January Moratorium actions

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Ashland: Chequamegon Coalition for Peace and Justice sponsors Ashland's first Iraq Moratorium demonstration/vigil on Jan. 16, 3:30-5 pm at the Ashland Post Office, 615 Main St W. Dress warmly! Bring signs if you have them; some signs will be provided. Bring friends! Bring your own cup; hot tea will be provided. E-mail.

Dodgeville: Grassroots Citizens for Peace Monthly Vigil. Third Friday of each month, 4 p.m. in front of the Iowa County Courthouse. Join us for our monthly vigil. Witness for peace with others who hold steadfast to "a vision of a world made new." (Eleanor Roosevelt) The vigil is followed by our monthly planning meeting in which we organize public education programs, music and poetry nights and family events. Become part of the growing movement for a more just and peaceful world!*

Eau Claire: Voices for Peace Institute. Stand for an end to the Iraq Occupation. Some signs will be provided but feel free to bring your own! On Fri., Jan. 16, we will be standing on the corner of Bracket Avenue and Business US Hwy 53 (right next to Jimmy Woo's) on the third Friday each month from 4 to 6 PM. Please come and stand with us when you can, between 4pm and 6pm, for as long as you can. If at all possible, bring a sign (small or large). Show Eau Claire that we want to bring an end to this war. Hope to see you there! An idea for you all to consider, whether you are able to come on teh third Friday or not, consider calling your federal Wisconsin Senators and your Representative and letting them know you want them to bring our troops home from Iraq! E-mail. *

Green Bay: The Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Cross will host an ecumenical prayer service for peace in Iraq in their chapel at 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 16. The chapel is located at 3110 Nicolet Dr., Green Bay. For more information, please contact Sr. Maria Drzewiecki, 920-468-1828, or E-mail.

Hayward: Peace North will sponsor an Iraq Moratorium vigil for peace on Friday, Jan. 16, from 4-6 pm on the corner of Highway 27 & 63 in downtown Hayward. Bring a sign and a friend and some warm clothes! Good parking. Great people.

Janesville: (Updated!) Rock Valley Fellowship of Reconciliation continues to hold an Iraq Moratorium vigil which is held on the Third Friday of every month. Meet at 4 p.m. on the corner of Blackbridge Rd. and Milton Ave. in Janesville with signs, including "Honk for Peace" signs. We are also offering an alternative because of the cold weather and encouraging people to do Mall Walking at the Janesville Mall wearing peace t-shirts. Email us for more info. *

LaCrosse: Iraq Moratorium Vigil-- 3rd Friday of every month. Veterans for Peace, & other concerned patriots that support the US Constitution. Cass Street bridge, 5 to 6 p.m. Contact Duane Teschler or Cathy*

Madison: Saturday, Jan. 17, 11 am - noon. Monthly Peace Rally at the Mall, sponsored by Madison Area Peace Coalition.. This is an informational picket - held the third Saturday of each month - that calls for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. Bring signs or borrow the ones provided. This is an exciting and empowering event that is appropriate for all ages. Help us count the “Honks for Peace!” East Towne Mall this month, West Towne on Saturday, Feb. 21. Email Helena White at hspw@att.net

Manitowoc. Peace Vigil. Lakeshore Peacemakers hold a weekly vigil for peace, and on the Third Friday for the Iraq Moratorium, 4:30-5 p.m. , 8th Street & Maritime Drive. Contact: huntel@comcast.net *

Milwaukee: Peace Action-Wisconsin and Milwaukee Coalition for a Just Peace sponsor a rush hour vigil in the heart of downtown, from 5 to 6 p.m. on the Third Friday of every month at Water Street and Wisconsin Avenue. There are signs, flags, banners, music, pets for peace, leafleting, and interaction with drivers and pedestrians. Join us. Peace Action 414/964-5158 or email IraqMoratorium@wi.rr.com*

Rice Lake: The People for Peace will be standing at the corner of Knapp and Main St's on the north end of downtown Rice Lake on Friday, Jan. 16, from 4-6 pm. This is our sixth Iraq Moratorium event. Please make a small, or large, sign if you can, and BRING SOMEONE ELSE WITH YOU! Join us! E-mail.

Ripon: Peace Vigil every Third Friday on the square. 4:30-5:30pm. Bring yourself! E-mail.*

Superior: Anyone who wishes to brave the cold this Friday for the monthly Iraq Moratorium vigil should meet at 4 PM at the corner of Broadway and Hammond in Superior, by the Red Mug Coffee House. Grandmothers for Peace initially decided to cancel their vigil due to temperature concerns, but later agreed that those who feel hearty enough are welcome to hold vigil as per the original plan. A photographer from the Superior Telegram may come, so it would be good to have some folks there. We may decide to shorten the time we are outside, and meet inside the coffee shop to warm up after.See you there! E-mail.

Viroqua: 1/16 Friday, 12 noon weekly peace vigil at the Post Office on Jefferson St. Come for all or part of the hour, standing witness to the human and economic costs of the War. Info :amz1357@frontiernet.net *

Waupaca: Friday 5 – 6 pm monthly vigil for peace. Downtown, on the town square. 3rd Friday of each month, in support of the Iraq Moratorium. All welcome. For more information, contact People for Peace at bonni@waupacaonline.net or see http://wpfpmeetings.blogspot.com/

Woodruff: 12 noon - 1 pm . Silent Prayer Vigil for Peace, Holy Family Church, in the small chapel. Contact: Sr. Ann Wittman at crossings@holycrosssisters.org . All are welcome to join in this weekly witness for peace.

