to start adhering to the U.S. Constitution and International Law.

Lees verder: http://www.truthout.org/1222091