On Saturday, April 9, 2011 WRL members and members of many other peace and justice groups will be meeting at the Gandhi statue at Union Square West and 15th Street at 12pm.
WESPAC and WRL are also calling for group participation in a feeder march to Union Square that will leave at 11:30am from the Information Booth inside of Grand Central Station at 42nd St. We will be marching on the sidewalk.
We will be carrying a banner of our latest federal budget pie chart and handing out flyers on how much of our tax dollars are going to support war and occupation as a part of our work as a member organization of the New Priorities Network.
We'll also be standing in solidarity with a number of Iraqi civil society groups who are organizing sit-ins in all Iraqi provinces beginning on April 9, targeting U.S. occupation forces and the U.S.-backed Maliki government in their messaging. Their demands for an end to the sit-ins include:
- The unconditional departure of the occupying forces
- The revocation of the security agreement which violates the sovereignty and independence of Iraq
- The revocation of the sectarian and ethnic quota system in the political process
- The building of a civil Iraqi state through transparent elections, without the interference of the occupation forces or any foreign, regional force, especially Iran
- The release of the innocent prisoners from occupation and government prisons
- The disclosure of the location of secret prisons that are scattered all over Iraq’s provinces
- Carrying out the demands of our people which were outlined during the “Uprising of Rage” on February 25th
- The formation of an independent judicial committee to investigate the actions of the security forces against peaceful demonstrators [involved in protests over this last month]
See this blog post written by WRL organizer Ali Issa for more info.
For more information on UNAC, go to nationalpeaceconference.org.
For more details about the April 9 contingent, contact kimber [at] warresisters.org.
