[Peace-discuss] Fw: [Aware] The Occupation Project

[Randall Cotton]

Just received at our aware at anti-war.net address, regarding an upcoming statewide
civil disobedience campaign rooted in Chicago. I suspect it's just a matter of
time before this becomes common. Maybe we should start thinking about it.

R

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Occupation Project - VCNV" <occupationproject at vcnv.org>
To: <occupationproject at vcnv.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2006 2:58 PM
Subject: [Aware] The Occupation Project


Voices for Creative Nonviolence would like to invite you to participate in
the Occupation Project: A Campaign of Sustained Nonviolent Civil
Disobedience to End the Iraq War. The campaign begins on February 5, 2007
and will run for eight weeks.  The campaign challenges Representatives and
Senators to publicly declare that they will vote against any further funding
for the war in, and occupation of, Iraq.

We invite you to join with us and others around the U.S. in organizing
sustained nonviolent civil disobedience at the offices of Representatives
and Senators who do not publicly pledge to vote against war funding.  Voices
is spearheading the organizing here in Chicago, as well as coordinating with
groups all over Illinois so our efforts on our Representatives and Senators
are most effective.  Our next organizing meeting is Sunday December 17 at
6pm at Christian Peacemaker Teams Training Center, located at 2751 W. 16th
St (near the corner of 16th and
California, across from Douglas Park).  We hope you can join us for that
meeting.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions, comments, or interest you
might have regarding this campaign.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Occupation Project:

President Bush is expected to submit to Congress yet another request in
early 2007 for supplemental war funding for the Iraq war.  Already, the
military services are requesting $160 billion in additional war funding for
the current fiscal year, which just began on October 1, though modest
reductions will likely be made before being submitted to Congress in early
2007.  The funds will be for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for the
so-called Global War on Terror.

In Chicago, a coalition of organizations and individuals will conduct weekly
occupations inside the offices of elected Representatives and Senators
beginning February 5.  Campaigns are also being organized in Wisconsin and
Iowa.  We ask your participation in the Occupation Project campaign in your
own locality—building a campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience focused
upon your own Representative and Senators.

The campaign is nonviolent, consists of actions which risk arrest and is
based upon affinity groups.  An affinity group is a grouping of individuals
who come together for a specific action or for a longer period of time to
make decisions together and support each other through a campaign of
nonviolent resistance.  Each affinity group will determine the type of c.d.
action in which its members engage.

The location and frequency of the actions will vary.  One possibility is to
focus upon a specific Senator or Representative because of their position on
the war or in Congress (especially if they are on the Appropriations
Committee which will initially vote on the war funding).   Another
possibility is to rotate the action from one office to another: week one is
at Senator A's office; week 2 is at Senator B's office; week 3 is at a
Representative's office; week 4 is back to Senator A and the cycle is
repeated.  Some may act once a week, others every other week.  If 16 people
are willing to risk arrest, consider having 4 people risk arrest each week
throughout the campaign, rather than all at once.

The type of action will also vary as affinity groups decide what to do, so
long as the action is based firmly within the nonviolence guidelines and
principles of this campaign.  Affinity groups within a locality or region
may coordinate with each other—perhaps using the model of one affinity group
acts at an office one week, followed by a different affinity group the
following week, and so on.

One action within an official's office is to read the names of U.S. and Iraq
dead, tolling a bell for each name read, until all names have been read or
until the Senator / Representative publicly pledges to vote against any
additional war funding or participants are placed under arrest and removed
from the office.

Another action within an official's office is to toll a bell once each
minute for each Iraqi and U.S. person who has died since the U.S. led
invasion.    The number of Iraqis who have died as a consequence of the war
will quite probably never be known.  However, it is established that the
number of Iraqis who have died since the invasion number at least in the
tens of thousands, if not in the hundreds of thousands.   The tolling of the
bell would continue until it is tolled once for each person who has died in
Iraq or until people are placed under arrest and removed from the office.

Other possibilities include an interfaith prayer service; a silent vigil;
posting of the names of Iraqi and U.S. dead; bringing in photos of Iraqis
and U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq; etc.—all occurring within the
Representative's or Senator's office and continuing until such time as he /
she publicly pledges to vote against additional war funding or the
participants are removed from the office by law enforcement.

In laying the groundwork for the Occupation Project, VCNV encourages you to
contact your Representative and Senators to seek a public pledge to oppose
war funding.  Delegations should be formed to meet with Representatives and
Senators as soon as possible—but prior to the February 5 start date of the
Occupation Project's sustained campaign of civil disobedience.  Ask your
legislator to publicly pledge to vote against any additional funding for the
Iraq war.   You should be in contact with the Mandate for Peace campaign's
efforts in this regard (www.mandateforpeace.org).   If your Rep or Senator
makes such a public pledge, please let VCNV know so that this can be noted
on the campaign website.

The VCNV website includes the following legislative resources: background
information on prior supplemental spending bills; the voting records of
Representatives and Senators; list of members of the House and Senate
Appropriations Committee; and information on the legislation which
Representatives and Senators co-sponsored in the current  Congress (please
be aware that all pending legislation dies with the end of this Congress in
December).  In addition, the site will maintain a listing all of the places
where activists are participating in the Occupation Project.  On this
website, activists will also find sample press releases, fliers,
informational updates, announcements of actions happening across the United
States, and nonviolence guidelines / resources to assist with participation
in the campaign.  Voices will also provide a basic guide to the arrest and
court process for those preparing to risk arrest during this campaign.

During the coming weeks, we plan to be in touch with people and groups who
have organized previous nonviolent efforts to end economic and military
warfare in Iraq.  We plan to continue to work in collaboration with other
organizations which promote nonviolent civil disobedience to end the war in
and occupation of Iraq, especially the National Campaign of Nonviolent
Resistance (www.iraqpledge.org) and the Declaration of Peace
(www.declarationofpeace.org),
each of which is organizing actions to take place in early 2007.

Voices for Creative Nonviolence was established in 2005 by individuals who
previously worked to end the brutal U.S. / U.N. economic sanctions imposed
against Iraq by the U.S. and U.N.  Many traveled to, and supported those who
traveled to, Iraq to bring medicine and other humanitarian supplies to
ordinary Iraqi citizens in a campaign of civil disobedience. VCNV calls for
the immediate end to the U.S. war in and occupation of Iraq; the
unconditional cancellation of all odious debt incurred by Saddam Hussein's
regime; the unconditional cancellation of the war reparations charges
imposed against Iraq by the U.N. following the Hussein regime's invasion of
Kuwait in 1990-91; and the full payment of war reparations by the U.S. to
Iraq for the reconstruction of Iraq following 15 years of economic and
military warfare against Iraq.



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