Inside the Belly of the Beltway Beast

Our fellow DC area activist-organizers, There has been much change during the last couple years within the local peace and justice movement. The changes we have witnessed have included dissolution of the DC Anti-War Network (DAWN) as a group but not the commitment of several of its participants, there has been an increase in levels of nonviolent resistance actions, the revitalizing of the Washington Peace Center as a dynamic force in the wider DC metro community, and most recently the founding of a capacity-building coalition for future mobilizations, known as Activist Coalition of DC (ACDC). However, there is an important and vital need to share resources, creativity, and skills to unite collective energies and move beyond being only somewhat effective to being successful in our peace and social justice struggles. This needs to be our highest priority. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said that the U.S. Government was the greatest purveyor of violence in the wor...

The Maryland State Police spied on me, and placed me in a database. Despite being fully committed to nonviolence, I was categorized as a terrorist. This has been a pretty hot item with the press in Maryland. Apparently my Work with DAWN (DC Anti-War Network) and the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance attracted their attention. Below is one of the latest stories. Funny thing, I received a copy of my file and they didn't even have a physical description of me. Also, no photo, and about 80% of it was redacted. So I will most likely be part of the ACLU lawsuit against MSP. Senators press for spying answers Annapolis By LIAM FARRELL, Staff Writer U.S. Sens. Benjamin L. Cardin and Barbara A. Mikulski are pressing federal agencies for answers on whether they have any knowledge or information about the Maryland State Police's spying on anti-death penalty, anti-war, and environmental activists. Mr. Cardin and Ms. Mikulski, both Maryland Democrats, were joined by Democratic U.S....

Dear friends, By the time you read this letter we will likely know who our next president will be. But whether Obama or McCain wins the election, we need to continue our work calling for peace and justice. We must continue to demand that the new president ends the occupation of Iraq and does not escalate military action in Afghanistan. We also must call for justice and demand that Bush and others in his administration are held accountable for the murders of millions of innocent people from Iraq, from Afghanistan, and almost 4200 US soldiers. Our work is far from over. I will be flying to Washington, DC to join other activists from around the country in an action on November 10 at the Department of Justice. This action is being organized by the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance (NCNR) www.irqpledge.org following the principles of nonviolence that we have learned from Gandhi, King, Day and others. In September organizers from NCNR sent a letter to Attorney General Michael...