P.O. Box 81, Swarthmore, PA, 19081-- brandywine@juno.com (610) 544-1818
DECLARE PEACE...Stand with the "PHILA. DECLARE PEACE 14" as they face trail in Phila Muncipal Court (Criminal Justice Center, 1301 Filbert Street, Philadelphia, PA) on April 23, 2007. Support plans to be announced.
NEW!!! Read About the "Philadelphia Declare Peace 14"
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We Declare(d) Peace... "Bush Won't Listen; Congress Must Act"...September 21 - 28
Declaration of Peace Week, Hundreds in Phila.Vigil and March, 14
Arrested for Sit-in at office of Senator Rick Santorum
Wrap up (for now) and Future
375 Declaration of Peace events were held throughout the country
September 21-28 calling for a concrete and rapid plan to end the US
occupation of Iraq and to support a comprehensive peace process.
Thousands of people, undoubtedly (if the polls are any indication)
representing thousands and thousands more, declared peace by
participating in vigils, peace concerts, marches, parades, readings
of the names of the Iraqi and US war dead, interfaith services, and
acts of nonviolent resistance across the nation! To see an archive
of all events: http://declarationofpeace.org/view/eventsarchive
The Declaration of Peace this week has garnered widespread
media coverage in the US and around the world, with stories on
CNN, NPR, Associated Press and United Press International wire
services, The Washington Post and numerous newspapers
and local television stations across the US and around the world.
Declaration spokesperson Rev. Lennox Yearwood was even
interviewed on 'Hardball with Chris Matthews' on MSNBC!
To see a comprehensive list of the news
coverage: Articles
The Declaration of Peace Campaign will continue grassroots
pressure in Congressional districts and states across the country to
make the fall elections a referendum on the US occupation of Iraq;
resist "preventive" war against Iran; and make plans for the next
phase of nationally coordinated nonviolent actions to DECLARE
PEACE!
An Overview of a Campaign...
The Philadelphia Area Declaration of Peace [DoP] Campaign,
organized by the Brandywine Peace Community, became an
organizing model and reference for groups around the country in
building a campaign that brought together the nonviolent direct
action opposition to the war with a citizen action focus on Congress.
Hundreds of people in the area responded to the Memorial Day '06
weekend e-mail issuance of the Declaration of Peace Pledge.
Community organizing meetings started and groups began
endorsing the campaign. On July 3rd, The Declaration of Peace
was announced with a spirited bag-pipe and puppet led parade to
and rally in front of the Phila. Federal Building, across the street
from where that other Declaration was signed in 1776, where the
first Declaration of Peace public pledge signing took place in the
country. As we continued to build the pledge base of the
Declaration of Peace in the Phila. area, we also started working on
the Declaration of Peace Congressional Pledge approach.
Just days after Brandywine's organized commemorations and
nonviolent resistance at Lockheed Martin observing the August 6 - 9
anniversaries of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on
August 16, morning delegations from the Phila. area DoP campaign
visited the congressional offices of every Phila. area member of the
U.S. House of Reprsentatives - Rep. Robert Brady, Rep. Chaka
Fattah, Rep. Alyson Schwartz, and Rep. Curt Weldon. Thanks here
goes particularly to Bernadette Soltis of the Northwest Greens &
Northwest Peace & Justice Movement, Harvey Chanin and
Northeast Philly for Peace & Justice, Joseph Bradley and Catholic
Peace Fellowship, and Terry Rumsey and Delaware County Wage
Peace & Justice.
At noon, we started a Declaration of Peace walk that began at Phila.
City Hall and proceeded to the Widener Building Phila. office of
Senator Rick Santorum and to the Phila. Federal Building's Phila.
office of Senator Arlen Specter. At each stop, the Congressional
Pledge of the Declaration of Pledge was delivered to the senators'
aides urging their pledge.
In late August, nonviolent training sessions for direct action,
peacekeeping, and civil disobedience began. Many thanks here to
Brandywine's dear friends and long-time nonviolence trainers, Dion
Lerman and Christine Oliger. At Philadelphia's huge Labor Day
parade we were present with U.S. Labor Against the War [USLAW],
a national endorser of the Declaration of Peace, holding banners
and handing out thousands of flyers that included area plans for
nonviolent direct action during Declaration of Peace Week,
September 21 - 28, the theme becoming: "Bush Won't Listen,
Congress Must Act".
