Following yonder star

by Kathy Kelly

December 23, 2011

Beneath our flat, here in Kabul, wedding guests crowded into a restaurant and celebrated throughout the night. Guests sounded joyful and the music, mostly disco, thumped loudly. When the regular call to prayer sounded out at 5:20 a.m., the sounds seemed to collide in an odd cacophony, making all music indistinguishable. I smiled, remembering the prayer call’s durable exhortation to live in peace, heard worldwide for centuries, and went back to sleep.

Through most of my life, I’ve found it easy to resonate with the ringing and beautiful Christmas narrative found in the Gospel of Luke, but less so with that jangling discord with which westerners are so familiar—the annual collision between (on the one hand) the orgy of gift-purchasing and gift-consumption surrounding the holiday and the the sweeter, simpler proclamations of peace on earth heralded by the newborn’s arrival. I've found myself quite surprisingly happy to spend many Christmases either in U.S. jails or among Muslims living in places like Bosnia, Iraq, Jordan and now Afghanistan. My hosts and friends in these places have been people who are enduring wars or fleeing wars, including, as in the case of U.S. jails, a war against the poor in the United States.

The Christmas narrative that imagines living beings coming together across divides, the houseless family with no room at the inn, the shepherds and the foreign royals arriving, all awakening to unimagined possibilities of peace, comes alive quite beautifully in the community with which I'm graced to find myself here in Kabul.

Five of the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers are spending winter months in the apartment here which accommodates their group as well as visiting guests such as our small Voices delegation. In recent months, the place has evolved into a resource center for learning languages and exchanging ideas about nonviolent movements for social change. I am filled with fond and deep admiration for these young people as I watch them studying each other’s languages and preparing their own delegation to visit other provinces of this land on the brink of civil war, meeting with other young people wherever they can.

I’ve often described Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers as having bridged considerable ethnic gaps in their steadfast aspiration to someday live without wars. It’s quite impressive, during this trip, to learn from them about how close several of them came to becoming armed fighters.

One young friend recalls having spent three weeks, at age 12, as part of a Taliban group. He had no choice but to go with the Taliban as a conscript. He was given a rifle, as well as adequate food, and assigned to be a sentry. "I loaded the weapon and I fired warning shots," said our young friend, who is now 21 years of age, "but I didn’t feel good about it.” A village elder intervened, saying the new recruits were too young, and the Taliban released my friend and the other young teens.

We watched a film together in which another youngster, about seven years previously, had acted the role of the leader of a group of children imitating Talib fighters. Carrying sticks, the young actors had harassed a little girl over her determination that she would learn to read. Now we asked the young man, himself a Hazara, how he felt about playing a Taliban child. He acknowledged having grown up believing that anyone who was part of an ethnic group that had persecuted his people could never be trusted.

The father of another youngster had been killed by the Taliban. Still another describes how he watched in horror as Hazara fighters killed his brother.

Last week, the AYPVs welcomed a new friend who lives in a neighboring province and speaks a different language to join them and help them learn his language. Asked about NATO/ISAF night raids and other attacks that have occurred in his area, the new friend said that families who have suffered attacks feel intense anger, but even more so people say they want peace. "However, international forces have made people feel less secure," he added. "It’s unfortunate that internationals hear stories about Afghans being wild people and think that more civilized outsiders are trying to build the country. People here are suffering because of destruction caused by outsiders."

The air, the ground, the mountainsides, the water, and even the essential bonds of familial living have been ravaged by three decades of warfare here in Afghanistan. People living here have suffered the loss of an estimated two million people killed in the wars. 850 children die every day because of disease and hunger.

Amid excruciating sorrow and pain, it’s good to see people still find ways to gather for celebrations, even when the sounds seem curious and the dances seem, to some, forbiddingly exotic. Differences between insiders and outsiders become less relevant as people meet one another to celebrate.

Peace can surprise us when it comes, and that alone is abundantly sufficient cause for celebration in this season, wherever we are. Dr. King wrote that "the arc of history is long but it bends toward justice," and we should not be surprised as new and growing movements around us reveal an unquenchable and ineradicable longing for simple justice. The killing fields that scar our earth and sear the memories of survivors beckon us to look and listen for new ways of living together. Massacres of innocents call to us to reject the easy and familiar and go home by an other way.

The desires to live more simply, to share resources more radically, and to prefer service to dominance are not unique to any place, season, or religion. Such desires may yet herald unions previously unimagined and a better world for every newborn, each one bringing an astonishing potential - as we do if we strive to fulfill it - for peace.

Kathy Kelly (kathyvcnv [dot] org), twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence. She and two companions are part of a Voices delegation visiting the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers in Kabul

Overcoming contradictions

by Kathy Kelly and Hakim
November 16, 2011

Adelaide, Australia –At Tabor House Technical College, 21 young people sit in a semicircle looking curiously at Hakim and me. We’ve been invited to speak with them about the practice of justice.

 Hakim, who has lived among Afghans for the past nine years, begins by describing how an Afghan youth, Zekerullah, would greet them.  “Salam,” he says to all. With his hand over his heart, Hakim makes eye contact with each student, and then nods in silent greeting. I smile, having watched Zekerullah do just this, whenever he entered a room. The students are interested.

“You can’t listen only to leaders,” Hakim tells them. “We must put our ears close to the hearts of ordinary people and listen to them.”  Hakim is often poetic, but he’s also a trained physician, prone toward assembling data and seeking careful diagnosis.

Rising early this morning, he prepared for today’s presentation by collecting statistics about government responses, in various parts of the world, to massive manifestations of public opinion.  As expected, the short survey showed that leaders aren’t listening well to ordinary people, that ‘national interests’ routinely overrule the people’s interests:

72% of Australians want their troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan.

But Prime Minister Julia Gillard insists that Australian troops will remain "till the end of the decade, at least."

 63% of Americans oppose the Afghan war.

But the US is about to sign a US-Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement that will allow joint military bases in Afghanistan beyond 2024.

80% of the Spanish population support the estimated 6.5 to 8 million Spanish Indignados protesting unemployment.

But the Spanish government has been repressing the protesters since their police cleared out Puerta del Sol Square in Madrid on 17th May 2011.

89% of Chileans support the student protests for free public education.

But Chilean police used water cannons and tear gas to break up a student march on October 6th 2011.
US National polls over October and November 2011 were mixed, with agreement/approval ratings for Occupy Wall Street varying from 59% to 22%, but, generally, approval was larger than disapproval.

Yesterday, New York police cleared out the protesters from Zuccotti Park in New York.

“Do governments hate their people?” Hakim asks, “Or do they simply treat their general public as stupid belligerents?”

He encourages students to recognize the wisdom ordinary people hold, offering as an example Afghan villagers who became his teachers. He thought he had come to assist people in the Afghan village because he had ‘knowledge’ to offer them. He instead found that they changed his life completely.  They taught him about love and community.

Then he shows us a video he filmed of Zekerullah answering questions posed by Hakim.  Zekerullah
was 13 at the time the video was made.

 “Zekerullah Jan,” Hakim asks, “What are you doing?”

“I am peeling potatoes, teacher,” Zekerullah responds.

“Is having work good?” asks Hakim.

“Yes it’s very good for people. Not having work is a disease.”

“In 2009,” says Hakim, “3 Afghan children were killed daily in war, children like yourself.”

“This is vulgar and bad news…bad because there’ll be less Afghans,” Zekerullah says. “The people of Afghanistan will no longer exist.”

Hakim tells Zekerullah that when Afghan children are killed, foreign and local leaders express their ‘regret.’  “Is their ‘regret’ appropriate?” Hakim asks.

Zekerullah responds immediately. “No. Their regret seems to mean that however much the ‘regret,’ children will still be killed again, so their regret isn’t acceptable.”

Hakim asks a new question: “If your younger brother was killed by a bomb, and you were offered money in compensation, would you accept the money?”

Zekerullah says he wouldn’t accept it.  “Firstly,” he asks, “why was he killed?” “Secondly,” he continues, “those responsible should be punished so they won’t infringe on the rights of other people. The monetary compensation shouldn’t be accepted as money doesn’t match up to the value of a person.”

“Zekerullah,” Hakim asks, “Is your life as valuable as the life of Obama’s daughter?”

“Her life is very good,” says Zekerullah, looking directly at the camera, “because she’s the child of a minister or king.”

“Aren’t you as valuable as Obama’s daughter?” asks Hakim.

“In terms of humanity,” Zekerullah replies, “both of us are human beings.”

