As you know the Republicans are holding their convention here in NYC at the end of August. On August 29th, the day before the convention opens, United for Peace and Justice is planning a major protest. It is crucial for all of us to get out there and show our opposition to the Bush agenda. Please forward this to your email lists! After many months of negotiations, United for Peace and Justice/UFPJ (the coalition of the many, many organizations working on this event) was able to get permission from the NYC authorities for us to march up 8th Avenue. The Bloomberg administration will only give the rally permit for West Street (street level section of the West Side Highway) so that's where we will go after the march. There is a great need to reach out into every neighborhood to get NYC out there on the 29th. With our campaign experience, we could make a great contribution to this outreach. You can acquire additional information about this event by visiting UFPJ at http://www.unitedforpeace.org or Not In Our Name at http://www.notinourname.net. At these sites you can find out how to get leaflets, posters, flags and/or stickers for the rally. Pasted below is a call for the march created by Not In Our Name, one of the member groups of the UFPJ coalition.
THE REPUBLICANS ARE COMING TO NYC, TRYING TO USE THE GRIEF OF 9/11 TO ADVANCE AN AGENDA OF HORRORS. MORE THAN A MILLION IN THE STREETS SAYING "NO" TO BUSH AND ALL HE REPRESENTS!
No to the lies!
No to the wars for empire!
No to the disregard for the health of our planet and the people who live on it!
No to Patriot Acts and the attacks on civil rights!
No to the packed judiciary and stolen elections!
No to the demonization and repression of Arabs, Muslims and South Asians!
No to racial profiling, police brutality and the criminalization of whole communities!
No to the global destruction of women's rights!
No to the tax cuts for the rich and punishment for the poor!
No to the religious right controlling our private lives!
No to everything Bush & Co. are spearheading!
NO WAY! NO HOW! NO MORE! JUST NO! MORE THAN A MILLION IN THE STREETS SAYING YES!
Yes to another course!
Yes to another future!
Yes to another way of relating to the world's peoples and to each other!
More than a million in the streets saying WE WANT A DIFFERENT FUTURE!
More than a million in the streets saying ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE!
OHIO CONGRESSMAN & FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE - DENNIS KUCINICH'S ADDRESS AT CONVENTION IN BOSTON LAST EVENING
We, Democrats, in convention united. We who built this country with the sweat of our brow, we, the steelworkers, autoworkers, the miners, the aircraft workers, communication workers, the laborers, the people who teach the children, who farm the land, who drive the trucks, who clean the streets; we who hunger for justice, who nurse the sick, who represent the oppressed, who serve the meals, who stand at check out counters, who build the bridges, who sleep under the bridges, who hunger for food; we, who put out the fires, who police the streets; who protect this nation and the freedoms we celebrate tonight: the soldiers, the sailors, marines and air force. We Democrats assemble united for John Kerry, united to recreate our nation with the power of the ballot, to transform it with the power of the human heart and the power of the human spirit. Out of many, we Democrats are one. We are left, right, center. We are one. We are black, white, red, brown, yellow. We are one. One for jobs and health care for all. One for peace and fair trade. One for our children's future. And we are One for John Kerry. We will carry America for Kerry and Kerry will carry America for us.
We remember who we are. We are the party of the people. We are the party of FDR and the New Deal. The party of JFK and the New Frontier. Of Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society; of Martin Luther King's Dream, of Robert Kennedy's striving spirit; of Caesar Chavez's ‘si se puede!' Of Eleanore Roosevelt and human rights. Infused with the passion of Paul Wellstone from Minnesota, the humanity of Jimmy Carter from Plains, the engaging brilliance of Bill Clinton from Hope, and we are the party of John Kerry, the next great Democratic President of the United States. The history of social and economic progress in America was written by the Democratic party. Democrats are the party of the minimum wage. The forty hour week. Time and a half for overtime. We are the party of the right to organize, the right to collective bargaining, the right to strike, the right to a safe workplace, the right to a secure retirement. We are the party of workers' rights, civil rights, and women's rights.
We are the party of national health care for senior citizens, of social security, public education and rural electrification. When we show up holding the banner of social and economic justice, we win. And now must create a new America. In our National Anthem, when Francis Scott Key asked "does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?" He connected freedom and bravery, democracy and courage. Courage America! Courage to replace an administration which has usurped our constitution and attacked our Bill of Rights. Courage to reject doctrines which separate us from the world. Courage to rejoin the world to ban all nuclear weapons, biological and chemical weapons, land mines and small arms. Courage to join the International Criminal Court, to sign the Kyoto Climate change treaty. Courage America!
Courage to take principles of nonviolence and make them part of the everyday life of our nation and work with the nations of the world to put an end to war. Courage, America, to create a nation where our government achieves legitimacy not from the money it spends on armaments, but from the resources it channels into education, health care, job creation, housing, environmental protection and new sustainable energy policies. Courage to give John Kerry the chance to restart the 21st century. Courage America. Courage to shake off the administration's propaganda, the fear: the threats, the deceptions, the color-coded threat systems and the misnamed and ill-conceived Patriot Act. Courage America. This administration led us into a war based on distortions and misrepresentations and we must hold them accountable. Iraq had nothing to do with 911 or with al Queda's role in 911. There was no "gathering threat". There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
I was mayor of Cleveland, and I tell you have seen weapons of mass destruction - - in our cities. Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction. Joblessness is a weapon of mass destruction, homelessness is a weapon of mass destruction, racism is a weapon of mass destruction, fear is a weapon of mass destruction. We must disarm these weapons and we must turn the military budget into books, schools, teachers, housing, health care, job creation and stronger neighborhoods. It's been said: "Once we walk there will be a path." So let us blaze a new path with John Kerry and John Edwards. This convention will lead us toward the victory not just of a party, but the victory of the American people over fear, a victory of hope over despair, of faith over cynicism; a victory for health care, for civil liberties, for workers' rights, for human rights, for the environment, for peace. Courage America. Courage America. John Kerry America.
MICHAEL MOORE'S SPEECH IN CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
by Michael Moore, AlterNet
Michael Moore's July 27 speech to progressives, with an introduction by Alternet's Executive Editor, Don Hazen.
http://www.alternet.org/election04/19385/
THE MORALITY OF INTERVENTION
by Ian Williams, AlterNet
The people of Sudan are paying a high price for the Iraq War, which blurred the line between humanitarian intervention and moral crusade.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/19388/
THE GREENEST CONVENTION EVER
by Amanda Griscom, Grist Magazine
Environmentalism descended on the Democratic National Convention this week in the form of biodegradable balloons and recycled confetti and that's just the beginning. In EnviroHealth: http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/
THE HEAVYWEIGHTS OF 2008
by David Corn, The Nation
"Even when a decisive election is only three months away, there still is time and opportunity for politicians (and their handicappers in the media) to gaze further down the road." http://www.alternet.org/election04/19381/
No comments:
Post a Comment