Can you join the Pledge of
Resistance at 9:15 AM outside Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles
Street, on Tues., Sept. 1? Then at 9:30 AM, we will march over to Hodson
Hall on JHU’s Homewood campus. It is hoped that we can engage in dialogue
with Sen. Cardin before he enters the building for the meeting with 30
students. Should we be moved off campus, we will vigil at 33rd &
N. Charles Street calling for Congressional support of the Iran deal.
RSVP to Max at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski at Verizon dot net.
Also note that office
visits will occur again on September 10. Let us keep the pressure on the
legislators.
Wednesday,
August 26, 2015
Declaring 'Power In Numbers', People Rally Nationwide for Peace with Iran
200
demonstrations sweep country in national day of action to support nuclear deal
and say no to war
Demonstrators
call on Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) to support the Iran deal at a town hall
meeting in Denver, Colorado August 4, 2015. (Photo courtesy of MoveOn)
The
national day of action was organized by a coalition that includes MoveOn,
National Iranian American Council (NIAC), WinWithoutWar, and United for Peace
and Justice, with over
200 actions from coast to coast. Brian Stewart, media
relations director for MoveOn, told Common Dreams that tens of thousands
of people nationwide also signed petitions, slated for delivery to lawmakers on
Wednesday.
The
coordinated mobilizations come as Congress nears the end of the August recess,
after which lawmakers will vote on the pact—potentially as soon as September 9.
As per recently-passed
legislation, the U.S. House and Senate were given a
total of 60 days to review the final deal.
If
lawmakers were to vote against the deal, and amass the votes to override a
presidential veto, Obama's hands would be tied on sanctions relief and the deal
would sink. However, European Union nations are already
showing more enthusiasm to engage, in what some say
is a sign of the growing isolation of anti-diplomacy forces, from the United
States to Israel.
Elham
Khatami, national outreach director for NIAC, told Common Dreams that
Wednesday's nationwide actions are the culmination of a month of mobilizing:
"All of our organizations have been working through August to raise
support, holding meetings and attending town halls. We've come together as a
group of peace organizations today to try and make a really strong showing
outside of congressional offices, because there's power in numbers."
Updates
and commentary on the actions, still ongoing at the time of publication, are
being posted to
Twitter:
#nowarwithiran Tweets
The
coordinated mobilizations are aimed at countering a well-funded campaign against
the agreement. They come on the heels of numerous
rallies and messages organized from within Iran, and
the global diaspora, urging Congress to embrace the agreement—and cultivate
peace with Iran.
Dozens of
Iranian civil society leaders and dissidents launched a social media campaign
this week backing
the deal, including those who have faced direct
repression from the Iranian government, arguing that it will ease devastating
sanctions and military escalation, and ultimately open up more space for social
movements.
"Those
who have paid the highest price for the cause of democracy and human rights in
Iran support the nuclear deal, not despite their pro-democracy and human rights
activism, but precisely because of it," said
Mohamadreza Jalaeipour, a former political prisoner, of the project.
This work
is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center,
325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email:
mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the
subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to
gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and
everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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