Troops Out Now Coalition blog: March on Washington

Troops Out Now Coalition

The Decisive Battle this Spring - The Challenge for the Antiwar Movement
March on Washington
On Jan. 27 and March 17 (the 4th Anniversary of the War)

WE MUST FORCE CONGRESS TO
CUT OFF WAR FUNDING

And we can if we move from symbolic protest to mass resistance

Not One More Dollar for War and Occupation!
Bring ALL the Troops Home Now!

Forcing Congress to vote to cut off further war funding is the defining issue for the antiwar movement this spring and it is a struggle that we can win if we are bold enough to take it seriously.

The Troops Out Now Coalition calls on everyone to join the antiwar march on January 27...and come back on March 17...and come ready to STAY in DC!

ON MARCH 17, ASSEMBLE AT THE WHITE HOUSE AND MARCH TO THE U.S. CONGRESS -- AND STAY THERE UNTIL THEY CUT OFF WAR FUNDING

An Appeal for Unity in the Antiwar Movement

Our chance of winning are greater if the antiwar coalitions unite!
A crucial factor in our ability as a movement to rise to this challenge is the willingness for all antiwar forces nationwide--especially the national coalitions--to renew a commitment to work for unity with each other. We appeal to all antiwar forces to take the high road and work together this Spring. The time has come for us to coordinate our efforts, and avoid competing dates and plans.
If we work and plan together--our chances of success will be greater.

More than at any time since the start of war, the antiwar movement is in a position to force congress to vote no on war funding. The people are on our side, the momentum is on our side, the whole world is on our side; the only question is whether we have the conviction and the courage to take our struggle against the war from the level of symbolic protest to real mass resistance.

Some time between now and early February, Bush is going to ask Congress to approve between $130 to $200 billion more dollars to finance the war to add to the close to a half a trillion dollars in war funding Congress has approved in a series of votes over the past three and a half years.

Sometime between February and May 2007, Congress will vote nay or yea to this request. This vote will be the most important war vote in Congress since a majority of both Republican and Democratic Party members of Congress voted to authorize the war in

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Oct. 2002.

Clearly, Congress has the authority to cut off spending for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and effectively make it impossible for the criminal carnage to continue. What makes the next war funding vote different from all the previous ones is that on Nov. 7, people voted to end the war.

As a result of the massive antiwar vote, Democratic Party politicians will take control of both houses of Congress on January 4. When that happens, the authority to either carry out the mandate of the elections to end the war and occupation of Iraq by completely cutting off all war funding or to betray the people by approving more funds to continue it, will shift to the leadership of the Democratic party.

The top Democratic Party leaders in Congress have already indicated that they are preparing to betray the antiwar mandate. Some members of Congress say they will support resolutions introduced in Congress that call for a phased redeployment of troops from Iraq or a time table for withdrawing most troops. But such resolutions are little more than symbolic, half- measures that won’t end the war. However, the real fight is the war funding vote and we must force Congress to vote NO.

In the past, members of Congress who claimed to be opposed to the war have justified their votes for war funding by claiming they had to keep up the funding to “support the troops”. It’s time for us to reject all excuses and rationalizations for voting for war funding. A vote for war funding is a VOTE FOR WAR. Moreover, voting to approve more funds for war will only ensure that more U.S. troops and many more Iraqis will be killed and maimed.

IN MARCH – WE MUST BE READY TO STAY IN WASHINGTON

We will be in Washington on January 27 and we will come back on March 17. And when we come back in March, this time we must be prepared to stay there in the thousands to force Congress to vote NO on more war funding. If Congress tries to rush a vote on war funding before March 17, this time we must be prepared to come to Washington in mass to make sure that the war funding is voted down.

PAY THE PEOPLES’ BILLS - NOT FOR WAR & OCCUPATION; BRING YOUR BILLS WITH YOU TO WASHINGTON

We are asking people to bring their medical, rent, heating and utility bills; student loan bills; credit card bills, and food bills that they can’t afford to pay as well as shut-off notices, mortgage foreclosures, eviction notices to the march on Washington. It must be made clear to Congress that feeding more money to the war while more and more people cannot pay for their basic living expenses is a crime. The cost of the war is not the only reason why we oppose the war. We oppose the war because it is an imperialist war for colonial conquest and plunder. Yet the cost of the war is important because it’s paid for by money stolen from providing social needs. The money that has paid for death and destruction in Iraq could have gone towards reconstruction in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.

In his famous speech declaring his opposition to the Vietnam war almost 40 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “It is disgraceful that a Congress that can vote upwards of $35 billion a year for a senseless immoral war in Vietnam cannot vote a weak $2 billion dollars to carry on our all too feeble efforts to bind up the wound of our nation’s 35 million poor. This is nothing short of a Congress engaging in political guerilla warfare against the defenseless poor of our nation…”

MARCH AGAINST THE WAR AT HOME
STOP RACIST POLICE TERROR - STOP THE RAIDS AGAINST IMMIGRANT WORKERS

As we march to end the war abroad, we must also demand an end to the war at home. We must demand an end to the raids on immigrant workers like the recent massive military raid carried out by thousands of Homeland Security/Immigration and Custom Enforcement police on mostly Latin@ workers at six Swift and Co. meat processing plants. We must demand an end to the racist police brutality and terror that recently killed 23 year-old unarmed Sean Bell in New York City and 93 year-old Kathryn Johnston in Atlanta, both of them African American.

Immediate, Unconditional, & Complete Withdrawal from Iraq--Out Now!
End Colonial Occupation & Imperialist Aggression from Africa to Asia, from Iraq to Palestine, to Afghanistan, to Haiti, to the Philippines, to Puerto Rico
No New Wars Against Iran, Syria, North Korea
Hands Off Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, & Lebanon
Solidarity with Immigrant Workers and Katrina Survivors
Stop the War at Home -- Stop Racist Police Terror -- Stop ICE raids
Military Recruiters Out of Our Schools and Communities -- No Draft -- Education, Not War