Watch Medea’s interview on #OccupyWallStreet with Oz House Alt News:

LA CODEPINK was present yesterday at both Obama LA fundraisers to challenge him to immediately end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bring all troops and contractors home and ensure real human security by creating jobs and ensuring access to healthcare, education, housing and food. Check out the CBS LA coverage of his appearance, featuring a quote from me around the minute mark.

CODEPINK NYC Coordinator Melanie Butler was interviewed on KPFA’s Letters and Politics program today. Listen to it online.

Bush was the keynote speaker at this awful Mortgage Lenders’ convention yesterday…all about foreclosures, evictions, how to get around those pesky rent-control issues, etc.  Ugh!

We ascertained early on that there was no way to ”attend” the breakfast (you even had to show ID to get a stars-and-stripes-laden conference badge), so we decided to drop the banners in the huge atrium above where the conventioneers were coming in.   All the heavy security was at the doors to the ballroom, so we were able to display the banners to a constant stream of people for almost ten minutes!

When the hotel security finally arrived and said, “Please take up those banners,” we said, “Okay,” wrapped them up, and started to leave.  We thought she’d just escort us out, but waiting at the end of the corridor was a boatload of uniforms from several different law enforcement entities.  The man who appeared to be the head of hotel security was not pleased and declined to shake my hand. 

They escorted us into an elevator and to an office with a lobby, where they had us sit down, show IDs, and read us the riot act.  Then they took us separately into another office and a Secret Service guy “interrogated” us.  Yikes!  He asked what we were trying to do, so I gave him an earful about why Bush should be held accountable, listed some of his crimes, and said that we were just working for peace.  He then said that that was going to be his next question – were we intending any violence?  Wow – that really got me!  I said, “No!  That’s why we’re here:  WE’RE TRYING TO STOP THE VIOLENCE!” Duh!

The whole time, we kept hearing “criminal trespass” and a couple officers were writing what looked like tickets, so I asked what they were doing and they said they were writing “Criminal trespass……warnings.”  Whew!

So, while the other two were being grilled in the “interrogation room” (somebody’s office), I took the opportunity to go on & on to the several police officers who were left to guard us about everything, including the housing and financial crises.

After finishing the separate intimidation sessions, we were all back in the main room and they said, “Last thing:  ladies, are there any others of you in any area of the hotel who are planning to disrupt anything?”  We said no.  Then the Dallas Police Detective (the nice one, who protected our first amendment rights last week at the Rove thing) said, “Are you sure?”  We promised and added that if there was anyone else, we didn’t know about it.  Then she asked again:  “Are you suuure?”  “Where’s Reverend Diane?  Are you sure she’s not in the breakfast?”

Roflol.  (Diane was home, sick.)

Anyway…they took our pictures & we’re on probation and can’t go back into the hotel for two months.  Just before releasing us, the Secret Service guy gave the final reading of the riot act.  Then I gave a long soliloquy about why Bush should be arrested and gave them the Arrest Complaint.  Can’t remember the exact words, ’cause I was a bit flustered, but it went about like this: “I just want to say that I find it so ironic that a man who is guilty of war crimes according to international law and the Geneva Conventions which stipulate aggressive war and torture as illegal is getting paid over a hundred grand to speak to bankers he bailed out, while three grandmothers advocating for peace and standing silently with pink banners are being treated as criminals.”  Somewhere in there, I threw in a line about the hundreds of thousands killed, including children.  As I listened to my own words, I started to choke up at the absolute iniquity and human injustice of it all, and I ended up crying….which turned out not to be so bad, because I had a room full of very attentive people in positions of some influence who were listening to every word without interruption.  And we ended on that note.

Anyway, here’s the video.  Turn up the volume after the Standard Rebellion intro.

My favorite is the woman who flipped us off as the security guy in the blue shirt was calling for back-up.  She was walking toward us, yelling “STUPID, STUPID, STUPID” the whole way.  Guess she couldn’t think of anything substantive.

Oh – just wanted to add that what probably bothered me the most – even more than the workshops about foreclosure, evictions, etc. – was that right before Bush spoke (actually he probably participated), they had a give-away of 5 homes to wounded veterans and their families.  The lowest of low…exploiting wounded veterans to paint a veneer of altruism and legitimacy on themselves.  And so many people will fall for it.  But when I got really mad was when it dawned on me where those homes were coming from.  (Some of their training was on how to get the most profit out of flipping foreclosed homes…and how to dispose of the ones that didn’t sell.)

Sigh…our work is never done!

