Room for a View > Briefs
Local Peace Movement Directory
by Lorna Tychostup

"Let it not be said that people in the United States did nothing when their government declared a war without limit and instituted stark new measures of repression." —Excerpt from the Not In Our Name Statement of Conscience

Are you concerned about the effects of Homeland Insecurity and the pervasive "With Us or Against Us" war-speak being foisted upon us by our leaders? Worried about the loss of your civil rights or suppression of your freedom of speech? Want to work with like-minded folks toward peaceful solutions? Want to get involved and don't know where to go or who to call?

Here are the names and contact information of various groups in our region who are working toward finding peaceful solutions to today's terrifying problems.

Arts For Peace

Women in Black, New Paltz
Silent vigil to stand against all forms of war and terrorism each Saturday, 12:30-1:30PM, on the corner of Main and Front streets in New Paltz.
All are welcome to join. Contact: wibnp@hotmail.com.

Woodstock Women in Black, contact: Jane at jvdb9@aol.com.

Mid-Hudson National People's Campaign
Organizers of some 40 peace and justice rallies, meetings, and picket lines in Ulster and Dutchess counties (plus bus trips to events in New York City and Washington) during the last seven years. Its big event this month is a march and rally in Kingston (endorsed by a dozen local groups) opposing a war in Iraq, set for Saturday, October 26, 1PM at Academy Green Park. Information: jacdon@earthlink.net, 255-5779. PO Box 523, Highland, NY 12528.

Mid-Hudson Activist Newsletter/Calendar
Semimonthly free e-mail publication analyzing the news from a progressive perspective and listing upcoming peace and justice events throughout the region. Join 1,200 Hudson Valley subscribers by contacting jacdon@earthlink.net.

CLASP (Caribbean and Latin America Support Project)
Monthly public meetings in Highland. 845 691-8289.
PO Box 7, New Paltz, NY 12561.

Mid-Hudson New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty
E-mail frances@vtechworld.com or, jacdon@earthlink.net. Next event, a public meeting in opposition to the death penalty at SUNY New Paltz at Lecture Center 100 on Monday November 4 at 7PM.

Peace Action Network (PAN)
PAN is an Ulster County-based network of dedicated people who believe that dialogue, education, and cooperation are more desirable than war. Through vigils, education, peaceful activities, and organized teach-ins, PAN works to make peace the ultimate road to security. Contact pan@netstep.net; 679-9140.

Mid-Hudson Tikkun Community
Contact: jsimon5598@aol.com.

9/11 People Against Racism
New Paltz-based peace organization. Contact: 255-8560.

Mirror of Truth Tour
by Lorna Tychostup

On the hunt for sites where massive amounts of weapons of mass destruction are being developed? Look no further than right here at home.

Under the shadow of renewed US war with Iraq over "weapons of mass destruction," a group of people have taken to the highways and byways of the US to bring to light the presence of the world's largest stockpile of such weapons and the very people living in the cross hairs of this weaponry-22 million Iraqi civilians. The Mirror of Truth Tour, a project of Voices in the Wilderness and Pax Christi, began at Ground Zero in Manhattan this past September 12, and will spend three months visiting sites along the East Coast and South of the US where development and sales of weapons of mass destruction occur or where they are stored, and where their by-products are dumped. Members of the tour group will also speak at colleges, community centers, and other locations educating Americans and calling on them to bear some accountability for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and to create nonviolent alternatives to war.

"As our current administration directs America's attention overseas, we must look in the mirror to find the source of this threat-chemical, biological, nuclear and depleted uranium weapons," says Ceylon Mooney, co-coordinator of the Mirror of Truth tour. "As Americans of conscience, this threat to the world and our communities must be brought to light and nonviolently resisted. Some of us [on the tour] have been to Iraq and seen with our own eyes what is really happening-the devastating effect of the economic sanctions and the ongoing airstrikes against the Iraqi people which occur three times a week. There is nothing in the Security Council resolutions which supports routine invasion of Iraq, a sovereign state, by the US. These attacks are in violation of international law."

