I'm passing this along from the meeting that Pat, Jeff and Ed had with
Rebecca Griffin. There is a national day of action beloe that I think
OCPC ought to endorse and pass along.
Karen
Rebecca Griffin
Political Director
Peace Action West
510.830.3600 x113
rgriffin@peaceactionwest.org
Nearly 20 national organizations and coalitions have agreed to
participate next week for the Afghanistan Week of Action May 23rd and
call-in/media day Tue. May 24th. If you have yet to let me know that
you'll be participating in some way, please do.
Please read THE ACTIONS below for the agreed upon actions.
Stephen Miles of Win Without War and Judith Le Blanc of Peace Action
agreed to distill participant's ideas for a common message to be used
before the legislative ask and for Twitter. Here's what they came up
with:
"It is time we brought our troops home from Afghanistan and stopped
wasting billions we need at home on war. The last thing Congress
should be doing is authorizing endless war, but that's exactly what
the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act does. "
Tweet: @Congress: Now is the time to #ExitAfghanistan & stop wasting
billions we need at home on war. Now is not the time for endless war.
Feel free to comment if you have strong feelings about changes to the
above. Be aware that time is short for much language parsing.
THE ACTIONS, TARGET & ASKS
1. The number one preferred action would be to generate phone calls
to Congress starting at 9:00 AM EDT next Tue. the May 24th using this
toll free number so we can track impact 1-888-231-9276 (Big thanks to
Matt at FCNL). Almost all groups have agreed to send agreed to send
an alert Tue. morning. When people have drafts of their alerts,
please send them to the Afghanistan Policy Working Group list.
The ask:
Have callers use the top line message above and ask for as many of the
below as possible:
HOUSE (many groups will focus on the House though some will ask folks
to call House and Senate. Note that we might not know until late Mon.
early Tue what amendments to NDAA will be allowed. Votes could happen
as early as Tue. eve)
Rep. Barbara Lee's H.R. 780 "Responsible End to the War in Afghanistan
Act" (62 cosponsors) and amendment equivalent
McGovern/Jones H.R. 1730 "Afghanistan Exit and Accountability Act" (50
cosponsors, most bipartisan support) and amendment equivalent
Amendment to strike or replace McKeon/McCain reauthorization language
SENATE
Sign on to Sen. Merkley's letter to the President asking for “sizeable
and sustained” reduction in forces from Afghanistan.
2. The second preferred action would be to generate constituent
contacts sometime next week.
3. For those organizations without constituents or those who want to
do additional actions, take some sort of media action on next Tue.
like a blog, tweet, facebook, LTE, etc.
4. Besides the above, local actions as appropriate.
FYI, here's the social media we, Vets for Peace and others are doing.
Feel free to edit and use as your own.
President Obama: It's time to exit Afghanistan now. Time is money ($10
billion/month) and it's time to stop wasting it. It's time to bring
the troops home.
1. Post the above message and these instructions as your Facebook status
2. Change your profile picture to this: http://tinyurl.com/3zhvp26
3. Like Peace Action: http://facebook.com/peaceaction
use the hashtag #ExitAfghanistan and tweet:
@Congress: Now is the time to #ExitAfghanistan & stop wasting billions
we need at home on war. Now is not the time for endless war.
More info to come as we get it...
Thank you,
Paul Kawika Martin
Organizing, Political and PAC Director
Peace Action & Peace Action Education Fund
(formerly SANE/Freeze)
Please note new address and fax:
8630 Fenton Street, Suite 524
Silver Spring, MD 20910
301.565.4050 x 316
951.217.7285 cell
301.562.7305 fax
pmartin@peace-action.org
IM and Twitter: paulkawika
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I'm passing this along from the meeting Pat, Ed and Jeff had with