Former governor of Minnesota Tim Pawlenty officially throws his hat in the ring on May 23rd as the 2012 Republican presidential hopeful. Pawlenty is described as laid back and low key, but beware this Minnesota native is ready to squash first amendment rights.

Months leading up to the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN, peace advocates and artists were coordinating efforts to host a nationwide community interested in demonstrating against the convention. But local organizers had undergone surveillance and experienced preemptive raids.

Activists with the women’s peace group CODEPINK had reserved a studio in a famous Minneapolis puppet theater for the summer of 2008 to build cardboard doves, sew costumes, paint and hold community meetings, but at one such meeting a couple of plain clothes officers randomly showed up, wanting to set up a time to speak, and leaving a business card for follow up. On more than one occasion the women had been followed by local police and randomly pulled over. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was immediately contacted.

Just days before the convention, a few homes were preemptively raided, eight young activists were arrested and taken into custody, each charged with “conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism” under the Minnesota version of the USA PATRIOT ACT. Sources were paid by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to gather information on the activists. After a couple of years of drawn out legal work, the activists were either assigned community service, charged with a fine, and/or served a short jail sentence.

While Pawlenty was inside the Republican National Convention energizing the delegates for “Country First” Sen. John McCain to speak, a different scene was taking place outside the convention halls. Activists who had traveled from all across the country were met with baton waving riot police who restricted their movement through the city streets, bludgeoned and wrongfully arrested them. This holds true for members of the press.

Producers and host Amy Goodman with the independent news program Democracy Now! were forcibly arrested by police, since then Amy Goodman has now become a plaintiff suing local Minnesota law enforcement and Secret Service. Overall there were 46 journalists arrested and detained during the convention.

Pawlenty applauds and defends the aggressive handling of protesters and press by law enforcement. During his time in office, FBI house raids continued to happen against human right advocates and activists.

Former governor Pawlenty will swing through the country for the 2012 election, but don’t let his laid back demeanor fool you because he is no friend of peaceful dissent.

I have spent nearly ten years of my life speaking, writing, protesting, organizing, even singing and dancing for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I could quote statistics:

* 20% of Americans who die from suicide each year are veterans.
* More than 4,000 troops have died in these wars.
* There is documentation of more than 100,000 civilian deaths in Iraq — a country we were told we were liberating.
* The cost of these wars now totals more than $1 billion for North Dakota taxpayers alone.

These statistics are not new information. The cry for peace is not a new movement. It occurs to me this morning that I have nothing new to add.

So I’ll tell you what others have said.

Jeff Skjelver of Rugby, ND, says this: “When the North Dakota Peace Resolution was previously introduced 4 years ago, I was deployed for my second time to the Al Anbar province in western Iraq. It was clearly obvious to me by then that our presence in Iraq was not to the benefit of the people of the United States, nor to the people of Iraq. Iraq had no involvement in the attacks of September 11, 2001. Weapons of mass destruction were not in Iraq. The people of Iraq did not hate us for our freedoms. Nothing we were told by our leaders about why we had to attack and invade Iraq turned out to be true. In short, the contractors, and those working for contractors, were and have been the only beneficiaries of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.”

A 12-year-old student from Mandan, ND, grapples with a world at war: “I wonder if the world will ever be peaceful…No war in the world? How can people imagine that? I know I can’t.”

A 12-year-old North Dakota girl cannot imagine peace in our time.

Her peers in Afghanistan, from the Afghanistan Youth Peace Volunteers, would like us to imagine just that. They have asked U.S. and allied forces to leave their country, so they may pursue their own work for sustainable peace.

In this spirit, SCR 4015 not only calls for an end to these wars and occupations — it holds up nonviolent alternatives that work.

From building schools for children to reestablishing agriculture to preventing violence against women, these alternative programs make a difference — supporting people to use their own wisdom to solve their own struggles.

My grandfather, a veteran of bloody battles in WWII, tried to explain to me once why he became a proponent of peace. He paused — and then he said: “I don’t like to kill anybody.”

Who does?

In 2005 my husband was severely wounded in Iraq and the Army labeled him “undeployable.” But, in 2007, they deployed him again. That is when I began to realize that I could no longer support the war and and started looking for the comfort and support of others who felt as I did. One day I was looking at Rosie O’Donnell’s website and I saw a picture of a woman confronting Condeleeza Rice with bloody hands. My first thought was “that is so ballsy!” I wanted to know who this was so I read Rosie’s blog and learned that she was with CODEPINK I googled and found the national website and immediately joined. Then, I began to look for a local chapter. Of course, there wasn’t one in Killeen, Texas, but, I did find the website for CODEPINK Austin. I showed up at their next meeting with my two daughters all in pink and found not only the comfort I had been seeking, but, also the opportunity to take action.

