Voices in the Wilderness and Justice Not Vengeance are initiating the “Counter Terror: Build Justice” campaign to challenge nonviolently the ongoing occupation of Iraq and the so-called “war on terror”. We invite you to join us in this campaign by 1) endorsing the following statement; and 2) organizing an action during the Month of Action, March 19 to April 19, 2005. To endorse the action or for more information, send an email to the campaign at luo at vitw.org

• View endorsements from US organizations.
• View endorsements from UK organizations.
• View Individual Endorsements.
• Read the campaign’s Background Paper

‘Counter Terror: Build Justice’

In the face of global terrorism, we believe that our community, our nation, and our world, must choose the path of peace, human rights, and justice. We believe that what is presented to us as ‘the war on terrorism’ is a campaign of violence and repression that actually generates more anti-Western terrorism.

We believe that the world needs a different agenda in order to end the terrorism of the weak and halt the terrorism of the powerful. We reject the logic of war and invasion, the erosion of basic rights, and the demonisation of Muslims and Arab communities.

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.

The Wheels of Justice Tour started again. Read about the tour below and then get involved! Also, visit the website for updates and new photos.

Nonviolent education and action against war and occupation in Iraq and Palestine for justice and universal human rights

Since July, 2003, the Wheels of Justice tour has brought its witness of war and occupation to more than twenty states. Traveling by Biodiesel-powered school bus, the WoJ has carried its message of peace more than 20,000 miles across the United States.

Having seen and lived with war, terror, and occupation in Iraq and Palestine, participants in the Wheels of Justice tour offer first-hand experience irrespective of partisan politics and media sound bites.

Our tour does many things, but its primary focus is education. Not everyone has the option to witness unfolding events thousands of miles away; not everyone has the means or time to find first-hand stories of life under occupation and war. We are a resource. Offering these perspectives to your campus, class, or school community is the way we can be most effective.

Voices in the Wilderness has sent over 70 delegations to Iraq since its founding in 1996, breaking economic sanctions by delivering medicines and connecting with ordinary Iraqis who were held under siege by crippling economic sanctions, the worst of their kind in history.

VitW’s delegations culminated in the Iraq Peace Team, a project where hundreds of Americans and internationals lived and reported from Iraq before, during and after the US-led Shock and Awe bombardment and occupation.

We recognize, from our travel to Iraq, the importance of first hand experience, person to person diplomacy, and being direct witness to the effects of militarism, war, and economic destruction. However, the US/UK occupation and the constant threat of civil war in Iraq currently makes it dangerous for large groups of Westerners to travel in Iraq and difficult to convince ordinary Iraqis of the benefits of short-term delegations.

With this in mind, VitW is not organizing delegations to Iraq at this time. We are in dialogue with peace activists, medical professionals, labor organizers, teachers and others from our network about how best to support human rights, justice and peace for Iraqis living under occupation. Some close friends from our network are working on independent projects in Iraq, maintaining contact with friends there, learning Arabic and writing about the current situation. See the “Voices from Iraq” section for recent entries.

Groups Currently Sending Delegations to Iraq:

• Christian Peacemaker Teams
• Bridges to Baghdad

Groups Currently Sending Relief and Development

• American Friends Service Committee
• Bridges to Baghdad
• CARE International
• Doctors without Borders
• Emergency: Health Care for Civilian Victims of War
• Middle East Children’s Alliance