U.S. city councils call for peaceful resolution to Iraq crisi

Social justice news
January 2003

State budget deficits may mean health care cuts and worse
January Is poverty in America awareness month
Network accepting applications for its Associates Program
U.S. city councils call for peaceful resolution to Iraq crisis
U.S. bishops call for greater effort for refugees
New study documents religion's impact on environmentalism
INS arrests lead to lawsuit

U.S. city councils call for peaceful resolution to Iraq crisis
City Council resolutions opposing war with Iraq have been passed in over 20 cities across the U.S. and efforts are underway in dozens of other communities. The Institute for Policy Studies is working with the Education for Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC), National Priorities project, American Friends Service Committee chapters, and other grassroots groups, students, the faith-based community groups to facilitate the drafting and passing of City Council resolutions or letters opposing war with Iraq. Resolutions are pending before both the New York and Chicago city councils and have already passed in cities such as Baltimore, Oakland, and Philadelphia.

Similar resolutions can be passed in other bodies, such as student council bodies, faculty senates, unions or church boards. In addition to opposing U.S. military action against Iraq, these City Council resolutions are highlighting how taxpayers, city and state budgets, and critical social services will be affected by the costs of a war with Iraq.

Organizers hope to generate 100 city council resolutions and letters against the war by the Jaunuary State of the Union Address.

According to the effort's organizers, a resolution effort in your community will:

1) elevate public awareness of anti-war sentiment;

2) highlight the links between domestic and foreign policy concerns about the war; educate elected officials about the potential impacts on their city's budgets and citizens' concerns that rushing to war will further compromise the safety of our cities;

3) create media buzz about local impacts of war and generate national coverage of the growing city-led backlash to Bush's war;

4) deepen working relations between national and grassroots activists of the anti-war movement;

5) further the current work going on in communities of color (who are one of the strongest anti-war demographics) as well as student groups, labor, and faith-based communities. Religious groups such as the National Council of Churches, the United Methodists and Muslim organizations would be central to working with community activists in this endeavor;

6) create opportunities for elected officials who oppose war to take pro-active steps towards stopping the drive toward military action.

For more information: Contact the co-directors of the Progressive Challenge Project at IPS. Karen Dolan, 202-234-9382, ext. 228, or kdolan@igc.org; or Amy Quinn, 202-234-9382, ext. 238, a-quinn@mindspring.com.

United for Peace

Cities for peace

Washington rally against war with Iraq planned for January 18.

USCCB Statement on Iraq

US bishops' "serious questions about the use of force" with Iraq

"Let's pass a peace resolution"—from U.S. Catholic

Back to page top