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LOCAL News :: Elections & Legislation : International Relations : Peace

Iraq Withdrawal Resolution Passes Committee, Heads for Full Council Vote

[AN4P] presented the following to the City Council Committee on Human Relations today during their hearings on the proposed resolution to Bring the Troops Home Now. The resolution passed overwhelmingly in the Committee.
[AN4P] presented the following to the City Council Committee on Human Relations today during their hearings on the proposed resolution to Bring the Troops Home Now. The resolution passed overwhelmingly in the Committee.

There will be a support demonstration at Daley Center on Tuesday at 5:30. The City Council as a whole will debate and vote on the resolution on Wednesday morning (the meeting begins at 10).

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I want to report to you that the Albany Park, North Park, Mayfair Neighbors for Peace and Justice has gone out to do petitioning
in support of the Bring the Troops Home Now resolution in City Council. We are against this illegal and unjust war, a war that has killed tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis. We have found that lots of people sign the petition very readily and quickly. The sentiment to Bring the Troops Home Now is very strong.City Council can help strengthen the movement to end the U.S. occupation
now, to end this drive for U.S. control of Iraqi oil and for extending U.S.political power and empire around the globe.

We have heard that many Aldermen support this resolution to end the U.S. war in Iraq now. But we in the anti-war movement want this to be more than lip service in opposition to the war. After all, the City Council passed a resolution against the U.S. entering the war before the bombing of Baghdad. And then what did the City do? It stopped the huge anti-war demonstration of March 20, 2003 from marching down Michigan Avenue. The City government would not allow an anti-war march down Michigan Avenue the following year, or this past year.

We want more than lip service from City Council. City Council passed a resolution against the Patriot Act, decrying the attacks on civil liberties. What did the City government do this past March 19 at the corner of Michigan and Oak? The City arrested and and is  prosecuting
three activists who tried to hold a press conference. This seems like a violation of their civil liberties and rights, just as blocking anti-war marches down Michigan Avenue is a violation of the right to assemble and to protest.

Why in this City does Mickey Mouse get a chance to march down Michigan Avenue, and not our auntie -- that is, anti-war does not get a chance to march down Michigan Avenue. Why do the police get a chance to march down Michigan Avenue and not those who have opposed police misconduct against the anti-war demonstrators and against many others who have been tortured into making false confessions in City and County jails?

Why is this City government, with its anti-war resolution, not stopping the installation of a military academy at Senn High School, despite the overwhelming opposition to the military academy by parents, teachers, students and the community. After all, the 48th ward voted 13,000 to 5,000 or 72% for immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and for not interfering in the affairs of other countries. Ditto Lincoln Park with 75% and Logan Square.

So, we urge you to pass this resolution to Bring the Troops Home Now, but to also do it with sincerity and meaning, and to allow the anti-war activists to put the resolution into more visible actions along Michigan Avenue and elsewhere.
 
 

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