DC Encampment: Greens Participate in Press Conference

Boston Troops Out Now Coalition <iacboston@iacboston.org> wrote:
A press conference was held Sept. 24 to announce the Encampment and the
mass march on Sept. 29. Larry Holmes of the Troops Out Now Coalition
opened the conference, saying, “The Democrats say they want to cut war
funding but they can’t get past a veto. We know this isn’t true. They
could simply make sure the funding question doesn’t get to the floor.
Meanwhile, Bush is prepared to veto $30 to $35 billion for health care
for children.”

Holmes also discussed the serious threat of a new war on Iran: “Iranian
President Ahmadinejad is being demonized in the media, and we’re not
naive. We know that they are preparing the population for an expansion
of the war in Iraq to war in Iran. But the biggest terrorists are in the
world sit in the White House.”

Rev. Lennox Yearwood spoke about unity in the people’s struggle against
multiple wars: “I’m so pleased to see support here at the Encampment for
the struggle in Jena; I was pleased to hear, in Jena, people talking
about how the bombs in Baghdad are affecting people in the United
States. … If it calls for getting arrested, getting in the way, then
we’ll get arrested and get in the way. Our struggles will continue, but
we will win.” Yearwood was recently beaten by D.C. police at an anti-war
press conference.

Adam Kokesh, Co-Chair of the board of directors for Iraq Veterans
Against the War described his organization’s demands, including
immediate withdrawal of all forces from Iraq, “and when we say all
forces, we mean Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Blackwater,
Halliburton”; and full payment of reparations to the people of Iraq.

Nana Soul of Artists and Activists United for Peace, a TONC member
organization, described the weeklong concert that is being held as part
of the Encampment. “The movement needs cultural inspiration, talent and
creativity. Iraq may be the issue today, but we know that this isn’t the
first time that the United States has invaded a sovereign nation. They
use tools at home like not funding health care and education. We have a
chance to translate these actions.”

Rick Clemens, Ann Wilcox and Joyce Robinson-Paul represented the Green
Party. Clemens, a Vietnam War veteran, stressed: “This war is about
imperialism, about the exploitation of labor power and markets of other
peoples. There is no thing as ending the war without ending the economic
system that perpetuates war–capitalism.” Wilcox discussed the effects
of the war at home in Washington, D.C., where neighborhood libraries are
being closed and thousands of affordable housing units have been lost.

Toby Blomé of Code Pink Women for Peace described the two encampments
their group has undertaken at Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s house,
after she refused to meet with them to discuss war funding for three
months. They plan on going to her office regularly during the Encampment
and will be fasting for the week as “another way to show commitment to
ending the occupation and bringing the troops home.”

Vernon Hoffman, who biked 4,500 miles with his family from Portland,
Oregon to join the Encampment, said he’d “rather bike for peace than
kill for oil.” He described how throughout the country, people took
opened up their homes for the family and their anti-war message.

Lastly, a young war resister described how he enlisted in the military
in 2005 because of limited career opportunities in his hometown.
However, he says, “I happened to join at the same time as Hurricane
Katrina, and I saw on TV the bodies floating in the streets. It really
hit home to me. I got out of training 25 weeks later and nothing had
changed. Despite all the rhetoric about homeland security and national
security, this government’s priorities are not for the people.”

Other actions at the Encampment today included an event on Pelosi hosted
by Code Pink, and an outreach sound truck caravan through the streets of
D.C. to mobilize for the march on the 29th.

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Troops Out Now Coalition

Boston:
617-522-6626
iacboston@iacboston.org
http://www.iacboston.org

National Office:
212-633-6646
http://troopsoutnow.org