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Dear CODEPINKer:
What a spring! From the beginning of April through
the Summer Solstice, CODEPINK local groups and
the national team have been walking our talk through
several campaigns: fighting war profiteers and
oil corporations; boycotting Ahava as part of
the international BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions
of Israel) campaign; pressuring Congress to vote
no on war funding; "arresting" Rove and other
war criminals; standing with our immigrant rights
allies in Arizona; mixing politics with pie-baking,
and more. Here's a summary of the past three wildly
busy, heart-breaking but also joyous, remarkable
months:
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April
 Dedicated
CODEPINKer Lisa Savage, Maine pinkers and their
many peace and justice allies had a victory in Maine
when the Portland, ME City Council voted on April
5 to ask for war spending to be redirected toward
human needs. The effort was part of a statewide
campaign called Bring
Our War $$ Home. News of this victory
invigorated those who oppose war funding. On a national
conference call later in the spring, Congressman
Jim McGovern who authored legislation (HR 6015;
vote still pending) about an exit strategy out of
Afghanistan, said, "Maine leads the way!" (Photo
at right: Lisa and her mom join CODEPINK for our
cookbook launch in San Francisco)
On April 15, tax day, tea party actions in DC gave
CODEPINKers an opportunity to do a survey
of tea party members and to have interesting conversations
with those on the right end of the political spectrum.
As Medea Benjamin told the Washington Post, "We
found we were both against the bailout… against
government subsidies to corporations -- the Chrysler/GM
takeover."
A week later, the DC City Council abandoned
plans to give war profiteer Northrop
Grumman which makes drones and other weapons a tax
incentive to set up in their city - a victory
for CODEPINK and the local CENTS coalition!
Also on Tax Day, a vote by the Student Association
Senate of UC Berkeley to divest from US weapons
manufacturers, General Electric and United Technologies,
involved in the Israeli assault on Gaza,
drew huge crowds and worldwide media attention.
Rae's
account quoted many eloquent voices against
complicity with Israeli war crimes and for peace
with justice in the Middle East. While the
bill was vetoed and not successfully overturned,
this was a huge movement building moment.
 Our
Stolen Beauty campaign held protests in Austin,
TX, NYC,
and Amsterdam against the Israeli company Ahava,
which illegally uses mud and minerals from the Occupied
West Bank in its cosmetic products. NYC coordinator
Nancy Kricorian, who also visited Palestine this
spring, explained
the reasoning behind the BDS movement: "We can't
wait for our U.S. government to lead on this," said
Kricorian. "It's up to people around the world
to take the profit out of the occupation."
There is now a lawsuit against the beauty megachain
Sephora that carries Ahava in Europe.
On April 20, an oil rig named "Deepwater Horizon"
exploded off the Coast of Mexico, instantly killing
11 workers, injuring 17, and exposing the violations
of safety precautions by oil giant BP. A gusher
of undersea oil spews 40,000 or more barrels of
oil A DAY into the ocean and onto the fragile, beautiful
bayous and beaches of 4 states and has yet to be
contained. CODEPINK co-founder Diane Wilson, South
Texas shrimper and author of An
Unreasonable Woman turned
to her pink sisters and we sprang into action over
the next two months. Our webmistress Farida set
up a new website www.codepink.org/bp,
and codepinkers pledged to boycott BP and coordinate
actions
to hold BP accountable and end offshore oil drilling
for good.
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May
Mother's Day, started by our foremother Julia Ward
Howe with her Proclamation has become a full weekend
for CODEPINKers to gather in the original spirit
of the day. On Saturday, May 8, an action in DC
shut down the military arms fair on the Mall for
the afternoon; comedienne Roseanne Barr helped celebrate
in Lafayette Park with her performance of One Taxpaying
Mother's  Manifesto.
Around the country, CODEPINKers had local pie parties
as a way to get ready for the release of the CODEPINK
cookbook, Peace
Never Tasted So Sweet: Deliciously Sweet and Savory
Pie Recipes from Women Around the World,
which is now for sale on our website for $25 - buy
your copy and start baking up change!
The Real Change website highlighted Jodie Evans
and other pinkers in a heart-warming
article.
