April 30-May 1 - Days Of Mourning And Resistance Against the U.S. Occupation of Iraq

Please distribute widely! Please distribute widely! Please distribute widely!

A Call for Days Of Mourning And Resistance Against the U.S. Occupation of Iraq

In remembrance of those being killed in Iraq, in solidarity with all under attack in the war for empire and the war at home...

Sponsored by Direct Action to Stop the War (DASW)

April 30th and May 1st, 2004

Saddened and angered by recent events in Iraq, and convinced that increased resistance from within the heart of empire can undermine and eventually stop this cruel war, we are calling for all who oppose it to join in two days of mass direct action, public mourning, and the building of a culture of resistance.

The vision:

We're calling for two days of gatherings, mass direct actions, and marches, each cascading into the next. This will be a time for the majority against empire and war to remember and resist together. In the city centers, streets will be alive for the resistance and individual institutions involved in the war will see their day disrupted.

We are calling for affinity groups*, workplaces, organizations and community groups, to help orchestrate a variety of actions: office blockades, roaming "snake" marches, jumping on transit together to confront an institution involved in the war, rallies throughout the region that end with their participants joining others in the city centers. During the day, there will be regularly convergence points to bring people to support actions wherever they occur. And the evening of April 30th we are seeking to organize a march out of the city center to join a community-based memorial service for those being killed in Iraq.

We're calling for artists of all types and in all media to join in this event, to perform or exhibit in public during these days, and continue the ongoing work of creative culture of resistance. We will help distribute reproducible visual art promoting these days of mourning and resistance--please contact us if your interested.

These are just two days out of an ongoing struggle on many, many fronts. We urge events that build continuing efforts of resistance to a society that creates war and empire. In particular, we encourage people to participate in Education Not Incarceration's May 1st teach in and speak out and Oakland Technical High School.

Making it happen:

These days are not, and cannot be, a set of events produced by the few for the passive involvement of the many. Rather, if our resistance is to be real, it must involve the vast numbers of us who oppose the war. Organize your friends, your workplace, your neighborhood, your community.

Direct Action to Stop the War will be providing spaces for training (on issues from nonviolent action to your legal rights), art making and coordination on the weekend of April 24th and 25th. Please contact us to get involved in making that happen, or organize local trainings and meeting spaces in your area.

A variety of critical tasks for these days need your help. Volunteers and organizers are needed for reconvergence points, providing legal support, documenting actions on the days, and providing food and medical support.

Why now?

This month has seen a major escalation in counterinsurgency warfare in Iraq. As of the time of this call, more than 1,000 Iraqis and over 50 Americans have died. Fallujah, an entire city has been surrounded and subjected bombardment and attack. Freedom of the press has been denied, unarmed demonstrators have been shot, and neighborhoods attacked from Baghdad to Najaf. 24 million Iraqis are facing an indefinite future of military occupation and corporate colonialism.

April 30th marks two months before the mythical “transfer of sovereignty” in Iraq. On that day, the U.S. government proposes to “give power” to a government it has appointed, that it will control with behind-the-scenes, in a country will continue to occupy indefinitely filled with permanent U.S. military bases. Instead of this deception, we demand a real withdrawal and real democracy for the Iraqi people.

April 30th also marks just another day in the administration of empire. On that day, stock traders, corporate managers, politicians and diplomats will be making everyday decisions that devastate our future. Buy helicopters and ammunition; shutter a half-dozen schools; recruit more of the poor to become killers; build another jail for their cousins; turn a country into a sacrifice zone for profit; build a factory for weapons rather than human needs; evict a community. On this day, some of these cruelties will be interrupted by our action.

May 1st is International Workers' Day, commemorating decades of struggle for power at the workplace, from the eight hour day to the ability to decide what you will make, how and why. It also saw the beginning of the four-million-student strong national strike against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia in 1970 and a massive anti-war direct action effort in Washington, D.C. in 1971. We continue to resist.

On both these days, in this month, and this year, thousands upon thousands have been killed in a war for empire and greed, in the angry blowback to this war, in the communities forsaken so that resources might be concentrated on colonizing another people. We will remember them as siblings, as cousins, as friends, as those who would have grown to respect have the lines of the empire not come between us, as those we could have joined in peace had the explosives not reached them first.

Form or Join an Affinity Group

Get your crew together to plan and organize...

Form an affinity/action group now to get prepared. Get a group of five to 25 of your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, or schoolmates to prepare for and participate in the Days Of Mourning And Resistance. Make a plan of how you will get together, join in and act. Send one or two people from your group to the April 25th spokescouncil to coordinate with other groups. Participate in a nonviolent direct action training to get prepared. Several affinity groups can join together as a "cluster."

Links...

Direct Action to Stop the War http://actagainstwar.org/

Download & Print Flyers http://fishe.home.igc.org/war/DaysInvite.pdf

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I wanted to see if anyone was at all interested in an idea some of us had to organize a "March through Main Street" action. It would entail large numbers of people boarding mass transit (Caltrain) at once, and then disembarking at the Burlingame train depot. Everyone would meet up there and then march up Burlingame Avenue and through Burlingame/Hillsborough (one of the 5 richest towns in the nation) to our final destination, the Burlingame Country Club. The action would take part on Friday, April 30th, as part of DASW's "Days of Mourning and Resistance."

The idea behind this action is to bring the reality of the people's discontent with the war to the suburbs, which usually are allowed to go along their merry, complacent way while we march through places like the Mission district where, for the most part, we're "preaching to the converted." Oftentimes, suburbanites live in near total isolation and alienation from the rest of the world. And they do so because they are allowed to do so. I think it is time the anti-war movement bring the philosophy of "no business as usual while the war goes on" to the wealthy oasis of Burlingame.

I need help with this action if it's going to happen. If you are at all interested in this idea, let me know.