What to wear to the May Day march?

The Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice (WNPJ) has just the thing: "Immigrants Welcome" T-shirts in Spanish and Hmong. (There are yard signs with the same message.)

Justice for immigrants is a major focus of the events Thursday in Madison and Milwaukee.

The Milwaukee event is billed as a statewide action, organized by Voces de la Frontera and endorsed by Peace Action Wisconsin.

Organizers at Voces say:

Next week, General David Petraeus will travel to Capitol Hill and make his report to Congress on the war in Iraq. If, as expected, he announces a pause in the withdrawal in troops from Iraq, our Congress must say "no" for the sake of our military and of our servicemembers.<br><br>We can not pause the withdrawal of our troops because we are seeing, everyday, the absolute devastation our wars, with frequent, long, often extended deployments, are having on our men and women in uniform.<br><br>How can we constantly churn our troops like this? How can we consciously compound the wounds of war? We are sending men and women back for fourth and fifth tours of duty when the Department of Defense, by its own estimation, says that with each additional tour, troops are 60% more likely to develop severe post-combat mental health issues.

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Sometimes as we struggle for justice and fairness we forget how truly unjust the unending suffering those of our nation's leadership have unleashed upon a mostly unsuspecting world (although not anymore).  If we are to consider that ALL people are just that, people...... only then will we conceive the horrors of the reality that is the American Empire.  The thirteen year sanctions upon the country of Iraq have caused suffering almost incomprehensible to most of us.  Felicity Arbuthnot in an open letter to Britian's Minister of State for International Development at Global Research writes:

"To illustrate the the iniquity, an acquaintance, in desperation, sent a supply if insulin, in a jiffy bag, to his diabetic brother in Baghdad, as none was available. It was returned by the Post Office as needing an export licence.His brother died before the license arrived. I myself was threatened by DFID with prosecution, for taking a year's supply of cancer treatment to a surgeon with cancer, who had worked here at the Hammersmith Hospital, a specialist in pediatric orthopedics, who had enabled numerous British children walk again, able to use their arms, straightened small bodies. Cancer treatments too, were vetoed by the United Nations Sanctions Committee.

What happens when you deploy troops who
have seen high intensity combat time and time again with inadequate
dwell time between tours? You see skyrocketing mental health issues.

After months of investigative work,
talking to our troops and veterans, we released
a report on the situation at Fort Drum in Watertown, New York.
Since 9/11, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team has been deployed for more
than forty months, more than any other brigade in the Army, and we
are seeing what is nothing short of a cry for help from the men and
women on the base; a cry we will answer in Wisconsin, which has seen many of its soldiers deployed from Fort McCoy.

Assembly Republicans, lacking the time or the inclination to act on any serious issues like health care or campaign finance reform, did manage to insult the voters by passing this piece of trash, seeking to shut up voters who want to talk about issues the politicians would rather duck. WISN-TV reports:

Bill Would Curb Municipal Votes On Iraq War, Other Issues

Measure Passed Along Party Lines, 48-44

MADISON, Wis. -- Citizens could no longer force municipal votes on measures calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq or other issues under a measure approved by the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Assembly on Tuesday.

The plan would allow cities and villages to refuse to act on citizen initiatives that don't relate to local governmental functions.

Under current law, anyone who gathers enough signatures in support of a proposal can force city councils and village boards to either adopt it or put it to a vote.

Activists used this tactic to force votes on several symbolic anti-war initiatives in 2006 over the opposition of some community leaders.

The Assembly voted 48-44 along party lines to adopt the plan.

Even before the California Supreme Court's ruling that shopping malls can't bar protestors, participants in Iraq Moratorium #4 last week were taking their message to the malls.

Some of the action moved to the malls because that's where the people were, doing holiday shopping four days before Christmas. Most "mall walkers" did just that -- walked the malls wearing antiwar shirts or singing carols, not staging actual protests.

An exception was Madison, where seven people were "arrested" -- and later "unarrested" at West Towne Mall. Organizer Joy First tells what happened:

If you were looking for excuses for December's Iraq Moratorium to be smaller than previous ones, there were plenty available. It fell four days before Christmas, on the darkest day of the year, with cold weather in much of the country and campuses closed for winter break.

None of that mattered in Hayward, a city of 2,129 in northwestern Wisconsin, which we've reported on previously. When 40 people turned out there in November, we projected that on a percentage basis that was equivalent to 12,000 people in Milwaukee, 160,000 in New York City, or 6 million nationally.

Puffed up by that kind of publicity here and elsewhere, one of the organizers, Steve Carlson, boldly set a goal of 75 for Iraq Moratorium #4 in December. He later had some second thoughts, no doubt.

So, what happened? They doubled attendance. Here's the report:

Just over 80 people turned out in Hayward, Wisconsin Friday afternoon to vigil for peace in observance of the Iraq Moratorium Day #4. The event was co-sponsored by Peace North and Veterans for Peace Chapter 153.

The crowd was lively, talkative and inspired to come again next month. There were long time activists, first time vigilers, young and old, veterans, and family members of servicemen and women.

Do something. Start by clicking on the logo.

UPDATE: Bruce Lee on the Iraq Moratorium.

Milwaukee's Veterans Day parade steps off Saturday morning, "Honoring All Americans Who Have Served," its website says.

But once again those who have served but are opposed to war will be excluded.

Veterans for Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against the War, both with active Milwaukee chapters, are not welcome to march.

It appears that this is a parade which honors veterans and glorifies war.

Veterans for Peace lists events its members will be participating in across the country, and -- no surprise -- it includes contingents in many Veterans Day parades.

But in Milwaukee the group will be banned, with this rule being applied:

STATEMENT OF INTENT - All groups please take note

The Veterans day parade of milw reserves the right to review all applications for participation in the parade and will determine each group's eligibility for participation on a case-by-case basis.

Wow!

I'm having flashbacks for sure.

UW students will protest on the Madison campus against a recruiting visit by Halliburton.

There's a national antiwar Moratorium on Friday.

And, right on cue, just like when they used to yell "Take a bath!" at protestors in the 60s, the wingnuts complain about what anti-war people look like.

Some fun now, hey?