By Jo Wilding

The US has asked the British government to send you north to free up forces for another offensive against Falluja. I’m writing to ask you to refuse any orders to deploy to Baghdad or other areas currently under US control.

I was an ambulance volunteer in Falluja during the April siege. I went because my friend Salam, a doctor, said US troops were stopping medical supplies getting in, cut off water, food, electricity and had closed down the main hospital and controlled the road to the smaller one with snipers.

Salam was evacuated with bullet wounds; a missile from a US plane destroyed the ambulance in front of his. He and his crew were under fire, pinned inside the vehicle while their colleagues burned in the other one. He thought the marines wouldn’t shoot us because we’d look like their brothers and sisters. He was right: in daylight we moved medical supplies, evacuated people from the second hospital and homes in the firing line, picked up sick and injured people.

We went to bring two sick women from a house in US territory. Outside a man of about 60 was lying face down in the road, shot through the back. You don’t need me to tell you what it looks or smells like when a man’s chest isn’t inside his body any more.

By Jo Wilding

We made a load of plans for the Boomchucka Clowns to go back to Iraq this autumn, compiled an info sheet for people who wanted to join the circus, planned for some fundraising, made a list of useful stuff and people to blag it off, agreed who was going to do what.

And then Ghareeb was dead; Ghareeb who took me to Falluja, who took countless foreigners to the places he thought we could make a difference, Ghareeb with the fiery temper that drove me nuts, who sometimes liked to exaggerate, who always loved to gossip – Ewa used to say a big bird told her everything, Ghareeb whose cigarette end lit the way through the pitch dark streets of Falluja, who drove the ambulance that was shot at with us in it, who I called Azzam in the stories from there, who doesn’t need a disguise any more, who seemed to know everyone, who’d fled his native Palestine after working for freedom there, making his home in Iraq instead, is dead.

Surely someone so big couldn’t die, but it seems like bullets don’t discriminate. He was driving with the convoy that included foreign journalists and activists and Italian Red Cross workers in late August. Enzo, a Red Cross volunteer, freelance journalist and blogger, was kidnapped and killed. Even though I spoke to him on the phone only a couple of weeks before and he was fine, all it took was a bullet and now he’s dead.

And then the two Simonas, Mahnoaz and Dr Raad were kidnapped, seized in broad daylight by unmasked, smart, well-fed men, apparently working on some kind of covert operation rather than the usual chaotic opportunistic roadside bandit episodes, and we knew there was no way the clowns could go back as planned.

August 2004. Over a decade of economic and military warfare against the people of Iraq. Over a year of occupation of Iraq. The Apartheid Wall being built in Palestine. People cut off from their lands, livelihoods and each other. Economic devastation in Iraq and Palestine. Health care and education destroyed in each land. Resource wars over oil, water and land.

The times cry for change. The times cry for peacemakers and justice-seekers. The times cry for action. It is high time that we respond to the call to act. The times cry for us to act as if the lives of the peoples of Iraq and Palestine truly matter.

It is time to challenge our comfortable lives in the United States. To challenge our country’s acts of war and oppression. To resist the machinery of war enveloping our country. To choose the path of nonviolence over continual destruction.

We therefore initiate this campaign of Solidarity, Resistance and Liberation as we demand that our country end its actions of economic and military warfare that result, for so many, in Life Under Occupation.

Our demands include:

• Respect for all worker rights and human rights in Iraq and Palestine.
• An end to the occupations in Iraq and Palestine.
• Self-determination for the peoples of Iraq and Palestine, not a puppet “sovereignty.”
• A dismantling of all walls that separate and tear lives asunder.
• Reconstruction of Iraq and Palestine that benefits and is directed by the people of Iraq and Palestine rather than by the dictates of corporations or foreign countries.
• Reparations to families of Iraqis killed as a result of the US-driven economic and military warfare since 1990.
• Clean up of all cluster-bombs, landmines, depleted uranium and other unexploded weapons, as well as a prohibition on any future use of such weapons.
• Redirect our country’s resources away from war and to uses which affirm life, including universal health care, education, economic development and a justly reformed criminal injustice system.

