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OCTOBER15

OCTOBER15
I want to help declare
A Day Without the Pentagon
BULLIES on the PLAYGROUND
A DAY BULLIES on thePLAYGROUND
NAME

ADDRESS hen President Clinton responded to the school massacre at denied entrance to the Marines. He had wanted to go to be first in line
CITY STATE ZIP W Columbine High School, he told a grief-stricken nation, “We must to fight in Yugoslavia and, as he told a classmate, “shoot everyone.”
PHONE FAX do more to reach out to our children and teach them to resolve their con- National policies that favor militarized solutions ignore

WITHOUT
EMAIL flicts with words, not weapons.” At the same time, cruise human and environmental needs and fuel a deadly spiral of violence.
❐ I want to participate in an action this October. missiles and B-2 bombers were demolishing Yugoslavia. The Commander Persistent poverty and homelessness, the destruction of the social
Let me know about actions in my area. in Chief should heed his own advice: Responding to conflict with safety net, a growing gap between rich and poor, crumbling public
❐ My group is interested in organizing a regional action, weapons not words spawns more killing. NATO's “humanitarian education, and media glorification of violence work together to
please contact me.
intervention” did not build peace, it turned a human rights disaster create the conditions for violence.
❐ I can't commit now, but want to know more about THE

PENTAGON
A Day Without the Pentagon. into a catastrophe! Regular military interventions and increased military spending make
❐ Please send the following materials: Do you think that a schoolyard killing and bombing another violence seem like the most legitimate way to resolve conflicts. When
“Basic Brochure” country are not connected? The Washington Post reported that five days the government acts like an irresponsible bully, how do we expect
“5 Deadly Myths About the Military”
before the Columbine shooting, one of the two students responsible was everyone else to act?
“Arsenal Against Democracy”
“Battered by the Pentagon: How Militarism Equals
Violence Against Women”
“Violence in Our Communities Fueled by the Pentagon” Bullies Around the World:
“Corporate Welfare” ■ The United States refused to sign the treaty banning ■ U.S. artillery tests on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques
“15 Ways to Work for Peace" (mosquito leaflet) landmines that 137 nations have signed and in Panama have created environmental hazards and
“Superpower/Superpolluter – The Pentagon’s Assault
■ The United States Senate rejected the Comprehensive Test harmed many communities
on the Global Environment”
All $15/100 (Postage paid) Ban Treaty ■ The U.S. is responsible for nearly half of all arms sales

Return to: ■ The United States holds 12,000 nuclear weapons, worldwide, enriching multinational corporations and fueling
WAR R E S I S T E R S L E A G U E threatening the world with extinction regional conflicts
Express Your Dissent
339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 ■ NATO bomb and missiles attacks on Yugoslavia disrupted
On October 15 in communities across the United States, ■ The Clinton Administration wants to deploy a Star Wars
(212) 228-0450 fax: (212) 228-6193 people will organize against military planners. defense system, despite treaty obligations that prohibit its nonviolent efforts at social change, killed 500 fleeing
(800) 975-9688 development refugees, and failed to produce a transition to democracy in
(YouthPeace and A Day Without the Pentagon) Increase Your Knowledge
which respect for ethnic diversity could be established
Learn more about the impact of militarism on our lives. ■ U.S. and British bombers continue to attack Iraq on a
email: wrl@igc.org web site: www.nonviolence.org/wrl
regular basis ■ The United States recently passed the mark of 2 million
Local Contact: Increase Your Skills
people in prison, a higher incarceration rate than has ever
Organize a training for activists in your community. ■ U.S. cruise missile attacks on Afghanistan and Sudan violated

BREAK the CYCLEof VIOLENCE


been reached by any nation in world history
Make the Connections international law, destroying a pharmaceutical plant in the
Sudanese capital that had no military function ■ Congress is considering billions in military aid to Columbia
Organize a forum in your community about the links between
militarism and other social problems like poverty, corporate welfare,
The October actions for A Day Without the Pentagon are community violence, environmental destruction.
organized in cooperation with the Global Network Against
Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space and the
Newport Peace Festival in Rhode Island.
WRL has many good resources and can offer nonviolence
training, strategic planning, and basic organizing skills. BREAK the CYCLE of VIOLENCE
WAR is the ENEMY.
What You Plan for is What You Get. Dream boldly and take risks for a better world or the century just
Breaking the
Military Addiction
The United States is addicted to the military. In a world
The United States is addicted to militarism – an addiction established This year, we will focus on military strategy and the preparation for begun will be as bloody as the one we just ended. Social change free of serious military threats, Congress and the
President can’t stop giving more and more to the
during the Cold War and getting worse. A Day Without war. Across the country, people are planning the next war right now. They begins with a vision and becomes reality when people work together for
Pentagon. Think about what you could do with
the Pentagon began in 1997 to break this addition. Pentagon are generals and politicians, military contractors and lobbyists, teachers a common purpose. $1.7 billion the Pentagon spends every day: build
spending continues at Cold War-levels, despite the collapse of the Soviet and military recruiters. They plan war strategies, design weapons, We can create the world we want. But the money and political will 200 new elementary schools, house 136,000 homeless
Union. Today, more than 10 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, pressure Congress to give more to the Pentagon and manipulate public to do it is trapped by the addiction to militarism. Overturning the Pentagon people, provide Pell grants to one million college
students, shelter and counsel 56,000 battered women.
the United States is embarking on a new arms buildup. sentiment to perceive threats that are more fictional than real. All is a first step toward building a world of justice and peace.
So why are they obsessed with building more bombs
We have protested in local communities, at the Pentagon and of these people are working together to produce the next war, and We can change the priorities of this country by refusing to fund and guns?
against military recruiters in our schools and communities. We will they'll make one if we don't stop them now. During the weekend of the war machine. We can feed the hungry; house the homeless; provide Just as 12-step traditions have helped millions of
continue to protest until we break the addiction, and this nation's October 14-16, there will be actions across the country to protest the quality health care, education and job training for everyone; repair the alcoholics and drug addicts stay clean and sober
one-day-at-a-time, we need to break America’s
priorities reflect the needs of the world's people and the values of military planners. environment and mass transit.
addiction to the military.
genuine democracy. War is the enemy of humanity. It is a violation of human rights and We can change the culture of violence by refusing to mimic the war
We need A Day Without the Pentagon
We face a new set of challenges: “cruise missile humanitarian- relies increasingly on attacks on civilians. The time has come to abolish war! machine. The next two decades present an unprecedented opportunity to as a first step toward real security.
ism,” militarization of space, increased Pentagon spending, military Imagine a world where problems are solved without weapons, where abolish the institution of war but we must act now to eliminate militarism,
aid to Colombia, and military contractors processing welfare violence is discouraged, not glorified, where you don't have to join the its wasteful use of resources and the violence it supports.

OCTOBER1 5
benefits and building prisons! The US military does more environ- military or work for a weapons maker to get a job. Imagine a world free We can create a better world through the
mental damage than any other institution. And US military policies of racism, sexism, human exploitation and environmental destruction. power of nonviolence.
defend corporate interests, supporting unfair trade relationships, not

We can create a better world through the


human rights. These challenges convince us more firmly than ever
that war and the preparation for war is a failed policy. Violence

POWER of NONVIOLENCE
creates more problems than it solves, and there are more effective
ways to resolve conflicts and protect human rights.

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