DRANT #218: STOP THE MACHINE!!!!

"Under the influence of politicians, masses of people tend to ascribe the responsibility for wars to those who wield power at any given time. In World War I it was the munitions industrialists; in World War II it was the psychopathic generals who were said to be guilty. This is passing the buck.
The responsibility for wars falls solely upon the shoulders of these same masses of people, for they have all the necessary means to avert war in their own hands. In part by their apathy, in part by their passivity, and in part actively, these same masses of people make possible the catastrophes under which they themselves suffer more than anyone else. To stress this guilt on the part of the masses of people, to hold them solely responsible, means to take them seriously. On the other hand, to commiserate masses of people as victims, means to treat them as small, helpless children. The former is the attitude held by genuine freedom fighters; the latter that attitude held by power-thirsty politicians."
Wilhelm Reich, The Mass Psychology of Fascism
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Come to DC.
As soon as you can.
If you can't, then do your own intervention and resistance wherever you are.
Stop The Machine.
Occupy your Congressperson's office. Stop The Machine
Do a Die-In in your city. Stop The Machine
Organize a work stoppage where you work, For a day, for an hour. Stop The Machine
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***Weather forecast for next week – 60’s
For the latest Encampment updates - check the Encampment blog

ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT

Democratic Party Leaders Plan To Betray Anti-War Movement
Phony “Withdrawal” Plan is Just a Cover for Funding Bush’s War

DON’T LET THEM
GET AWAY WITH IT!

Antiwar
Encampment in
Front of Congress Starts on Monday >>>

DON’T BE FOOLED, the “withdrawal from Iraq” plan that Democratic Party leaders in Congress have just announced is nothing more than a cover for them to approve Bush’s request for $100 billion to fund the war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan-- in other words, to continue the war.

CUT OFF THE WAR FUNDS - END THE WAR NOW – BRING THE TROOPS HOME
Democratic Party leaders propose to begin withdrawing troops in a year to 18 months. Over the last 18 months, more than 1,200 U.S. soldiers have been killed, and about 7 times that many wounded and maimed. Do the math: a year or 18 more months of war is a death sentence for untold numbers of soldiers and an even greater number of Iraqis.

CUT OFF THE WAR FUNDS – END THE WAR NOW – BRING THE TROOPS HOME
The “withdrawal time tables” along with the “ goals and conditions” that Democratic leaders are proposing are not fundamentally different than the ones that Bush proposed in his “State of the Union” address. The real stink bomb hidden in this new “withdrawal” legislation is that Bush and his generals have the authority to “waive” any part of these so-called timetables and conditions, any time he wants to. The fact is that these new proposals amount to nothing more than political posturing by Democratic leaders in order to get some of the antiwar heat off of them while they continue to fund the war. This plan is not a plan to end the war--it is just another non-binding resolution. Representative Jerry Nadler had it right when he said “All of this is just and excuse funding another year of war”.

CUT OFF THE WAR FUNDS – END THE WAR NOW – BRING THE TROOPS HOME
Democratic Party leaders can end the war right now if the exercise their power to simply cut off all funding for the war. If they don’t do that, then it’s not just Bush’s war, or just the Republican Party’s war, it’s the Democratic Party’s war as well and now is the time to demand that they put up or shut up.

CUT OFF THE WAR FUNDS – END THE WAR NOW – BRING THE TROOPS HOME
On Monday, antiwar activists from around the country will began camping in front of the Capital building at 3rd St. right on the Washington DC National Mall. We will be there with tents, banners, placards, signs, noisemakers, etc. demanding that Congress stop the BS and simply cut off the war funding, end the war now and bring the troops home. We need you to join us. We need you to march on the Pentagon on March 17. Moreover, if there was ever a time to be in the streets, blocking traffic, occupying bridges, organizing walk-outs from coast to coast to stop this criminal war THIS IS THE TIME!

