Louisville Committee to Stop the War in Iraq

Nonviolence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.
--Mohandas Gandhi

Louisville Peace Groups do not "endorse" any programs, actions or positions other than that of non-violence. We seek to be an informed, inclusive and tolerant community of individuals who act non-violently according to the dictates of conscience.

NON-VIOLENT DIRECT ACTIONS/CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IN PROTEST OF WAR, THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ (AND AFGHANISTAN), PROFITEERING/CONCESSIONING & PRE-EMPTIVE/PERPETUAL WAR POLICY

ON-GOING

BOYCOTTS

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION; DRAFT REGISTRATION REFUSAL

TAX RESISTANCE

VERBAL CONTACT CAMPAIGNS

CONNECTING ACROSS NATIONAL BOUNDARIES

NON-VIOLENCE RESOURCES

Adbuster's Direct Action, Mini-Documentary and Epiphany Spot Winners

American Friends Service Committee's Guide to Civil Disobedience

Carnegie Endowment--Peace & Conflict Resolution links.

Experiments of Gandhi: Non-violence in a Nuclear Age--FOR

Flight from Death---a film about violence as an attempt to protect our denial of death.

"My Pilgrimage to Non-Violence" Martin Luther King, Jr.

Stanford's Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project---MLK on war and peace; Topical links list of influences, actions & connections.

Non-violence as a Way of Life

Reviving Resistance: Tools for Anti-Nuclear Organizing...

Culture of Peace Resources---Psychology for Peace Activists

Program on Non-Violent Sanctions & Cultural Survival

Midnight at the Internet Cafe: Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution--- Nonviolence, Pacifism & Civil Disobedience

Yomama says

Bibliography: Non-violence, Nonviolent Direct Action & Civil Disobedience

"Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience…

Therefore [individual citizens] have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring" -- Nuremberg War Crime Tribunal, 1950

TAX RESISTANCE

Personal Non-payment & Campaign to Establish a Peace Tax

“My feeling is, well, if it’s my money I have the right to judge.”

---Rick Santorum

An Appeal to Conscience

"Dollar Dissent: Tax Resisters Chip Away at Bush's War Chest"
by Chisun Lee, Village Voice

"Your tax dollars on strike" By Ryan Beiler, Sojourners

Anti-tax Initiative---War Resisters picked up by Voice4Change

History of Tax Resistance in US

Protesting Military Spending in National Budget

How taxes are spent: National Priorities Project

Letter to the IRS re: refusal to pay a portion of taxes

Center on Conscience and War

Center for Defense Information

Civil Disobedience Index

Conscience and Peace Tax International

National Priorities Project

National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee---KY contact
National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund

One Million Taxpayers for Peace
War Resisters League

DOMESTIC GOODS BOYCOTT

BLACK SPOT CAMPAIGN

Why Boycott? Read "Hit Them Where It Hurts"

Boycotts work only if two things happen:

1) There are enough personal responses to the advertisers
to have them believe that they need to do something. So,
if you boycott, in addition to notifying the organizers, let the advertisers know what you are doing and why.

2) The companies experience a drop in their sales. This
one is harder to affect. It helps to choose a company that
makes a product you usually buy. Send a letter praising the product, including a copy of a sales receipt showing that you are a customer, and express dismay that you won't be able to buy it anymore... Then, DON'T BUY! And, tell all your friends not to buy.

---adapted from Anne Anderson, Co-Coordinator, Psychologists for Social Responsibility

Support the boycotts of the top 5 supporters of the Bush political apparatus (Kraft US Brands, Subsidiary of Phillip Morris), Exxon-Mobil, Pepsico Inc. (brands, Hardy's), United Parcel Service & Wal-Mart Stores (for more info on brands check this link---Responsible Shopper); more general boycott info at BetheCause, Boycott America and Mother Earth or all US corporations, and shop less in general. Buying less is one important step against the rampant consumerism of the public in the US and other developed countries that is fueling the corporate establishment power and control over this planet. Also consider pulling your money out of the stock market and putting it into socially responsible and green businesses (Coop America). You can also research your own boycott, say of sponsors of hate-talk radio. Adbusters has a boycott campaign and a pledge for those who are willing to think of new and ever more effective ways to vote in the marketplace. Also see "War doesn't grow on trees" site about credit cards. Action against war profiteers. US Dollar divestment campaign. Good links at Stop Spending; Make Trade Fair. For Gandhi & MLK's use of boycotts see: Gandhi's description of the foreign goods boycott (scroll 1/2 way down the page); the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

CONNECTING ACROSS NATIONAL BOUNDARIES

Another way to peace: Instead of waiting until national consciousness is heightened by manipulation and fear, raise our own awareness about oppressive, chaotic or dangerous situations outside our national boundaries and encourage the people who are struggling for peace and justice within them. Individual community members of the following organizations have been in contact with us and invite us to become familiar with their countries, particular local challenges and activities.

FORZ---Fellowship of Reconciliation Zimbabwe, co-ordinator: Akadim Chikandamina. Work includes schools for disadvantaged, program targeting crimes against children, election monitoring. New! Take action through Amnesty for protection of rights in Zimbabwe.

Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition: A note from friends in Japan for our "We want the truth Week-end."

Dear friends,

Our good friend and former Louisville residents, Dr. Arch Taylor and his wife Wanda from Clarksville IN, sent us an email informing your project of "We Want the Truth Weekend". As citizens of Hiroshima, once completely destroyed by the atomic holocaust, we know the misery of war and we not only advocate the abolition of weapons of mass destruction but also the elimination of war itself. In realistic terms, we are convinced to be able at least to "minimize" frequency of war occurrence and degree of atrocity of war.

We believed the war in Iraq was an unnecessary war and we did everything in coalition with peace loving Americans and world citizens, to change the America's bellicose foreign policy. Unfortunately, we failed. However, now we seem to be given a second chance to defeat Bush, Blair and Koizumi (Japanese prime minister). They all lied to their people in order to initiate the unnecessary and unjust war against Iraq. They should be impeached for deceiving us in order to commit the serious crime of war and killed so many people in Iraq.

As citizens of Hiroshima, we are keenly aware of the fact that the US and UK forces used radioactive uranium weapons in Iraq. The use of this weapon has been evidenced by Japanese scientists, photographers, and journalists. In fact, one of our representatives, Ms. Haruko Moritaki, just returned from her second visit to Iraq and she brought back debris which are now being investigated.

Incidentally, on August 6, 1989, I was the keynote speaker at the Louisville Hiroshima Day Observance held at Highland Presbyterian Church. It was organized by Commission on Peace and Justice, UN Association, FOR, and other church groups. I respect Louisvillians' strong commitment to peace and justice and would like to send you this short message of solidarity.

Although, we cannot be there physically, we will be there in spirit, and we pray for your great success.

In Peace, Mitsuo Okamoto, Ph.D.
Co-Director, Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons
Abolition (HANWA)

CPAU---Council for Peace and Unity, Afghanistan.