Days before International Day of Peace, Sept. 21, we received a
signed Declaration of Peace Congressional Pledge from Rep.
Chaka Fattah (D, 02). We celebrated Rep.Fattah's pledge that only
seven other congresspeople had the courage to take. We would
need to act if we ever hoped that Congress would act to end the
war.
The Declaration of Peace Week...
On September 21, the United Nations' International Day of Peace
and the start of Declaration of Peace Week, nearly 150 people
vigiled with candles, banners, and posters, in front of Philadelphia's
Historic Christ Church at 2nd & Market, and then walked to the
Phila. Federal Building for a poem, a song, and words from Celeste
Zappala, Military Families Speak Out, whose son Sherwood Baker
was killed in Iraq as part of the division who job was looking for
Bush's bogus "Weapons of Mass Destruction".
DIRECT ACTION to DECLARE PEACE...
On September 25, more than a hundred people gathered at Old
First Reformed Church in Olde City Philadelphia. Pastor Jeff
Shanaberger welcomed us. Bob Smith, Brandywine's staff
organizer, explained the historical moment of the Declaration of
Peace and why we say "Bush Won't Listen, Congress Must Act".
The Phila. Granny Peace Brigade delighted with their anti-war song
and dance. Sylvia Metzler, long-time war resister and coordinator of
Phila. Health Care For All, connected the dots of social justice to peacemaking.
Then, behind a coffin surrounded by flowers for the war dead,
pictures of the war dead, and to the intonement of our bell of peace,
we walked through center city chanting: "Bush Won't Listen,
Congress Must Act", "Not Another Death, Not Another Dollar" and "We Declare Peace!".
Our first stop was the Phila. Federal Building
where we engaged in a Litany to Declare Peace, dedicated to the
"eight members of Congress who demonstrated the courage to sign
the Declaration of Peace Congressional Pledge": Rep. Earl
Blumenauer (D-OR); Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA); Rep. Barbara Lee (D-
CA); Rep. John Lewis (D-GA); Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL); Rep.
Lynn Woolsey (D-CA); Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL); and Rep. Chaka
Fattah (D-PA). The litany recalled the names of U.S. soldiers and
Iraqi civilians killed since Bush announced "mission accomplished"
and the war of occupation began - 2,700+ U.S. war dead, 100,000+
Iraqi war dead, $375+ billion spent.
People walked onto and around Phila. City Hall where we stopped to
raise to raise "our voices for justice, for the cities" chanting: "Bush in
the White House, Death in Iraq, Our Cities Crumble, It's Time to
Act" and "Time to Break the Silence About this Bloody War, Time to
Break the Silence About War on the Poor". We heard from Galen
Tyler, director of Kensington Welfare Rights Union reminding us of
Dr. King's words that "if you want peace, work for justice".
We then walked onto the Widener Buiding on the south side of
Phila. City Hall, where on the 9th floor is the Phila. office of Senator
Rick Santorum.
"Today, we demand that our Senators and Congresspeople take the
DECLARATION OF PEACE CONGRESSIONAL PLEDGE. Today
we take our demands to Sen. Arlen Specter and, with the strength of
nonviolent direct action and resistance, to Sen. Rick Santorum."
At the main cavernous entrance to the Widener Buiding, the coffin
was placed and the names of each of 126 Pennsylvania war dead
(Senator Santorum's departed constituents) was read. As each
name was read, flowers were placed on coffin on which pairs of
combat boot were placed. As the reading of names was coming to
an end, those prepared to face arrest in nonviolent civil
disobedience entered the Widener Building from different entrances.
A group of four people were able to get on an elevator and make it
to 9th floor office of Rick Santorum just before the elevators were
shut down. The group actually had to pull the doors apart in order to
exit elevator on the 9th floor. The larger group of 10 people entered
through the main entrance were stopped in the building's lobby by
security, police, and locked down elevators. With enlarged copies
of the Declaration of Peace Congressional Pledge and the names of
the PA War Dead, people sat in the lobby before the locked down
elevators.
