| Swarm on Congress Summer Please register so we can provide additional details and access to calendar of Events. NOW - July 31 United for Peace & Justice and Grassroots America invites you to a summer of action to protest the illegal U.S. Occupation of Iraq. We will be a visible peace presence in the halls of Congress, meeting with members of Congress, attending hearings, conducting protests, sit-ins and media events, all to throw sand in the gears of government until this war is over! Plan to come for a few days or a few weeks -- we promise an effective, productive, energizing and fun experience! Please sign up so we can provide schedules and updates to you. If you are looking for housing, or can offer housing in DC this summer, please click here; |
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| Weekly Media Events to deliver the message to Congress and the American People: End the Occupation |
| Congressional Visits & Roving Occupations to advocate the end of the occupation |
Stand up for the 1st Amendment....
$50 is worth every penny
$50 is worth every penny
As Kristine pleas for
her brother not to be
sent back for his 3rd
tour, the senators take
a more serious tone.
We need to remind
them it is not politics as
usual. It is our children
dying everyday in Iraq.
her brother not to be
sent back for his 3rd
tour, the senators take
a more serious tone.
We need to remind
them it is not politics as
usual. It is our children
dying everyday in Iraq.
Then, of course, as your
walking the Halls of
Congress, anything can
happen. No scripts here.
walking the Halls of
Congress, anything can
happen. No scripts here.
Swarm on Congress
This summer has the potential to be a significant moment in the history
of the end of the Iraq War. We made lots of progress in the first part
of the year putting pressure on the Democrats to use the power of the
purse, but our power will increase as we get closer to elections -- if
we use it. We need to let incumbents of both parties know they will
lose
votes if they vote for war funding. That is a message for Republicans
and Democrats who continue to vote billions for the war.
While we are working to get people to come to DC to participate,
activists in the DC area are going to play a key role in the summer of
anti-war activities. Peace activists in DC, Maryland and Virginia will
need to play a core role for the summer's efforts to build on.
Tina mentions the "SWARM on Congress." This will begin on May 14th with
Cindy Sheehan's Mother of a March and extend through July 31. The
“SWARM” will build on the successful efforts of activists in DC and
around the country who have been occupying offices, protesting in the
Halls of Congress and sending a consistent message. It will build on
the
Occupation Project, Voices for Creative Non-Violence, and the
peace coalition Already, key anti-war groups are supporting this effort
including United For Peace and Justice and Voters For Peace, among
others.
The summer of 2007 will be a historical one that will be noted as the
turning point in efforts to end the war. The very visible and dramatic
activities of the SWARM in the nation’s capitol will be one of the
key steps taken by the peace movement to end the war.
Kevin Zeese, Voters for Peace and Democracy Rising
This summer has the potential to be a significant moment in the history
of the end of the Iraq War. We made lots of progress in the first part
of the year putting pressure on the Democrats to use the power of the
purse, but our power will increase as we get closer to elections -- if
we use it. We need to let incumbents of both parties know they will
lose
votes if they vote for war funding. That is a message for Republicans
and Democrats who continue to vote billions for the war.
While we are working to get people to come to DC to participate,
activists in the DC area are going to play a key role in the summer of
anti-war activities. Peace activists in DC, Maryland and Virginia will
need to play a core role for the summer's efforts to build on.
Tina mentions the "SWARM on Congress." This will begin on May 14th with
Cindy Sheehan's Mother of a March and extend through July 31. The
“SWARM” will build on the successful efforts of activists in DC and
around the country who have been occupying offices, protesting in the
Halls of Congress and sending a consistent message. It will build on
the
Occupation Project, Voices for Creative Non-Violence, and the
peace coalition Already, key anti-war groups are supporting this effort
including United For Peace and Justice and Voters For Peace, among
others.
The summer of 2007 will be a historical one that will be noted as the
turning point in efforts to end the war. The very visible and dramatic
activities of the SWARM in the nation’s capitol will be one of the
key steps taken by the peace movement to end the war.
Kevin Zeese, Voters for Peace and Democracy Rising
Swarm on Congress
When I heard about UFPJ’s Congressional Advocacy Day in DC, I volunteered
to organize my home state of Missouri. I was a campaign manager for a
congressional campaign and was in the process of being hired by our new
senator I had helped to elect. I saw the power of being in DC to meet with our
representatives because after those campaigns I found how scripted and
controlled everything was when they were back home.