The Encampment to Stop the War will start in just a few days - Monday, March 12 - and there is an enormous amount of work to be done in a short period of time. We have an opportunity in the next few days to have a major impact, if we work together--here's how you can help:

Let us know if you are coming to the Encampment. Use the Volunteer form at http://troopsoutnow.org/march12volunteer.shtml.
Volunteer at the Encampment - we will need hundreds of volunteers during the week of the Encampment let us know how you can help (logistics, security, medical, greeter, etc) - http://troopsoutnow.org/march12volunteer.shtml
Donate to to help with the enormous costs of the Encampment - http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml. If you are not able to come to the encampment, help send a youth activist to the Encampment to the week- donate for transportation and housing costs here.

San Francisco Die-In
Monday, March 19th 2007 12 noon
San Francisco, CA USA
DIE-IN on Market Street to show what it would look like if downtown San Francisco were filled with dead bodies. Wear all black or wear a black armband, and put a Bring the Troops Home Now sign in the window of your home or car. Go to www.dieinmarch19.org for more information, downloadable leaflet, and ways to help publicize the event.
Location:
Assembly points: Federal Reserve (Spear & Market); McKesson Plaza (Montgomery & Market); Westfield Center (Powell & Market); UN Plaza (7th & Market). San Francisco CA
Contact:
March 19 Die-In
actionmarch19@gmail.com
http://www.dieinmarch19.org

COMMON DREAMS
March 9,2007

Protesters Aim To Take Over Lawmakers’ Offices, Fight War Funding
by Jennifer C. Kerr

WASHINGTON — Some opponents of the Iraq war are taking their protests straight to Congress — staging “occupations” in lawmakers’ offices on Capitol Hill and in their home communities.

Erin Cox of Chicago, left, gets handcuffed by Wausau Police officer Todd Baeten Monday, March 5, 2007, as three other peace activists are arrested at U.S. Rep. Dave Obey's office in Wausau, Wis. Protesters are staging sit-ins in congressional offices in Minnesota and Wisconsin, part of a nationwide effort to pressure lawmakers to vote against funding for the war in Iraq. (AP Photo/Wausau Daily Herald, Corey Schjoth)

