UPDATE -- TOWARD ACTIONS IN MARCH 2007

UPDATE -- TOWARD ACTIONS IN MARCH 2007

Feb. 23, 2007

From:
Joe Mulligan, S.J.
Managua, Nicaragua
mull@ibw.com.ni
www.globalcalliraq.blogspot.com

Dear Friends,

On this blog you will find the GLOBAL CALL FOR NONVIOLENT CIVIL RESISTANCE TO END THE U.S.-LED MILITARY OCCUPATION OF IRAQ.

FIRST DATE OF INTERNATIONAL ACTIONS IN 2007: the days leading up to March 20, 2007, the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. During this time there will be massive demonstrations and actions in the U.S. and throughout the world. See, for example, Declaration of Peace at www.declarationofpeace.org
and Voices for Creative Nonviolence at http://www.vcnv.org/the-occupation-project-a-campaign-of-sustained-nonviolent-civil-disobedience-to-end-the-iraq-war

We suggest that our friends in the U.S. contact these two organizations and consider joining in their actions.

For those of you in other parts of the world, we suggest that you organize protest actions or demonstrations, whether involving civil disobedience or not,
on Thursday, March 15.

Please let me know of your organizing plans.
Please send me a report on your action on the afternoon or evening of March 15, with a picture if possible, so that I can compile the reports and send the news to the international media. In the U.S. a massive action will take place at the Pentagon on March 17, and our friends there will be very encouraged by our actions around the world and will report on them publicly.
Thus your action, even if it is a small one (e.g., a vigil or press conference), will have a significant impact as part of the Global Call actions around the world. Our goal is to have Global Call actions in at least ten countries outside the U.S.

If you are already planning an activity for some other day of the week in relation to the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, or if other groups are organizing an action for some other day besides March 15, more power to you! You may wish to consult the other organizers to see if they would welcome a non-violent civil disobedience component of the activity.

There is an urgent need for actions around the world. In the face of an international movement against the occupation, the Bush administration continues to stonewall and indeed to escalate U.S. forces in Iraq and to raise the level of military threat against Iran. Encouragingly, Great Britain and Denmark have announced cuts in the number of their forces in Iraq; the European Parliament has condemned the U.S. for abducting people in European countries and sending them to third countries for torture and interrogation; the Democrat-controlled U.S. Congress is expressing itself against the occupation; and resistance is growing within the U.S. military and among the people of the U.S. and other countries.

We must help these waves to become a huge world-wide tide of resistance against the militarism of the Bush administration.

For the text of the Call in Spanish, please see: www.ConvocatoriaMundialIrak.blogspot.com

Sincerely,

Joe Mulligan, S.J.
Managua, Nicaragua
mull@ibw.com.ni