GETTING STARTED:

1.) Write “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” and indicate the DATE for the release at the top left of the page. At top right of page, list name and phone number of CONTACT PERSON. Use organizational LETTERHEAD if appropriate.

2.) A short but attention getting TITLE should state the subject of your release.

3.) Begin the first paragraph by writing the name of the PLACE from which you are reporting in capital letters followed by two dashes. This is relevant when reporting from a specific field location.

TIPS ON TEXT:

4.) The LEAD SENTENCE must concisely say only the MOST ESSENTIAL FACTS of the release. Save secondary elements and lengthier information about place and organizational names for later sentences.

5.) Use ACTIVE VOICE rather than passive. Example: “Anti-sanctions activists counter sue us government” as opposed to “U.S. government was counter sued by Anti-sanctions activists”.

6.) When announcing an event, include the TIME, DATE, PLACE, PARTICIPATING GROUPS, and REASONS for the action EARLY in the release.

7.) Limit the LENGTH of the release to ONE PAGE double spaced if possible. Define the basic 2-3 POINTS you want to make and avoid extraneous information. If longer than one page, write -MORE- centered at the bottom of the page. Your release should never be longer than two pages. You may include additional pages of background material if helpful, but they should be clearly separate from the press release.

8.) KEEP SENTENCES SHORT. Eliminate unnecessary words and phrases.

9.) Avoid “buzz words” and aim for a SIMPLE VOCABULARY.

10.) Don’t exaggerate information. Make it INTERESTING.

11.) Try to obtain at least one QUOTE. Mention support from well-known people and organizations if appropriate.

12.) Write so that your first paragraph could be used directly by a news editor and subsequent information could be cut from the bottom up. LESS IMPORTANT INFORMATION belongs in the LATER PARAGRAPHS of the release.

SIGNING OFF:

1. End your release by including a DESCRIPTION OF YOUR ORGANIZATION.

2. Finish by putting -30- centered at the bottom of the page.

ADVANCE PREPARATION:

1.) Prepare and maintain a list of all media contacts including newspapers (weekly & daily), TV, and radio. Don’t neglect alternative and religious press. Your list should include names of friendly reporters as well as editors of the news desk, religion desk, etc. Make sure you have both phone and fax numbers.

2.) Check out the wire services in your area – AP (Associated Press), CP (Canadian Press), Reuters, UPI (United Press International). Wire services send out bulletins continually to most other media.

3.) Write a press release. (See guide: “WRITING A PRESS RELEASE“).

4.) Send or Fax press release to the news desk, city desk, special departments (women, religion, etc.) and specific reporters who have been friendly. The release should arrive several days before the event.

5.) Think of ways to write articles for periodicals, letters to the editor, etc.

6.) Several days before your event, the phone should be covered continuously.

7.) Put together a “press packet” for distribution on the day of the action. Include the press release, your best leaflet, and any helpful background information.

THE DAY BEFORE THE ACTION OR EVENT:

8.) Telephone all media. Give a brief run‑down of the action (who, what, where, when, why). Be enthusiastic and positive but not unrealistic. Stick to the purpose and underline the issue(s).

9.) Be prepared to re‑fax the press release immediately.

10.) Contact radio “news” stations. Many will tape telephone interviews from people at the action site and send directly to the radio station. Some will also tape 30 second spots in which you can read a prepared statement or sound‑byte.

11.) Make sure arrangements have been made for someone to take photos of the event. Pictures can be used in follow‑up work.

THE DAY OF THE ACTION:

12.) Call TV and radio stations early. Most assignments are made by 8:30 am. Ask them to come at least half an hour after the action is scheduled to start so they aren’t the first to arrive - a common problem.

13.) Have press packets available.

14.) Assign one or more persons to relate to the press and help them get good information and pictures. It is often helpful to have one or two people “hustle” the press ‑ ‑ take initiative to greet them and direct them to the press spokes people.

15.) Keep a press log of information on who shows up.

Adapted from Resource Manual for a Living Revolution; New Society Publishers, 1985