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WASHINGTON -- April 28 -- CODEPINK: Women for Peace is the most exciting thing to have come out of the peace and justice movement since Abby Hoffman and the Yippies! Before the Iraq war, CODEPINK inspired thousands of women throughout the United States and the world to make the color pink synonymous with political rabble rousing. They hung 40-foot pink banners with political slogans out hotel windows, handed out pink educational flyers at pink lemonade stands, and awarded pink slips (actual women’s slips) to political and corporate leaders who were leading the US toward war. They yelled out questions during Donald Rumsfeld’s testimony in Congress about torture at Abu Ghraib; chained themselves to the entrance of the Halliburton’s shareholders meeting; and brought US military families to Iraq to meet Iraqi victims of US bombs. Now the same women who brought you those high-profile “interruptions” during George Bush and Dick Cheney’s prime time speeches at the Republican National Convention, bring you an amazing new book: STOP THE NEXT WAR NOW: EFFECTIVE RESPONSES TO VIOLENCE AND TERRORISM.
More than 70 of the world’s most visionary experts and activists contribute to this new collection of essays about how the global peace movement can successfully stop the next war. Edited by CODEPINK founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, with a Forward by Alice Walker and an Introduction by Arundhati Roy, the book offers a time-sensitive, poignant, and practical examination of the increasing world threat of more war and violence; and provides tools that range from changes we can make in our daily lives to ways we can rally the millions of people who support nonviolence to actually take action. Published by Inner Ocean, STOP THE NEXT WAR NOW captures not only the expertise of policy makers but also the insights of those who have experienced the effects of war first hand. Read:
 Congresswoman Barbara Lee on taking risks for peace
Playwright Eve Ensler on the pain of war and need to amplify women’s voices
Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai on preventing resource wars
Journalist Helen Thomas on the responsibility of the media
Author Terry Tempest Williams on engaging our hearts for democracy
Analyst Phyllis Bennis on the global peace movement
Activist Leslie Cagan on the importance of organizing
Writer Barbara Ehrenreich on feminism as a counterterrorism strategy
Nobel prize winner Jody Williams on international treaties
Radio host Amy Goodman on the power of dissent
Dr. Helen Caldicott with a prescription for survival in the nuclear age
Columnist Arianna Huffington on overcoming oil addiction
Conscientious objector Camilo Mejia on dissent in the military
Author Naomi Klein on holding corporations accountable
Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto on ending poverty
Writer Sharon Salzberg on spiritual strength and courage
Muralist Juana Alicia on painting for peace
Fittingly, the book will be released on May 1, the two-year anniversary of President Bush’s declared the Iraq war “mission accomplished.” The authors will begin a 50-city book tour, with CODEPINK chapters throughout the country supporting the tour by holding town-hall style events, book release parties, and political actions. Medea Benjamin is founding director of Global Exchange and cofounder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace. She lives in San Francisco, CA. Jodie Evans, cofounder of CODEPINK and a political activist for 30 years, lives in Los Angeles, CA. They have been featured in numerous national and local media outlets including the New York Times, CNN, ABC News, National Public Radio, and The Village Voice. ###
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