“Zekerullah,” Hakim says, “Never forget that you are as valuable as every other child, whether in Afghanistan, America or Europe.”

Zekerullah stares at the potato he is peeling, nodding thoughtfully.

“Okay,” he then says, looking up at Hakim.

“And all of us love you,” Hakim adds.

Zekerullah smiles slowly. “Be alive and at peace, teacher,” he says.

One of the students comments about how hard it would be to lose your brother.

 “These young people you know,” he asks, “can they feel forgiveness when their family members are killed?” 

Hakim says it is very hard.  He tells the story of Abdulai who has publicly stated that it’s time to stop the spiral of revenge, even though the Taliban killed his father.  Abdulai, age 15, was invited to join this tour of Australian cities, but the Australian government has not yet issued him a visa.

“Why not value a bearer of forgiveness more than those who bring weapons and preparation for warfare into your country?” Hakim asks.

President Obama is visiting Australia today.  During a 26 hour trip, he’ll go to Darwin where he and Prime Minister Gillard will most likely announce plans to greatly increase U.S. military presence at several bases.  The 72% of Australians who no longer want Australian troops to participate in the U.S./NATO war in Afghanistan will have to work very hard to be heard by their leaders. 

Using costly wars as the de-facto method of controlling terrorists and the world should be debated.

The debate should include careful listening to people bearing the brunt of these wars. And alternative methods for resolving human conflict should be sought. 

Hakim encourages the students to read “The Kingdom of God Is Within You,” by Leo Tolstoy. 

Having watched Hakim’s encounter with Zekerullah, Tolstoy’s confidence that the law of love is in accord with human nature seems wonderfully plausible.  Tolstoy writes:

The inherent contradiction of human life has now reached an extreme degree of tension: on the one side there is the consciousness of the beneficence of the law of love, and on the other the existing order of life which has for centuries occasioned an empty, anxious, restless, and troubled mode of life, conflicting as it does with the law of love and built on the use of violence.

This contradiction must be faced, and the solution will evidently not be favourable to the outlived law of violence, but to the truth which has dwelt in the hearts of men from remote antiquity: the truth that the law of love is in accord with the nature of man.

But men can only recognize this truth to its full extent when they have completely freed themselves from all religious and scientific superstitions and from all the consequent misrepresentations and sophistical distortions by which its recognition has been hindered for centuries.

The class is about to end.  One of the students says that he’s glad we watched the video because it gives him hope that thirty years from now people in the future could know what the people like Zekerullah said and what the politicians did.

Kathy Kelly (Kathy@vcnv.org) co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org)  Hakim mentors the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers (globaldaysoflistening.org)

Steve Burns: Finding the right words for Iraq

Last Friday, President Obama announced that the military would begin a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, saying, “After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over. Our troops will definitely be home for the holidays.” Not surprisingly, corporate media chose to highlight the responses of Republican Presidential candidates like Michelle Bachman (who thinks Iraqis need to pay us back for their “liberation”) rather than listening to the people who had struggled to prevent the Iraq war in the first place, and who had spent the past eight years trying to make a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq a reality.

In light of the apparent attainment of a goal so many of us had worked for over the years, what did the peace movement have to say? An awareness of the horrific price paid by the Iraqi and American people made for a somber tone to many of the responses I found. What words can we find to mark the end of a war that never should have happened in the first place?

What about the mercenaries?
The most common response to Obama's announcement was “Yes, but...” with many organizations choosing to highlight the more than 5,000 mercenaries to be left behind in Iraq at our Baghdad embassy and at consulates in Erbil, Mosul and Kirkuk. Mike Ferner of Vets for Peace said, “The mercenaries will technically be under the authority of the State Department, not the War Department, but a killer for hire is not likely to become a diplomat at the stroke of midnight on December 31.”

Who deserves the credit?
The terms of the withdrawal were actually negotiated by the Bush administration at the end of 2008, and the Obama administration made repeated efforts to win Iraqi approval for keeping troops in Iraq past the Dec. 2011 deadline, causing Medea Benajmin of Code Pink to describe the Iraq withdrawal as ”a promise the Obama administration made every effort to break.” David Swanson of warisacrime.org directed his thanks away from the White House and towards the grassroots opposition that forced the U.S. withdrawal, writing: “This would not have happened without the U.S. peace movement that scared U.S. politicians with its popularity three and four years ago. Of course it would also not have happened without Iraqi resistance, nonviolent and violent alike.” Kevin Martin of Peace Action also sent thanks and congratulations to war opponents here and in Iraq, writing: "This is a victory for an entire generation of youth, who have grown up only knowing war. This is a victory for the Iraqi people, who have suffered by the millions and ultimately refused to allow U.S. troops to remain after the agreed upon deadline. And this is a victory for our troops and their families, who are no longer put in danger for an unnecessary war."

Will justice be done?
Many groups included calls for justice in their responses, demanding prosecution for those responsible for the war and reparations for the Iraqi people. Mike Ferner of Vets for Peace wrote, “We have to pay a full measure of reparations to repair what we have destroyed of Iraq’s agriculture and infrastructure and leave a sizable trust fund to at least partially deal with the deformities and childhood cancers caused by our depleted uranium munitions.” Cindy Sheehan noted the absence of these issues from Obama's speech: “The two most important things, though, that I did not hear Obama say are these: prosecuting members of the Bush regime for the hundreds of lies it told about Iraq, and paying reparations to the people of Iraq.“

At what price?
Code Pink reminded us of the terrible cost borne by the Iraqi people, citing a "conservative estimate" of at least 100,000 Iraqi deaths as a result of the U.S. invasion and occupation as well as a 2006 study by the British medical journal Lancet that found "more than 650,000 excess Iraqi deaths as a consequence of the war, factoring in the lack of medical supplies and the civil war the invasion set off." Matt Southworth of Friends Committee on National Legislation took up the cause of wounded veterans, noting that, “Hundreds of thousands of the two million veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have filed claims with the Veterans Administration (VA) for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)."

Our to-do list
Recognizing that "the war is not really over, not for military families, not for veterans, and not for the people of Iraq," Military Families Speak Out wrote, “There is still a lot of work to be done, and the voices of military families are more important than ever. We must continue working for an end to the war in Afghanistan, for better treatment of our service members, and for proper care for all veterans. We must hold our government accountable and continue to speak out.” Cindy Sheehan also looked into the future, asking "which war will Obama send these troops that are leaving Iraq to? Pakistan? Afghanistan? Uganda? Iran? Or somewhere else that we can only imagine?" Iraq Veterans Against the War stated a commitment to be part of reconciliation efforts, writing, “IVAW will continue to hold our elected officials accountable and build connections with Iraqi organizations doing rebuilding work on the ground.”

Some national peace organizations have not yet issued statements about the Iraq withdrawal, and I expect to return to this subject as the December 31st withdrawal date comes and goes. For now, I can think of no better closing words than those of Celeste Zappala, Mother of Sgt Sherwood Baker, who was killed on April 26, 2004 in Baghdad: “So we can rejoice that a day will come when soldiers will not be in danger in Iraq, and we can pray that all those injured in body and spirit will be offered the healing they need and deserve. Can we promise them we as a Nation will never again send them in to wars based on lies? I fear not, I fear the business of war will always require a market, and unless we are all powerfully vocal, the idea of wars of choice will perpetuate.”

Steve Burns is Program Director of Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice.

Citizens can help make businesses weapons-free

Concealed carry of weapons becomes legal in Wisconsin on Nov. 1, and local governments across the state are deciding whether to allow weapons in public buildings. Most communities are saying no.

It is also a decision business owners face. The law allows them to forbid their employees from bringing guns to work, and allows them to ban weapons on their property simply by posting a sign at the entrance.

Rather than sit back and watch, Wisconsin citizens, individually or in an organized way, can help them make that decision.

Every day, as you spend money in businesses you normally patronize -- the coffee shop, hair salon, grocery store, gas station, restaurant -- ask them to post a sign keeping weapons out. The Wisconsin Anti- Violence Effort has produced some small cards you can give to businesses, asking them to post a sign and giving them some reasons it makes sense to do so. (For example, workers at businesses that allow guns are 5 to 7 times more likely to be murdered, and 80% of all businesses in the country prohibit guns.)

Tell the businesses you want your family to be able to shop in a safe environment. Don't threaten them; make it positive.

If they agree, notify WAVE, which is compiling a list of gun-free businesses so people can know where to shop safely. And sign a pledge on the WAVE website to support businesses that keep guns out.

In some communities like Stoughton and in a number of Milwaukee neighborhoods, there is a more organized effort to visit each business, ask them to ban weapons, and offer them a sign if they agree, to close the deal on the spot.

