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CODEPINK Rocked the Parties by Bringing the Peace Message to the Election Race 2008

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As John McCain made his acceptance speech at the RNC, two CODEPINK women-Liz Hourican and Nancy Mancias interrupted his speech by calling for an end to the occupation of Iraq. The previous evening, CODEPINK co-founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans were dragged from the Republican National Convention after disrupting Sarah Palin's speech.

Both CODEPINK teams were shocked by the magnitude of sheer, raw, hatred channeled in their direction. Even before they stood up to say "Palin is Not a Woman's Choice", they felt great animosity emanating from the hall; they felt it in the delegates' chanting of "Drill, Baby Drill" from the floor, and in the vicious rhetoric of the speeches on stage. And of course all of us in St. Paul felt the threat of brutality on the streets as we faced row upon row of police in full riot gear and watched police raid non-violent peace gatherings. Four
CODEPINKers were arrested at the RNC, as were hundreds of other protestors, many of whom are still in custody (or whose belongings have not been returned upon release.)

Please support those arrested by contacting the Mayor of Minneapolis, R.T. Rybak, by phone (612-673-2100) or email (c/o helen.simrill@ci.minneoplis.mnuf) and the Mayor of St. Paul, Chris Coleman (651-266-8510) to demand the release of detained protestors and their belongings, and the dismissal of all charges against peaceful protesters.

The Republican Party may tout itself as "Pro-Life", but it clearly promotes violence against both people and nature. How can you call yourself Pro-Life when you destroy our natural resources and send our children off to die in an unjust, illegal war? How can you speak about being Pro-Life when a US-led air strike killed dozens of innocent children in Afghanistan during the week of the conventions?

All over the RNC, we worked to reclaim the phrase "pro-life" and bring our message of peace—Medea Benjamin even disrupted a Phyllis Schlafly "Life of the Party" talk with a sign reading "Be Pro-Life--Stop War!"