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 News from Around the Americas | January 2007 
US Protesters Will Urge Congress to Stand Up to Bush
 United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ)
Peace march expected to be among largest since war began.
New York, New York - Americans angered by Bush's plans to escalate the Iraq war will flood the streets of Washington on Saturday, January 27, in a massive national peace march organized by United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ). Marchers will call on Congress to listen to the voters, not Bush, by using its power to end Bush's war and bring the troops home. The last three national marches organized by UFPJ each attracted between 300,000 and
MoveOn.org has called upon its 3.2 million members to join UFPJ, describing the march as potentially a "turning point for the war" comparable to how "Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington in 1963 was a turning point in the fight for equality and civil rights." The National Organization for Women (NOW) is mobilizing its chapters to participate. Local anti-war groups in cities and towns across the nation are mobilizing.
On Monday, United for Peace and Justice's web site received more than 700,000 hits. District Council 37 in NYC, AFSCME's largest district council, and New York's United Federation of Teachers, the largest teachers union local in the country, are sending busloads of their members to Washington. Car caravans and peace trains are heading to Washington, DC, from all over the East Coast, Midwest and Southeast. Buses and vans are coming from more than 30 states and 111 cities, including from as far away as Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
Judith LeBlanc, UFPJ Co-Chairperson, said, "Bush's announcement of plans to escalate the war has backfired. Every day people call or send email to say they will be marching in Washington with United for Peace and Justice on January 27th to call for an end to this war. They are demanding that Congress stand up to Bush. There is no doubt: This is the right action at the right time."
Among those slated to speak at the pre-march rally are Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson, who last year led an anti-war march of thousands, the largest protest in Salt Lake City history; Reverend Jesse Jackson Jr.; Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio); Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.); Bob Watada, father of Lt. Watada, the first military officer to refuse deployment to Iraq and currently facing court-martial; and active-duty service people.
On Monday, January 29th, UFPJ is sponsoring a Grassroots Lobby Day, in which hundreds will press the case for withdrawal from Iraq directly with their Congressional representatives and senators. The weekend's activities will include a Saturday morning interfaith peace service and organizing workshops on Sunday.
On Thursday, January 11, United for Peace and Justice member groups and allies staged more than 1,000 local protests of Bush's escalation of the Iraq war. UFPJ's March on Washington is the next step in the anti-war movement's national surge of opposition to Bush's escalation of the war. |
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