PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Oakland, CA: HURRICANE CARE NOT WARFARE-MARCH & ACTION SHUT DOWN & REDECORATE RECRUITMENT
by david Sunday, Sep. 25, 2005 at 4:10 PM

- 300 Youth, People of Color, Military Families, Veterans, Religious Leaders and Community Activists Rally, March, Shut Down and and Re-Decorate Recruitment Center; Graveyard painted in street.

For Immediate Release
September 23, 2005

People Power Can End the War Collective
http://www.CourageToResist.org

Oakland, CA: HURRICANE CARE NOT WARFARE!
MARCH & ACTION SHUT DOWN & REDECORATE RECRUITMENT CENTER

Photos of action:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/09/1769953.php
http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/09/1769936.php
http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/09/1769914.php

OAKLAND, 9/21/05 – Over 300 people gathered at a Chevron gas station in
Oakland today to speak out against the war in Iraq, and demand money and
resources for people who’s lives have been shattered by Hurricane Katrina.
The crowd of people from all walks of life was energized by hip-hop and
samba music, as people stepped up to the microphone, spoke out against the
war and military recruitment, and called for aid for Katrina’s survivors.

The rally was held at a Chevron station to highlight the organizer’s demand that
taxpayer dollars be spent on education, social services, and the reconstruction
of New Orleans and Iraq.

After rallying, the group marched to an Armed Forces Recruiting Center,
located at 2116 Broadway, to step-up their campaign against military
recruitment. The station closed in anticipation of the action, so marchers moved
in front of the Center holding a giant banner declaring the Center “Shut Down By
People Power. Stop Recruitment. Reist a Draft. Support GI Resistance. End the
War.” Using tempera paint and paintbrushes, marchers redecorated the façade of
the Center with painted phrases including, "Recruitier Lie,1900 US Soldiers
Die/100,000+ Iraqis Die," “Don't Enlist,” “From Oakland to New Orleans to
Falluja- End Bushes War” and, “A Better World is Possible.”

After redecorating the Recruitment Center, marchers moved into the street;
on the road they painted a cemetery, using gravestones to symbolize those
killed in Iraq and in the hurricane zone.

“Its time to step up our resistance to our government’s adventures in war
and empire at a time when hundreds of thousands of people have lost their
homes and communities,” says Clare Bayard, a member of the People Power
Can End the War Collective. “We’re using every peaceful means available to
us to spread the message that this war can be stopped with a people-powered
campaign based on counter-recruitment and support for war resisters, and we are
ready to continue our actions, energized and motivated after shutting down the
recruitment center today.”

Dr. Michael Kozart of San Francisco General Hospital, who has been volunteering
with Common Ground, a community-run volunteer health clinic in New Orleans,
joined in the protest. “Working as a healthcare professional in New Orleans
until several days ago, I witnessed the failure of our government to meet the
needs of its people," said Kozart. "We need health care, not warfare, from
Algiers, Louisiana to Baghdad, Iraq.”

The People Power Can End the War Collective is an Oakland-based, ad hoc
group of youth, students, people of faith, veterans, military families and
counter recruitment and military resistance support organizations working
to build a people-powered movement to end the war and occupation in Iraq.

Endorsers of the Action include Veterans for Peace-Chapter 69, Central
Committee of Conscientious Objectors, Courage to Resist, Art in Action, Not in
Our Name, Code Pink, Naked Souls Artist Alliance, Mother Speak, Fr. Louie
Vitale.

For information on the Common Ground Clinic, see:  http://www.CommonGroundRelief.org

For more information, visit http://www.CourageToResist.org