WAVE is the main contact for organizing, but the small cards and signs also are available in Madison from the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice office, 122 State St., and in Milwaukee from Veterans for Peace and Peace Action Wisconsin, 1001 E. Keefe.   All three of those organizations are WNPJ member groups.

Cards are free, and quantity discounts are available on signs. Contact one of those organizations for more info.

Bonnie Urfer: "So many crimes, so little time"

Bonnie Urfer, 59, of Luck, Wis., was sentenced yesterday to four months in Federal Prison after being held in federal custody since May 11 for joining 12 others in walking onto the property of the Y12 nuclear weapons fabrication complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. to protest the Y-12 complex's role in nuclear weapons production.

Four months in a private, for-profit jail in southeast Georgia has shown Bonnie some of the worst abuses of our nation's prison-industrial complex. Her sentencing statement, written for presiding Magistrate Bruce Guyton is below. She titled it, “So Many Crimes, So Little Time":

To the Court: One of the most unpleasant things in life is to go to jail. But because they are places with some of the worst human rights violations in one of the most unjust systems, it is important that people know what happens in them. We need people in jails who have a voice, and people who know to tell the truth.

In the past 126 days I have been booked into three different jails. The hardest part of the experience is being just one person in the midst of so much systematic crime.

I have a decision to make. Do I refocus and put my energy into exposing the on-going crime of medical negligence in these jails? Do I begin a campaign to highlightthe illegal starvation diet in the Blount County jail, for which no one has been arrested? Do I join the effort to condemn the practice of overcharging mostly dirt poor inmates for phone calls, and commissary, so that corporations and counties receive greater kickbacks? Should I add my voice to those in this courthouse who show up protesting unjust sentences for nonviolent conspiracy charges? Or should I spend all of my time researching how many prosecutors, judges, attorneys, court clerks and law enforcement personnel who hold stock in the private prison industry, commissary companies, phone providers or medical contractors in these human warehouses? I see so many literal and moral crimes, and I’m just one person.

My final answer is none of the above. I will continue to resist the ultimate crime of nuclear weapons and their production here and around the world.

I heartily disagree with this court that Y12’s production of nuclear bombs does not equate to imminent nuclear war. I can tell you about the women I met in the jails who lost family members from cancer after exposure to radiation while working at Y12. The government pays $150,000 to those with cancer or to their family after a death, if they can prove Y12’s liability. Thousands of people are dead or dying from weapons production. How many deaths does it take to convince the courts that Y12 is killing its own in a nuclear war? How many does it take to name it a crime? In my mind — just one.

I have just one life and there is so much to do. It doesn’t matter what my sentence is. If I am returned to jail, I’ll expose more crimes. If I am set free, I’ll expose more crimes.

Now, it is your decision.” — Bonnie Urfer, Ocilla, Grorgia, September 14th, 2011.

This post is updated from a report by John Laforge of Nukewatch recently published at Common Dreams.

Joy First: Broken Promises, Broken Laws, and Broken Lives

In spite of Obama’s campaign promises to close Guantanamo, and in spite of the fact that he signed an executive order to close the prison on his second day in office, Guantanamo remains open. There are still 170 men illegally detained there. Most of them are innocent of any wrong-doing and have been cleared for release by our government. Yet they have no hope of ever being charged with any crime, having a trial, and worst of all, no hope of ever being released and reunited with their loved ones. They were tortured under the Bush Administration. Though torture may not continue in the same way under the Obama Administration, being held indefinitely with no hope of ever again holding your loved ones in your arms, looking into their eyes, building a life together – that would be torture.

It was with these thoughts in mind that I was compelled to leave my own family, and again return to Washington, DC to participate in an action of nonviolent civil resistance with Witness Against Torture (WAT) (www.witnesstorture.org) on June 23, 2011.

I arrived in DC on Wednesday June 22 and went directly to the Department of Justice where WAT has been focusing a lot of their energy as we work to close Guantanamo and end all torture by our government. As I emerged from the subway and walked towards the DoJ, I saw a familiar and stirring sight. Activists with orange jumpsuits and black hoods, and with their hands behind their backs were standing solemnly in the shadows of the massive justice [sic] building. What a symbol of the power differential between the activists from WAT and the government. As Max says, we are up against the most powerful empire in the history of the world. We come in the dead of winter and in the heat of summer, and we cannot and will not give up.

Wednesday evening we met to plan for the action on Thursday. It is always a wonderful reunion as I come together with these people who I have come to know and love as family. I feel like this story is becoming too familiar as we come together over and over to speak out against the crimes of our government. Yet I know ever more deeply every time I take action that this is what I am called to do, and I must answer that call.

I woke up early on Thursday morning with that queasy feeling in my stomach, knowing I was going way outside of my comfort level in risking arrest. Malachy and I had an egg and cheese bagel and a bottle of juice with the understanding that it could be 30 hours before we would eat again as we were expecting we would be held overnight and not see a judge until late the next day.

In preparing for the possibility of arrest, I was traveling light that day. I removed my wedding ring. I carried my cell phone, toothbrush and paste, and lip moisturizer that I would hand over to a support person before I risked arrest. Malachy and I decided we would only bring a photo copy of our driver’s license as identification rather than the actual license. We wanted to see what the response of the police would be if we had only had a copy of our identification. We also wanted to avoid having to return to the Capitol Police Station to retrieve any property after we were released, as were expecting to be released from the Court House after arraignment the next day.

We then walked to the White House and met up with others from WAT. Amnesty International and TASSC joined us and we listened to a few speakers at the White House before we processed to the Department of Justice in a “Walk of Shame”. It is an eerie sight to witness the procession of activists with the jumpsuits and hoods, hand behind their backs, processing through the streets of DC. Because of my vertigo I am unable to walk safely with a hood and so I hand out flyers and talk to people along the route.

After some time standing in front of the DoJ, we continued the procession to the Supreme Court where we listened to more speakers talk about what is happening in Guantanamo. Then we continued the procession briefly onto the Capitol grounds and then the group disbanded for a short break and to regroup for the action.

We have been to the White House. We have talked to members of Congress. We have been to the Supreme Court. There is no justice, no rule of law to be found for these men in any of the three branches of government. So, it is up to us as citizens to take action, and demand justice. It is our obligation under Nuremberg to speak out against the crimes of our government. It is our First Amendment right to petition our government for a redress of grievances. WAT is calling for the closure of Guantanamo, freeing all prisoners who have been cleared for release and ensuring they are safely resettled, producing charges and prosecuting all other prisoners in US courts, opening all US government detention centers to outside inspections by the Red Cross or other such groups, and conducting a criminal investigation against all those who designed and carried out torture policies.

Fourteen of us were committed to risking arrest that day in an action of nonviolent civil resistance. Our purpose in participating in the action is not to break the law, but to uphold the laws as our government continues its lawless policies. We went to the gallery that overlooks the floor of the House of Representatives. We were fortunate that they were getting ready to vote and almost all the members of the House were present on the floor. I saw my Representative Tammy Baldwin, Dennis Kucinich, and many other familiar faces.

My heart was pounding as I waited for Carmen to start the action. At the chosen moment Carmen rose and in a loud voice started reading a statement about the grave need to end the abuses that continue at Guantanamo. This is the statement that was read by several members of our group as the action began:

Today the House of Representative is in the process of contemplating not the passage of a bill but the commission of a crime. Provisions in the proposed Defense Appropriations Bill grant the United States powers over the lives of detained men fitting of a totalitarian state that uses the law itself as an instrument of tyranny. The law would make the prison at Guantanamo permanent by denying funds for the transfer of men to the United States, even for prosecution in civilian courts.

Abandoning the civilian courts, the bill would be the ultimate concession that the rule of law and cherished American values cannot survive the fear and hatred that have consumed this country. The proposed bill makes restrictions on the transfer of detainees even to foreign countries so severe that no one — whether cleared for release by our own government or acquitted in trials — could be expected to leave Guantanamo. It therefore mandates the indefinite detention even of innocent human beings, which is the very essence of tyranny. Congress has an obligation to uphold the US Constitution. All Americans have the obligation to defend human rights. The proposed bill makes America a callous and reckless jailer, unworthy of the name of democracy. It must be defeated. Guantanamo must close. Those unjustly bound must be freed. Justice must rule.

As Carmen began reading this statement a roar of noise rose from the House floor as many members stood and began to boo Carmen. I believe it was primarily the Republicans who were doing this. I was stunned. This seemed so unprofessional and sophomoric.