Congrats to Lisa Savage, coordinator of CODEPINK
Maine, for winning the 2010
Peaceworker award at the 19th Annual
Peace Supper put on by Peace Action Maine, and to
Brenda Hillman, whose book of poems prominently
featuring CODEPINK, Practical Water, was awarded
a Los
Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry.
Also in May, retired diplomat and very active CODEPINKer
Ann Wright won the Montana
PeaceSeekers Award, which says in part,
"for traveling across Montana from May 11-16, 2010
to inspire Montanans by your appearances to move
to higher levels of peacemaking action and resistance
to unjust wars."?
All spring long, CODEPINKers took part in actions
against Congress funding war and Karl Rove.
Detroit local coordinator Joellen Gilchrist organized
folks to turn out for Brown
Bag Lunch Vigils and put pressure on
Congressman Gary Peters. Joellen reported to Local
Spotlight: "Gary Peters and his aides understand
a room full of people, elbow-to-elbow, all opposed
to this war."
Several national email alerts were sent out asking
members to call Congress with a strong message of
NO to war funding; YES to exit strategy. Janet Weil,
former national staffer but forever a codepinker,
also organized a visit to Congressman George Miller,
chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee,
who became one of nearly 100 co-sponsors of HR 5015.
Janet represents CODEPINK to the United for Peace
and Justice Afghanistan working group and has been
re-working the Afghanistan
webpage with Dana and Farida. If
you would like to be on the biweekly conference
calls on the US war in Afghanistan and how to end
it (Berlin, Germany codepinker Elsa Rassbach also
participates and gives a European perspective),
or you have suggestions for this campaign, please
email Janet at janet.weil13@gmail.com.
 Karl
Rove Arrested! Rove's national tour for
his ironically titled Courage and Consequence
was pinked all along the way, from Alabama to California.
"Bush's Brain" has been a target of CODEPINK birddogging
and truth-telling since November 2002, as you can
see in this excellent Arrest
Rove Timeline.
CODEPINK Arizona has been active on the issue of
immigrants rights for years. When the racist bill,
SB 1070, aka "Papers Please" was voted into law,
Phoenix CODEPINK took
action and made the news!
Nancy Mancias has been doing great, steady organizing
on our Ground the Drones campaign, in alliance with
Nevada Desert Experience. On May 18-19, a newly
reinvigorated San Diego CODEPINK group with other
peace and justice allies did
actions at the home and business of the
CEO of General Atomics, maker of the Predator and
Reaper drones.
On May 24, Crude
Awakening happened at BP's headquarters
in Houston, Texas, led by Diane Wilson and her oily
friends. Texas and national PINKs got nude to expose
the naked truth of BP's crimes against the earth.
As the tragedy of the BP oil gusher deepens and
the contamination spreads, this disaster stays in
the news and on our hearts.
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June
The Gaza Flotilla, which included Ann Wright, was
attacked by the Israeli navy in a night raid, and
nine brave activists, one a 19-year-old Turkish-American,
were murdered. This outrage ignited protests around
the world, including CODEPINK protests in front
of Israeli consulates in the US. City resolutions
in SF and Richmond condemning the attack were proposed.
CODEPINK generated nearly 10,200
signatures on our petition to Obama. The terrible
assault on humanitarian aid workers was yet another
turning point in international public opinion towards
Israel's increasingly brutal occupation policies.
Ann Wright is on
the road on a speaking tour about the
siege on Gaza all summer long.
  On
June 19, 60 days since the oil spill, we coordinated
a day of action to hold BP accountable. We
protested
at a BP-owned station in LA,
organized the Mermaid
Survivor of the BP Oilspill Contingent
in the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, brought the
boycott into the World
Nude Bike Day ride in Madison, and many
more!
June 19-26 we joined in the massive people's movements
gathering in Detroit for the US Social Forum.
Live
from Motor City we commemorated the death of the
Hummer by burying a Hummer (goodbye gas-guzzling
war machine, hello renewable energy!) at the world-famous
Heidelberg
Project. Watch
the video of our Hummer Burial
being transformed into a giant flower pot and read
Medea's
piece on the long-awaited, gas-guzzler funeral.
Read Rae's
blog on the full week of workshops, assemblies,
and actions at the Social Forum.
