 December/January 2004-2005
American Friends Service Committee Peacework Magazine Sara Burke, Pat Farren, Founding Editor 2161 Massachusetts Ave. Telephone number: Fax number:
pwork@igc.org Peacework has been published monthly since 1972, intended to serve as a source of dependable information to those who strive for peace and justice and are committed to furthering the nonviolent social change necessary to achieve them. Rooted in Quaker values and informed by AFSC experience and initiatives, Peacework offers a forum for organizers, fostering coalition-building and teaching the methods and strategies that work in the global and local community. Peacework seeks to serve as an incubator for social transformation, introducing a younger generation to a deeper analysis of problems and issues, reminding and re-inspiring long-term activists, encouraging the generations to listen to each other, and creating space for the voices of the disenfranchised. Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC. |
Vermont Town Meetings Consider Resolutions Opposing War in Iraq Building on a long tradition of local involvement on national and world issues, Vermont peace groups and community leaders are working to challenge the war in Iraq at the Vermont's Town Meetings this Spring. The model resolution drafted by the Vermont Network on Iraq War Resolutions -- makes the following main points: The war in Iraq was advanced, and the Joint Congressional Resolution authorizing US action in Iraq was adopted, on the basis of erroneous factual claims. Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction and was never shown to have a connection to the 9/11 attacks. The costs of deploying Vermont National Guard members in Iraq has been substantial, reckoned in deaths, injuries, and personal trauma, as well as dislocation and financial hardship to businesses and communities. The Vermont Congressional Delegation should work to restore a proper balance between the powers of the States and the power of the federal government over control and deployment of state National Guard units. The Vermont Legislature should discuss and investigate the role of Vermont in the governance of its National Guard, as the Vermont Constitution authorizes it to do, and should set up a commission to study how Guard deployments affect Guard readiness in Vermont. The president should bring the war in Iraq to a close, withdrawing American troops from Iraq, as peacekeepers of other nations willing and able to serve in such a role complete the mandate of international humanitarian law and return the governance of Iraq to a duly chosen and recognized government. Organizers of the Town Meeting effort hope that more than 30 Vermont towns and cities will consider and adopt resolutions -- sending a strong, locally-grounded message on the global issue of world peace. Similar resolutions at Vermont town meetings launched the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign of the 1980s into the national spotlight, and could help propel the next wave of resistance to the war in Iraq.
For more information about the work of the
Vermont Network on Iraq War Resolutions, contact the Vermont office
of the American Friends Service Committee at 73 Main St., Box
19, Montpelier, VT 05602; 802/229-2340; www.afscvt.org.
Please note that the deadline for Vermonters
to add items to the agendas of their March town meetings is January
20. 
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