On January 29th after I had finished the advocacy day, I found out my son was
selected to be reactivated for a 3rd deployment to Iraq and I promised him his
voice would be heard in the halls of congress. So I stayed to advocate to stop
my son’s 3rd deployment and fight for his VA benefits.
My first action was to stand up during a hearing and challenge Sen. Orin Hatch
on his statement of demoralizing the troops. I told him what really demoralized
the troops. The rest of the hearing the senators spoke to me and talked about
the hardships of military families. “There’s something to this” I thought to myself.
I had heard something about a group called the Creative Voices for Non-
Violence launching a campaign called the “Occupation Project.” I decided I
would occupy the halls of congress in an effort to stop the funding for the war. I
committed myself to stay until the first week in April. I found creative ways to
occupy: I stood in solidarity with others and delivered messages or set up phone
conferences as people across the nation occupied other offices in their home
district. As a matter of fact, I was on my way to the Chairman of Appropriations
office to talk to his Legislative Assistant because his office in his home district
was being occupied. That is when I ran into representative David Obey in the
hall and we had our you tube moment of fame.
I brought together representatives from various organizations to have roving
occupations where we would each plea our reasons to vote against the
supplemental.
We started with a Speaker of the house that said it was Bush’s war and his
responsibility. The power of the purse was off the table. We have moved
them. We are having an effect. But we have much further to go.
I stopped my son’s deployment and helped him get his benefits he deserved.
But as April approached, I realized the occupation project would need to
continue.
Not only continue, but we would need reinforcements. Congressman John
Lewis told me we had to keep getting in the way. Throw sand into the gears of
government. It is what worked during the civil rights movement and it is what will
have to happen to stop this war. We are stopping business as usual in halls of
congress until they pass legislation to end the occupation and bring our troops
home.
So I asked UFPJ to help me launch the Swarm on Congress. I am asking people
across the nation to take their vacations and participate in their democracy.
Students to spend their summer in DC. People who live in the DC area to
volunteer to open their homes. I am asking you today to join us.
We will be organizing visits with congress, conducting occupations, organizing
actions, and providing workshops on how to throw sand into the gears of
government.
Last year Rev. Joseph Lowery told me “we the people” had to fight against
haters. Whether they be warmongers or bigots. We had to come together and
unite. It is only when we join together will we have the numbers to defeat them.
On Thursday we brought together over a dozen organization and 75 people for
an action in the Hart Senate office building. We put out press releases and the
Capitol police knew everything we were going to do. Yet they couldn’t stop us.
They couldn’t stop us because we had the power of the people. All power to the
people.
Tina Richards, Grassroots America & Voters for Peace
When I heard about UFPJ’s Congressional Advocacy Day in DC, I volunteered
to organize my home state of Missouri. I was a campaign manager for a
congressional campaign and was in the process of being hired by our new
senator I had helped to elect. I saw the power of being in DC to meet with our
representatives because after those campaigns I found how scripted and
controlled everything was when they were back home.
On January 29th after I had finished the advocacy day, I found out my son was
selected to be reactivated for a 3rd deployment to Iraq and I promised him his
voice would be heard in the halls of congress. So I stayed to advocate to stop
my son’s 3rd deployment and fight for his VA benefits.
My first action was to stand up during a hearing and challenge Sen. Orin Hatch
on his statement of demoralizing the troops. I told him what really demoralized
the troops. The rest of the hearing the senators spoke to me and talked about
the hardships of military families. “There’s something to this” I thought to myself.
I had heard something about a group called the Creative Voices for Non-
Violence launching a campaign called the “Occupation Project.” I decided I
would occupy the halls of congress in an effort to stop the funding for the war. I
committed myself to stay until the first week in April. I found creative ways to
occupy: I stood in solidarity with others and delivered messages or set up phone
conferences as people across the nation occupied other offices in their home
district. As a matter of fact, I was on my way to the Chairman of Appropriations
office to talk to his Legislative Assistant because his office in his home district
was being occupied. That is when I ran into representative David Obey in the
hall and we had our you tube moment of fame.
I brought together representatives from various organizations to have roving
occupations where we would each plea our reasons to vote against the
supplemental.
