{news} GREEN RELEASE Greens at Sept. 24 antiwar rallies to urge immediate withdrawal

Mon Sep 19 14:24:27 EDT 2005

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
 http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
 Monday, September 19, 2005

Contacts:
 Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624,
 mclarty at greens.org
 Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805,
 starlene at greens.org
 Rebecca Rotzler, Peace Action Committee Co-chair,
 845-255-3122, rebelrot at yahoo.com

GREENS JOIN THE SEPTEMBER 24 ANTIWAR PROTESTS, CALLING
 FOR IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ

Green Party events highlighted in schedule of rallies
 planned for Washington, D.C.

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the
 president, or that we are to stand by the president,
 right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile,
 but is morally treasonable to the American public."
 (Theodore Roosevelt, remarks in 1918 on President
 Woodrow Wilson's suppression of dissent against U.S.
 involvement in World War I)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party members will join 
united peace coalitions United For Peace & Justice and
A.N.S.W.E.R. and tens of thousands of other angry
Americans at the September 24 rallies in Washington,
D.C. against the war on Iraq.

"President Bush and the Republicans and Democrats who
 have supported his war have betrayed the American
 people," said Henry Duke, Alabama Green and member of
 the Green Peace Action Committee (GPAX).  "They lied
 to us.  They set the stage for terrorist attacks
against civilians in London, Madrid, Bali, and within
Iraq, and placed all Americans at risk.  They bear
responsibility for the deaths of nearly 2,000 American
troops and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians. 
Protest is our moral duty, as Americans and as
citizens of the world."

The Green Party will have a strong media presence on
September 24, with GPAX organizers and other party
leaders available for interview.

Green events on September 24

GPAX is sponsoring a rally at the Iraqi Embassy at 9
a.m. and will present a solidarity letter to the
people of Iraq, calling for full and equal rights and
a representative government.  "President Bush said the
war was necessary to liberate the Iraqi people, but
the invasion turned Iraqis into the enemy, especially
in places like Abu Ghraib and Fallujah," said Jody
Grage Haug, co-chair of the Green Party of the United
States.

Greens will then march south on 18th Street, pausing
briefly in front of the D.C. offices of
 Halliburton/KBR (18th and M Street, NW), and head to
 McPherson Square at 14th and K Street, NW, for a GPAX
 rally from 10 to 11 a.m.  Speakers include Kevin
 Zeese, Maryland Green candidate for the U.S. Senate;
 Rebecca Rotzler, Deputy Mayor of New Paltz, N.Y.;
 Elena Everett, co-chair of GPAX; Michele
 Tingling-Clemmons, co-chair of the Green Party's Black
 Caucus; Kevin McCarron, member of of the D.C.
Statehood Green Party and Veterans for Peace; and
others.

Greens will then join the main rally on the Ellipse. 
Among the featured speakers will be Malik Rahim,
recent Green candidate for New Orleans City Council
<http://www.gp.org/press/states/la_2005_09_03.shtml>.

The Operation Ceasefire Concert
 <http://www.opceasefire.org>, 2:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.
under the Washington Monument, will be hosted by Jello
Biafra (a member of the Green Party) and will feature
a line-up of music stars, including hip-hop artist and
Green Party member Head-Roc, Sweet Honey in the Rock,
Thievery Corporation, and country star Steve Earle. 
Ms. Rotzler, who is also co-chair of GPAX, will speak.
The concert is being organized by a team that
includes Adam Eidinger and other Greens.

Greens stress immediate withdrawal, weak response from
Dems, impeachment of Bush

The Green Party of the United States has led the
political opposition to the war from the beginning. 
Greens sharply criticized Republicans and Democrats
who voted in October, 2002 to transfer war power from
Congress to the White House, calling it a violation of
the U.S. Constitution and an invitation for the White
House's abuse of power
<http://www.gp.org/position/st_09_20_02.shtml>.

"As predicted, the U.S. invasion of Iraq motivated
greater support for al-Qaeda in the region and greater
support among many Iraqis for clerics who intend to
establish a theocratic government in Baghdad," said
Marc Sanson, co-chair of the Green Party of the United
States.   "President Bush has turned Iraq into
'terrorism central', enabling al-Qaeda to set up
operations in Iraq, where its presence was negligible
before the invasion."

The Green Party has called for the Bush Administration
to begin military withdrawal from Iraq immediately,
arguing that any continued presence will result in
more dead and injured American troops and Iraqi
civilians, increased likelihood of civil war in Iraq,
and growing animosity against the U.S. from Iraqis and
people in other Muslim nations.

Greens thus oppose the position of mainstream
Democrats like Senators Joe Biden (Del.) and Hillary
Clinton (N.Y.), who call for new strategy and more
troops in order to achieve victory in Iraq, and the
position of many liberal and progressive Democrats,
including Sen. Russell Feingold (Wis.), Progressive
Democrats of America, and MoveOn.org, who prefer a
plan to remove U.S. troops by the end of 2006.

"Every day we remain in Iraq, more American soldiers
and Iraqi civilians will get killed," said Nan
Garrett, spokesperson for the National Women's Caucus
of the Green Party and co-chair of the Georgia Green
Party.  "As the clerics gain power and leverage over
the new constitution, U.S. troops are dying not for
democracy but for theocracy, religious law, and
suppression of women's rights.  They're dying so that
U.S. corporations can plunder Iraqi oil and other
resources."

The Green Party has also called for:

. Impeachment of President Bush and Vice President
Cheney, based on the administration's numerous
fraudulent claims about the presence of WMDs and
conspiracy between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, and
violation of numerous international laws and the U.S.
Constitution (which limits use of the armed forces to
defense of U.S. borders and requires adherence to
international treaties to which the U.S. is signatory)
<http://www.gp.org/position/st_2003_07_impeach.shtml>.

. Rejection of the Bush Administration's revised draft
of nuclear weapons policy, which would allow military
personnel to use nuclear weapons for preemptive
purposes.

. U.S. pressure on Israel to comply with international
law, including scores of U.N. Security Council
resolutions demanding its withdrawal from the West
Bank, including East Jerusalem, and honoring the right
of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. 
Greens have emphasized the link between U.S. policies
in Iraq and continued U.S. political and financial
support for Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian
lands.

 . Massive redirection of money now spent on defense
contracts, military programs, and the occupation of
Iraq to be spent instead on human needs, especially
technology to enable conversion away from fossil fuels
and nuclear energy, establishment of a national health
insurance plan, and aid for survivors of hurricane
Katrina.

 MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404
 Washington, DC 20009.
 202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
 Fax 202-319-7193

Green Party Peace Action Committee (GPAX)
 http://www.gp.org/committees/peace/

United For Peace & Justice
 http://www.unitedforpeace.org

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition http://www.answercoalition.org/

~ END ~

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