Inside the Belly of the Beltway Beast

by Sonia Silbert, Co-Coordinator, Washington Peace Center We woke up Sat morning to the news that three houses had been raided early in the morning. Two were houses of lead local organizers and one was a house of Food Not Bombs folks - they were all awaken to cops raiding their houses with guns drawn and were all detained while the cops went through the houses. Everyone in the houses was released except for 3 or 4 main local organizers - they were arrested and are being held without bail for "conspiracy to riot", "conspiracy to commit property destruction" and (my favorite) "conspiracy to plan civil disobedience". Friday night at the convergence space there were two activist parents with their 5 year-old son with them during the raid. He was understandably frightened out of his wits at the sight of all these cops with guns handcuffing his dad and all their friends. Unfortunately, he and his parents were staying at one of the houses that was raided Sat...

By Michael Kramer New York More than 200 Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) supporters attended a preliminary Winter Soldier hearing Feb. 21 at the New York Society for Ethical Culture in Manhattan. The local event was successful in building momentum for the national Winter Soldier 2008 hearings, scheduled for March 13-16 at the AFL-CIO affiliated National Labor College in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Silver Spring, Md. Winter Soldier will feature testimony from U.S. veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan and will expose the criminal nature of both wars. The political unity of military veterans from different generations was in evidence as IVAW, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Veterans For Peace shared the stage and program. Bill Perry, who testified at the original Winter Soldier hearings in 1971, described the war crimes he witnessed while serving with 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam. Fernando Braga told about the anti-Arab racism that was part of his pre-Iraq ...

WASHINGTON – Three prominent peace activists will offer their support to a 76-year-old woman this Friday, November 2, when she appears before a senior Judge of the DC Superior Court for a status hearing as a result of her engaging in civil disobedience to nonviolently protest the continued war and occupation of Iraq. Gael Murphy of Code Pink, Rev. Lennox Yearwood of the Hip-Hop Caucus and Adam Kokesh of Iraq Veterans Against the War, will speak to the press supporting the retired D.C. schoolteacher Eve Tetaz. The Adams Morgan resident has a hearing Friday morning in D.C. Superior Court. The three prominent anti-war activists will speak to the media on behalf of their friend at 11 a.m. in front of the courthouse at 500 Indiana Avenue, N.W. "This courageous woman has been an inspiration to us," said Rev. Yearwood. "In order to stop continued illegal and immoral warfare, more will need to follow in her steps." Yearwood has been arrested a few times for protesting the I...

Today ANSWER, working with Iraq Veterans Against the War, had a two and a half hour anti-war rally at Lafayette Park, followed by a march and civil disobedience at the foot of the Capitol building. The energy of the crowd was great, and it was a diverse crowd, both generationally and ethnically. It was also rather big, about 200,000 -- about half the size of UFPJ's rally and march at the end of January, but ANSWER pulled this off with only two month's lead time. So organizationally it was perfectly promoted. However, the rally was far too long; about two and a half hours before even starting the march. A few of the speakers were really good (some weren't), but the sound system was lousy. If you have a couple HUNDRED THOUSAND people show up, you probably shouldn't be using a sound system only good for about a crowd of 5,000. And while I enjoyed the march, the civil disobedience at the foot of the Capitol Building was poorly organized and executed. There should have been ...

Yesterday Adam Kokesh of Iraq Veterans Against the War and his attorney held a press conference at Union Station shortly before departing for a military hearing in Kansas. What awaits this brave member of IVAW and the individual ready reserves of the US Marines is a possible re-discharge to "other than honorable." This is unheard of, as the individual ready reserves have typically already been discharged. Why is this being done? Simple: Adam Kokesh has been vocal in his opposition to the war and continuing occupation in Iraq. At the press conference, Adam quoted Thomas Jefferson: "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." So, if the media needs a new "face" of the anti-war movement, let it be Adam. Yesterday he, Tina Richards from the Swarm on Congress and several other supporters boarded the Yellow Rose of Texas Peace bus bound for Kansas. They will fight this assault on veterans' First Amendment rights. Interestingly enough at the press conference,...

What a busy week for me, the Washington Peace Center and the peace movement in general. The week began with those of us regular readers of afterdowningstreet.org and the DailyKoz knowing a full 24-hours ahead of most folks that Cindy Sheehan was calling it quits on being everyone's official peace mom. I have met Cindy on a couple of occasions, and think she is smart, warm and funny. She's articulate, marches to her own drum and has a sharp sense of humor. It turns out she has been both worn down by the demands and competing egos within the movement, and also by the continuing personal slams and death threats against her. She needs time off, and so she originally wrote that she is quitting. She says she felt betrayed by the Democrats who recently took power, and she wanted to see more of us in the peace movement actually begin to make sacrifices in order to change the murderous path that the U.S. government has been on for the last few decades. I share much of Cindy's frustr...