{news} Fw: WI GREEN RELEASE Milwaukee, Madison, other towns likely to vote on antiwar ref.

[Justine McCabe]

> Wisconsin Green Party
> http://www.wisconsingreenparty.org
>
> For Immediate Release
> Tuesday, December 12, 2005
>
> Contacts:
> Ruth Weill, Co-chair, Wisconsin Green Party, 414-562-6097, 414-350-2107 
> (cell), spokespersons at wisconsingreenparty.org
> Jeff Peterson, Coordinator, Bring the Troops Home Campaign, 715-472-2728
>
>
> Milwaukee, Madison and 12 other communities likely to vote on Bringing the 
> Troops Home
>
>
> In April the Wisconsin Green Party membership voted to initiate an effort 
> to put a Bring the Troops Home question on ballots throughout Wisconsin. 
> Those efforts have been productive.  Madison will have such a question on 
> the ballot in April, and Milwaukee is likely to in November.   At least 
> twelve other communities in Wisconsin will have the question on their 
> April ballots as well.
>
> "This successful exercise in democracy is the result of a state 
> coalition - church groups, peace and justice organizations, veterans, and 
> concerned citizens have worked hard to bring this question to the voters," 
> said Jeff Peterson, coordinator of the Bring the Troops Home Coalition, 
> and a member of the Wisconsin Green Party.  "The effort has really taken 
> off, as grassroots efforts do."
>
> On Tuesday, the Milwaukee Common Council voted to put this question on the 
> November ballot. "Shall the United States commence a humane, orderly, 
> rapid and comprehensive withdrawal of United States military personnel and 
> bases from Iraq?" Eight aldermen voted in favor, and 7 against, with 1 
> abstention. A last-minute move by Alderman. Jim Bohl postponed the final 
> decision until the next Common Council meeting, scheduled for Jan. 18.
>
> "We are glad to see that the Milwaukee Common Council has voted to give 
> people a voice on the issue of Iraq," said Ruth Weill, Co-chair of the 
> Wisconsin Green Party and resident of Milwaukee.  "The war in Iraq affects 
> our communities.  Our loved ones are deployed there, and our taxes are 
> spent on the war, rather than on health care, education, and security at 
> home.  We support giving people a say about the policies that affect them 
> so deeply.  We hope that the vote on January 18th will again favor giving 
> Milwaukee voters a voice on this issue."
>
> Most local referendum efforts are utilizing a little-used state statute 
> (9.20) that provides a process by which citizens may petition to have a 
> resolution either adopted by their city council or put before voters in a 
> referendum. Petitioners in Algoma, Amery, Casco, Ephraim, Egg Harbor, 
> Evansville, Forestville, Kewaunee, LaCrosse, Luxemburg, Madison, 
> Shorewood, Sister Bay, and Sturgeon Bay have collected the required number 
> of signatures, and have turned their petitions in to their local Common 
> Councils.
>
> In Frederic and Monona, the required number of signatures has been 
> collected, but the petitions have not yet been turned in.  Monona 
> petitioners will be turning their signatures in Wednesday morning.
>
> Activists in cities such as Green Bay and Milwaukee are asking their 
> Common Councils to allow voters to weigh in on this issue.
>
> Citizens in Manitowoc County asked the Manitowoc County Board to put the 
> question on the ballot countywide in April, but the Legislative Committee 
> of the Manitowoc County Board of Supervisors declined to act on the 
> proposal and the effort died.  Citizens in the cities of Manitowoc and Two 
> Rivers are circulating petitions to put a Bring the Troops Home question 
> on the ballot in those two communities.
>
> "It strikes me as ironic that while United States troops are, according to 
> President Bush, fighting to bring democracy to Iraq, the recent decision 
> by the Manitowoc County Board of Supervisors Legislative Committee has 
> limited democracy in our county," wrote Mary Thiesen, a resident of 
> Manitowoc County, in a letter to the editor in the Herald Times Reporter, 
> a Manitowoc paper.
>
> More than 16 other communities are working to get an opportunity to vote 
> on bringing the troops home from Iraq.  Oshkosh and Sawyer County are 
> among them.
>
> The Wisconsin Green Party stands on the four pillars of Ecological Wisdom, 
> Social Justice, Grassroots Democracy, and Nonviolence.  For more 
> information, visit <http://www.wisconsingreenparty.org>.  The Green Party 
> of the United States' website is <http://www.gp.org>.
>
> For more information on the Bring the Troops Home campaign, visit 
> <http://www.wisconsingreenparty.org/iraqreferendum/> or 
> <http://www.wnpj.org/homenow>.
>
>
> Distributed by the Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
>
>
>