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Berkeley Marine Recruiters Office Shut Down, Three Arrested
Three days after the Berkeley City Council voted to tell the U.S. Marines that its Shattuck Avenue recruiting station "is not welcome in the city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders" protesters from World Can't Wait were arrested after chaining themselves to the door of the recruiting station and refusing to leave.
A nation statement from World Can't Wait calling for nationwide acions on January 31 was titled: "Challenge the “Politics of the Possible” with Mass Resistance - Drive OUT the Bush Regime!" The statement begins: "We will make the future. We pledge to stop endless war for empire. We refuse consent to a torture state. We won't swallow a hateful culture of bigotry & intolerance. We will not go silently into a fascist nightmare. We will engage in an act of civil resistance to make a better world. We are what we've been waiting for."
The WCW statement also says: "In times such as these, people living in this country must speak up and make their sentiments known, acting independently as THE PEOPLE. Let us not go down in history infamously for standing silent in the face of grave crimes the way the "Good Germans" allowed the Nazis to carry out their atrocities. In solidarity with those being tortured in our name and as the color of resistance, wear and display orange everywhere, daily."
A nation statement from World Can't Wait calling for nationwide acions on January 31 was titled: "Challenge the “Politics of the Possible” with Mass Resistance - Drive OUT the Bush Regime!" The statement begins: "We will make the future. We pledge to stop endless war for empire. We refuse consent to a torture state. We won't swallow a hateful culture of bigotry & intolerance. We will not go silently into a fascist nightmare. We will engage in an act of civil resistance to make a better world. We are what we've been waiting for."
The WCW statement also says: "In times such as these, people living in this country must speak up and make their sentiments known, acting independently as THE PEOPLE. Let us not go down in history infamously for standing silent in the face of grave crimes the way the "Good Germans" allowed the Nazis to carry out their atrocities. In solidarity with those being tortured in our name and as the color of resistance, wear and display orange everywhere, daily."
Berkeley January 31/February 1 -- In a freezing rain, close to 80 people turned out to SHUT DOWN the Marine Corps recruiting station in downtown Berkeley. When the protesters showed up at 3 PM, the recruiters had already cleared out early and left. However, the protesters pledged they would come right back in the morning and SHUT IT DOWN again. Demonstrators marched up and down the block chanting: "SHUT IT DOWN, SHUT IT DOWN -- DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME! SHUT IT DOWN, SHUT IT DOWN -- SHUT DOWN THE WAR MACHINE!" Young people took turns on the bullhorn about why they had come out to protest. People talked about torture and the criminal and immoral nature of the war that these recruiters were sucking youth into.
Berkeley City Councilman Maxwell Anderson joined the rally and spoke powerfully to the reporters about the righteousness of this demonstration. At 4 PM a waterboarding demonstration was conducted in the middle of the street, in front of the Marines station. Then, many people took part in a dramatic "CIA TORTURE TAPE DEMOLITION." Next to a big sign explaining, "CIA TORTURE TAPES HERE," orange jumpsuited “prisoners” and students unreeled huge tangled piles of mock CIA torture videotapes and began stringing it back and forth out into the street, as they wrapped themselves in the tape, dancing, and chanting "destruction of evidence!"
When the dozens of protesters arrived the next morning at 7 am they found that the recruiters had slipped in an hour earlier than their usual 7:30 am. The recruiting center was “decorated” with red handprints (the symbol of U.S.-trained Central American Death squads) and the slogan: “We refuse to live in a torture state.” An orange No Torture banner was hung from the awning in front of the office, and VHS-video tape (symbolizing the destroyed CIA torture tapes) was draped around the center. Three protesters chained themselves to each other and to the front of the center and blocked the entrance. The protesters were arrested after they refused to leave saying that they would not go along with business as usual in a torture state.
Berkeley City Councilman Maxwell Anderson joined the rally and spoke powerfully to the reporters about the righteousness of this demonstration. At 4 PM a waterboarding demonstration was conducted in the middle of the street, in front of the Marines station. Then, many people took part in a dramatic "CIA TORTURE TAPE DEMOLITION." Next to a big sign explaining, "CIA TORTURE TAPES HERE," orange jumpsuited “prisoners” and students unreeled huge tangled piles of mock CIA torture videotapes and began stringing it back and forth out into the street, as they wrapped themselves in the tape, dancing, and chanting "destruction of evidence!"
When the dozens of protesters arrived the next morning at 7 am they found that the recruiters had slipped in an hour earlier than their usual 7:30 am. The recruiting center was “decorated” with red handprints (the symbol of U.S.-trained Central American Death squads) and the slogan: “We refuse to live in a torture state.” An orange No Torture banner was hung from the awning in front of the office, and VHS-video tape (symbolizing the destroyed CIA torture tapes) was draped around the center. Three protesters chained themselves to each other and to the front of the center and blocked the entrance. The protesters were arrested after they refused to leave saying that they would not go along with business as usual in a torture state.
For more information:
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These people disgust me. They don't deserve to live in the United States. This scum should crawl back under their rock.
I think what Code Pink and WCW did is fine! There needs to be more actions like that! People around the world need to be able to see that there are people in this country who are resisting and mobilizing people in this country to repudiate the war crimes and the crimes against humanity by the Bush regime. BTW, regarding "free speech" rights of the military- well look at all of the recruiting ads on TV and the internet! This system puts out what it wants whenever it wants. Any voices of dissent get shut out of the mainstream media.Plus, with "No Child Left Behind" the recruiters are shoved down peoples throats because in order for school districts to get funding, they have to accept the recruiters in the schools. Why don't the apologists for the military talk about the war crimes against the people of Iraq like Fallujah or Haditha? Why don't they talk about the mercenaries like Blackwater running around wild killing people at will? What about the crimes of the Bush regime regarding Hurricane Katrina?Why don't these apologists talk about how so many of these vets coming back with serious injuries and other medical problems are being left to fend for themselves and they can't get the care that they need? Many of these vets are kicked to the curb by this system when they are no longer any use to the Bush regime.Does Walter Reed ring a bell? Hillary or Obama will not make any change - they will continue the war in Iraq because they represent this system and not the people. Plus Bush plans to attack Iran, maybe even with nuclear weapons( and that is OK with Hillary and Obama too!)So, I guess that nuking another country is OK with these right wing wing nuts. We don't need this crap any longer! We need to get out in the streets and resist this system and drive out the Bush regime. So, do you want to be a "good German" or do you want to resist this hellish future that is planned for all of us?
The demonstrators aren't disgusting, the policies of our beloved US are disgusting! Torture and illegal wars hatched by our corrupt leaders and conducted by our young men and women who are duped into believing it's patriotic is what is disgusting! It will only be stoppped by those like these demonstrators who exercise what little free speech we have left!
The SF Chron seemed to be bashing this effort, so I knew it must be getting good!
Thanks to everyone involved doing this important work.
Thanks to everyone involved doing this important work.
When I turned 18 I joined the USMC and served four years. That was decades ago, and back then I had no concept of the damage that imperialism of all ages has done in this world. But now I realize that if I were a young Marine in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere today, I'd only be serving the interests of Halliburton and other corrupt corporations that drain the wealth out of everywhere, pouring it into the huge salaries of CEOs, while leaving even our streets full of potholes.
LOL Well, you all have the right to picket and protest thanks to ALL military branches who have protected your rights. You are all a disgrace. Maybe you should watch less news and start thinking for yourselves and realize there is more out there than what the media puts into you micro brains.
These posters and banners are getting serious and more correct and to the point. Yes this demonstration is just what is needed in every city and town throughout the U.S.A. The time is fast approaching for the peoples' victory in all areas, and the Bushco and the neo-cons will be defeated. The only thing is we must not stop resisting just because our victory is approaching. Imperialist logic tells them they must create incidents to disloge and disorient the peoples movement so watch out for their inciters placed amongst youse, and if anything keep on keeping on and tell the workers unions not to believe the bosses state is broke and unable to pay a living wage and pensions. It they can scrape together two trillions of dollars to destroy life on the planet, they can even more easily get together trillions to support life. They lie bigger when their wars are losing as they are in the middle east , but don't be fooled by their lies. Re-tool to wind, tidal, and solar power and end the pollution from coal, gas, oil, and atomic energy. Green power is a path to liberation from pollution wars.
The Berkeley City Council has reportedly gotten lots of emails and calls off this including from right wingers and they NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU! Please call or email them with your words for support for their act of conscience. And stay tuned for further resistance.
District 1 Linda Maio (510) * 981-7110 * lmaio [at] ci.berkeley.ca.us
District 2 Darryl Moore * (510) 981-7120 * dmoore [at] ci.berkeley.ca.us
District 3 Maxwell Anderson * (510) 981-7130 * manderson [at] ci.berkeley.ca.us
District 4 Dona Spring * (510) 981-7140 * spring [at] ci.berkeley.ca.us
District 5 Laurie Capitelli * (510) 981-7150 * lcapitelli [at] ci.berkeley.ca.us
District 6 Betty Olds * (510) 981-7160 * olds [at] ci.berkeley.ca.us
District 7 Kriss Worthington * (510) 981-7170 * kworthington [at] ci.berkeley.ca.us
District 8 Gordon Wozniak * (510) 981-7180 * GWozniak [at] ci.berkeley.ca.us
District 1 Linda Maio (510) * 981-7110 * lmaio [at] ci.berkeley.ca.us
District 2 Darryl Moore * (510) 981-7120 * dmoore [at] ci.berkeley.ca.us
District 3 Maxwell Anderson * (510) 981-7130 * manderson [at] ci.berkeley.ca.us
District 4 Dona Spring * (510) 981-7140 * spring [at] ci.berkeley.ca.us
District 5 Laurie Capitelli * (510) 981-7150 * lcapitelli [at] ci.berkeley.ca.us
District 6 Betty Olds * (510) 981-7160 * olds [at] ci.berkeley.ca.us
District 7 Kriss Worthington * (510) 981-7170 * kworthington [at] ci.berkeley.ca.us
District 8 Gordon Wozniak * (510) 981-7180 * GWozniak [at] ci.berkeley.ca.us
this is absolutely ridiculous! it is NOT USMC's fault that the war is going on over there. Do you honestly think that they want to be over there? who do you think you are closing the USMC office?? Those troops are over there protecting YOUR rights and YOUR freedom as an American. If it WASN'T for them, YOU'D be over there. Me, personally, I am 100% against the war, but I am 100% SUPPORTIVE of the troops. It's the yahoo in the white house that you guys should be protesting against. He's the one who is behind all of this! It's NOT USMC. USMC is just doing what they were trained to do, to defend their country! You guys who shut that office down have made a MOCKERY of what is to believe in this country. I'm ashamed. But those of you in the armed forces fighting for us, and the Marines, Ooo-Rah!!! Semper-Fi, and don't let those IDIOTS in Berkeley get you down! You guys will be home before you know it!!! XOXOXO!!
When I first heard about this protest I thought it was another ‘illegal immigrant’ protest trying to bring down our country which irritated the hell out of me but as I read this article it defuse my thoughts completely. I stand behind the protest one hundred percent! Bush is a dictator just like Hugo Chavez and he could carless about Americans. Bush is the worse president the United States has ever had, he has destroyed our country and the world hates us because of the war that should not have been! Instead of focusing to the situation in Afghanistan were the real problem was he aimed at a different direction causing the death of thousands of our men and women. Bush is another Hitler!
Fight, fight, fight! Who's wrong, who's right? We're all right and we're all wrong. Oil, freedom, somebody is gonna die. Some people who don't fight will die a thousand times and nothing will still change. War sucks. It sucks for the hopeless people who start them(An' I'm not talking about America here.) and it sucks for the people who get sucked into them. I declare Berkeley an Honorary anti-war city of the US. All other countries should adopt one. If people in Berkeley want to go to fight they can start their unfortunate journey in Oakland or SanFran and God go with them as should go with all of the brave willing to sacrifice their everything for our everything. But let people think of Berkeley and they can think that someday all places will be a war-free zone. Your exalted ruler of the EastBAy. (Pay me taxes please-ha)
Your all traitors! You spit on our troops! You want to see the USA fall to the pits of hell! Your all sick!
I'm a person who is firmly against this war and all wars of Imperialism, and -- as Marine Captain Lund indicated -- all wars that are not for self-defense, or as Marine Commandant Smedley Butler said, any war that is not to defend our land or our Constitution. Once you look closely at the details not typically covered in ANY mainstream media, no part of this war qualifies. (For one thing, even tho Saddam and the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are legitimate bad guys, guess who put them in power and paid their way ---- American taxpayers. Even Hitler was created by Wall Street bankers, starting over a decade before the CIA was created by Wall Street bankers.)
So does dismantling the terror regimes WE created require mass bombings and more terror? I think not.
But overall, I'd have to say that while the Berkeley protest got a lot of attention, across the country mostly it seemed like bad PR, bad reactions. Blaming the wrong people. Looking ridiculous in many ways. Extreme negative Public Relations blowback on the antiwar movement that resulted.
Why would such a visible and professional group such as Code Pink engage in such bad PR, when the whole point is public relations?
From a Kurt Nimmo article on O'Reilly:
Medea Benjamin and Code Pink are no threat to the established order, a fact that should be obvious when Code Pink’s finances are examined—the group is supported by the Winston Foundation, an organization linked to the National Endowment for Democracy, a documented CIA front, and connected as well to the Rockefeller Family Fund, the Carnegie Corporation, the Heinz Family Foundation, and the Soros Foundations (see the Zmag wiki entry for the Winston Foundation for World Peace).
“Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin, a director for Global Exchange, says they are paying a bargain $400 a month for a cubicle office at 15th and H streets in the District. More space for Code Pink is on loan from two organizations down the hall, the National Organization for Women and the Institute for Policy Studies,” Julia Duin wrote for the Washington Times on April 3, 2003. At the time, the Institute for Policy Studies was receiving $2.2 million from the Turner, Ford, MacArthur and Charles Stewart Mott foundations.
No, the threat, as perceived by Bill and his global elite handlers, does not emanate from Code Pink or MoveOn.org, the latter funded by the Iraq Peace Fund, an effort of the Tides Foundation, a “progressive” organization that has received more than $36,000,000 from the Ford Foundation since 1989.
It is nothing short of laughable to think Susan Berresford, Ford Foundation president and CFR and Trilateral Commission member, is a leftist “loon” straight out of the closet.
Or google "Regulated Resistance: Pt. 2 - The Gatekeepers of the So-Called Left" on uruknet
which asks:
Are the interests of the people being served by 'dissidents' who are being subsidized by the agencies of the ruling class whom they should be exposing?
If I join a peace march, I'm going to be wary of any that are funded by the CIA.
So does dismantling the terror regimes WE created require mass bombings and more terror? I think not.
But overall, I'd have to say that while the Berkeley protest got a lot of attention, across the country mostly it seemed like bad PR, bad reactions. Blaming the wrong people. Looking ridiculous in many ways. Extreme negative Public Relations blowback on the antiwar movement that resulted.
Why would such a visible and professional group such as Code Pink engage in such bad PR, when the whole point is public relations?
From a Kurt Nimmo article on O'Reilly:
Medea Benjamin and Code Pink are no threat to the established order, a fact that should be obvious when Code Pink’s finances are examined—the group is supported by the Winston Foundation, an organization linked to the National Endowment for Democracy, a documented CIA front, and connected as well to the Rockefeller Family Fund, the Carnegie Corporation, the Heinz Family Foundation, and the Soros Foundations (see the Zmag wiki entry for the Winston Foundation for World Peace).
“Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin, a director for Global Exchange, says they are paying a bargain $400 a month for a cubicle office at 15th and H streets in the District. More space for Code Pink is on loan from two organizations down the hall, the National Organization for Women and the Institute for Policy Studies,” Julia Duin wrote for the Washington Times on April 3, 2003. At the time, the Institute for Policy Studies was receiving $2.2 million from the Turner, Ford, MacArthur and Charles Stewart Mott foundations.
No, the threat, as perceived by Bill and his global elite handlers, does not emanate from Code Pink or MoveOn.org, the latter funded by the Iraq Peace Fund, an effort of the Tides Foundation, a “progressive” organization that has received more than $36,000,000 from the Ford Foundation since 1989.
It is nothing short of laughable to think Susan Berresford, Ford Foundation president and CFR and Trilateral Commission member, is a leftist “loon” straight out of the closet.
Or google "Regulated Resistance: Pt. 2 - The Gatekeepers of the So-Called Left" on uruknet
which asks:
Are the interests of the people being served by 'dissidents' who are being subsidized by the agencies of the ruling class whom they should be exposing?
If I join a peace march, I'm going to be wary of any that are funded by the CIA.
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