With all the heartbreak, it's important to remember
and celebrate our victories: In Philadelphia, longtime
coordinator Debi Richter reported: "I'm delighted
to share that we have just learned that after an
18 month protest campaign co-led by CFPA, the Army
has decided to close
the Army Experience Center at Franklin
Mills Mall in Northeast Philadelphia.
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Looking Up: War Is Over (if you want it)
(An uplifting report inspired by article from WarIsACrime.org)
The tide is turning against war. ?
We've permanently shut
down the Army Experience Center!?
We've kept student information from recruiters in
Maryland!
The Hummer is dead!  ?
The war escalation supplemental funding has stalled!?
The attack on Kandahar has been stalled!?
The majority
of the public is on our side!
Dozens
of reports and experts are on our side!?
The economic and political crises
are on our side!?
Torture protesters
have been acquitted!?
The Israeli blockade of Gaza is breaking with international
pressure!?
General McChrystal is out the door!?
A congresswoman,
under tough pressure from us (including Maine CODEPINK
actions at her fundraiser), told Petraeus he's making
us less safe!?
A reporter asked
the President when we'll get out "and spare us the
Bushisms".?
In an unprecedented act, a congressman asked us
to lobby his colleagues against
war funding!?
80 congressional candidates
are opposing war funding!
The International Criminal Court has defied the
U.S.
and put aggression on the list of offenses to be
tried!?
Brown Bag Lunch Vigils are growing!?
Resolutions against war spending are being passed
by political parties, towns, cities, and labor councils.?
Cities are putting Cost of War counters on city
hall.?
The peace movement (this cannot be assumed) is turning
against the war escalation funding!?
Nationalistic competitive spectators can turn to
soccer instead
of war!
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Do You Want to Be Part of This Movement When War
Ends for Good?
Then join us in action!
- 4th of July
Be Patriotic and Boycott BP!
Bring the "Bring our War $$$ Home" message to
your town's parades and fireworks by baking
a pie and highlighting the federal war budget.
After all, activism is as American as Apple
Pie!
- Brown
Bag Lunch Vigils?
Everywhere, third Wednesday of every month
- National
Conference to Bring the Troops Home Now?
Albany, July 23-25
- Think
Outside the Bomb Disarmament Summer
July 30-August 9
New Mexico
CODEPINK is a cosponsor of this great action
camp. The organizers are looking for more
workshop facilitators and would love someone
to do a CODEPINK workshop on our creative direct
action tactics and Congressional disruptions!
Anyone interested?
- Localize
This!
Backbone Campaign's grassroots action camp
August 8-14
Vashon Islands (Pacific Northwest)
CODEPINK is a cosponsor, open for more workshop
proposals
- CODEPINK Convergences
We're looking into a Western regional convergence
in Northern California and an Eastern regional
convergence in the Mid-Atlantic. Elizabeth
and Ashley are planning a Southern convergence
at The Farm in Summertown, Tennessee for early
October. Can you help us plan a convergence?
Let Rae know if so!
Finally, we'll close with this quote from Renay
Davis, co-coordinator with Nancy Mancias of
the San Francisco local: "We held our monthly
march for Peace on the Golden Gate Bridge today
[June 13]. We were only five marchers, but the
weather was beautiful, the response was great
and we met and posed for photos with a family
from Morocco and Sudan. The family of four children
and their parents were thrilled to see a group
of Peace people carrying signs proclaiming 'Free
Gaza'; 'End the Occupation'; 'Peace' & 'Stop
Funding All War'"
Beating swords into plowshares, Hummers into
flowerpots,
Rae, Janet, Valerie,
and the CODEPINK Team
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The Roseroots Report is a bimonthly bouquet of
CODEPINK local actions and news. Why
roseroots? Because we're cultivating a vibrant
pink flowering garden with a hearty stemming history
and strong roots, not just little "grassroots."
The 1912 Lawrence textile workers on strike had
it right when they said, "We Want Bread, But Roses
Too!" Our pink hearts are moved by CODEPINK's
approach to peacemaking: we aren't just about
getting out a talking point or ensuring a basic
right, we're about bringing our money back to
our beloved resources - schools, health, parks,
libraries and more, disarming our defenses, opening
our minds to new narratives and possibilities,
and creating beauty. www.codepink.org
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