End the War - Keep War Funding Off The Floor!

Activists converge for Encampment to Stop the War

update: schedule, maps, more

Anti-war activists, veterans, military families, and community organizers from across the U.S. have arrived for the Encampment to Stop the War directly in front of the Capitol in Washington D.C., which began on Saturday.

People have traveled from as far away as Oregon, Florida, and Maine to participate in the Encampment. One family rode 4,500 miles on bicycles. Code Pink and the Green Party have pitched their tents. Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War have arrived in a large bus
that will remain in front of the encampment for the week. Signs on the bus read, "Don't attack Iran" and "Impeach Bush." More organizers will be arriving throughout the week (see photos and updates at http://encampmenttostopthewar.blogspot.com).

The Encampment is timed to coincide with the expiration of the current round of funding for the war and the ongoing debates in Congress. The last appropriations passed by Congress are due to expire on October 1.

Larry Holmes of the Troops Out Now Coalition expressed why so many felt the urgent need to protest here this week: "Congress was elected with a clear mandate to bring the troops home. All we've seen so far are delaying tactics and political theater. The Democrats in Congress could stop funding the war today if they decided to. They could keep a funding
bill from ever coming to the floor, because they're in the leadership. We're here to demand that they do what they wereelected to do--cut the funding and bring the troops home now. We'll be here all week with banners, placards, and protests to stop the war at home and abroad."

Actions during the Encampment will include:
. Nightly concerts, including hip-hop, jazz, soul, folk, and spoken word
. Daily protests, including direct actions
. Reports from the massive protests to Free the Jena 6
. Youth protests and civil disobedience
. A report from the Katrina/Rita Tribunal, held in New Orleans on the second anniversary of the Katrina disaster
. Teach-ins, panels, and planning sessions
. A Friday night vigil featuring the cast from SiCKO, in remembrance of all who have died from lack of health care
. Actions in support of immigrant rights and political prisoners

For an updated schedule see http://www.troopsoutnow.org.

WE NEED YOUR HELP! The costs of running a 24-hour encampment, ending in a mass march, are enormous, from the cost of the portable toilets, scaffolding and generators, to the cost of feeding the participants, to the cost of producing placards and banners for the various activities throughout the week. Please help support the efforts of the many people who have and will be taking time off from work and school to demand an end to racist war and repression at home and abroad.

Donate

If you can't join us in DC or LA for the Encampment to Stop the War and the National March on September 29, you can still be a major part of this mobilization against the war at home and abroad. Please consider making a generous donate online to help with food and supplies for the encampment, sound equipment, transportation, and more. Donate online at:
http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml

Get your bus tickets today for the September 29 Mass March on Washington.

Find a transportation center near you.

Updated housing, maps, and logistics information.

ENCAMPMENT TO STOP THE WAR
7 days of Resistance & Protest
In front of the Capitol
3rd & Constitution

Press Conference 9/24 3PM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contacts:
LeiLani Dowell 1-917-701-7593
Dustin Langley 1-646-354-8056
Frank Neisser 1-617-792-8136
http://troopsoutnow.org

When: Monday, September 24, 3:00 p.m.

Where: Anti-war Encampment on the West Side of the Capitol Reflection Pool,
near 3rd Street on the Capitol Mall

THE DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS HAVE THE POWER TO CUT OFF WAR FUNDING--THE MOVEMENT MUST MAKE THEM DO IT

MARCH ON WASHINGTON
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29
STOP THE WAR BY CUTTING OFF WAR FUNDING

The Troops Out Now Coalition (TONC) will be holding a press conference on Monday, Sept. 24 at 3 pm at the site of a weeklong anti-war Encampment, on the Capitol mall at the west side of the reflection pool.

Participants in Monday's press conference will include:

• Adam Kokesh, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and other Iraq veterans
• Members of the Hoffman family, which traveled 4,500 miles by bicycle from Portland, Oregon to attend the Encampment
• Rev. Lennox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus
• Nana Soul, Artists and Activists United for Peace
• Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler, Plymouth Congregational Church, DC
• Anne Wright, career Army veteran and former State Dept. official
• Larry Holmes, Vietnam War GI resister and spokesperson for TONC
• Representatives from Code Pink, the Green Party, the student movement, labor and the community.

This week, Congress begins preparation for voting on President Bush and the Pentagon's request for $200 billion more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. On Saturday, Sept. 29, thousands will gather at the anti-war Encampment to march and demand that not one more dollar be approved for war.