The group on the 9th sat before the locked door of Santorum's
office, repeatedly ringing the door buzzer only to be ignored. From
cell phones and in repeated public announcements to Santorum
staff standing nearby (on the 9th floor and in the lobby as well as cell
phone calls to Santorum's Washington, DC office), police, building
security, and passersby, we announced our intention to "stay until
Sen. Santorum signed the Congressional Pledge or authorized its
signing". We would, for peace, wait on Santorum.
Gandhi use to say that the job of "the civil resister is to provoke until
there is a reaction or the law is changed". We waited and the
reaction came. Phila. Anti-Terrorism Police Inspector Tucker
announced that if we didn't leave we would be arrested, taken to a
police precinct station, and charged with summary offense of
trespass. People were warned two more times, but the third warning
was different. Instead of being charged with a summary offense of
trespass, it was announced that people who refused to leave would
be charged with significantly more severe counts of misdemeanor
Defiant Trespass and Criminal Trespass.
People remained, continued to wait and were arrested, first taken to
a police precinct and then onto the Police Headquarters for all night
processing and a "reality view" of what poor people in the criminal
[so-called] justice system see daily. The next afternoon, the
resisters were arraigned via closed circuit TV, had another charge
added - a misdemeanor charge of criminal conspiracy - and were
released on recognizance with an initial court date, a status hearing,
on November 21, 10:30AM, at the Criminal Justice Center.
Those arrested and charged with: Defiant Trespass, Criminal
Trespass, and Criminal Conspiracy are: Beth Friedlan, Karen
Wisniewski, Sylvia Metzler, Mary Jo McArthur, Bernadette Cronin-
Geller, Melissa Elliott and Ronald Coburn, all of Philadelphia;
Timothy Chadwick and Robert Daniels, both of Bethlehem; Robin
Lasersohn and Thomas Mullian, both of Media; Robert M. Smith, of
Swarthmore; Marjorie Van Cleef, of Bryn Mawr; and Silvia Brandon-
Perez, of Tobyhanna, PA.
DECLARE PEACE...Stand with the "PHILA. DECLARE PEACE 14" as they face
trail in Phila Muncipal Court (Criminal Justice Center, 1301 Filbert
Street, Philadelphia, PA) on April 23, 2007. Support plans to be
announced.
Should you wish copies of the specially designed (thanks to Melissa
Elliott, AFSC) graphic poster of "Bush Won't Listen. Congress Must
Act!" for posting on your front door, at your church or community
library, please call the Brandywine Peace Community, 610-544-
1818.
The Brandywine Peace Community thanks all who made this phase
of the Declaration of Peace in the Phila. area such a success and a
powerful expression of peacemaking.
THE DECLARATION OF PEACE * A National Campaign to
Establish a Comprehensive Plan to End the War in Iraq & "Bring the
Troops Home Now" * A Pledge to Take Nonviolent Direct Action to
establish a Comprehensive Plan to End the War
For more information: Phila. Area Declaration of Peace Campaign
Brandywine Peace Community
P.O. Box 81, Swarthmore, PA 19081 - 610-544-1818
brandywine@juno.com
The DECLARATION OF PEACE Phila. Area campaign, organized
by the Brandywine Peace Community, has been endorsed by:
Catholic Peace Fellowship; Delaware County Pledge of Resistance;
Delaware County Wage Peace & Justice; Delaware Valley Peace
Action; Epiphany House; Greater Camden Unity Council [GCUC];
Kensington Welfare Rights Union [KWRU]; Northeast Philly for
Peace & Justice; Northwest Greens; Northwest Peace & Justice
Movement; Peace Center of Delaware County; Phila. Buddhist
Peace Fellowship; Phila. Granny Peace Brigade; Phila. World Can't
Wait;PRAWN; Shalom Center; SOA Watch - NE; Veterans for
Peace, Chapter 31; Voices of a Different Dream; and Women's
International League for Peace & Freedom [WILPF].
PHOTOS: John Grant