From CodePink:Archive: taking action 2004
From CodePink:
January
6 -
Take Action on Election
Violations as Congress Meets to Certify the Vote!
URGE PROGRESSIVE SENATORS TO TAKE A STAND ON JAN. 6, WHEN CONGRESS
MEETS TO CERTIFY THE VOTE
On
January 6, 2005, Congress will meet in joint session to certify the 2004 presidential
election. On that day, if one member of the House and one member of the Senate
object to the certification of the vote, then all members of Congress will finally
discuss these issues. On January 6, 2001, not a single Senator would join with
the Representatives who demanded an inquiry into the Florida recount. This year,
let’s make our Senators take a stand!
The following seven Senators are some of the most progressive members of the
Senate. Please call them immediately, and urge them to defend democracy on January
6. *SPREAD THE WORD TO PEOPLE YOU KNOW TO DO THE SAME UNTIL JANUARY 6.*
Senator Barbara Boxer, (202) 224-3553, senator@boxer.senate.gov
Senator Dick Durbin, (202)
224-2152, dick@durbin.senate.gov
Senator Russ Feingold, (202)
224-5323, russ_feingold@feingold.senate.gov
Senator Tom Harkin, (202)
224-3254, tom_harkin@harkin.senate.gov
Senator Jim Jeffords, (202)
224-5141, Vermont@jeffords.senate.gov
Senator Edward Kennedy, 202/224-4543,
senator@kennedy.senate.gov
Senator Patrick Leahy, (202)
224-4242, senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
ON
JANUARY 6, PROTEST IN WASHINGTON, DC AND AT SENATORS’ OFFICES IN YOUR OWN COMMUNITY
While our Senators and Representatives are inside Congress, tallying the electoral
college vote, We the People must have a presence outside, bringing attention
to the disenfranchisement, suppression and fraud that pervaded the 2004 election
and demanding real reforms to extend and protect democracy in America. Please
join us at a vigil and rally on January 6th to demonstrate our support for our
leaders inside.
Check www.nov3.us or www.counter-inaugural.org
for more information.
If you can’t come to DC, we urge you to organize a protest outside a Senator’s
office in your community, and list your event at www.nov3.us.
Andrea, Carol, Claire, Dana, Gael, Jodie, Medea, Nancy, Tiffany
December
24, 2004
www.codepinkalert.org
*******
“As elected representatives of the people, we hold a sacred responsibility to
every voter across this nation to ensure that their vote is counted and recorded
properly”. --Barbara Lee, Congresswoman, CA
Holiday shopping tips: CodePink's
War
Toys Campaign
"The holiday season is upon us and that means loads of people buying gifts,
including war toys. As US Soldiers are injured and dying every day and untold
numbers of innocent civilians are displaced and needlessly killed in Fallujah
and elsewhere in the unjust occupation of Iraq, this is particularly disturbing.
Let’s use this holiday season as our opportunity to show that war is not a game
and to teach our children nonviolence. We can no longer stand by and allow our
children to play with war toys, or fight with and die by real weapons in Iraq.
So let’s get out and do something about it. Below are six great ideas...or invent
some of your own.
http://www.codepink4peace.org/National_Actions_Anti_War_Toys_Actions.shtml
Protest the Attack on Falluja!
|
|
NOW: call local media outlets and members of Congress to denounce the attack. Organize actions outside and inside Congressional offices to demand an end to the assault on Falluja and an end to the occupation... For leaflet, talking
points and more, see: |
CODE PINK
has sent an e-mail alert asking for help to get desperately needed medical aid
to Fallujah:
"While George Bush was on the campaign trail talking about moral values,
his administration was busy preparing the assault on Fallujah that was launched
immediately after the election. The US military leveled virtually the entire
city, killed hundreds of desperate civilians, refused to let humanitarian aid
workers into the city, and has now left refugees without food, water and medicines.
