Do you hear the war cries???

I'm becoming more and more alarmed not just at the military hawks cries for invading and conquering Iran, but that as an anti-war movement, we seem to be becoming more and more directed by and focused on the goals of Occupy, which does not have preventing or even ending war as it's mission, as it is supposedly ours.

I am not saying the goals of Occupy are not worthwhile or that it is a movement with the intentional goal of distracting us from putting our energy into fighting the horrific wars our country persists in waging in order to secure up to 60% of the world's resources for 4-5% of the world's population.

I am not saying Occupy intentionally set out to ensure we don't examine our current life styles and instead of demanding the 1% share with the middle class who is suddenly feeling threatened at least, deprived at the other end, we should be demanding the 1% pay reparations to the Indigenous, African-American, Mexican peoples of this country and the many people's of the world these resources were stolen from.

I don't want to wake up tomorrow and know that we have invaded Iran without knowing that I have at the very very least stood above a freeway or on a corner or at a busy shopping mall with the message "We will NOT tolerate another invasion" or something snappier and within the 7 second attention sound byte guaranteed to hold our fellow u.s. american's attention momentarily.

I know you must share my alarm.

I suggest we meet at the MRS (marine recruiting station), 64 Shattuck Square, Berkeley, Wednesday, January 11th, noon, to determine what the hell we are going to do, no matter how feeble, how helpless, how exhausted we are.

IRAN

I'm becoming more and more alarmed not just at the military hawks cries for invading and conquering Iran, but that as an anti-war movement, we seem to be becoming more and more directed by and focused on the goals of Occupy, which does not have preventing or even ending war as it's mission, as it is supposedly ours.

I am not saying the goals of Occupy are not worthwhile or that it is a movement with the intentional goal of distracting us from putting our energy into fighting the horrific wars our country persists in waging in order to secure up to 60% of the world's resources for 4-5% of the world's population.

I am not saying Occupy intentionally set out to ensure we don't examine our current life styles and instead of demanding the 1% share with the middle class who is suddenly feeling threatened at least, deprived at the other end, we should be demanding the 1% pay reparations to the Indigenous, African-American, Mexican peoples of this country and the many people's of the world these resources were stolen from.

I don't want to wake up tomorrow and know that we have invaded Iran without knowing that I have at the very very least stood above a freeway or on a corner or at a busy shopping mall with the message "We will NOT tolerate another invasion" or something snappier and within the 7 second attention sound byte guaranteed to hold our fellow u.s. american's attention momentarily.

I know you must share my alarm.

I suggest we meet at the MRS (marine recruiting station), 64 Shattuck Square, Berkeley, Wednesday, January 11th, noon, to determine what the hell we are going to do, no matter how feeble, how helpless, how exhausted we are.

PLEASE DONATE NOW

We cannot do this without your financial assistance. Any donation can be tax deductible. Send your checks into CodePINK, P.O. Box 5172, Berkeley, Ca 94705 or click on the donate button. THANK YOU!

Bay Area CodePINK East Bay's Office has moved!

It is with great sadness and regret we have to inform you that our lovely and inspiring CodePINK office has shut her doors! Due to extreme financial hardship, we can no longer keep those doors open.

We want to sincerely extend our deepest thanks and appreciation to all the multitude of CodePINKers as well as community supporters who worked together for the past almost 7 years keeping our doors open.

Many of you dropped in with words of encouragement, gratitude and often with donations. Others were monthly contributor pledgers, some were one time contributers, still others contributed time and energy, a must for running an office.

Although we could not have done it without your help, we especially need to thank those long-term monthly pledgers: Brenda Hillman, Jean Hyams, and Jay Lalezari whose faithful, consistent contribution we could count on every month!

And special deepest thanks also to the original team who refused to allow the office to close several years ago: Brenda Hillman, Jane Maxwell, Corrine Goldstick, and Cynthia Johnson.

And our appreciate to everyone else whose name we may not know but whose contribution none-the-less has sustained us.

We have a new number 510-540-7007 and a P.O. box 5172, Berkeley 94705 should you perhaps want to continue and begin contributing or send us a note!

Together we WILL END WAR NOW!

No Military Predators in Our Town Campaign

CodePINK found out last September '07 that Marine Recruiters had invaded our peace-loving, anti-war town of Berkeley and set up an officer recruiting station targeting youth from U.C. Berkeley, Berkeley City College, and other colleges in the Bay Area. We have been holding "How Berkeley Can U BE" (see the Calendar) daily and weekly events and actions in front of the M.R.S.* (Marine Recruiting Station) to halt business as usual at the station.

In response to the pro-war unsubstantiated call for a boycott of Berkeley Businesses, we have launched the Berkeley Businesses for Peace Association and we are also calling for a Summer of Hope in Berkeley for the month of July.

Together we WILL SHUT DOWN military recruiting in our town!

Peace, "No Military Recruiting" Coalition Team
Click for more on the Regulating Military Recruiting Coalition

CodePINK is a women initiated & women led grassroots peace and social justice movement that seeks positive social change through proactive, creative protest and non-violent direct action.

CodePINK was started in direct response to the Bush administration's color-coded security alerts that are based on fear. CodePINK is a determined call for women & our supporters to "wage peace & justice" in our lives, our communities, our country, & around the world. We stand up to the Bush administration's attempt to attack not only our civil rights, but almost every social service & economic program for women, for children, for the poor, the unemployed, the elderly, the disabled in our country.

CodePINK, often aligning with other organizations, holds vigils for peace; marches against the war & occupation; speaks out against corporate - as in Halliburton, Bechtel - greed & profiteering; stands in solidarity with the women in Juarez, in Iraq, at Threemile Canyon Farms; targets all the entities that supply war, including political, corporate, military, media, and we the people through our compliance and our taxes.

Bay Area CodePINK has worked tirelessly locally and nationally to defeat the Bush agenda, defend our democracy, and protect our civil rights. We also participate in several campaigns as "No Military Predators in our Town" and "War Tax Resistance". We hold activist training camps, table at events, and do presentations & speakings for various institutions, organizations, groups and neighborhoods. We participate in marches, protest actions and community celebrations.

We meet weekly on Wednesdays: the 2nd Wednesday from 7-9 at Global Exchange, 16th & Mission across from the 16th Street BART; the 1st, 3rd & 4th Wednesdays from 7-9 at East Bay CodePINK, 1248 Solano Ave, Albany. Meetings are where actions & direction are discussed and decided upon; report backs are given about past actions; business is taken care of.

We vigil and protest every Wednesday in Berkeley from 7:30a.m. 5:00p.m. in front of the M.R.S (Marine Recruiting Station), 64 Shattuck Square (on Shattuck Ave just south of University Ave, where Shattuck runs one-way north). In San Francisco, from 5:15-6:15 in front of Diane Feinstein's office at Montgomery and Market Stress. (See Calendar for more details)

We also banner every Friday in Berkeley at 7:30-8:30a.m. on the University Ave Footbridge over the 80/580 freeways; and 4:30-5:30p.m. on the San Jose Ave overpass (see the Calendar for more details).

Sign up for the action list to keep informed of all actions and decisions made outside the monthly meetings and to discuss issues & upcoming events, actions, plans with bay area CodePINKers!

For further information, please see the rest of our website, email info@bayareacodepink.org, or call 510.524.2776.