We started with a Speaker of the house that said it was Bush’s war and his
responsibility. The power of the purse was off the table. We have moved
them. We are having an effect. But we have much further to go.
I stopped my son’s deployment and helped him get his benefits he deserved.
But as April approached, I realized the occupation project would need to
continue.
Not only continue, but we would need reinforcements. Congressman John
Lewis told me we had to keep getting in the way. Throw sand into the gears of
government. It is what worked during the civil rights movement and it is what will
have to happen to stop this war. We are stopping business as usual in halls of
congress until they pass legislation to end the occupation and bring our troops
home.
So I asked UFPJ to help me launch the Swarm on Congress. I am asking people
across the nation to take their vacations and participate in their democracy.
Students to spend their summer in DC. People who live in the DC area to
volunteer to open their homes. I am asking you today to join us.
We will be organizing visits with congress, conducting occupations, organizing
actions, and providing workshops on how to throw sand into the gears of
government.
Last year Rev. Joseph Lowery told me “we the people” had to fight against
haters. Whether they be warmongers or bigots. We had to come together and
unite. It is only when we join together will we have the numbers to defeat them.
On Thursday we brought together over a dozen organization and 75 people for
an action in the Hart Senate office building. We put out press releases and the
Capitol police knew everything we were going to do. Yet they couldn’t stop us.
They couldn’t stop us because we had the power of the people. All power to the
people.
Tina Richards, Grassroots America & Voters for Peace
| Citizen's Lobby by Michael Foley, Ph.D Wisconsin) and the Democratic leadership over funding for the war. Though her home is Missouri, she's in the process of moving to the Though her home is Missouri, she's in the process of moving to the Washington, D.C. area to keep up the fight to end the war. Her idea is simple. Bring 10,000 concerned citizens to Washington this summer to lobby their Congressional representatives and counter the ten thousand paid lobbyists who ensure that ours is the most lavishly financed and most seriously immune to change legislature in the world. most seriously immune to change legislature in the world. If realized, Tina's idea has the potential to revolutionize politics on Capitol Hill. Not just because it will bring enormous public pressure to bear around a single issue of pressing national importance. That has happened before. More important, it will provide a new model for citizen lobbying that Washington sorely needs. In personal style, Tina is respectful, humble and forthright. She just wants members of Congress to know what she feels and how important ending the war is to her. But Tina is not afraid to embarrass those members of Congress who stand in the way of change, and in particular the Democratic Party leadership, those who should be “on her side.” In this respect, Tina's model of citizen lobbyist stands in stark contrast to what has passed for public interest lobbying over the last thirty years. Public interest lobbying grew out of the political movements of the sixties, but it quickly ceased to be movement politics – masses of citizens besieging government for change. Instead, the women's and environmental and peace movements spawned permanent lobbying organizations, mostly headquartered in the capitol, dedicated to monitoring the spate of new laws that Congress passed in response to new public demands and expanding their reach through close attention to what went on in the labyrinths of Congress and the federal bureaucracy. The new lobbyists soon came to model much of their style on the old – with the major exception that the vast majority of them did not have campaign contributions to throw around. As 501(c)3 tax-exempt “charitable” organizations, they could not support candidates or donate money to campaigns in the way that corporations, trade and professional associations, and PAC's can. But in style they resemble their special interest counterparts. They nurture ties with Congress people and their staffs, provide them with the latest information and legislative proposals favorable to their cause, sit in on Congressional hearings and sometimes contribute to them, and work with legislators to protect and enlarge their legislative gains. They operate as NGO's, more or less autonomous, subscription and grant funded, professional organizations, many of them with little to no effort to mobilize the grass-roots around their campaigns. And even those that do mobilize grass-roots support use calibrated petition and call-in campaigns, rarely if ever bothering to give ordinary citizens a say in their platforms or priorities. In periods of conservative hegemony, which is most of the last thirty years, the public interest lobbying groups have mostly been on the defensive; but they have been able to claim a few victories. Key to their success, they insist, both in staving off reversals and achieving occasional advances, are the relationships they have built