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Greens Join September 24 Antiwar Protests, Call for Immediate Withdrawal From Iraq Monday, September 19, 2005 Contacts: GREENS JOIN THE SEPTEMBER 24 ANTIWAR PROTESTS, CALLING FOR IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ Green Party events highlighted in schedule of rallies planned for Washington, D.C. "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." (Theodore Roosevelt, remarks in 1918 on President Woodrow Wilson's suppression of dissent against U.S. involvement in World War I) WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party members will join united peace coalitions United For Peace & Justice and A.N.S.W.E.R. and tens of thousands of other angry Americans at the September 24 rallies in Washington, D.C. against the war on Iraq. "President Bush and the Republicans and Democrats who have supported his war have betrayed the American people," said Henry Duke, Alabama Green and member of the Green Peace Action Committee (GPAX). "They lied to us. They set the stage for terrorist attacks against civilians in London, Madrid, Bali, and within Iraq, and placed all Americans at risk. They bear responsibility for the deaths of nearly 2,000 American troops and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians. Protest is our moral duty, as Americans and as citizens of the world." The Green Party will have a strong media presence on September 24, with GPAX organizers and other party leaders available for interview. Green events on September 24 GPAX is sponsoring a rally at the Iraqi Embassy at 9 a.m. and will present a solidarity letter to the people of Iraq, calling for full and equal rights and a representative government. "President Bush said the war was necessary to liberate the Iraqi people, but the invasion turned Iraqis into the enemy, especially in places like Abu Ghraib and Fallujah," said Jody Grage Haug, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. Greens will then march south on 18th Street, pausing briefly in front of the D.C. offices of Halliburton/KBR (18th and M Street, NW), and head to McPherson Square at 14th and K Street, NW, for a GPAX rally from 10 to 11 a.m. Speakers include Kevin Zeese, Maryland Green candidate for the U.S. Senate; Rebecca Rotzler, Deputy Mayor of New Paltz, N.Y.; Elena Everett, co-chair of GPAX; Michele Tingling-Clemmons, co-chair of the Green Party's Black Caucus; Kevin McCarron, member of of the D.C. Statehood Green Party and Veterans for Peace; and others. Greens will then join the main rally on the Ellipse. Among the featured speakers will be Malik Rahim, recent Green candidate for New Orleans City Council <http://www.gp.org/press/states/la_2005_09_03.shtml>. The Operation Ceasefire Concert <http://www.opceasefire.org>, 2:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. under the Washington Monument, will be hosted by Jello Biafra (a member of the Green Party) and will feature a line-up of music stars, including hip-hop artist and Green Party member Head-Roc, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Thievery Corporation, and country star Steve Earle. Ms. Rotzler, who is also co-chair of GPAX, will speak. The concert is being organized by a team that includes Adam Eidinger and other Greens. Greens stress immediate withdrawal, weak response from Dems, impeachment of Bush The Green Party of the United States has led the political opposition to the war from the beginning. Greens sharply criticized Republicans and Democrats who voted in October, 2002 to transfer war power from Congress to the White House, calling it a violation of the U.S. Constitution and an invitation for the White House's abuse of power <http://www.gp.org/position/st_09_20_02.shtml>. "As predicted, the U.S. invasion of Iraq motivated greater support for al-Qaeda in the region and greater support among many Iraqis for clerics who intend to establish a theocratic government in Baghdad," said Marc Sanson, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. "President Bush has turned Iraq into 'terrorism central', enabling al-Qaeda to set up operations in Iraq, where its presence was negligible before the invasion." The Green Party has called for the Bush Administration to begin military withdrawal from Iraq immediately, arguing that any continued presence will result in more dead and injured American troops and Iraqi civilians, increased likelihood of civil war in Iraq, and growing animosity against the U.S. from Iraqis and people in other Muslim nations. Greens thus oppose the position of mainstream Democrats like Senators Joe Biden (Del.) and Hillary Clinton (N.Y.), who call for new strategy and more troops in order to achieve victory in Iraq, and the position of many liberal and progressive Democrats, including Sen. Russell Feingold (Wis.), Progressive Democrats of America, and MoveOn.org, who prefer a plan to remove U.S. troops by the end of 2006. "Every day we remain in Iraq, more American soldiers and Iraqi civilians will get killed," said Nan Garrett, spokesperson for the National Women's Caucus of the Green Party and co-chair of the Georgia Green Party. "As the clerics gain power and leverage over the new constitution, U.S. troops are dying not for democracy but for theocracy, religious law, and suppression of women's rights. They're dying so that U.S. corporations can plunder Iraqi oil and other resources." The Green Party has also called for:
MORE INFORMATION United For Peace & Justice A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
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