Because Carmen was sitting away from a door in a crowded gallery, it took a few minutes for the police to reach him and remove him. As Carmen was being removed Tom stood and continued reading the statement as members of Congress continued to boo. The police removed Tom and the next person began speaking. After the statement was completed, the rest of us began to stand and speak out for the closure of Guantanamo. From where I was sitting I could see from an open doorway into the hallway and there were several officers running through the halls as they came together to stop our action. It was a rolling action that disturbed Congress for several minutes, and that was our intention. We need members of Congress to hear our message and think about what it means to continue to illegally and indefinitely hold innocent men in Guantanamo. David Barrows was the last person to speak out and his voice projected over the crowd as he boomed, “Close Guantanamo. Stand up for human rights. Close Guantanamo. Stop killing the bill of rights.”

As we stood in the hallway right outside the House gallery, they began to handcuff us and do an initial search. Reporters tried to get close to us and Carmen continued to explain to them why we were there. The police began clearing the gallery of all observers because they were not sure if there would be others who would try to interrupt Congress.

Fourteen of us were arrested at around 4:30 pm and we were separated, men and women. The seven women were Ellen Barfield, Martha Hennesey, Judith Kelly, Bev Rice, Josie Setzer, Alice Sutter, and me, Joy First, and the seven men were David Barrows, Tom Casey, Mark Colville, Brian Hynes, Malachy Kilbride, Mike Levinson, and Carmen Trotta. The men were put in the back of one police van and the women were put in another, and we were transported to a DC station where they often process mass arrests.

We were expecting to be processed and then transferred to Central Lockup to spend the night and then wait in chains the next day to be arraigned in the late afternoon or early evening. The officer in charge asked us if any of us had any outstanding cases, and said that he did not want to hear that we did because that would be bad news for us. There are a couple of rules the police generally follow when we are arrested in DC. If we have an outstanding case, we are usually held overnight and then arraigned the next day¸ or if we live more than 50 miles from DC we will also be held overnight and arraigned the next day. I was expecting I would be in custody until 7:00 pm or so on Friday as they generally arraign the activists at the end of the day.

Being in handcuffs is always the most physically challenging part of the experience for me. They use plastic cuffs that are very painful on our wrists and after a few hours in cuffs my shoulders are really aching. So, as I sat there I remembered my brothers in Guantanamo who have been held in painful stress positions for many many hours and even for days. As I think about missing my family for a few days I remember my brothers in Guantanamo who have not seen their loved ones for nine long heartbreaking years. I know this is where I must be and what I must be doing.

After providing identification, our cuffs were removed. Both Malachy and I were told that a copy of our drivers license was not acceptable identification. The police told me I was going to be in trouble for not having my actual license, but nothing ever came of it, and throughout the processing experience they treated our copy as if it was a valid identification. Next we were thoroughly searched and patted down, and then asked a number of questions to establish our identity, including getting a picture taken with an officer. These photos will be used in court, and the officer in the photo will be identified as the arresting officer even though it is the same officer in all 14 photos, and it is not the officer who actually arrested each individual activist. This is what will be used in court to prove our identity and prove we were at the scene of the “crime”.

We were told that the fingerprinting machine was broken and we would have to go back to the main Capitol Police Station near the Capitol to get fingerprinted. There was talk that we would likely be released, but I didn’t trust the police who said this as some of us had outstanding cases and some of us lived more than 50 miles from DC. I still did not really believe they would release all of us. They cuffed the men, loaded them into a police van and the women sat on chairs in a large garage where we were being processed and waited…… and waited……. and waited. It was probably a couple of hours before they cuffed us again to transport us for fingerprinting.

Once back at the main Capitol Police Station, the women were divided and locked into a couple of holding cells. We didn’t know where the men were at this point. It took another couple of hours to fingerprint the seven of us, take our picture again, and ask us a few more questions. While I was being fingerprinted I asked the officer if we were going to be held over and he told me that everyone was going to be released. Finally, about 1:30 am my name was called as I was sitting in the holding cell. I thought they were going to ask me more questions, but they took me to the door and released me. It was so good to see David sitting in the lobby area putting his laces back in his shoes. Malachy was waiting for me outside.

Matt and Beth were there as support and had drinks and granola bars for us. Another supporter was waiting to give people rides to wherever they needed to go. It is a comfort that when we risk arrest and are taken into custody, we know there are people outside waiting to take care of us. That is an experience most people in DC jails do not have, and something the men in Guantanamo definitely do not have.

As we went back to the Hotel Harrington I was very shocked and dismayed to hear that Brian was being held overnight in Central Lockup when I thought we were all being released. I was even more shocked and could hardly believe it when I heard about the circumstances that occurred that led to Brian’s being held overnight when the rest of us were released.

A few years ago several of us who were arrested participated in an action organized by WAT. Part of this action involved not having our identification on our person when we were arrested. Rather, we told the police that we were there on behalf of a particular prisoner being held in Guantanamo and we gave the name of the prisoner as the specific person we were representing. Brian was involved in that action and gave the name of a prisoner. We were then fingerprinted and the name of the Guantanamo prisoner was attached to our fingerprints. They were eventually able to identify us because we had been arrested before and our fingerprints were on file in the computerized system and they could match us with fingerprints from previous arrests.

So, on June 23 when Brian was arrested he gave the police his driver’s license which identified him as Brian Hynes. When the police did a fingerprint search they found the name of the prisoner being held in Guantanamo listed as his real name and Brian Hynes listed as an alias. The officer in charge accused Brian of lying about his identification and said that he was really the person whose name he gave from Guantanamo – even though he had a valid drivers license listing his name as Brian Hynes.

This was absolutely absurd and the officer in charge knew it was absurd. The officer knew this was not a prisoner from Guantanamo. This particular officer is often very friendly with activists and talks to us in a very personal way, but can also quickly switch and act in a very sadistic way towards us. This reminds us that we should never forget who is in charge and has complete control over our lives during the time we are in custody. One time when I was arrested, he was bantering with me about my grandchildren. A short time later we were cuffed to be transported. An officer cuffed me loosely because we were all so sore from spending so much time in cuffs. The other officer, who can be friendly and then sadistic with us, walked up behind me and yanked the cuff so painfully tight around my wrist just because he could and to show me that he had power over me. This is a lesson for us to better understand the lives of the men in Guantanamo whose experiences are so extremely more devastating than ours while in custody that we can’t even really compare them. But we can try to understand the treatment of the men in Guantanamo when we think of the enormous power differential between the prisoners and the guards.

Brian was arraigned and released the next day. The rest of us have an arraignment date set for July 12 and then we will set a trial date. We were charged with unlawful conduct and will likely get a jury trial because we face 6 months in jail for the action. We will work together to figure out a way to continue our witness in the courtroom as we continue the struggle for justice for the men in Guantanamo.

And, in the meantime, we move on to make plans to continue to speak out against the empire through acts of nonviolent civil resistance. The National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance (NCNR) is supporting and endorsing october2011.org. This is an event that will begin with the occupation of Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC on October 6, the 10^th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan, the longest running war in the history of our country. We will be there making our voices heard regarding the wars, the environment, healthcare, education, other human needs, etc. etc. etc – all the evils of the empire. Please go to the websiteoctober2011.org and pledge to join us in DC beginning October 6.

As part of this bigger event, NCNR will be organizing an action at the NSA in early October. We must come together. We must all speak out. Our government has become so removed from the will of the people, and is beholding to too many large corporations that give them money. The Bush Administration committed many illegal actions, but too many criminal acts continue under Obama’s watch. Now is the time for the people to come together and take back our government.

Amy Mondloch: Thoughts on Being Part of the Wisconsin Movement

Amy Mondloch, Executive Director of Grassroots Leadership College has some advice for those of us trying figure out our role in the Wisconsin uprising, including: "Go ahead and mourn. There has been a death in the family, many deaths. We’ve lost much that we love and depend on in this last legislative session and it deserves to be mourned. Crying is welcomed here. So, is talking, writing, song, lifting weights, prayer, running, hitting the punching bag, any and all of the healthy means of processing loss and regaining strength."

1. Why are you here?

If you are here to defend the capitol building, you are in the wrong place. If you are here to prove your belief that police are fascists, you are in the wrong place. If you are here to prove your righteous acts, you are in the wrong place. If you are here to prove Republicans bad Democrats good, you are in the wrong place.