Rep. Rahm Emanuel’s office in Chicago was targeted on Thursday.
A day earlier protesters were headed off before getting into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office in San Francisco.
In Washington, peace activists dressed in pink showed up recently at the Senate offices of presidential hopefuls John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The protesters haven’t abandoned the larger, more familiar gatherings at college campuses, major cities and monuments in Washington. But in recent weeks, they have been turning up at congressional offices, vowing to stay until they get pledges that lawmakers will vote against more war funding — or until they are forcibly removed.
“We really see it as an extension of lobbying,” Jeff Leys, co-coordinator of Chicago-based Voices for Creative Nonviolence, said of the office occupations. “The aim is to keep going back time and time and time again.”
The protesters number anywhere from a handful to a few dozen. Sometimes, they stay for minutes. Sometimes, they remain for hours before police move in.
Organizers count more than 140 arrests so far. Most involve charges of trespassing or disorderly conduct.
During the occupations, the protesters sit, stand, sing, chant, pray, ring bells, and read letters from American troops sent home to their families.
The eight demonstrators at Emanuel’s office on Thursday performed skits about the consequences of war, read names of U.S. troops killed in Iraq and told stories about Iraqi children hurt in the fighting. They were welcomed by a staffer into the lobby of the congressman’s office.
Sometimes, though, the protesters don’t even get through the front door.
About 20 demonstrators gathered outside Pelosi’s San Francisco office on Wednesday. Before they could enter, a Pelosi staffer ushered the group down to a conference room seven floors below, where many voiced frustration that Pelosi was not being aggressive enough in seeking an end to the war.
The anti-war groups are setting their sights on Republicans, like McCain. But they’re also lining up against Democrats, like Pelosi, who were opposed to the war from the very beginning.
“Those who know there is an alternative, we want to put some pressure on them to do the right thing,” said Gael Murphy, co-founder of Codepink, an anti-war group with a name that serves as a poke at the Bush administration’s color-coded terror alert system. Pink, the group says, represents peace.
Occupations have been held at the offices of Sens. Richard Durbin of Illinois and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, and Reps. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and David Obey of Wisconsin. All four Democrats voted against the 2002 measure authorizing the war.
Earlier this week, Obey was confronted outside his Capitol office by war opponents, prompting a heated exchange in which Obey shouted at one women who wanted him to vote against money for the war.
In a video posted on the Internet site YouTube, the Democratic lawmaker is seen pounding his fist repeatedly into the air, complaining loudly that Democrats don’t have enough votes to cut off war funding and the protesters don’t understand the debate in Congress.
“That makes no sense. It doesn’t work that way,” Obey says at one point.
In Minnesota, protesters are pressuring most congressional offices, including that of Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, a former anti-war protester himself from the Vietnam era. He is considered one of the most vulnerable senators seeking re-election next year.
Coleman supported the Iraq war resolution as a candidate in 2002, but he was also one of just two Republicans last month to vote to allow debate on a resolution critical of President Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq.
Two of the weekly protesters at Coleman’s St. Paul office are nuns Rita and Kate MacDonald. Older sister Rita, 84, said they want to stir up the old anti-war feelings in the college protester-turned senator.
“It certainly is my hope that that could come back for him — being convinced that war is totally futile, especially this war,” she said.
Last month, Bush asked Congress to approve an additional $93.4 billion for war operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year. Democrats, angry about the war but divided over whether to cut funding, are considering ways to attach conditions to any additional money.
To date, there are two pledges against Bush’s war supplemental request, organizers said. Both are from Democrats from Massachusetts — Reps. Martin Meehan and Edward Markey. Markey, however, has said he would consider war funding that had conditions attached, such as redeployments.
The campaign was organized by Voices for Creative Nonviolence. The occupations, the group says, are intended to coincide with other anti-war efforts, such as rallies and marches.
An anti-war demonstration is planned for Washington on March 17, when protesters will march from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the Pentagon. A January protest in the city drew tens of thousands of people, including actress Jane Fonda.
Associated Press writers Frederic J. Frommer in Washington, F.N. D’Alessio in Chicago and Marcus Wohlsen in San Francisco contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2007 by the Associated Press
© Copyrighted 1997-2007
www.commondreams.org

Troops out now
http://encampmenttostopthewar.blogspot.com/

http://www.troopsoutnow.org/mar17.html

An International CALL From The TROOPS OUT NOW COALITION:
MARCH ON WASHINGTON...and STAY THERE
Beginning MARCH 12
Encampment to STOP the WAR!
March on Washington DC & worldwide on the 4th Anniversary of the U.S. Invasion and Occupation of Iraq
Troops Out Now!

MARCH 12 Encampment to STOP the WAR
New! - For daily updates on the Encampment to Stop the War, go to the Encampment blog at http://encampmenttostopthewar.blogspot.com

1. Endorse the call for unity for March 17 - http://www.troopsoutnow.org/mar17endorse.html
2. Volunteer - http://www.troopsoutnow.org/mar17volunteer.html
3. Become an Organizing Center - http://troopsoutnow.org/mar17orgcentsignup.html
4. Donate - http://www.troopsoutnow.org/donate.html

Encampment site is on 3rd St. between Independence and Constitution Ave., directly in front of the Capitol Building.

The Troops Out Now Coalition calls on everyone to join the antiwar march on March 17 ... and come ready to STAY in DC!

ON MARCH 17, MARCH ON THE PENTAGON --
AND STAY IN WASHINGTON UNTIL THEY CUT OFF WAR FUNDING
Troops Out Now Coalition
www.troopsoutnow.org
5C - Solidarity Center
55 W. 17th St.
NY NY 10011
212.633.6646