ANNOUNCING A NEW CAMPAIGN TO CHALLENGE U.S. MILITARY AND ECONOMIC WARFARE
AGAINST IRAQAND TO END THE "GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR"

SEPTEMBER 2005:

Dear Friends,

Over these past months, as the war in Iraq and the so-called "Global War On Terror" have expanded, we in Chicago have been endeavoring to discern our
next steps. After much deliberation, we are launching a new organization: Voices for Creative Nonviolence.

This campaign intends to build and strengthen active nonviolent resistance to the U.S. war against Iraq's people; to foster international and domestic
peace teams; and to challenge the United States' "Global War on Terror", which is a war OF terror far more than it is a "war ON terror."

We earnestly hope our efforts will merit your support.

For all of fourteen years starting in 1991, the U.S. has waged a merciless war against the Iraqi people -- in the form of bombing and sanctions when not of outright invasion and occupation. Our response to this fourteen-years war
has altered several times with the changing strategies of the war-makers:

* In 1990, at the start of the "First" Gulf War, international activists gathered on the Iraq-Saudi border as the Gulf Peace Team (GPT), seeking to
interpose themselves between the invasion force and Iraq.
* In 1996, GPT veterans and others formed Voices in the Wilderness (VITW) as a concerted campaign to challenge the murderous U.S. and U.N. economic sanctions against Iraq.
* In 2002, VITW organized the Iraq Peace Team which mobilized international activists to accompany and live in solidarity with ordinary Iraqis in the days before, during and after the U.S. invasion.

Our response is altering again. Days after Voices in the Wilderness announced the creation of the Iraq Peace Team, the U.S. government imposed a $20,000 Fine against Voices in the Wilderness for bringing medicine to Iraqi citizens in violation of the sanctions. A short-lived legal battle ensued in which VITW reiterated, as it had always done, that it would refuse to pay any Fines.

In August 2005, U.S. Federal Judge John Bates ordered Voices in the Wilderness to pay this fine, rendering several aspects of the group's work legally unfeasible.

What now?

It is now 2005 - a full 2 1/2 years since the U.S. occupation of Iraq began.
We believe that it is necessary to embark upon a new effort now, to challenge this occupation, and to do so in new ways. We must also challenge ourselves in new ways to act for peace and justice in our world. Our hope is that Voices for Creative Nonviolence will help inspire and sustain resistance to U.S. militarism. Our first but not sole priority is of course ending the U.S. occupation of Iraq and securing full reparations - but our work will be both
domestic and international.

Voices for Creative Nonviolence is initiating an ambitious yet promising six-month plan. We are committed to organize four distinct actions between September 2005 and March 2006. These are:
A FAST FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE FOR IRAQ (September 13th - 29th, 2005). We are currently gathered at the doors of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to fast for economic justice for Iraq. We are voluntarily going without
food as we seek to highlight and oppose the continued economic warfare against the people of Iraq. At the conclusion of the IMF / World Bank meeting we will
journey to NYC to continue the fast at the doors of the United Nations. We are demanding the following:

1) the cancellation of all odious debt incurred by Saddam Hussein (which conservatively is estimated at $125 billion); 2) the cancellation of all war reparations charges imposed against Iraq by the United Nations ($53 billion total, with about $33 billion still to be paid); 3) a commitment not to attach any economic conditions to the cancellation of the odious debt and war reparations charges; 4) the full funding and payment of war reparations by the U.S., U.K. and their allies to Iraq for the past 14 years of economic and military warfare; 5) a strong commitment to cease privatization of Iraq's
state-owned enterprises, especially its oil industry, and to ensure respect for workers' rights as defined by international law; and 6) an end to the U.S.-U.K.
led occupation of Iraq.

100,000 RINGS (October 24th - 28th, 2005). Voices for Creative Nonviolence has joined the UK's Justice not Vengeance (http://www.j-n-v.org), and groups around
the world to launch a project called "100,000 Rings." Over a five-day period participants in 100 groups will ring bells, once a minute for 1,000 minutes, to
commemorate each of the Iraqis who've died since the U.S. invasion. We invite people to visit ttp://www.iraqmortality.org, sign up, and avail themselves
of our call, press releases, and background information to organize their own local contingent of this campaign.

VOICES LANGUAGE STUDY PROGRAM (January - February 2006). A small (5-7 member) team will travel to Jordan to study Arabic. We believe that language study is a critical component of peace team work; hence this experimental language immersion program. While in Jordan, participants will live among Iraqi refugees and seek to learn from and document their experiences both in Iraq and in
Jordan. We also hope that part of this team will be able to travel to Syria to begin to explore a possible Voices presence, especially if the U.S. intensifies its threats of attack against that country.

THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT (February 15th - March 19th, 2006). Iraqis continue to die by the tens of thousands. The death toll of U.S. soldiers nears 2,000. Billions are spent on military occupation and war. Virtually nothing is
spent on war reparations or even reconstruction for Iraq. It is time to bring our dissent and discontent in a prolonged effort to those making the war in Washington,
D.C.. We are therefore committed to organizing The Winter of our Discontent, ordinary U.S. citizens gathering in Washington, D.C. to do the extraordinary -- demanding and achieving an end to U.S. military and economic warfare against Iraq with full payment of U.S. war reparations. Beginning February 15th, (the anniversary of the 2003 global mobilization against the U.S. invasion), we
will engage in the following actions:

* Fasting: an open-ended 33-day fast, possibly including a relay fast, with individual activists fasting all or part of the period.
* Civil disobedience: bringing people to the Pentagon, the White House, the Capitol, and other sites where death, quick or slow, is planned for Iraqi citizens.
* Lobbying: demanding an end to the occupation; an end to all forms of economic and military warfare against Iraq; and the payment of war reparations owed Iraq by the United States.

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May We Ask For Your Support?

We hope the work we've outlined above merits your financial support. We remain committed to working on a shoe-string budget and to ensuring that any contributions which you entrust to Voices for Creative Nonviolence will go
100% towards the above work.

If you believe that this work is necessary, would you kindly consider making a contribution?

Please let us know also if you would like to be involved with The Winter of Our Discontent. We are still in the rough-draft stage of writing the proposal, but the more we know ahead of time about who will be able to come to Washington, DC and organize in their local communities, the stronger the Winter of Our Discontent will be.

Contributions can be made out to:

Voices for Creative Nonviolence
1249 W Argyle Street #2
Chicago, IL 60640

Thank you for your support, Kathy Kelly, Laurie Hasbrook, Scott Blackburn, Dan Pearson, Bob Abplanalp,
Joel Gulledge, Sean Reynolds, Cathy Breen, Jeff Severns Guntzel, Chuck Quilty, Ceylon Mooney, Rev. G. Simon Harak, Virgine Lawinger OP, Jerry Zawada OFM, Rudy Simons,
Bob Bossie, Marie Braun, John Braun, Jim Douglass, Shelley Douglass, Ken Hannaford-Ricardi, Phil Runkel, David Smith-Ferri, Bert Sacks, and Jon Rice

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Voices for Creative Nonviolence
1249 W Argyle Street #2
Chicago, IL 60640
Phone: (773) 878-3815
email: info@VCNV.org
web: www.VCNV.org
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