Reports from the Field: December actions

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Include photos or video if available.

LaCrosse


Here is a picture of "SANTA" working to bring PEACE for CHRISTmas. This is the 3rd Friday of December, 2008, at the foot of the Cass Street Bridge at approximately 5:30pm. People of LaCrosse are supporting the WAR MORATORIUM and here is a perfect example of SANTA braving near zero tempuratures and 30 inches of snow to get the message across to the masses and our elected officials.

Menomonie, WI

Ten people attended the first Iraq Moratorium in Menomonie. We stood in the Veterans Memorial in downtown Menomonie, greeting the passing cars, and receiving waves and friendly honking from many. We also received the expected shouts from some passing cars that we should support our troops, which of course is exactly what we believe we were doing. Phone calls were made from the site to our representatives, and one of us took a spectacular fall on the ice, adding to the festivities. We are working on having a banner printed for January, and hope to have better attendance and organization for the next event.

Rice Lake

Iraq Moratorium Standing for Peace. The People for Peace in Rice Lake Wisconsin fielded a dozen hardy anti-war enthusiasts this afternoon for the monthly observance of Iraq Moratorium Day. We waved at motorists and called our Congressman and Senators asking them to start spending our tax dollars on health care and not warfare. We mourned the loss of life in Iraq from the several thousand coalition military personnel, to the likely hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians. We prayed for peace this holy season, and we promised to be back in January.

Madison

After discovering that a Wisconsin manufacturer, Presto, makes weapons as well as Salad Shooters and Fry Daddies, two staffers from the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice , went on an anti-shopping spree for Moratorium day. They visited stores selling Presto products and followed these directions, using a flyer available here: 1) pick up box to admire Presto “Fry Daddy” or “Salad Shooter”, 2) replace box on shelf, with flyer discreetly tucked underneath, 3) repeat. For the whole report on Presto's involvement in producing 40mm cannon rounds, see Steve Burns's story here. That's Burns pictured with the flyers he designed.

Pickings were slim at Walgreen's, their first stop, as you'll see in the video, but he did find one Presto product and took appropriate action. Big box stores are probably better targets.

Milwaukee





Literally a foot of snow fell on Milwaukee between midnight and noon on Iraq Moratorium 16, prompting some discussion about whether to cancel the usual 5 p.m. downtown vigil. But we learned from last year's Good Friday/Iraq Moratorium snowstorm that you can't stop this event even if you wanted to.

Not only did 18 people of all ages, from college students to seniors, make it, but some of the campus crowd even showed up with hot chocolate, as you'll see at right. There's talk of a barbecue grill and tailgate party next month. (Maybe Cheeseheads?) This wasn't the coldest vigil we've had, with temperatures in the 20s. and although traffic was much sparser than normal, drivers -- including a city Dept. of Public Works truck with a plow and a parking meter checker -- leaned on their horns to support the cause. The effort was a joint production of Peace Action-Wisconsin, UW-Miulwaukee Students for a Democratic Society, Iraq Moratorium-Wisconsin and Milwaukee Coalition for a Just Peace.

LaCrosse organizing meeting Dec. 29

LaCrosse Vets for Peace & Iraq Moratorium organizers are hosting a town hall meeting at the Three Rivers/Ho-Chunk Lodge on Monday, Dec. 29, from 7 to 9 pm.

It will include discussion of troop withdrawal from Iraq/Afghanistan, a Health care not Warfare campaign, and other topics. Steve Carlson, an Iraq Moratorium-Wisconsin oganizer from Trego, will address the gathering.

Email for more info.

UFPJ elects Wis. organizer to Steering Committee

Steve Carlson of Trego, in Washburn County, has been elected to the national steering committee of the nation’s largest antiwar coalition, United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ).

Carlson was elected by delegates to UFPJ’s National Assembly in Chicago on Sunday as a representative of the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, a statewide organization with 165 member groups.

Carlson, social worker and educator who is a member of Peace North in northwestern Wisconsin, has a long history of social justice and peace activism.

As a member of the national Iraq Moratorium core committee, he has organized events on the third Friday or every month in a number of northern Wisconsin communities to call for an end to the war, and is currently working to expand the movement into new areas in western Wisconsin under a “health care not warfare” theme.

Last fall, he worked with Wisconsin Citizen Action to help organize health care referendums in a number of counties and municipalities, all of which passed overwhelmingly.

Earlier, Carlson had worked as an advocate for the Ho-Chunk nation, and an instructor at the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Community College on the Lac Courte Oreilles reservation. He also has worked with disabled people and the elderly.

At its weekend National Assembly, hundreds of UFPJ delegates laid out an action plan for 2009, a campaign of organizing and protest tentatively entitled "Yes We Can!...End the War!", leading up to a major mobilization in New York on the April 4 anniversaries of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s antiwar speech at Riverside Church in 1967 and his assassination the following year.

Carlson follows Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice staff member Steve Burns of Madison, who served on the UFPJ Steering Committee from June 2007 to December 2008. The UFPJ Steering Committee includes representatives of local, state, regional and national organizations working on peace and justice issues.