VCN announce renewed Occupation Project campaign. Iowans a month ahead of the national effort…..

Folks: 

Our friends at the Voices for Creative
Nonviolence- The Occupation Project www.vcnv.org are announcing a 'reinvigorated' Occupation Campaign
starting on Aug 6th this summer. (see below forward e-mail.)  The Iowa Occupation Project is planning
occupations of Senators Grassley and Harkin's Cedar Rapids Offices July 6 – after the sentencing
of the CR11 in the Linn Co Court House, a full month ahead of the national
campaign. 

I urge you to read the sound
reasoning of Jeff Ley's essay, “BREAK TIME IS OVER: BUILDING NONVIOLENT
RESISTANCE TO THE 2008 IRAQ
WAR SUPPLEMENTAL”  calling for
continued nonviolent occupations of congressional offices and than join us in Cedar Rapids July 6th.

Frank Cordaro, Des Moines
Catholic Worker frank.cordaro@gmail.com
 PS Attached graphic is by Amanda
Moeckel, a San Francisco
artist who's web page is http://www.myanimalart.com/ 

 ———-
Forwarded message ———- From: Voices for Creative Nonviolence <vcnvlist@vcnv.org>
Date: Jun 19, 2007 Subject: Voices for Creative Nonviolence- The Occupation
Project: launch of reinvigorated campaign on August 6  Greetings,  Nearly twice as many Representatives voted
against supplemental war funding this year than last year and, for the first
time, Senator voted against an Iraq
war supplemental spending bill because of their opposition to the war's
continuation. Another $145 billion is being sought in supplemental spending to
wage the Iraq – Afghanistan
war through September of 2008.

Recognizing
this, Voices for Creative Nonviolence is reinvigorating the Occupation Project,
a campaign of sustained nonviolent civil disobedience to end Iraq war funding, starting on
August 6th. An article by Jeff Leys, Co-Coordinator with Voices for Creative Nonviolence,
is included below. It gives the rationale and details of the ongoing campaign
as well as ways each of us can get involved, including allied campaigns. 

We
invite you to become engaged with these efforts and organize locally. Please
contact us via phone at 773-878-3815 or via e-mail, occupationproject@vcnv.org.
We also encourage you to sign up for the project: http://vcnv.org/project/the-occupation-project

-Voices
for Creative Nonviolence  —– 

BREAK
TIME IS OVER: BUILDING NONVIOLENT RESISTANCE TO THE 2008 IRAQ WAR
SUPPLEMENTAL June 18, 2007 By Jeff Leys

On
August 6, Congress begins its month long recess.  August 6 also marks the start of Year 62
After Hiroshima-when the U.S. initiated its nuclear first strike policy
against the people of Hiroshima.  And it marks Year 17 After Iraq Sanctions,
when the brutal economic sanctions regime against Iraq was first imposed by the
international community. 

On
August 6, the Occupation Project will launch a reinvigorated campaign of
sustained nonviolent civil disobedience / civil resistance to end Iraq
war funding.  Office occupations- both
legal and extralegal-will commence at the offices of Representatives and Senators
who refuse to publicly pledge to vote against any additional funding of the Iraq
war.  Occupations will continue at least
through the end of September.  The
Occupation Project will work in conjunction with campaigns organized by
Declaration of Peace, National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, CODEPINK,
Veterans for Peace, Grassroots America for Us and others.

The
hottest weather of the year occurs in August. 
Let us commit to creating the hottest political weather: focused upon
Congress to force an end to the Iraq
war.  Let us commit to forcing Congress
to vote down the $145 billion being sought in supplemental spending to wage the
Iraq – Afghanistan war through September
of 2008.  Let us commit to forcing
Congress to force the withdrawal of all U.S.
troops from Iraq
by the end of this year. 

Let
us commit to using every nonviolent means at our disposal to defeat the Iraq war supplemental spending bill for 2008 and
to bring every U.S. soldier
home from Iraq
by the end of this year.

Last
fall, in Panora, Iowa
( at the National Catholic Worker gathering.) social justice advocates
discussed ways to bring the occupation of Iraq home to the offices of
Representatives and Senators.  The
Occupation Project grew from these discussions. From February 5 through Tax
Day, over 320 arrests occurred at the offices of 39 Representatives and
Senators across the country.  15 of the
39 voted against the final Iraq
war supplemental spending bill that Congress passed in May.  14 of the 15 who voted against the final bill
had voted in favor of the Iraq
war spending bill last year. Actions occurred at the offices of both
Republicans and Democrats-challenging the reality that both parties are
responsible for the ongoing war. 

Meanwhile,
sustained campaigns of office occupations that did not result in arrests took
place in such diverse locations as Nashville,
Tennessee (the birthplace of the Occupation
Project); Huntsville,
Alabama; Seattle,
Washington; San Francisco, California;
and across the state of Minnesota.  Social justice advocates entered the offices on
a weekly basis (and, in the case of Sacramento,
CA, on a daily basis) and
occupied the offices, pressing the demand that the Representative or Senator
commit to voting against any additional funding for the war.

These
next three months are critical to ending the war in and occupation of Iraq.  Through the end of July, Grassroots America
for Us (http://www.grassrootsamerica4us.org)
is organizing the Swarm on Congress, intensive and extensive lobbying on
Capitol Hill.  In August, we must turn up
the heat on Representatives and Senators while they are in their home districts
and states for the month long recess. 