Through CODEPINK Austin, I heard about Iraq Veterans Against the War and became connected to members in the Austin and Fort Hood areas. In the spring of 2008 the Fort Hood chapter of IVAW was contacted by a longtime activist who had been at the Oleo Strut during the Vietnam days, and who wanted to offer his fundraising abilities to help start a similar coffeehouse for Iraq veterans. Fort Hood IVAW members recognized the value and importance of having such a hangout for GIs, but, they did not feel that they could organize or operate it. So, they came to me for help. I contacted Alice Embree and Fran Hanlon, two CODEPINK women who are now board members, and in May of 2008 we sat down with IVAW members to discuss the creation of what is now Under the Hood Cafe and Outreach Center.

For the soldiers who visit regularly, Under the Hood has become a home and we have become family. They return to base and tell their buddies about us. They come and hang out because they can relax and talk openly with us. They tell us about their hardships, they ask for help, they seek information about their rights, and sometimes they find the strength to say NO to war.

Thank you, CODEPINK for your support. This is what keeps me going. Living in the military culture in Killeen is not easy. Hearing the stories and witnessing the pain these wars have caused these young people is very difficult. When I need to be re-inspired or re-motivated, I go to Austin and join my CODEPINK friends in action. It gives me the strength to come back to Fort Hood and continue the struggle.

Here is a personal story from SPC Victor Agosto, Afghanistan War Resister:

Independence Day: The 4th of July provided us with opportunities to show our red-white-blue-and-PINK selves in from Maine (with an “I miss America” pageant) to Texas to Hawaii. In Austin, local coordinator Heidi Turpin reports: “Five of us women, along with our supportive CODEPINK associate, Jim, strolled through the crowd wearing our signboards and carrying peace flags  … On the backs of our signs were the messages, ‘Peace is Freedom from War,’ ‘Peace Takes Courage,’ ‘Peace is Creative,’ ‘Peace is Healthy,’ and ‘Peace is Matriotic.’”

Book Club: The Pink Pages Book Club continues as CODEPINKers read and discuss “MEENA: HEROINE OF AFGHANISTAN,” by Melody Ermachild Davis, St. Martin’s Press, 2003, with a forward by Alice Walker. For more info and to sign up to be in a book club, please click here.

Palestine: As part of our commitment to ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian Occupied Territories, CODEPINK joined the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, by launching a boycott of beauty company AHAVA  — find out all the details on our colorful new website: www.stolenbeauty.org.
Bikini-clad CODEPINK activists smeared with mud have already rallied in Tel Aviv, New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, France, and just this week in DC to expose the dirty secrets of AHAVA.

Ground the Drones!: From July 10 through July 13, CODEPINKers from Arizona and California joined our pink sisters Candace Ross and Elaine Clermont of Nevada for the first actions in our Ground the Drones campaign, building on the work of Voices for Creative Nonviolence in April. Kudos to Zanne Joi for a great KPFA interview about the unmanned aircraft, used for assassination and surveillance in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We had a gathering and info-sharing session with our allies from Nevada Desert Experience in a Vegas library on the 10th, a larger gathering at the Goddess Temple Guest House just north of Creech Air Force Base (where Candace is the priestess), several bannering and flyering actions on the Strip in Las Vegas, and two peace vigils on I-95 directly in front of Creech Air Force Base. Two activists were cited and released for briefly blocking the entrance road to the base, and some Bay Area pinkers plan to return to Las Vegas to do court support and more public education on the drones in late September.

Accountability: The Golden Gate local group has stepped up the Arrest War Criminals/Torture Accountability campaign by holding weekly vigils in front of torture advocate and UCB law professor John Yoo’s home. As organizer Cynthia Papermaster says, “[Yoo's] incredibly smug about his complicity in the torture and murder of at least 100 people, as well as giving legal cover to the illegal wiretapping of U.S. citizens… I can’t stand the thought that we’re paying him over $200,000 a year to teach at UC. He’s violated US and international laws– and we pay him to teach at our public university?” The winning slogan in the Arrest Cheney slogan contest: JUSTICE FOR CHENEY/ PROSECUTE.