We didn’t vote for this administration, but like it or not, we are responsible
for its actions. We MUST show the Iraqis and the world community that there
are indeed kind, compassionate Americans who are appalled by the immoral behavior
of our government and want to help - not kill - the Iraqi people.
PLEASE HELP US GET MEDICAL AID TO THE PEOPLE OF FALLUJAH. We will send it immediately
to a team of doctors who are anxiously awaiting our response. Please visit:
http://codepink.kintera.org/helpiraqis
or send checks made out to Help Iraqis/Global Exchange to 2017 Mission St. #303
San Francisco, CA 94110.
KEEP INFORMED and ACTIVE. Here are three links to update you on the current
crisis:
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/index.php
Journalist Dahr Jamail reports on the assault on Fallujah and mounting casualties.
Children Pay Cost of Iraq's Chaos -- Malnutrition Nearly Double What It Was
Before Invasion:
http://occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7923
Humanitarian Crisis in Iraq:
http://occupationwatch.org/article.php?list=type&type=13
Bhopal: Dow Chemical must take responsibility for clean-up
"Twenty years on,
the Bhopal plant continues to ruin the lives of the surrounding communities.
The effects of the leak and the contaminated environment continue seriously
to affect people's basic human rights. UCC -- and Dow who merged with UCC in
2001 -- have still not cleaned up the site or stopped pollution that started
when the plant opened in the 1970s, meaning local residents are continuing to
fall ill from drinking contaminated water."
Write a letter or send an e-mail, based on information from Amnesty international
at:
http://web.amnesty.org/pages/ind-291104-action-eng
See our report on
Bhopal
USA, Election 2004:
were all the votes counted? Women
comment on the election
USA, Election 2004: Will Women's Votes Make the Difference?
The Right to Vote
Women in the USA won the right to vote in 1920, after more than 70 years
of struggle.
The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads:
"The right of citizens
of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States
or by any State on account of sex."
For some introductory information about winning the right to vote see: http://www.VoteRunLead.org/facts/suffragette.cfm
A new film retells some of the story, see http://iron-jawed-angels.com/
Using that Right
In Election 2000, 22 million single women did not vote, and 11 million young
women (18 - 34) never registered. This year and this election will be different,
as thousands of women are focused on registering, educating and encouraging
other women to register and cast their votes. Here are some of the organizations
focusing on the women's vote:
Women's
Voices Women's Vote: "Women on their own can transform American politics"
Fact sheet from Women's Voices
Women's Vote
From the Fact Sheet:
* Fact: If unmarried women
voted at the same rate as married women, over six million more voters would
have gone to the polls in 2000.
* Fact: 22 Million unmarried women who were eligible to vote did not cast ballots
in the election in 2000.
* Fact: 16 million unmarried women were not registered to vote in 2000.
* Fact: 56% of all women not registered to vote are unmarried.
* Fact: 46% of all voting-age women are unmarried.
For complete Fact Sheet
see:
http://www.wvwv.org/factsheet.shtml
Links to resources on women's
issues and political action, from sheVotes.org: http://www.shevotes.org
http://www.shevotes.org/resources.html
1000
Flowers- reaching women where they are?
"1000 Flowers is a "bunch"
of concerned citizens who have come together to talk about issues and get more
involved in the political process. We loved the fun, colorful, upbeat flower
imagery and the notion that if we could "grow" a creative initiative a thousand
more would "bloom" across the country. We asked ourselves how to reach and engage
women with issues we all care about. We decided to printcatchy
slogans on thousands of nail files and give them away at beauty salons across
the country to women who register to vote..."