According to Mooney, when Iraq capitulated in late September and said it would allow weapons inspectors to come back, the US responded with yet another airstrike.

Members of the tour have visited Iraq despite US laws which prohibit such travel, to bear witness to the lethal effects of US-led economic sanctions. These sanctions, according to the UN, have killed more than one million Iraqi civilians.

"The economic sanctions have contributed to the deaths of more people in the last twelve years than the attack on Hiroshima," said Stephanie Shaudel, another member of the Mirror tour." In 1998, UNICEF did a infant and maternal health study which compared mortality rates prior to 1990 when the sanctions were imposed to 1998, after eight years of sanctions. The study found that if the infant mortality rate had continued to decline at the same rate it was prior to 1990, 500,000 children under the age of five would still have been alive in Iraq in 1998. If you included adults, close to 1 million people would still be alive."

According to Schaudel, the tour also raises questions such as, "Just who benefits from war?"

"For 12 years now the US has conducted a warfare which has largely a silent one through the form of economic sanctions which has put a stranglehold on Iraqi civil society. Publicly, the sanctions are defended by saying, 'The reason we have to do this because we have to contain Saddam Hussein and that he uses weapons of mass destruction.' Voices In The Wilderness has been saying for a long time, 'Well, it is interesting that the US government would be so concerned about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq when the US has more weapons at our disposal than any other country in the world, produces more weapons, including those of mass destruction, and has a large part of its economy propped up by the weapons industry.'"

The Mirror of Truth Tour ends in Ft. Benning, Georgia at the annual School of Americas protest organized by SOAWatch. The US Army School of the Americas has trained Latin American terrorists and death squads. Musicians, student activists, priests, and professors will join the tour at various sites to give presentations, concerts and to co-ordinate nonviolent actions.

"The idea for this was hatched after the horror of September 11," said Shaudel. "People were sitting around and growing increasingly frustrated with the fact that [during] the grieving time our national leaders weren't looking inward and asking the deeper question of, 'Why did this happen?' but rather, "How are we going to respond?" And the way they chose to respond was to employ more weaponry around the world, use more bombs, and therefore increase the production of defense companies in this country. This does not solve the problem, at least not if the real aim is to prevent more terrorism."

Earth To Bush: No Iraq War
by Lorna Tychostup

Just hours before President Bush's appearance center stage at the UN General Assembly meeting on September 12, human rights activists stole the show with an act of their own. With city streets surrounding the UN virtually shut down and demonstrators kept within designated holding pens, a group of activists took to the East River in a boat. Aided by four giant-sized helium filled balloons, a 50-by-30 foot banner displaying the message: "Earth to Bush: No Iraq War," was hoisted into the air where it hung for two hours within sight of the UN building. Although reporters and photographers from Reuters, AP, and local media covered the story, it was not mentioned in most American media venues.

According to the two activist organizations responsible for coordinating the East River banner airing, Global Exchange, an international human rights organization, and the Ruckus Society, a non-profit group that trains individuals in non-violent direct action, the protest was meant to "illustrate the virtually unanimous global opposition to the Bush administration's planned invasion of Iraq."

"The White House has no answer to this basic question: What act of aggression has Iraq committed against us that justifies going to war?" said Jason Mark, a spokesperson for Global Exchange. "There has been no Iraqi attack, no Iraqi connection to September 11, no threat against us. Iraq does not pose a clear and present danger to the US. Since deterrence is working, why should we launch a war that will undoubtedly lead to massive human suffering? An attack on Iraq would constitute an attack on the Charter of the United Nations."

"War should be a last recourse of self-defense," added Ruckus Society spokesperson John Picone. "What the Bush administration is planning is an act of aggression, not self-defense. An unprovoked attack on Iraq will further anti-American sentiment around the world, making us less safe."

Sources to contact:www.earthtobush.com; www.nyc.indymedia.org;
www.globalexchange.org; www.ruckus.org/index2.html.