on Capitol Hill and in the bureaucracy. And key to those relationships is a willingness to accept the political logic that drives members of Congress. The result, at its best, is incremental change for the better – and a gradual erosion, over the last thirty years, of even the limited gains these movements achieved in the 1970's. The caution of the public interest groups is well-placed. Congress people do not like being embarrassed, as Tina Richards found when she posted a video on YouTube of Representative Obey berating her for suggesting that it might be time to cut the funding for the war in Iraq. Obey was forced to apologize publicly, but he, and then Speaker Pelosi, refused to meet with her. She achieved national coverage of her campaign but was cut off from the Democratic leadership. A disaster for the public interest lobby, but Tina doesn't see it that way. If the leadership won't talk, then the leadership deserves to be embarrassed, and the public pressure the incident wrought has been enormous. This is the core of citizen lobbying. With no stake in a “relationship” that pays off, at best, in dribs and drabs, the citizen lobbyist can bring pressure to bear that no public interest group can mobilize. Citizen lobbying thus has the potential to make Congressional representatives accountable well in advance of elections. Disgruntled citizen lobbyists can return to their home districts determined to mount challenges to incumbents who haven't lived up to their promises. They can awaken sympathy for causes that the wider public has viewed up to this point only through the distorting lenses of the mainstream media. And they can break into that closed media world through dramatic refusals to take no for an answer. That's the potential of Tina Richards' idea. It will take real effort to bring 10,000 citizens to Washington this summer and train them to confront lawmakers. And it will take even more effort to turn this idea into a permanent vehicle for transforming relations between ruled and rulers into something resembling democracy. But the idea is powerful, and it is gathering steam..... Michael Foley (Ph.D. California-Davis, 1986) is Associate Professor of Politics, Catholic University of America. He is the author of many articles on agrarian politics and the "new peasant movement" in Mexico, civil society and the peace process in El Salvador, and "social capital". He is currently co-director of the Religion and the New Immigrants project, a Pew sponsored Gateway Cities project examining the role of faith communities for new immigrants. Recent publications include articles on civil society and social capital in the Journal of Democracy and in the Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, and Social Capital, Religious Institutions and Poor Communities with John D. McCarthy and Mark Chaves.. With Bob Edwards, he co-edited two special issues of American Behavioral Scientist and a book Beyond DeToquville: Civil Society and the Social Capital Debate in Comparative Perspective |
And Iraq Veteran Adam
Kokesh at the Gonzales
hearing drove the story..
Kokesh at the Gonzales
hearing drove the story..
Influence Hearings:
Brother Ali from the Hip Hop Caucus was not going to let business
as usual occur in this hearing.
Brother Ali from the Hip Hop Caucus was not going to let business
as usual occur in this hearing.
Tina Richards, Grassroots America
Ann Wright, Veterans for Peace
Rev. Yearwood, Hip Hop Caucus
Son of Nun, Activist Musician
Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star Families for Peace
Medea Benjiman, Code Pink
Kevin Zeese, Democracy Rising
Linda Schade, Voters for Peace
Anita Dennis, War Resisters League
Carlos & Mel Arredondo, Gold Star Families for Peace & Military Families
Speak Out
Ray McGovern, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Daniel Elsberg, Released Pentagon Papers
Michael McPherson, Executive Director Veterans for Peace
Akir, Activist Musician
Geoffrey Millard, Iraq Veterans Against The War
Adam Kokesh, Iraq Veterans Against the War
Ann Wright, Veterans for Peace
Rev. Yearwood, Hip Hop Caucus
Son of Nun, Activist Musician
Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star Families for Peace
Medea Benjiman, Code Pink
Kevin Zeese, Democracy Rising
Linda Schade, Voters for Peace
Anita Dennis, War Resisters League
Carlos & Mel Arredondo, Gold Star Families for Peace & Military Families
Speak Out
Ray McGovern, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Daniel Elsberg, Released Pentagon Papers
Michael McPherson, Executive Director Veterans for Peace
Akir, Activist Musician
Geoffrey Millard, Iraq Veterans Against The War
Adam Kokesh, Iraq Veterans Against the War
Thank you everyone for all your help in congress these last
three months. We have had amazing successes and great
learning experiences. I will continue my efforts in DC
every day on the hill and preparing for September 15,
March on the Capitol and Congressional Challenge Day on
September 18.
three months. We have had amazing successes and great
learning experiences. I will continue my efforts in DC
every day on the hill and preparing for September 15,
March on the Capitol and Congressional Challenge Day on
September 18.
Kick off of the Swarm on Congress