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Peace Action
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MARCH 20, 2003
2:38 PM
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CONTACT:
Peace
Action
Scott Lynch: 202.862.9740x3030
Kevin Martin: 202.862.9740x3007
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Demonstrations for peace increase across the
country and world;
Spurred by Bush's unprovoked attack on Iraq,
peace movement gains momentum
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| WASHINGTON
- March 20 - President Bush's unprovoked attack on Iraq has stimulated
an increase in pro-peace activity throughout the U.S. and around
the world. The increase in activity is a rebuke of the Bush administration's
position that unilateral aggression against Iraq is the way to
peace and disarmament. There are over 500 pro-peace events that
are scheduled, across this country, for today and there are hundreds
more scheduled for this weekend.
"We are dispelling
any delusions on the part of the Bush administration or the right-wing
pundits, that this well-developed, broad based peace movement
is going to dry up and blow away in the face of war and their
nationalistic propaganda blitz. There are Americans turning out
in streets of this country in nearly ever state and country of
the Union. We are united! We stand united, for peace, for America
and for our troops," said Kevin Martin, Executive Director of
Peace Action.
Peace Action
activists across the country are organizing emergency anti-war
demonstrations from Maine to Oregon. Interviews with local organizers
are available through the Peace Action national office.
Although the
Bush Administration acts as if the only victim of this war will
be Saddam Hussein, it is a fact that war means the death of innocent
people: women, men, children. Peace Action joins with its partners
in the United for Peace and Justice coalition in encouraging individuals
to express anti-war sentiments by wearing black and yellow armbands
or lapel ribbons. The black in the armbands will symbolize mourning
for the thousands of innocent Iraqi people and U.S. service men
and women who will be killed in this unjust and unnecessary war.
The yellow in the armband will symbolize our support for the American
troops and our desire to see them return home safely.
"In a break
with the basic tenets of our democracy and against the wishes
of the community of nations, world religious leaders and citizens
around the globe, the Bush administration has chosen to attack,
without provocation, the country of Iraq. In committing our troops
to fight a war of aggression, outside the rule of law, Bush has,
in an act of malfeasance, put U.S. troops at risk unnecessarily.
We believe the best way to support our troops is to bring them
home now and pursue the alternatives to war that other nations
and world leaders still believe are possible.
Our commitment
to peace is redoubled in the face of the terrible violence that
Bush and Blair are in the process of visiting upon the people
of Iraq. To that end we will, in the best traditions of our democracy,
continue to non-violently act for peace," concluded Martin.
Peace Action
(the merger of Sane and The Nuclear Freeze) www.peace-action.org
is the country's largest peace and disarmament organization with
over 100,000 members.
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