On the morning of Monday, November 29, peace and social justice activists blockaded the US federal building in downtown Chicago. The activists were protesting the use of US taxpayer money to fund war and violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Colombia while human needs remain unmet. Several of those engaging in the blockade have traveled to Iraq with Voices in the Wilderness as well as to Columbia with Christian Peacemaker Teams.

“In front of the Federal Building, we are calling on elected leaders to refuse any further appropriations to the Bush Administration as it continues spending trillions of dollars on war and violence,” said John Volkening, a local clinical psychologist. “Until the Bush Administration is held accountable for its reckless pursuit of foreign policies that are creating terrorists faster than the U.S. can kill them, we urge nonviolent civil disobedience to shut down the offices that fund and promote further bloodshed and needless suffering.” John recently returned from travel to Colombia with a Christian Peacemaker Team delegation.

As casualties mount in Iraq, so has the cost of war. The U.S. military is now spending more than $5.8 billion each month, top officials told Congress several weeks ago.

“Bush promised that he would spend money for the amount of troops that he needs to recruit for ongoing wars,” said Kathy Kelly, a Chicago area war tax refuser. “Most of us are not targeted by the recruiters. From most of us, what is required is not our bodies and not our consent - it’s our money. This is what we have power over.”

“We can appropriate money away from militarism to health care, housing and other needs by our resistance, by our nonpayment of taxes for war. Progressives opposed to warmaking simply can’t deny a moral imperative: don’t turn your productivity over to the warmakers,” Kelly continued.

Quoting author Mark Anderson, the group notes that Bush’s “astonishing arms buildup is the nuclear-armed tip of a global iceberg: an arms race that steals food from the mouths of the hungry as surely as any thief, killing even in moments when the bombs are not falling.”

The federal authorities elected to not make arrests this morning of those blocking the federal building. After causing a disruption to business-as-usual, thereby achieving one of the objectives for today, the local activists opted to adjourn the direct action for the day. Plans are underway for continued nonviolent civil disobedience and resistance in the Chicago area as part of a campaign of sustained resistance to the US war in Iraq. Please be in touch with Voices in the Wilderness about future actions that are being planned.