National Assembly: The National Assembly to End the War came together in Pittsburgh, PA. Report from local group coordinator Francine Porter: “The National Assembly is a new national network of antiwar and peace groups that advocates mass actions against the war; the network held their national antiwar conference from July 10th to 12th at La Roche College… Over 200 people attended… Many workshops were presented during the conference dealing with Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, War Spending, Women and War, Torture, Racism, The Policies behind the G20, and The Palestinian Struggle.  …our group had a wonderful display table with past articles and great photos of past actions.  We signed up 15 new members, and distributed literature announcing the Women’s Tent City for the upcoming G20 protests.  Many people (mostly women) stopping by our table recognized Codepink from National actions (photos from congressional hearings, Des with Condi Rice), and took information about our local group.  Many women thought CODEPINK was a unique group because it is women-initiated….many women would prefer to work with women as opposed to men.”

Counter-Recruitment: CODEPINKers from New York, Texas and of course Chicago attended the NNOMY Counter Recruitment Conference in Chicago from July 17 – 19 and got many new ideas for counter-recruitment work in their home communities. On a conference call, CODEPINK reps who attended the conference Barbara, Yvette, Sheila and Pat all talked about how impressed they were with the youth who attended and in some cases presented at this national conference. They also agreed on the importance of presenting alternative career paths to the military, especially for youth who may not be college-bound. A couple of these women will be updating the counter-recruitment section of www.codepinkalert.org, and all will be working with their local high schools and at military recruiting events to counter the heavily funded military propaganda to young people.

Honduras: Medea traveled to Honduras with an emergency international delegation organized from the United States by CODEPINK, Global Exchange and Non-Violence International, for a fact-finding mission in the wake of the June 28 coup that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya. Read Medea’s articles about the trip.  CODEPINK DC joined a Honduras rally, held a panel discussion event at Bus Boys and Poets restaurant, and, as a result of your grassroots pressure emailing letters to the State Department after our July 23 action alert, CODEPINK finally got a meeting with the head of the Honduras desk.

Global Day of Action in solidarity with the people of Iran: on Saturday, July 25, pinkers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and DC turned out for rallies advocating justice and human rights for Iranians. It was a great day to connect with our Iranian allies, get out the word about our “Stop the Next War Now” efforts in helping prevent a US attack on Iran, and understand the issues in more depth. Pink goes great with green!

DC Pink Week: Our Women’s Leadership Intensive week in DC was busy!  The visiting activists coordinated two AHAVA actions and joined Healthcare-Now on the 44th anniversary of Medicade to demand single-payer healthcare.  Medea spoke at the healthcare rally at Senate Park and was joined on stage by a dozen PINKs in pink scrubs with a giant “Healthcare not Warfare” banner.  The week also included a birddogging training facilitated by Gael with the Climate Factory summer student group, online organizing trainings with Paris, media work, a Honduras action and speaking event, a visit to the State Department, and a dance party!

We held an outreach and organizing conference call the last week in July in which Jodie gave excellent advice on how to cultivate and nurture an active local group, and Paris, Janet, and Rae shared tools for success online and offline.  Be sure to check out the notes for more.

And to wind up the month, CODEPINKERs in the Bay Area and in San Luis Obispo joined allies from healthcare, children’s advocates, prison reformers and many others in protests of the draconian California state budget cuts. As local coordinator Dian Sousa of SLO CODEPINK says in her calendar announcement: “CITIZENS SPEAK OUT! Schwarzenegger signs California Budget with an ax on the backs of the poor, the elderly, the sick and our the children’s future.”

And finally, some inspiring words from our small group in the Redlands, CA:
This is a message for all those tiny Pink chapters who are frustrated with a lack of participants which hinders our ability to make a big splash. Sometimes we become discouraged because we feel we are not making a dent in the BIG picture.
Ten days ago my family went to a Harkin Theater in Moreno Valley, CA. March Air Reserve Base is a big part of the economy of this small town in Riverside County. I was outraged when I saw a video game from goarmy.com in the arcade. Our four person, three generation, chapter wrote letters to Harkin’s corporate office. I received a call within hours, but wanted a written answer to why our tax dollars were being used for a recruiting tool in a private establishment. Long story short, the game has been replaced with “Police Trainer”. Personally objectionable? Yes! Better than a recruiting tool for the Army? Absolutely! 

Keep the faith, tiny chapters. Our Pink gives us “Rock Star” strength thanks to our brave leadership who puts themselves out there daily. To all the chapters, I pay homage. At rallies, or when speaking, a measure of respect is offered to anyone wearing the Pink, because of our work. 

Peace and giggles, 
Corla Coles

Get inspired by the 18 action report-backs from July listed on our Local Spotlight!