Clinton to be protested on eve of caucus

Although fiercely battling Barack Obama and John Edwards in Iowa, Hillary Clinton is still seen as the nominee apparent by the mainstream media. Peace and justice activists should be terrified by the prospect of a choice between her and any of the front-running Republicans. Why? She has been hawkish in her language regarding Iran, even voting to define Iran’s official army a terrorist organization. That’s a pretext for war.

This past year, military contractors and the defense industry have selected Hillary as their darling. Perhaps mostly spurred on by the media anointment, they’ve been lining up to pour money into her pockets. According to a Huffington Post study, Senator Clinton took in $52,600, more than half of the total going to all Democrats, and a figure equaling 60 percent of the sum going to the entire GOP field. Her closest competitor for defense industry money is former Mitt Romney, who raised $32,000. So you can probably guess whose business interests she will be looking out for.

These are the primary reasons why peace activists will be visiting Hillary’s offices in Des Moines and Arlington, Virginia on the afternoon of January 2nd. We will say to the senator, and her campaign staff, that leaving U.S. military personnel in Iraq through 2013 is not acceptable. Continuing to threaten war against the sovereign nation of Iran is not acceptable. We want a new direction, as a peace and justice movement we want reconciliation, and reinvestment of our tax dollars into reconstruction of not just Baghdad and Fallujah, but of New Orleans and the Mississippi coast.

In early November, Voices for Creative Nonviolence organized two nonviolent direct actions in Des Moines, which resulted in 18 arrests. Peace activists visited the offices of Hillary and Rudy Giuliani. On January 2nd, in conjunction with other groups VCNV will be doing the same in Iowa. Our group in the D.C. area will visit Hillary’s national headquarters in Arlington requesting the senator commit to a set of promises. Groups in New York have considered a similar demonstration at Rudy’s national headquarters there, but it is unclear whether it will materialize.

We mailed the letter and list of promises to both Hillary and Barack Obama. Here are the following promises we request these candidates commit to before the peace and justice community will even consider supporting their bids for president:

* Complete withdrawal of the U.S. military forces from Iraq and Afghanistan within 100 days of assuming the office of President of the United States.