For 2500 websites and articles
on the US 2004 elections -- and many, many more links, check out Better
World Links
4th of July move from multi-national to local financial institutions
Action
alert from
Solari: Working together
to make healthy local living economies the best equity investment worldwide
 |
"Solari
is an investment advisory company (in formation). Our intention is to make
healthy local living economies the best investment worldwide, offering investment
vehicles for regional and global investors to participate in the local equity
financing and resulting capital gains... Our real opportunity is to organize locally as we network globally, to implement financial transparency in our cities, towns, and villages – find out how the money works, flows, and disappears – and reengineer our economy at the grassroots level to get the money back and grow more. Financing communities with equity and sound currency can reduce debt, and create opportunity for jobs and wealth creation while healing the environment and making places beautiful..." |
"Our kickoff date is
July 4th. We are calling for 600,000 people worldwide to join us in pulling
our checking accounts, certificates of deposits, credit cards and other business
out of multi-national banks such as Citibank, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase,
and switching to a local, well managed community-friendly bank or credit union...
http://www.solari.com/
Taking
action: "Demonstrations throughout the West Bank are increasing"
Message
from Gila Svirsky, from Jerusalem, 16 June 2004
Friends,
Taking
action: "Protesting the
IDF in Gaza, and how to help"
Message
from Israeli peace activist Gila Svirsky, from Jerusalem, 23 May 2004:
As most well-read people already know, the Israeli army has spent the last five days battering and bludgeoning the inhabitants of a hot and dusty town on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, known as Rafah.
Women
of Rwanda: marked for death
amnesty international campaign seeks support for women victims
 genocide survivor, Rwanda (ai) |
"The legacy of
genocide and war in Rwanda lives on ten years after the events in which
as many as one million lost their lives. For
background ai papers on Rwanda: |
Women for Regime Change in the U.S. – starting with voter registration
From V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls.
V is for Vote: “Vote to End Violence”
http://www.vday.org/contents/vote
V Is For Vote is a grassroots voting campaign created with and by thousands
of local V-Day activists and individuals in the U.S.
V-Day activists will mobilize register and get out the vote efforts anchored
around their V-Day 2004 events and activities. V-Day is outreaching to the Presidential
candidates (of both political parties) urging them to make Violence Against
Women a central issue of their campaign platforms, not a sideline or "women’s"
issue. Ultimately, V-Day will mobilize its activism into political power through
V Is For Vote as V-Day supporters “Vote to End Violence.”
Voter Registration: For information on registering on-line and registering
others see:
http://www.vday.org/contents/vote/register
Granny
D is on the road again, signing up voters for the fall election. Visit
her site at www.GrannyD.com
Doris "Granny D" Haddock, 93, is on the first miles of her multi-state trek to listen to non-voters and urge them to sign up… Working women are underrepresented in voting for many reasons--including overwork and stressed schedules. Taking the voter registration desk right into their workplaces is one of Doris's strategies. In 1999-2000, Granny D, during 1999-2000, walked across the United States to demonstrate her support and speak out for campaign funding reform...
"Granny D", 93-year-old
mermaid registrar!
"Weeki Wachee, Florida, USA
It was hailed as a victory for women's rights when in 1920, women were allowed
to vote for the first time. But statistics show not every woman takes advantage
of that right. In a presidential election year, 7-million more women than men
go to the polls. But that's only 62-percent of the female population who are
eligible to vote. When asked why, many women say they're too busy with family
and work to take time to vote. One 93-year-old woman wants to change that.
Doris 'Granny D' Haddock travels the country, swapping jobs with working women
so they can take time out to register to vote. Her latest job was a mermaid
at Weeki Wachee Springs in Hernando County. 19-year-old Jessica Doucette, a
mermaid, said she just never got around to registering, and was glad Granny
D came by to encourage her.
Granny D remembers how tough it was when she decided decades ago to get a job
at a shoe factory in New Hampshire, to make sure her children could go to college.
And she recalls the political conversations around the dinner table, when women
won the right to vote. She says years later, she understands how women must
juggle several hats, but it's their right and privilege to get involved in the
political process..." -- De Anna Sheffield, Tampa Bay's 10 News
 |
more text and photos: For information on
voter registration from the League of Women Voters: |
