Convention Report: Panel Fires Up Peace Movement
A convention report from the Kucinich website:
At a panel moderated by Mimi Kennedy, peace activists received encouragement today to keep alive the movement inspired by Dennis Kucinich's consistent message against the war in Iraq . The panel, which took place at the Paulist Center in Boston , included Phyllis Bennis, Tom Hayden, Medea Benjamin, Steve Cobble, and Rep. Kucinich.
In a room packed with over 300 people, Phyllis Bennis, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, spoke about the war in Iraq . She said that lack of job and educational opportunity forces people into the military in the U.S. "This is a poverty draft," she said. She stressed that the U.S. had ignored the Geneva Convention and broken international laws, under the direction of the current president. "We are a rogue nation," she said. "This is a war for oil and expansion of U.S. empire, and it's our job to stop it," she said.
Tom Hayden, who was one of the Chicago 8, a former California senator and author of Street Wars, Gangs, and the Future of Violence, explained that this election will be a referendum of the war. "The real issue is Iraq and the cost of Iraq ," he said.
He encouraged the audience to keep pressuring elected officials about the situation in Iraq . And, despite the administration's harassment of dissidents, such as the FBI's ongoing questioning of Harvard students who participated in last December's FTAA protests in Miami , Hayden encouraged the audience to protest at the upcoming Republican National Convention. "The peace movement has to be in the streets of New York ," he said.
"Fear is taking over this country, and the antiwar movement has to stand up to the fear," he said. "Don't think that John Kerry will stand up to the fear. It's not his business. Don't think that the Democratic Party will. But if we lead, they will follow."
Medea Benjamin, founder of Global Exchange. cofounder of Code Pink, and noted author, created the Occupation Watch International Center in Iraq . Benjamin said corporations that invest in oil are above the law in Iraq , while Iraqis are desperate for a chance to rebuild their own country. "This is not privatization, it's piratization," she said. "We have to make Halliburton an issue in the next election."
She said that 48 percent of the soldiers who died in Iraq are from small towns with populations under 20,000. "What are we doing to our small towns?" she asked.
Benjamin reminded progressives to treat one another kindly, even if they vote for different on the way to build the progressive movement. "After November 2, we have to be able to look one another in the face," she said.
"Let's build a movement that's full of love and so inviting that our comrades in this country can't wait to join it."
Steve Cobble, political strategist, began by thanking Rep. Kucinich for his leadership in opposing the Iraq war, saying he hasn't received the credit he deserves for it. He suggested that people continue to support a Department of Peace, and was deferential to Kucinich volunteers about their experience on the campaign. "I feel a little humble telling you how to do the things that you already know how to do, but the same things you did [for Kucinich] will work in a congressional campaign."
Rep. Kucinich's message was one of empowerment. "We're the ones who could be architects of a new world," he said. Of the Democratic Party, he said, "We can make it a party of peace, a party of hope."
Kucinich called for new thinking that would lead us away from violence, both internationally, and in our own homes and relationships.
"We are here to change the world!" he said, to a raucous standing ovation.
During the question and answer session, audience member John Fitzgerald warned that the Republican Party is sending out surveys that ask whether voters will support the president if he bombs another country. Bennis responded that there is a faction of American society that is committed to what amounts to perpetual war, and that we must take them seriously.
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