TONC spokesperson Larry Holmes said: "The Democrats in Congress don't need enough votes to override a presidential veto in order to cut off all war funding. All the leadership of Congress has to do is simply keep any vote on war funding from coming to the floor, or even getting out of the Senate or House Appropriations committees."

Participants at the press conference will discuss plans for the Sept. 29 march and the five days of action at the Encampment before the big march.

End the War - Keep War Funding Off The Floor!

What if Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi refused to present a bill on the floor of Congress to fund the criminal U.S. occupation of Iraq? The possibility of a Bush veto would not be an issue.

Although there are billions of dollars still in the pipeline, Bush and the Pentagon, faced with a new political reality, would be forced to begin making plans for withdrawal.

As Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi has full control over which pieces of legislation make it onto the floor of House to be voted on. The Democratic Party majority in Congress could just sit on any war spending bill and there would be no funds for the war

Funding for war in Iraq could be stopped at any number of steps in either the House or Senate.

According to the U.S. constitution spending bills have to originate in the House of Representatives. Congress has control over executive branch by having decisive control of funds for war.

Not only does the Speaker of the House control the legislation put on the floor for a vote, the Democrats, as the majority party, currently control the chair of all committees in both houses of congress. The Appropriations Committee could also just not bring the funding bill out of committee.

As the new majority Speaker of the House, one of Nancy Pelosi’s first acts was to declare that Impeachment proceedings against President Bush were ‘off the table’. This meant she would refuse to allow this burning issue to come to the floor of House. If instead as House Speaker, Pelosi were to declare that war funding is ‘off the table’, funding for war would not be possible.

When millions of people voted for Democratic Party politicians, who claimed to be anti-war last November, this is exactly the kinds of legislative actions they expected a Democratic, supposedly anti-war majority in Congress to take.

It is important to confront the direct fraud that the Democratic majority in Congress is putting forth in their complicity on voting to fund the war.

Even though they control the majority in both houses even since election they have given endless excuses about how they do not have the votes to do what they promised to do.

The Democrats claim that because they do not have a 2/3 majority they are powerless to over rule Bush's veto on the war funding. So they must pass a bill that Bush would approve. They could simply refuse to present a bill for ANY war funding.

They clearly have the Constitutional authority, the legislative power and political mandate.

But it will take a massive determined, angry and independent movement to force the conciliatory Democratic majority in Congress to put Impeachment on the table and take war funding off the table.

The Democrats with endless help from the corporate media have presented a hand wringing theatrical fraud about their lack of sufficient votes to take any action against the war.

Spending bills originates in House Appropriations Committee. Dave Obey (D Wisc). Obey could also simple refuse to move funding for the war out of committee. This is the fate of many hundreds of bills introduced into Congress each your. Most bills ‘die in committee’.

The Appropriations Committee has a Sub-committee on Defense chaired by John Murfa (D-PA), who says he wants to bring troops home He could do this by refusing to bring forward funding for the war.

At every stage Congress could act to stop funding the war.

After a funding bill is approved in the House of Representatives it moves to the Senate. Senator Robert Byrd, D-VA, head of the Senate Appropriations committee and so eloquently opposed to war could just refuse to move the bill thru the Senate Appropriations Committee. Harry Reid, Senate Majority leader could refuse to bring a bill to the Senate floor. Any of these measures would also ‘kill’ the multi-billion dollar war funding bill.

There would be no need to have a 60% majority to stop a Republican filibuster nor would the supposed anti-war Democrats need a 2/3 majority to overcome a presidential veto.

JUSTIFYING COLLABORATION

To further justify their collaboration on the war, members of Congress use their supposed concern for U.S. troops as a human shield. They are hiding behind soldiers and the threat that if they cut off funds U.S. soldiers would wake up tomorrow and not have food, water, even have funds to pull out.

This is also a fraud. The Pentagon does not live pay check to paycheck like working people do. The budget and supply process is decided months and years in advance. There is a long supply chain – planning and allocation are known many months in advance.

The Pentagon is using the funds for Iraq war to plan and prepare new wars against Iran. Half the U.S. navy has moved to within striking range of Iran. More than 10,000 sites have been targeted by Pentagon planners.

Congress and media know the determination of corporate America is to stay in Iraq for a generation or more.

As Congress again votes before the October 1 deadline to continue the war a political challenge is being prepared by the Troops Out Now Coalition. The greatest contribution of the Encampment scheduled to take place directly in front of Congress from Sept 22 to 29 is to show the kind of independent mass action that is needed to really end the war. Learning through bitter experience about the role of both capitalist parties is an essential part of the struggle to end the war.

posted 9/22/2007