Pics from "Hey Pelosi" Anti-War Rally/Speakout with mock trial

There were 39 arrests that day to demonstrate to Nancy Pelosi that she cannot continue to deny that her continued votes to fund the war are directly casuing death and despair in Iraq. 17 of the arrests were inside the lobby of the Federal Building and 22 were on the plaza outside the door. The group inside the Federal Building were cited for failure to obey a federal officer. The group outside was held and then issued certificates of release.

I was one of the 17 who were arrested inside the Federal Building, in solidarity with my 200 brothers and sisters including Cindy Sheehan in Washington DC, also participating in a United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) action, who were arrested in front of the White House on Monday. I did so to demonstrate to Nancy Pelosi and to the world that the American people will no longer allow our elected officials to hide behind antiwar rhetoric and platitudes. Words alone will not end this war. We need them to take decisive action to DEFUND THE WAR.

After I was cited and released, I was part of a delegation who met with Dan Bernal and three more of Nancy Pelosi's aides. The delegation strongly voiced our calls for Nancy Pelosi, as the Democratic Leader in the House, to take a leadership role in LEADING US OUT OF IRAQ. The aides tried unsuccessfully to convince us that Nancy Pelosi was antiwar due to her lightweight bill that she proposed earlier. The meeting was useful in delineating exactly what points we disagree on, but ended as it began with her aides voicing how antiwar Nancy Pelosi is, and Nancy Pelosi (who was "on a plane" somewhere, according to Dan Bernal,) taking the lukewarm course of inaction.

~Lacy MacAuley

Thanks for the update. Good job. Code Pink does great work.
Peace

Thank you so much for posting these pix! Just for accuracy, while Code Pink was a very visible presence, and we were delighted to be a part of both the day and the ongoing issue, there were many many groups who worked hard to organize all of the day's events: the mock trial, the direct action, the meeting with Dan Bernal.
The day was organized under the umbrella of United for Peace and Justice-Bay Area and a full list of sponsoring groups can be found at their website, http://www.upj-bayarea.org

The meeting DID seem productive in that over the course of two hours we were able to clearly define the two key issues that divide us from Pelosi and on which we want to see her change her position: 1. defunding the war (her position is that the supplemental appropriations are "necessary to protect our troops", a position that we declared morally indefensble in the light of how the money is being spent, as well as just plain wrong on a practical level) and 2. her own
one bit of introduced legislation (which was to call on Bush to provide a timetable "steps to success". We told them that it is NOT "leadership" to call him a liar, say the war is a grotesque mistake, then call on him to provide a timeline based on his own definition of success).
[I find it interesting that these two issues, "supporting the troops over there" and "a timetable based on measurable goals", seem to spring from the same foundation: Pelosi's innate comfort with the idea of American imperial power and occupation, which are congruent with her political life as a party hack and her unwavering support of actions of occupation by Israel deemed illegal
by the World Court.]