Movements depend on a shared sense of deeper purpose. The Wisconsin movement is complex because it brings together such a wide variety of groups with many reasons for acting. In order for us to succeed in the long haul we must have a shared sense of purpose. I would suggest that the purpose we share is to create a Wisconsin in which all people have their basic human rights met and in which the people of the state drive the government, not the other way around.

2. What is Civil Disobedience and Why Do It?

Civil disobedience is intentional illegal action used to address injustices in the system. It is not simply actions used to make police officers work harder or to add excitement or interest. It is well thought out and used to attain a goal that moves us toward that bigger purpose of meeting the human rights of everyone in our state and gaining control of the governmental process.

Civil disobedience is a tactic to be used when the legal means don’t work. It should be well thought out in advance and taken on only with people you trust implicitly. Plans should be made in advance to deal with any repercussions of your actions. Remember that the police, the courts, and our government have been dealing with protestors a long, long time. They are prepared. You need to be too. Doing the action and getting arrested is the easy part. Dealing with the repercussions can be more time consuming and difficult.

Ask yourself “how will my action help the movement?” before taking any action.

3. What about me?

Me is an interesting character in the movement, whoever that me is. Every action that each of us takes, positive or negative, affects every other person in the movement community. Movements are in some sense temporary minority groups. This is not to suggest in any way that movements or members of movements face the same levels of discrimination or oppression. What we share is that majority culture is quick to define minority groups by the actions of single individuals “all Black men are x,” “all women, all youth, all insert your favorite minority here are y.” The same thing happens in movements. You are a representative of the movement whether you want to be or not. So, it’s up to you to measure each action you take, even the mundane ones like the words you use or when and where you opt to play the drum or whatever else, to ask yourself is this going to move us toward our goal or away from it.

Everyone in Wisconsin is going to be affected by the decisions of our courts, the legislature, and the governor. We need a movement that is made of all ages, all races, and all backgrounds. This isn’t some liberal, progressive, or even radical group. This is Wisconsin. We all drink the same water. Every person that you see could be a part of the movement. Each one could bring something that we need. It’s up to each of us to build the bridges, to win people to our side, to encourage that understanding that we all drink the same water.

4. But I just need to be me!

If you are in a spot in which you feel a need to do something that isn’t going to help the movement take a break, step away for a moment to come back stronger. This fight doesn’t end with this budget session or even with the recalls. We’ve got a lot of work to do and it’s going to take a long time. Governor Walker, the legislature, the cops, the media, and sometimes even your fellow protestors are going to do stuff that in your mind is just idiotic and really ticks you off. If you can deal with it in ways that are both logical, empathetic, and feel right in your heart go ahead and deal with it. If you feel worn down, angry to the point of not being able to control your actions, deeply depressed or otherwise just don’t feel yourself, step back. We are a large group. We’ll cover for each other, so everyone can have a break.

5. Going for the long haul

Bad stuff is happening in Wisconsin’s government, stuff that will take years to fix. We’ll need to fix it and we can. It will take a lot of work, a lot of creative thinking, and a lot of coalition building and strengthening.

Right now a lot of people are burned out, more than I’ve ever seen in my 20+ years as an activist and organizer.

Go ahead and mourn. There has been a death in the family, many deaths. We’ve lost much that we love and depend on in this last legislative session and it deserves to be mourned. Crying is welcomed here. So, is talking, writing, song, lifting weights, prayer, running, hitting the punching bag, any and all of the healthy means of processing loss and regaining strength.

Angrier than you can explain? That’s good too if you use it. Organizers often call it ‘cold anger.’ If you can keep your anger controlled and directed toward supporting our forward movement in healthy ways, it is one of the best tools we have.

Remember we are all family here. Take care of your brothers and sisters and let them take care of you.

Caring for each other makes us each stronger.

6. What’s my role here?

In my work we say “everyone a learner, everyone a teacher, everyone a leader.” It works here too. Each and every one of us is more than a body at a rally. We need you. Ask questions. Share what you know. Support others in doing the same. Share your talents, whether it’s facilitating meetings or baking cookies. Not everyone gets the spotlight, but everyone keeps the movement alive and strong. Thank you everyone for what you’ve been doing to keep us moving!

Amy Mondloch is Executive Director of Grassroots Leadership College.

Bonnie Block: "...and then they charged us"

WNPJ member Bonnie Block reports on her experience as a member of a delegation attempting to deliver a letter to Secretary of War Robert Gates:

After much planning, preparation, recommitment to nonviolence, and community building, there were 25 of us who went to the Pentagon risking arrest. Our plan of action was to ask for a meeting with Defense Secretary Gates because he hadn’t replied to the letter we sent him weeks ago. While we didn’t actually expect to see him, we did expect we would be able to publicly witness by reading that letter so people passing though the metal detector to enter the Pentagon and the dozens of people fenced off in the so-called “free speech zone” would hear it.

What happened instead was that as soon as we moved away from the escalator that brought us up from the Metro station we were faced with a police line. The officer in charge quickly repeated “This is your first warning, this is your second warning, this is your third warning” and then they charged us. I saw more police officers coming through the other side of the metal detector. Next, I saw a police officer pushing an activist and running her into a post along a sidewalk leading to the road where police vans were parked.

I must have turned so I could see what was going to happen and then I felt two hands on my back and was pushed hard. I stumbled but managed to regain my footing without falling. I decided to quickly walk over to another one of the posts to stand there with my friend Joyce and another activist. We began to read the letter, but stopped when we heard the people in the “free speech zone” singing songs of support. Almost immediately, a police officer came over and held all three of us against the post even though we had our backs partly turned to him and were offering no resistance.

I found out later that my friend Joy had her arms wrenched up and behind her so that her shoulders were sore for a day. An 80 year old woman in our group (who has white hair and uses a cane) was knocked to the ground. All the while I heard the police yelling “go to the free speech zone, go to the free speech zone.” Not until we were standing by the police vans did a police officer face me or say anything to me. And they didn’t say much in response to my statement to three of them: “Don’t worry, we’re nonviolent activists. You’re doing your job and we're doing our job.” (I forgot to add “as citizens trying to end militarism.”)

Within a few minutes we were all handcuffed, searched, and put into the back door of a police vehicle. We were driven to a nearby warehouse for processing. Inside I counted seventeen “Pentagon Force Protection Agency “ officers – this for twenty five citizens who had publicly pledged themselves to nonviolence and merely asked to hand -deliver a letter! Several members of our group also saw additional officers without name badges who left before we were taken away. So we’re not sure what the total police count actually was.

Those of us who had not been arrested at the Pentagon before were issued a Warning citation for “failure to obey a lawful order. “ The eight who had been arrested previously were charged with “disorderly conduct” and have a court date of June 3rd. That charge is ironic because not one a single one of us resisted the police -- they were the ones yelling, grabbing and shoving us.

It took over two hours to be processed and then we were released to walk in the rain back to Pentagon City where our support people were waiting. We spent some time piecing together the story of what had just taken place. As Max, one of our spokespersons said, “Congratulations, this was the quickest arrest on record.” Apparently in an effort to not clog the courts, the decision has been made to ignore the first arrest but to make it frightening enough to dissuade people from coming back a second time.

I left with a profound sense of the enormity of the problem facing us and the belief that President Eisenhower’s prediction in his April 16, 1953 “Chance for Peace” speech has truly come to pass:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

Eisenhower said that during the Cold War. Today we have the U.S. military occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, bombing Pakistan, Yemen and Libya; in control of 700-800 military bases worldwide; and a military budget that is about as large as rest of the world combined. The awful consequences of these misplaced priorities are clear not only in the climate chaos around us but also in the current budget battles at both the state and national level.

In Wisconsin, the proposals are to cut almost a billion dollars of aid to local school districts, millions from shared revenue for local units of government and to destroy public employee unions. In Washington D.C., the chair of the Appropriations Committee (Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Janesville)seriously proposes Congress gut Medicaid by converting it to a state block grant program that won’t come close to meeting the needs of the poor and privatizing Medicare with vouchers for seniors to buy insurance from for-profit insurance companies—thus giving corporations access to our Social Security funds just as they already make obscene profits from our out-of-control “defense” spending.

Our militarism is destroying us and our planet. The Pentagon action by a small group of activists was just a grain of sand inserted into the well oiled military machine and it spit us out in minutes. Nevertheless I find hope in the words of a folk song we’ve been singing in our Capitol rotunda:

“Step by step, the longest march can be won, can be won
Many stones can form an arch, singly none, singly none
And in union what we will, can be accomplished still
Drops of water turn a mill, singly none, singly none.”

Bonnie Block is a past Chair of Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice.

