PEOPLE'S ANTI-WAR REFERENDUM: VoteNoWar.org
JANUARY 18-19 2003
MASS DEMO & GRASSROOTS PEACE CONGRESS in WASHINGTON, DC***
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as of 12/11/02:January 18, people across the United States will converge at the West side of the Capitol Building in Washington DC and march in a mass demonstration to the Washington Navy Yard -- a massive military installation located in a working class neighborhood in Southeast Washington DC that parks warships on the Anacostia River. We will demand the immediate elimination of US weapons of mass destruction and a people's inspection team will call for unfettered access and a full declaration of U.S. non-conventional weapons systems.
Given the feedback that we have received, we have decided that there will be more effective organization and participation in the People's Peace Congress if it takes place after the January 18-19-20 weekend. Many local areas indicated that they wanted to participate in the People's Peace Congress, but reserving buses for the entire weekend was logistically difficult and extremely expensive. Given the response from different communities that are excited about participation in the People's Peace Congress, we are suggesting the rescheduling of the Congress in the spring. The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition is consulting with different member organizations and supporters, and will announce further plans for the People's Peace Congress in the coming weeks. Everyone agrees that the most important and urgent task -- given the imminent war danger -- is for a massive street mobilization on the Martin Luther King birthday weekend in Washington DC. ***
The People's Anti-War Referendum is part of a major grassroots nationwide initiative to fight the war drive. The Referendum states: “I Vote No to War. The U.S. Congress did not represent me when it voted to authorize George W. Bush to carry out an illegal war against Iraq. Thousands will die needlessly unless the people stop this war drive. I join with millions of people who believe that the $200 billion planned for war against Iraq should be spent instead to fund jobs, education, housing, healthcare, childcare, assistance to the elderly and to meet people's needs.” The Referendum is a complement to the street protests that are intensifying all around the country. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets around the world Saturday, October 26, 2002, demonstrating the strength of the movement for social justice.
Join the People’s Anti-War Referendum
VoteNoWar.orgThis Referendum shows that the Congress and the White House do not represent the people as they plan to carry out a criminal war against Iraq. When Congress rejects the will of the people, the people must act themselves.
People all over the U.S. will be participating in the Anti-War Referendum. This is a grassroots movement with committees and organizers in cities and towns across the country. More than 150 cities helped organize for the October 26 mass demonstrations and many are planning to incorporate the People's Anti-War Referendum into their organizing activities in the coming weeks.
By early January 2003 a massive number of people will have voted in this referendum either on line at www.VoteNoWar.org or on paper copies circulated at the October 26 demonstrations and across the country. These anti-war votes will be brought to Washington, D.C., at the time of mass demonstrations on January 18-19, 2003, timed to coincide with the Martin Luther King Jr. anniversary celebrations.
You can help build the People's Anti-War Referendum in your community, campus, high school, place of worship and workplace. Join this movement: visit www.VoteNoWar.org or call (202) 332-5757. Initiated by the A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) Coalition
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Mass Demonstration and the Convening of the Grassroots Peace Congress [congress part of actions posponed until the spring] in Washington, DC January 18-19, 2003
When Congress rejects the will of the people, the people must act themselves. Congress has rubber-stamped Bush's crimi-nal war that seeks to conquer the oil, land and resources of the Middle East. Bush and Congress have shown that they represent the interests of Corporate America rather than the people of the United States.
A people's movement is growing to stop them. On January 18 and 19 tens of thousands of people will participate in mass protest activities on the Martin Luther King Jr. anniversary weekend.
Dr. King publicly condemned the U.S. war in Vietnam, provid-ing a powerful connection between the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement. In his “Beyond Vietnam” speech at Riverside Church in 1967, he stated, “The greatest pur-veyor of violence in the world today [is] my own government. ...[F]or the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.”
Dr. King believed that it was impossible to successfully wage a war on poverty at home while waging a war of aggression in Vietnam. The same can be said today about George W. Bush's global war drive. Social programs and services are being looted as Bush and Congress provide record-breaking sums for weapons of mass destruction and war.
This week Bush signed into law Congress's new defense budget that transfers a billion dollars a day from the people into the hands of the military-industrial complex.
The thousands of people who are coming to Washington, D.C., honor Dr. King and his legacy by opposing another criminal war--this time in the Middle East--and by demanding instead that these hundreds of billions of dollars be spent on jobs, education, housing, healthcare and to meet human needs.
The grassroots Peace Congress will be comprised of delegations from all communities who are coming together in the streets to forge the opposition necessary to stop the Bush Administration's war drive: labor, students and youth, fighters for civil rights and women's rights, the LGBT community and people of faith. Join with others around the country by bringing a diverse delegation from your community to participate in the January 18th mass march and January 19th People's Congress. Please contact (202) 332-5757, dc@ internationalANSWER.org.
For more information, go to www.VoteNoWar.org
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