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Dear Wage Peace Campaign supporter,

Over the past few days, I’ve been reading through the more than 1,000 ideas and suggestions our survey generated for the future of the Wage Peace Campaign. It’s encouraging to see how many people have gained hope and a sense of community and accomplishment from taking part in the Wage Peace Campaign.  It’s great to see that many of you look forward to our emails, particularly looking for ways to contact Congress and activities you can do locally.

We’re committed to selecting and supporting highly effective actions that will help set a course of peace in Iraq. In a coming email, I will share some of the ideas we received in the survey so that you can tell us which ones you support most.

In the meantime, there’s much to do to keep up the call for peace. 

• The Senate is about to vote on “emergency” funding bill to continue Iraq War.
• AFSC is sponsoring an advocacy day on May 12.
• Don’t forget “Silence of the Dead, Voices of the Living,” a four-day event sponsored by AFSC, military families, veterans, and others who call on Congress to bring the troops home. If you can, please join us on the National Mall in Washington, DC, May 11-14. 
  (More information: www.afsc.org/eyes.)

Momentum is building for a change in U.S. policy toward Iraq.

The House voted last month to restrict negotiations for permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq. This month, a key Senate committee cut out funding for long-term military construction projects that might lead to permanent bases. Now we need the full Senate to declare that it is the policy of the U.S. not to establish permanent military bases in Iraq.

Can you help us flood the Senate with emails and then telephone calls urging the full Senate to act?

Working with AFSC’s Wage Peace Campaign and other organizations, the Friends Committee on National Legislation (a Quaker lobby organization) has set up a simple way to send an email to your senators’ offices and has organized a toll-free number to Congress.

Here’s what you can do:

1. Please email your senators.
   Ask them to attach an amendment to the supplemental funding bill that clearly says that all U.S. military forces and bases will be withdrawn from Iraq and the U.S. will initiate the withdrawal this year 
   http://www.fcnl.org/landing/iraqcall.htm
   
   
2. Then call your senator today, Monday, April 24.  We expect the Senate to vote on the Iraq policy amendment to the funding bill tomorrow. Call the Capitol Switchboard toll-free at 800-620-4394 and ask for your senators by name. Find tips or look up your senators’ phone numbers at
   http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/apr24_call.htm
   
   Script for your call
   
• My name is [NAME], and I live in [CITY, STATE]. Thanks for taking my call.
• I understand the full Senate will consider the president's emergency supplemental request for additional funding for the war in Iraq very soon.
• I would like the Senator to sponsor an amendment to this legislation stating "it is policy of the U.S. to establish no permanent military bases in Iraq." Can you tell me if that will be possible?
  
  
3. Please forward this email to 10 friends who are upset about the direction of U.S. policy in Iraq. Encourage them to email and call their senators as well.

This action is sponsored by AFSC, FCNL, and several other peace and justice groups.

Eyes Wide Open Advocacy Day

A Witness to the Human Cost of War

Friday, May 12, 2006
10am - 4pm
Washington, DC

AFSC and FCNL are also sponsoring an advocacy-day training and are encouraging people to share their experiences of the human cost of war with their Congressional offices. If you are planning on coming to Washington, DC, for “Silence of the Dead, Voices of the Living,” please consider scheduling meetings with your Congressional offices for Friday, May 12 afternoon. Help us share with Congress our witness and our grief about the human cost of war in Iraq.

We have simple steps to participate in the advocacy day, tips on scheduling a meeting with Congress, and a sign-up form on our web site. Visit
http://www.afsc.org/eyes/advocacy-day.htm.

And, if you haven’t already, please invite your Congresspeople to visit the Eyes Wide Open exhibition when it’s on the National Mall. 
Invite your Congresspeople >

More about May events in Washington, DC > 

National March in New York City

Saturday, April 29

Assemble: 20th St. (east of Broadway): 10:30 a.m. - Noon
March: Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Festival 1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Join other Wage Peace Campaign supporters and the United for Peace and Justice coalition in marching for peace, justice, and democracy. For more information, visit
http://www.april29.org/.

Peace,

Peter Lems,
For the Wage Peace Campaign