Confront the War Machine: A Call to Action for the Third Anniversary of the Iraq War

Confront the War Machine:
A Call to Action for the Third Anniversary of the Iraq War.

(to this end, community groups will be having planning meetings in Washington, DC, on January 21, at the Flemming Center - 9th and P Streets NW - from 11 - 3 PM to talk about spring actions - as chance would have it, the Hip Hop Caucus will be doing the same thing on the same day from 12 - 2; though both groups are talking about ways of combining the synergies)

Now is the time to bring the anti-war movement home by directly confronting the war machine in your hometown. And, in our hometown, Washington, DC, we invite you all to come and confront The Pentagon directly.

The DC Anti-War Network, DAWN, a locally-based grassroots anti-war group in the metropolitan Washington area calls upon individuals and other local grassroots groups to observe the third anniversary of the war (a.k.a. occupation) in Iraq by organizing locally and holding nonviolent protests and actions of dissent in our communities.

Additionally, DAWN calls upon individuals and groups who don’t have prior plans in their own communities to come to Washington, DC, not to march, lobby, or protest a government that ignores voices for peace and justice but rather to directly confront the war machine, The Pentagon, with acts of nonviolent civil resistance.

In our home communities, now is the time to confront our government and those who profit from the war that has been waged based on lies and deception. DAWN calls for people to mobilize and organize locally in our communities to build and strengthen the anti-war movement. Instead of coming to Washington, New York, or other cities for just one day of protest, DAWN calls for anti-war actions over the entire month of March 2006 to mark the third anniversary of the war in Iraq. We urge people to organize against militarism in our schools and communities by confronting military recruiters who prey upon the young and the poor, to protest the use of torture that is so much a part of this war, to protest the use of depleted uranium on the Iraqi people, to make the connections between the war in Iraq with other wars and occupations, and to make the connections between the costs we are paying for war and what we are not paying for, vitally important social needs.

Join us in March 2006 by organizing, building, and strengthening the anti-war movement in our communities and also by coming for a direct confrontation with The Pentagon.

(1) DAWN calls for people to organize and choose an armed forces recruiting station in their neighborhood for protest. DAWN also encourages other kinds of counter-recruiting actions protesting military recruiters in our schools and communities. Stop the recruiters and end the war!

(2) DAWN calls for people to demonstrate, including acts of nonviolent civil resistance, against torture, especially its use in this so-called “War on Terror.” Torture is illegal and immoral and should never be carried out in our names. Whether in wartime or peace, torture is wrong. Torture must stop!

(3) Over 1.1 billion people, one fifth of the world’s population, barely survive on less than $1 per day, and half of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day. Over 852 million people are hungry, and 16,000 children die from hunger every day. Every year 11 million children die because of hunger. Over 20 million low-birth weight babies are born every year in the global south, millions of them dying in infancy; those who survive risk lives with physical and cognitive health problems. Poverty destroys and devastates families, communities, and countries. Every dollar of the hundreds of billions of dollars spent for war and occupation takes away from what could help alleviate poverty and hunger. DAWN calls for protests against those who profit from the war and occupation. DAWN calls for actions, including nonviolent civil resistance, at local war contractors, as well as the politicians who receive money from them, profiting from the war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Starve the war machine; feed the poor!

(4) In addition to organizing and acting locally DAWN calls on people not otherwise engaged in their communities to come to protest the war machine, The Pentagon, with direct actions of nonviolent civil resistance. We must stop business as usual at The Pentagon where war plans are born and implemented, including the use of depleted uranium against the Iraqi people. Now is the time for mass actions of nonviolent civil resistance to be directed at The Pentagon rather than simply the President and other politicians who see the anti-war movement as a focus group. End the war; protest The Pentagon!

(5) We call for coordination of organizing between communities, through open clearinghouses and regional meetings. For the Pentagon actions and any other actions in the DC area, we call for spokescouncils to plan actions so that ownership of the action does not belong to any one group but to the movement as a whole. While DAWN will plan a specific action or set of actions, we call on groups to use their creativity to plan their own actions, and we call on groups to work with DAWN and other groups on a unified scenario so that we can most effectively combat the war machine. Whether you are organizing locally or in Washington, we must work together, and communication and mutual respect is essential to making this month of action work. Let’s work together!

Please contact stopthewarnow06@gmail.com for more information.