In
early September, General Petraeus will report to Congress on the progress-or
lack thereof-that is being made in Iraq.  Shortly after, the House will vote on HR 2451
as an amendment to the Iraq
– Afghanistan
war supplemental spending bill.  Next the
House will vote on the final version of the $145 billion war supplemental for
FY 2008, and send it to the Senate for consideration.  It will be a one-two punch vote.  It is entirely probable that the final
version of the supplemental spending bill will not be publicly available until
less than 24 hours prior to the vote (the final version of the supplemental passed
in May was not publicly available until the morning of the vote).

H.R.
2451 (sponsored by David Obey and Jim McGovern) requires that the redeployment
of U.S. forces out of Iraq
begin within 90 days of enactment.  The
partial redeployment is to be completed by June 30, 2008. 

HR
2451 will keep U.S. troops
in Iraq to: protect the U.S. embassy and diplomatic personnel; protect U.S. forces remaining in Iraq; engage in “target
special actions limited in duration and scope to killing or capturing members
of al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations with global reach”; and to
train and equip the Iraqi Security Forces.

[Erik Leaver](http://ips-dc.org/iraq/supplemental.htm)
of the Institute for Policy Studies examined nearly identical language in March
2007 and concluded that it would allow for upwards of 40,000 to 60,000 U.S. troops to remain in Iraq. 

Our
demand must remain clear: end all funding for the Iraq
war and withdraw all U.S.
troops from Iraq
by the end of this year.  The language of
HR 2451 is not sufficient.

And
what of the argument that a vote against the $145 billion supplemental spending
for 2008 will further endanger the well-being of U.S.
troops currently deployed in Iraq?  U.S.
troops will not be in danger when the U.S.
withdraws the troops from Iraq.  $36 billion of this $145 billion will be for
the procurement of ammunition, weapons systems and combat vehicles that will
not be delivered to the military until 1 to 3 years has passed.  The Army seeks $46 billion for “operations
and maintenance” to fund its actions at current levels through September
30, 2008-a sure way to place U.S.
soldiers and Iraqi citizens in further danger.  (see Iraq and Afghanistan Supplemental
Spending 2008 – 
for an in-depth analysis of the 2008 war funding request).

Recall
that the President is seeking $482 billion for the baseline military budget for
2008.  That's an 11 percent increase over
the current year's budget-and nearly 62% more than was spent on the military in
2001.  The money is clearly available to
safely and quickly withdraw all U.S.
troops from Iraq
by the end of this year. It is easy to be discouraged and lose heart after
Congress passed the Iraq
war bill in May. It is easy to be tempted to give up completely on the
legislative process. 

But
giving up on the legislative process is, indeed, the easy route to take.  It is the route that ensures that the Iraq
war will continue as a war without end.

Instead,
we should intensify our legal and extralegal lobbying efforts.  We should recognize that nearly twice as many
Representatives voted against the supplemental this year than last year and
that, for the first time, Senators voted against an Iraq war supplemental spending bill
because of their opposition to the war's continuation (Arlen Specter voted
against the supplemental in 2006 was because he did not believe it provided
sufficient funds for a medical program). 
We should maintain pressure upon those Representatives and Senators who
voted against the final war supplemental spending bill-working to ensure that
they again vote against war funding this fall. 

We
should also recognize that the only way that this war will be ended is if we
organize to exert sufficient pressure on Republicans and Democrats to force an
end to war funding.  With this in mind,
we should recognize the tricks of the parliamentary trade and demand that David
Obey and Nancy Pelosi do more to end the war. 
But we should also recognize that had Obey bottled up the war
supplemental in committee or Pelosi refused to allow a floor vote, Jerry Lewis
(as ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee) would have submitted
his own version of a war supplemental and obtained 218 signatures on a
discharge petition to force his version to be voted upon in the House.

Ending
the war requires pressure on both Democrats and Republicans-both via legal
lobbying and nonviolent civil disobedience / resistance. 

Multiple
efforts and allied campaigns are underway to force an end to the war in and
occupation of Iraq.  Become engaged with these efforts and
organize locally.

*
Join the efforts of the Swarm on Congress, an intensive and extensive lobbying
effort in Washington, D.C. through the end of July initiated by
Grassroots America for Us – http://www.grassrootsamerica4us.org/Get_the_Votes.html 

*
Organize local actions with the Occupation Project (http://vcnv.org/project/the-occupation-project)
campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience / civil resistance / office
occupations to demand that Representatives and Senators vote to end to all
funding for the Iraq
war. A reinvigorated campaign will be launched on August 6 to continue through
the vote on war funding in September. 
You can contact the Occupation Project via email at occupationproject@vcnv.org
for suggestions and advice on how to organize a local Occupation Project
campaign.  Resources including voting
records, legal information, etc. are available on this website.

*
CODEPINK (http://www.codepinkalert.org)
work includes the Occupation Project and the Don't Buy Bush's War campaigns
(among other critical work to end the war). 

*
Join the Declaration of Peace (http://declarationofpeace.org) campaign efforts. DoP will
be lobbying Representatives and Senators through the summer, culminating with a
week of actions nationally during the critical week of September 14 to 21.

*
Participate in the efforts of the National Campaign of Nonviolent Resistance (http://iraqpledge.org) as it
challenges the war in Iraq
through nonviolent direct action.  NCNR
has organized actions at military recruiting centers, Congressional offices,
the Pentagon and weapons manufacturers. 

*
Participate in the legislative network of United for Peace and Justice (http://www.unitedforpeace.org)
as well as its nonviolent direct action working group to force an end to the
war.

Time
is short to end funding for the Iraq
war. And the costs are immeasurably high each day that the war continues. Much
organizing work remains to be done. 

Break
time is over.

Voices
for Creative Nonviolence 1249 W Argyle Street #2,
Chicago, IL
60640 Phone: (773) 878-3815 E-mail: info@vcnv.org
web: