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Personal note from Janet:
As
we approach the 10th anniversaries of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks on the US and the US war in Afghanistan, it can
be easy to be disheartened by both the ongoing but geographically
faraway horrors of wars and militarism, and by the local
impacts on our home communities. But two developments this
summer really lifted my spirits.
One
was hosting a house meeting for Rebuild
the American Dream in July, and having an in-depth,
structured conversation with new folks in my community;
then giving a report to the district director of my local
congressman, George Miller; then hearing about house meetings
all over the Bay Area from my colleagues Rae, Nancy M, Olivia
and Sharon in the SF office; then reading/hearing about
other RTAD meetings around the country, 1500 in all 435
congressional districts in the US. Thanks to CODEPINK's
participation before and during these meetings, a
strong antiwar statement is now item #8 in the RTAD Contract
and, while some of us are skeptical about aspects of this
project, we can continue to use this as a vehicle to link
our antiwar, propeace messaging to the urgent jobs and economic
justice issues now in the forefront. In the searing heat
of south Texas, Madeleine and other Houston codepinkers
in coalition with MoveOn and the Sierra Club, did 6 actions
at congressional offices as part of the Rebuild the American
Dream project. See
one report back here.
The
other was attending the Veterans
for Peace convention in Portland, Oregon, along
with Dallas area local coordinator Leslie Harris and Colonel
Ann Wright. I enjoyed spending time and ideas with Leslie
and Ann. I learned a great deal in the workshops I attended
on "How's the War Economy Working for You?", nonviolent
direct action training, and Afghanistan. Especially memorable
were my talks with Kathy
Kelly of Voices for Creative Nonviolence and
Tarak Kauff, one of the main organizers of October
2011.
Right
now I am reading "Transforming
Terror: Remembering the Soul of the World"
edited by Karin Lofthus Carrington and Susan Griffin, an
anthology that includes writings by Rebecca Solnit, CODEPINK
co-founder Jodie Evans and many others. I recommend it,
as I also recommend watching a stunning documentary I saw
at the VFP convention, "The
Welcome" about returning veterans and the
power of art and ritual to heal.
This
Roseroots Report follows a new format: the national
campaign coordinators have each sent in a report on their
(our) respective campaigns. To keep this long bimonthly
report from being too long, I have highlighted just one
local spotlight per month below. However, to see all the
local spotlights posted for July and August 2011, please
go here. To see many delightful photos from actions
and from our new Create,
Not Hate project, please check out our flickr
sets and to read blog posts, please go to Pink
Tank.
July:
Codepinkers and allies showed up with creative messaging
to counter Islamophobic hysteria at a speech by al-Jazeera's
DC bureau chief in Rockland,
Maine. My favorite sign: "It takes courage
to be gentle and kind."
August: Local coordinators and eco-heroines Eliz Barger and
Diane Wilson brought together 18 activists for the Southeast
Planning Conference, and 3 new projects, including connecting
with the October 2011 mobilization, came out of their gathering
at The Farm outside of Nashville, Tennesse! Photos
here.
New
groups: We
welcome Darla Lilley, of Daingerfield, Texas who has been
having local group meetings, advertised for new members
in the football program of her local high school, and is
planning to go to DC for the October mobilization! We also
welcome Priti Gulani Cox of Kansas, whose work in support
of Bradley Manning and the Truth Set Free campaign in highlighted
below. Both have already been posting to our Roseroots listserv!
To
see all our local groups, now on one easy-to-read webpage,
go
here. To start a new CODEPINK local, please read
this.
In
remembrance and determination, Janet and the CODEPINK
Team
P.S.
I'm often asked if CODEPINK includes men. The answer is
Yes!
Here's
a fun photo of one of our LA-area male pinkers, who gets
into the spirit with his headgear.
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Dear CODEPINKer,
Campaign Reports:
Accountability/Expose
War Criminals by Nancy Mancias: Activists held a protest outside the National Committee on US-China
Relations in New York City where Henry Kissinger was giving a talk
about his new book, Prescription on China. Groups at the protest
included members of the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network
(ETAN) and CODEPINK.
While CODEPINK
was making its presence known in Washington, DC, cofounder Medea
Benjamin found herself face-to-face
with former ambassador to the UN John Bolton.
CODEPINK
has launched War Addicts Anonymous, a project whose primary purpose
is to support elected officials and corporations end their addiction
to war. Watch
our intervention team engage President Obama outside
the White House:
With the 10th
anniversary of 9/11 just around the corner, NYC
will be the destination of choice for major US war criminals, including
Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and John Yoo. Accountability activists,
including CODEPINK, are gearing up to protest the former Bush administration
officials who brought us torture, indefinite detention, and trillion-dollar
wars that have claimed countless Afghani, Iraqi and US lives.
CODEPINK Dallas
continues to hold war criminals accountable throughout Texas. In
August, outside of the Commercial Vehicle Outlook Conference at
the Dallas Convention Center. Keynote speaker Bush Senior Advisor
Karl Rove was no doubt paid big bucks to be there - but
CODEPINK activists came for free!
In preparation
for the release of former Vice President Dick Cheney's new book,
"In My Time", CODEPINK activists are taking action
at local bookstores and moving his book to where it really belongs
- the Crime section. It's legal. It's fun. And it will make a difference
in how people look at Cheney's book and our history. A
Facebook group has been created, along with bookmarks to insert
inside the book.
Read Medea's Benjamin's Ten
Reasons to Move Cheney's Book to the Crime Section.
Bring Our
War $$ Home by C.J. Minster: We're
gathering our neighbors for cultural responses to ten years of war
through our Create, Not Hate project. Have you taken a "Make
[ ] Not War" photo yet? Will you join us in folding cranes
for peace? Make sure to add your calendar listings between now and
October 6 to the Create,
Not Hate calendar. And please take the time to look through
the site - we're testing out a new back-end platform and we think
it might be a great way to more deeply engage with each other as
a community.
We recently
welcomed Nina Boe to our team, as the 10 Years & Counting
- Create, Not Hate Coordinator. Nina is helping us outreach to cultural
and social justice organizations across the country and will be
supporting the NYC local's participation in events on 9/11 and around
the Palestinian recognition of statehood request at the UN. Our
successful mayoral campaign was featured in an article written by
Dana Balicki in In These Times.
In addition
to the cultural events of Create, Not Hate, we want to continue
supporting your local organizing efforts - whether that be city
council resolutions or vigils at military bases. Please connect
with C.J. at cj@codepink.org to discuss your activities and the
ways we can help you expand your reach and bring your successful
organizing tips to the larger CODEPINK community. We welcome help
in adding content to the anti-war portion of the CODEPINK websites!
Also remember that we'd love to hear your reflections on these tenth
anniversaries - submit your reflections today.
Ground the
Drones by Nancy Mancias:
The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International held
its annual conference in Washington DC along with a press conference
at the National Press Club. In an ongoing attempt to educate the
public about the use of unmanned drones and tax payer money purchasing
these deadly machines, CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin hijacked
the press conference to tell the truth about armed drones
and question the experts on civilian casualties. CODEPINK continues
to hold drone manufacturers accountable for civilian deaths. Protests
against these merchants of death have included General
Atomics, Northrop
Grumman and AeroVironment.
Middle East
by Rae Abileah: CODEPINK
had a delegation
of seven women aboard the US Boat to Gaza, which attempted
to sail to Gaza on July 1st. Chicago PINK coordinator Pat Hunt was
part of the local coordinating team and helped plan events to support
the US Boat, and in San Francisco, LA and elsewhere, local
CODEPINK activists delivered petitions to the Greek Consulate
asking that the boat be able to sail, and thousands
of pinks submitted petitions online. In DC pinkers held
a 24-hour vigil outside the Greek Embassy. Though the boat was unable
to leave Greece due to tremendous pressure from Israel and the US,
the action made a big impact in the media and highlighted the need
to lift the siege of Gaza. Read
news and blogs here. Medea summarized the success of
the flotilla in her article, "By
Torpedoing the Gaza Flotilla, Israel Sunk its Own Ship."
In
late July CODEPINK
signed onto the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation's coalition
statement opposing a probable US veto of the expected
Palestinian bid for statehood at the UN and gathered petition signatures
online. CODEPINK NYC will be joining Adalah-NY and other groups
outside the UN at a demonstration on September 15, and other demos
for Palestinian self-determination are in the works for September
around the country. The pursuit for statehood recognition is being
heavily debated by Palestinian organizers, academics and leaders
because of the possible political and legal consequences. We educated
ourselves by reading Ali Abunimah's critical analysis of the political
implications and the legal opinion of Oxford professor of International
Law, Guy Goodwin-Gill. Although there is no clear consensus on the
statehood bid at the United Nations, Palestinian civil society has
unanimously called for global citizens to join their nonviolent
movement for justice, which we continue to follow through our boycott
campaigns.
In
Los Angeles CODEPINK organizer Kristen planned a fab flashmob wedding
party inside of Bed Bath & Beyond to protest sales of Ahava
and Sodastream, both made in illegal Israeli settlements. Don't
miss watching this sensational and short
video of the action and read all about it here.
You too can commit to peace by sending Bed Bath & Beyond a message
online here.
CODEPINK led
a twitter campaign to counter PETA's certification of Ahava as "cruelty-free"
(say what?!) and to ask Lonely Planet to remove the illegal Ahava
factory as a tourist destination. Check out our newly revamped Stolen
Beauty website at www.stolenbeauty.org to find more campaign updates
and news coverage. CODEPINK
locals in DC, SF, LA and NYC joined with Jewish Voice
for Peace's actions and flashmobs asking TIAA-CREF, a large retirement
fund, to divest from the Israeli occupation.
As the Arab
Spring continued into the summer months, CODEPINK has continued
to support uprisings for freedom and justice by participating in
local solidarity actions. DC
pinks led an emergency demonstration outside the Syrian
Embassy to protest the Syrian government's brutal massacre of over
2,000 of its own citizens.
CODEPINK organizer
Rae disrupted Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in Congress in May
with a message for justice and equality for Palestinians, and was
brutally assaulted by members of the audience for doing so. In August
her legal team submitted an assault complaint and subpoena for info
from Capital Police. Read
more here. Meanwhile, 81
Congresspeople took an AIPAC-affiliate trip to Israel
during the Congressional Recess, instead of heading home to deal
with urgent economic issues. CODEPINKers made calls to identify
who was going on these trips and then organized local office visits,
online petitions, and worked with the Institute for Middle East
Understanding and the US Campaign on a PR campaign to expose these
representatives. CODEPINK also filed
a complaint to the Congressional Ethics Committee.
Middle East
Report by Elsa Rassbach:
More than 500 internationals from several European countries purchased
flight tickets to Ben Gurion airport on July 8th and announced their
intention to accept an invitation by more than 40 Palestinian society
organizations to join in week of peaceful activities in the program
"Welcome to Palestine." The Israeli media dubbed the initiative
the "flytilla" and warned of hooligans. The Israeli Ministry
of the Interior sent a blacklist of more than 300 names to commercial
airlines such as Lufthansa, Swissair, and Easyjet, which denied
boarding to more than half of those who had purchased flight tickets.
Those who did arrive in Ben Gurion were immediately detained by
Israeli authorities, held for several days, and then deported. From
Berlin CODEPINK's Elsa Rassbach was the International Media Coordinator,
working closely with Bethlehem Media Center, Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh
in Beit Sahour, and media liaisons in several countries. Thousands
of positive articles were generated in the international media,
including in New York Times and Time Magazine, that highlighted
Israeli government control of all access to Palestine, whether by
sea, by land, or by air.
Truth Set
Free/Hands Off Wikileaks by Melanie Butler:
CODEPINKers across the country - and world - are gearing up to support
Bradley Manning when he goes to trial. The date of Bradley's pre-trial
hearing has yet to be announced, but is now expected to take place
in Fort Meade, Maryland, sometime in October. The hearing could
last 2-3 weeks and CODEPINK
locals are mobilizing around the hearing and even on the day it
is announced. CODEPINK has been at the forefront of supporting
Bradley and protesting
his inhumane treatment - now we need to keep the pressure
on to ensure that Bradley's pre-trial hearing is fair, legal, and
open to the press and public! One fun and easy way to build awareness:
leave a few of our new Free
Bradley/Arrest Cheney bookmarks in Dick Cheney's new
book to let people know who's the one that should REALLY
be doing time. For more ways to take action and daily news updates
on Bradley, WikiLeaks, and other truth-tellers, be sure to check
out the Truth
Set Free Daily and our redesigned
Hands Off WikiLeaks website. Please don't hesitate to
contact Melanie@codepink.org with ideas and feedback, or for help
organizing and publicizing actions in your area!
A particularly
exciting new development in our Hands Off WikiLeaks/Truth Set Free
campaign is the emergence of a CODEPINK chapter in Kansas - the
state in which Bradley Manning is currently being held. Our local
coordinator, Priti, is spearheading efforts to mobilize
around Bradley Manning's pre-trial hearing announcement and urges
her neighbors to "…make it clear both to him and to the
war machine that he is not lost and alone out here in the plains,
and that we will not give up until he is free!"
National staff news:
- As mentioned
above, Nina Boe has joined the team in the NYC office on
the Create, Not Hate project.
- Also in the
DC office, staffer Alli McCracken reports: "I just want to
give a shout out to our new DC intern Mia, who is a fourth
year student at Howard University studying journalism and communications!"
- In the San
Francisco office, we say "thanks and best wishes" to
intern Olivia Evans, who did a tremendous job organizing
two successful fundraisers to cover our expenses for the next
several months, one in San
Francisco and one in Berkeley.
- We say hello
to new intern Rosalie Platzer from Cal Poly in San Luis
Obispo.
- Jodie
Evans
represented CODEPINK at the Democracy Conference in Madison, Wisconsin.
- Jodie
and Medea Benjamin were both arrested (separate days)
during the protests of the proposed XL Keystone pipeline at
the White House fence, two of hundreds of citizens determined
to stop global-warming-worsening Canadian tar sands oil being
piped underground through huge aquifers in the middle of the US.
Pink goes great with green!
Coming up/SAVE THESE DATES!
- CODEPINK
is involved with 10 Years and Counting in preparation for the
October mobilizations in Washington, DC. Please contact C.J. at
cj@codepink.org to get involved.
- September
10 - October 10: Maine Bring Our War $$ Home Care-A-Van, inspired
by SF Bay Area locals' "Peace Pilgrimage" in May; for
details go here and scroll down.
- September
11: Join or host a cultural or service project in your town on
this 10th anniversary, which can be a turning point away from
war and militarism. See our Create,
Not Hate calendar for events, or post your own .
- October 6
and beyond: The October 2011 mobilization on the 10th
anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan begins at Freedom
Plaza, a few blocks from the White House! Medea, Alli,
Joan and other DC/MD/VA codepinkers will be eager to meet and
greet codepinkers from around the country. For housing needs in
the District, see
here. To post your local solidarity actions, use
our Action Calendar.
- October in
the Nevada Desert for Ground the Drones: October 9th, CODEPINK
to join the Nevada
Desert Experience and Las
Vegas Catholic Workers in a protest at the Nevada Test
Site and Creech AFB, home of the Predator and Reaper drones, in
southern Nevada (one hour north of Las Vegas). The
CODEPINK contingent will be in Nevada October 8th-13th
and staying at the Goddess Temple Guest House to explore the beautiful
desert between acts of activism.
The
Roseroots Report is a bimonthly bouquet of CODEPINK local actions
and news. Why roseroots? Because we're cultivating a vibrant pink
flowering garden with a hearty stemming history and strong roots,
not just little "grassroots." The 1912 Lawrence textile
workers on strike had it right when they said, "We Want Bread,
But Roses Too!" Our pink hearts are moved by CODEPINK's approach
to peacemaking: we aren't just about getting out a talking point
or ensuring a basic right, we're about bringing our money back to
our beloved resources - schools, health, parks, libraries and more,
disarming our defenses, opening our minds to new narratives and
possibilities, and creating beauty. www.codepink.org
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