Steve Burns: Suckered by humanitarianism

I admit it: I supported the bombing of Libya. Mostly on the basis of an interview with Middle East scholar and longtime critic of U.S. foreign policy Gilbert Achcar, I was persuaded that the massacre of tens of thousands of people in rebel-held Bengazi was imminent if the international community did not act, and that military force -- delivered primarily by the United States -- was the only viable option. As Achcar wrote: "You can't in the name of anti-imperialist principles oppose an action that will prevent the massacre of civilians."

The humanitarian argument presented so convincingly by Achcar was essential to the U.S. and its allies as they went before the U.N. Security Council seeking approval for a military campaign aimed at Libya. And the U.N. responded quickly, with Security Council Resolution 1973, authorizing "Member States... to take all necessary measures... to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack."

Now, two weeks after the passage of a U.N. resolution focused on the narrowly defined mission of protecting civilians "under threat of attack", it's clear that the U.S. and its allies are embarked on a much broader mission: a nationwide bombing campaign aimed at regime change, and military engagement in support of one side in a civil war. It's now time for those of us who favored military action two weeks ago to acknowledge that we've been had.

Right from the outset, it was clear that the U.S. had something much larger in mind than the mere protection of civilians, when more than a hundred cruise missiles slammed into the Libyan capital of Tripoli. Why Tripoli? Military spokesmen explained that their first task must be the complete destruction of all Libyan air defenses in order to protect U.S. and NATO pilots enforcing the no-fly zone ordered by the U.N. , even though air defense batteries in Tripoli would have posed no threat to pilots if they had confined their flights to Bengazi and other eastern cities facing attack by pro-Gaddafi forces more than 600 miles away from the capital.

To see how far this mission has come from the protection of civilians, consider what's happening now in Sirte, a city about halfway between Tripoli and Bengazi. Sirte is Gaddhafi's hometown and was firmly in the control of the Libyan government and was not the site of fighting on March 17, when U.N. Resolution 1973 was passed. But then, emboldened by their new-found air support, Libyan rebels launched an offensive aimed at taking Sirte, where they were quickly repelled by Libyan government forces. NATO jets responded with a bombing campaign aimed at the city. A Vatican official in the city reported civilian deaths as a result of the bombing.

As Libyan rebels and government forces continue their see-saw battle across the country's northern tier, the rebels taking some towns and losing others, and then retaking towns that were lost the day before and losing towns that had been gained the day before, each battle is now accompanied by NATO airstrikes in support of the rebels. What NATO's airpower has allowed, above all, is an expansion of the Libyan civil war, with the civilian population caught between the rebels and the government on the ground, and a rain of bombs from the air.

Since the U.S. and NATO launched this operation under the guise of peacekeeping, it's worth remembering what real peacekeepers do during a civil war. Above all, the goal of a true peacekeeping force is to separate the warring forces and establish a clear line of demarcation between them. In Libya, this would have meant protecting rebel-held cities in the east from attack by government forces, but it would have also meant ceding control to the Libyan government in those cities that it held on the date of the passage of U.N. resolution 1973. Civilians suffer the most when cities change hands, as those who are suspected of supporting the losing side face retribution from the winning side. And we should have no illusions about the Libyan rebels, or assume that they won't take revenge against civilians that they suspect of loyalty to the Gaddafi regime (the U.N. takes the threat to civilians by rebel forces seriously enough that it has issued a warning to the rebels against taking reprisals against civilians in the cities they have captured.)

Do real peacekeepers announce that the leadership of one side of the conflict "must go"? Or provide arms to one side? Or send in military advisers to train one side? Of course not. These things are done by participants in a war, and the U.S. and NATO have now made clear that they are full participants in the Libyan civil war. That's not what U.N. resolution 1973 calls for, it's certainly not what I signed on for when I reluctantly supported the use of force in Libya, and it's time for anyone who might have been persuaded by the humanitarian case for this war to rethink their position.

And yet... none of what I've written above negates the real possibility that there was a genuine humanitarian crisis in the making on March 17, when the U.N. Security Council passed its resolution. The immediate effect of Resolution 1973 was to halt a Libyan government advance that threatened Bengazi and other rebel-held cities, and the Gaddafi regime's immediate response was to call for an immediate cease-fire (a cease-fire it did not honor.) As much as I'm opposed to what the U.S. and NATO are doing in Libya today, I can't dismiss the possibility that, in the first days, thousands of lives might have been saved by their quick action. Whether those lives saved will be balanced out by the lives lost in a now-expanded Libyan civil war is anyone's guess.

Steve Burns is Program Director of Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice

Joy First: Calling for Peace in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda

(Photo: Participants in a 2009 "die-in" inside the U.S. Capitol, organized by National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance.)

On March 19, 2011, we marked eight long horrible years of war and occupation of Iraq. All of us in the United States have blood all over our hands. We are responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people, many of them children who should have had the chance to grow up and decide how they wanted to live their lives. Many children of Iraq never get that chance – and we are responsible for that. We continue to allow our government to engage in the illegal and immoral war and occupation of Iraq. And at the same time, we are fighting an illegal and immoral war in Afghanistan, sending drone bombs to kill the innocent in Pakistan, and bombing Libya. How do we bring an end to these horrors?

Looking at my responsibility in this is something I struggle with everyday. I believe we all must stand up and act in resistance, doing whatever we can to call on our government to end the suffering of so many people around the world. As the U.S. engages in more and more military actions around the world, it becomes more important than ever that we act in resistance.

It was with a heavy heart that I went to the U.S. Capitol on Thursday March 17 with my dear friend Malachy to do an action in the rotunda. Our friends, David and Betsy. were with us for support, and Bill Hughes joined us to videotape the action. The only way we can get into the U.S. Capitol rotunda is by joining a tour group, and so the five of us signed up for a tour.

The tour began with an orientation movie which explained that the U.S. Capitol is the “temple of liberty”. The Capitol is supposedly where the people have a voice through their representatives in Congress. The message of the film left me feeling sick to my stomach as I remembered the many times we have called on our members of Congress to stand for the people and bring an end to the wars.

I continued to feel queasy as our tour group left the theater and walked into the rotunda. I sat on a bench along the wall for a few minutes to pull myself together and then, while our tour leader began to talk about the rotunda, Malachy and I walked to the center of the majestic space. This small area in the center, where presidents lie in state, is cordoned off with posts and ropes. A police officer was standing right there to make sure no one entered the area.

Malachy unhooked the rope and we walked into the area. I laid a black funeral shroud on the floor. I laid a copy of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights on top of the shroud and pulled the shroud over the documents. Malachy began to read the statement that we had prepared (see below). We took turns reading. We were immediately surrounded by about five Capitol Police Officers. One of them shouted at me that what we were doing was illegal and we had to stop. As I continued to read he said, “Oh, so I see you’re just going to ignore me.”

Malachy and I continued to read our statement and at one point while I was reading, Malachy told one of the officers that we would leave when we finished reading our statement. When we completed the statement we started walking away. One of the officers called out and asked us where we thought we were going. The officers took us to a hallway just outside the rotunda where we were questioned for about 30 minutes by a U.S. Capitol Intelligence Officer. He asked us why we were there, if we knew the president was currently in the building, if we were going to do anything else, if we had ever been arrested before, and a number of other questions. After questioning us, they said they were not going to arrest us. We were escorted out of the building.

We had expected that we would be spending the night in Central Lockup and were surprised that we weren’t arrested. We didn’t have anything on us because we didn’t want to have to retrieve our property at the Capitol Police station after we got out of court the next day. We had even photocopied our driver’s license so that we would not have any valuables to retrieve at the police station. We couldn’t find David and Betsy, our support people, and so Malachy and I had to walk back to the hotel where we were staying because we didn’t have money for a Metro pass.

We were exhausted and a bit let down. When we do an action we are engaging in civil resistance. Our goal is to act in resistance to the illegal actions of our government, and though we know we are doing something where we are risking arrest, it is not our goal to get arrested, but to speak out. We are not breaking the law with any of our actions, though we are usually arrested.

When we prepare for an action where there is the possibility of arrest our adrenaline and endorphins get flowing. We decide what we should carry on our person. When I risk arrest, it is the only time that I remove my wedding ring because the police make me remove it. We think about how much we should drink so that we are not dehydrated, but we don’t want to need a restroom. We prepare to spend the night in Central Lockup, sleeping on a metal bed with no food or water available when we sit in a cell in the courthouse the next day waiting 12 hours to see a judge.

We also think about the larger picture and though we may suffer in extremely small ways by risking arrest, our hearts are aching as we remember why we must take these actions, as we remember the people of Iraq, Afghanistan and other places around the world who are being tortured, starved, living in separation from their loved ones, and killed because of the actions of the United States. We realize that at some level we have no choice but to act.

Over the next few days following our action in the rotunda, Malachy and I talked a lot about what we had done and the meaning of our action. What difference does it make that two people go to the rotunda, laying the Constitution and Bill of Rights on the floor, and reading a statement calling for peace? Did our action do anything to stop the wars?

It may seem our action did not make a difference. Yet, what else can we do. We cannot remain silent and do nothing. The next day we went to the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker vigil that is held every Friday at noon in front of the White House. We talked to other activists about our action. Every Friday for many years Art Laffin and others have stood in front of the White House calling for peace. When we talked to Art about our action he said, “Every little bit that we can do makes a difference.” We do not really know who sees us or what kind of impact we will have. We have to continue because speaking for peace in a world filled with war is the right thing to do.

Two days after our rotunda action, on Saturday, March 19, marking eight years of war in Iraq, Veterans for Peace organized an action in front of the White House. Over 100 veterans and supporters were arrested for standing in front of the White House calling for peace. I was there in witness and solidarity. It was a beautiful and powerful action with men and women who had participated in wars standing there calling for peace.

We are part of a larger movement that will not stop until peace is achieved. I have hope that we can and will make a difference and we are not going to give up. We remember Dr. Martin Luther King telling us that the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.

I will be back in DC for an action at the Pentagon on April 8. If you are interested in joining the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance as we continue our call for peace and justice, please email me at joyfirst5@gmail.com for details.

Statement read by Malachy and Joy in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, March 17, 2011

Attention fellow citizens, members of Congress, and friends. We are here today to express our call for peace, our broken heartedness over our wars, and the brokenness of our political system that does not listen to the will of we, the people, but to the military-industrial-corporate-security-congressional-complex which impoverishes us in so many ways.

After 20 years of bombing and waging war on Iraq, almost 10 years of war with Afghanistan, the drone bombing of civilians in Pakistan, illegal detention and torture in Guantanamo, Bagram, and black sites, our violent intervention in the Americas, and military plans for Africa, we come to the Capitol Rotunda, referred to as “The Temple of Liberty” because liberty and justice are values our government does not share with its people.

For years we have in so many ways petitioned our congress calling for peace to no avail. They have depleted the people’s treasury because of their moral bankruptcy and service to wealthy corporate special interests and a war economy causing suffering and death to millions of innocent people all over the world.

From the heartland of our republic to North Africa and the Middle East, to the actions of Veterans for Peace, the people are crying out for justice, showing the way to a better world. We are all a part of that interconnected struggle. Working people know that a sustainable world cannot be built through war and empire.

Today we symbolically bury our Constitution and Bill of Rights to show that our elected leaders have abandoned the principles embodied in these documents. It is our hope that the people will now show the way to peace by raising up true justice and liberty from the ashes of war and destruction wrought by our leaders.

It is clear. Now is the time. We must act!

Joy First is a member of Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice and of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance.

Steve Burns: Walker's blunder

The standoff over public access to the Capitol may be over for now, as protesters who had been part of the two-week long "Solidarity Sleepover" agreed to leave en masse Thursday night, and a court-negotiated settlement ordered the building to open to the public as of 8am Monday. Whether Scott Walker's Department of Administration will actually abide by this agreement is anybody's guess.

Now, the debate has shifted to money, with Walker's DOA promoting an outlandish claim that it will cost $7 million to fix unspecified "damage" caused by the protesters. The same DOA also told a Dane County judge that the cost of hiring police to "secure" the building came to more than $2 million. One of those figures is actual taxpayers money, paid out to "protect" the Governor from students, teachers, firefighters and grandmothers, and the other is a completely imaginary number which will never be paid out to anyone. Can you guess which is which?

But before our attention wanders from this remarkable example of nonviolent popular resistance, we should reflect on how a group of protesters inside the Capitol led Scott Walker into a ham-handed decision to ban the people of Wisconsin from their own Capitol, a tactical mistake that may have significantly weakened his position and strengthened ours.

From the outset, the initiative had been on Walker's side, as unions and their supporters reeled at the scope and audacity of his union-busting plan. But the Capitol occupation shifted the initiative to our side - at least this once, Walker was forced to react to our actions. It was Walker who had to struggle with police commanders of doubtful loyalty while also trying to grapple with the "problem" of hundreds of peaceful protesters who stubbornly refused to commit even a single provocative act that could be used to justify a police crackdown.

Faced with this conundrum, Walker chose to break the law. In clear violation of the Wisconsin constitution, he locked the people of Wisconsin out of their Capitol, a move that hasn't happened in decades. And then, once ordered by a judge to reopen the Capitol to the public, Walker chose to defy the court and continue his law-breaking for five more days.

Here, it's important to recognize that the powerful generally prefer to fake an attitude of tolerance towards dissident views. "Well, the great thing about America is that everyone has a right to express their opinion, and, while I recognize these people have their strongly-held views, I respectfully disagree with them." The previous sentence sums up pretty accurately all that George W. Bush ever had to say about the massive antiwar protests that took place during his presidency.

The powerful can usually get away with pretending to be tolerant of dissent because dissent in our country generally takes a form that doesn't seriously inconvenience the powerful or impede their plans. People march, then they go home, and the policy they oppose moves forward, as if the protest never happened.

That's the script as it's played out for decades. So when you see a public figure drop their pose of fake tolerance, it's a genuine sign of progress, because it means dissent has become enough of an impediment (or at least enough of an inconvenience) that the mask of tolerance must be taken off and true contempt for democracy and free expression must be made public.

And if a protest so inconveniences the powerful that they not only have to stop pretending to tolerate us, but then have to go so far as to break the law, then you know you're really on to something. No matter how much contempt for the law a person like Scott Walker may display, it is never the first choice of those in power to break the law. Acting within the law is always the first choice for those who can generally arrange the laws for their convenience. If power means anything, it means being able to pursue your agenda openly and within the law rather than outside it.

Walker's lockout also had the benefit of bringing into stark relief a problem that can, at times, seem abstract and hard to pin down: the fact that, whether the doors of the statehouse are open or not, working people have been locked out of our government for decades, under both Democratic and Republican administrations. In normal times, this virtual lockout is done quietly, through campaign donations, special access for lobbyists, and self-funded millionaire candidates who are increasingly not available for their constituents.

But when he chose to put thousands of Wisconsin citizens literally out in the cold, Scott Walker clarified a systemic problem that goes far beyond the specific issues of Walker's budget, and even beyond Walker himself. I stood with thousands of Wisconsinites on the State Street entrance to the Capitol while Walker gave his budget address to an audience of hand-picked campaign contributors, and I could feel the righteous anger that coursed through the crowd as we shouted, "Let us in!" and "Whose house? OUR house!" A sense of moral clarity is like fuel to a movement, and I can't help but give Scott Walker some credit for fueling our movement that day, and in the days ahead.

And finally, there's the effect that Walker's actions have had on a sometimes shaky Democratic caucus inside the Capitol. The Capitol lockdown and the dozens of petty and arbitrary rules applied during it, enacted in the most blatantly partisan manner possible, helped to solidify the line drawn between the two parties, and will only make it more difficult for the one Democratic Senator Walker needs to cross over to the Republican side. Denying a Democratic legislator permission to meet with his constituents fits in well with a list of petty and vindictive measures taken by Walker and Republican legislative leaders to bring pressure on the 14 absent Democratic Senators. Will the denial of parking privileges and copying privileges for their staffs and $100-a-day fines really break the "Fightin' 14", or will it only strengthen their cohesiveness as a group? Walker and the Fitzgerald brothers seem not to have considered the second possibility.

What's going on in the mind of Scott Walker? He may be a petty tyrant, but Walker's mindset is far from unusual. Walker is simply another member of the Church of Force. Members of this strange church hold a quasi-religious faith in the use of force, believing a sufficient application of force can accomplish anything. And if force doesn't work, that only means you haven't applied enough force.

And the idea that the application of force might actually backfire, that force might actually strengthen the resolve of those you are trying to subjugate? This thought never crosses the minds of true followers of the Church of Force. Comparisons between Madison and Cairo may be overwrought, but Walker and Mubarak have this in common: They only have one tool in their toolbox, that tool is a hammer, and if it doesn't work, they only know how to look for a bigger hammer.

Will Walker continue to commit provocative acts that only serve to undermine his legitimacy as an elected official, to galvanize popular opposition, and strengthen a sense of cohesiveness and solidarity among legislative Democrats? Of course he will; it's simply who he is, and he can do nothing else.

Steve Burns is Program Director of Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice.

Steve Burns: Why holding the Capitol matters

For nearly two weeks, a determined group of hundreds of Wisconsinites has maintained a 24-hour-a-day presence in our Capitol, keeping the "People's House" open to the people. Although these "Solidarity Sleepovers" were initiated by a union, the Teaching Assistants Association, some union leaders have expressed concerns about this powerful example of nonviolent civil resistance, fearing that holding the Capitol in defiance of police orders could "change the storyline" from a conflict between the Governor and workers to one of a conflict between protesters and the police.

In fact, the Capitol occupation has enabled us to write an entirely new storyline, one of a conflict between the Governor and the police. It was Governor Walker who pressed police commanders to clear the Capitol as of 4pm Sunday night, and it was those same police commanders who wisely refused to follow Scott Walker's demands.

At the outset, we all knew that police and firefighter unions would be a key component of resistance to the Governor's plan. What nobody knew was how far the police would go in expressing their opposition, especially given that Walker decided to carefully exempt them the list of unions targeted for destruction. What the Capitol occupation has done is to provide police and firefighters with an opportunity to express their solidarity with other workers in the most powerful way, by putting themselves directly on the line on the side of the protesters, as many police and firefighters did when they joined the overnight sleep-in. By holding the Capitol, we've also provided police leaders, like Madison Chief of Police Noble Wray and Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney, with a powerful means of expressing their solidarity with the workers, as they did when they issued public statements rebuking Walker for threatening public safety by recklessly ordering the Capitol be cleared of protesters. It's fair to ask how much media attention would have been given to police opposition to union-busting if an opportunity had not been provided for this sort of high-profile defiance.

And one only has to spend a short time inside the Capitol to see the many opportunities the Capitol occupation has provided to build solidarity between police and protesters, as they share the same confined space, days on end. This can only strengthen our cause, even if we don't doubt that the police will follow orders, once the orders are given.

Furthermore, we should never underestimate the importance of the intangibles, like confidence and a sense of momentum. At the outset, Scott Walker was confident he could roll over any opposition, and many of us, myself included, were not at all confident that we could overcome a Republican Governor supported by strong Republican majorities in both houses of the legislature. Any moment when someone works up the will to say "no" to this petty tyrant subtracts from his confidence and adds to ours. If the "no" is coming from the head of the Capitol Police, (as in, "No, I won't evict these people") then so much the worse for him and so much the better for us.

Looking forward, what's most important is that we keep hundreds of people in the Capitol, around the clock, until this crisis is resolved in favor of the workers. And it's vitally important that our presence include a strong contingent of gray-haired folk like myself. On Sunday night, the presence of so many older community members likely had a restraining effect on police, and helped push them towards a decision to back off from the Governor's deadline.

On Sunday, some of the conversations I had with people considering whether to stay in the Capitol and risk arrest were about the newspaper headline we could expect the next day, and whether "Hundreds arrested in protest at Capitol" would help or hurt the workers' cause. But Sunday night showed us that, given sufficient determination, sufficient numbers and sufficient age diversity, we could write a new headline, "Police refuse governor's order to evict."

For myself, what pushed me over the line into a decision to risk arrest were Scott Walker's own words, quoted in a news report about his eviction order. Walker explained that it was necessary to clear the Capitol so that we could "get back to business as usual." Yes, exactly, because "business as usual" doesn't just mean a capitol cleared of its own citizens, it means an entire system of Crony Capitalism, where billionaires write the laws and the people are shut out, literally out in the cold. Every day we hold the Capitol is a day in which "business as usual" is suspended, and that's why I'll be at the Capitol tonight and every night until the workers win. I hope to see you there.

Steve Burns is Program Director of Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice.

Chicago cop reports from inside our capitol

WNPJ member Sue Ruggles sends us this report from a Chicago policeman who came to Madison to express support for worker rights:

I rolled into Madison Wednesday morning, and left to return home to Chicago Friday night. When I first got to Madison, I walked up to the capitol and saw 8 people on the corner wearing blue t-shirts over their coats. The shirts had "COPS FOR LABOR" in big white letters on the back and "Madison Police Assoc." in small letters on the front. I showed them my police I.D. and asked where I could buy one. A cop said she'd get another one later, and literally gave me the shirt off her back.... People in Wisconsin are so damn friendly it's FREAKY!!

I went into the building and was energized and inspired immediately; actually before I even got in. There were thousands standing around and marching around the outside. Members of all kinds of unions, both Wisconsinites and from all over the country were there. Non-union supporters, too. People ranged in age from 9 months to 91 years old.Her sign: "91 year old union supporter and 40-year member. I can still kick butt, Scott!"[Gov. Walker] Thousands of teens and 20-somethings were everywhere.

Many people looked at my "COPS FOR LABOR" shirt and thanked me for being there. I thanked them back. Some asked me for directions, but of course I didn't know where the hell anything was. Inside there were signs EVERYWHERE. One of my favorite: " 'I'd like to buy the world.'-- a Koch" There was one speaker after another in the middle of the rotunda on a megaphone, surrounded by several people with drums and plastic buckets. There were people all around on the first, second and third floors. During the speeches and in between, there was drumming, cheering and chanting.

I roamed all around, up and down the several staircases. The mood was incredibly upbeat. County sheriffs and city cops from several departments were all around, doing what's called "high visibility, low profile". They only blocked off certain areas. They, like the crowd, were mostly extremely cordial. Many said they liked my shirt. Some mentioned approval of my Veterans For Peace ball cap.

I saw about 20 people march into the rotunda wearing the same COPS FOR LABOR shirts. I joined them as they marched in one side through to the other door. People cleared a path and cheered us. One guy holding a big pan handed me a foil-wrapped bratwurst (the official state sandwich, I kid you not!). They were shaking my hand, patting my back and thanking me for being there. I kept thanking them back. The positive energy was overwelming. In the middle of the day, firefighters marched in with bagpipes and drums, playing "On, Wisconsin" and "America the Beautiful". They do this twice a day, and the crowd roars and some weep with appreciation.

Everywhere I went in the building, I saw plastic air rafts and mattresses and sleeping bags. The doors are locked at about 11 p.m. each night; you can leave, but not enter till 8 a.m. Every night 1,000 to 3,000 sleep in the building. There were first aid, security, information, free food, and other stations set up and manned by the protesters. The whole place was amazingly clean and orderly, considering the circumstances.

VFP member Dave Jensen from Tyler, Texas (a fellow Camp Casey member) flew in Wednesday afternoon. We also met up with Bob Gronko (Chicago VFP/VVAW), Bruce Berry, Dave and Gerald (VFP Minneapolis) and several VFP from Madison and Milwaukee.

Ian's Pizza joint a block away kept delivering 50 or more pizzas at a time, ordered by folks from all 50 states and over 40 countries "to feed the protesters at the capitol". I had a couple slices myself--when in Rome.... All around the city of about 300,000 there were signs of support in house and store windows.

On Thursday, a few VFP members squeezed into the middle of the rotunda as member Will Williams spoke to the over 10,000 inside. He mentioned how VFP fights nonviolently for ending wars and occupations that make the nation and world LESS safe, and sap money from needed services and programs. The crowd went wild. We got lots of hugs.

Friday we met up with a few IVAW members. Many more IVAW, VFP, VVAW members will arrive from Chicago and all over Saturday (tomorrow), but I had to go back to work. My 3 weekdays there I saw between 15,000-30,000 in and around the capitol all the time. Saturday (tomorrow) they again will have upwards of 100,000 there. I talked with folks from all over Wisconsin, over 20 from Los Angeles (they were COLD), and from everywhere else.

We went to hear Amy Goodman (Democracy Now) and John Nichols (The Nation magazine) speak at a packed theater Thursday night. People I spoke with rightly called Madison the epicenter, or the front line, or ground zero in the war on workers/unions/the middle class declared by corporations and their government stooges.

Friday morning word spread that the governor wanted to evict the protesters Saturday night. Later we heard he wanted to do it Friday night. So then many cops from all over announced they would (while off duty) remain in the capitol overnight to prevent the eviction of the protesters, which many of the cops are themselves.

I have not felt such a beautiful spirit of community and determination since August of 2005 at Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas. I encourage all who can to go to Madison at this historic moment in time. You WON'T regret it. If you can't go there, join in a rally of support Saturday somewhere near you. We stand together or we fall apart, sisters and brothers. I gotta go back there. SOLIDARITY!!