U.S. Citizens for Peace & Justice - Rome Italy anti-war demonstration in Rome

Past Events


Solidarity with Bradley Manning
December 17, 2011

No to "war as usual"
March 19, 2010

Winter Soldier Europe
March 14, 2009

Palestinian Flags Flutter
Alongside Peace Banners

January 17, 2009

Close Guantanamo Now!
January 17, 1009

10-Day Vigil for Gaza
January 8-18, 2009

Supporting La'Onf
October 29, 2008

Free the Cuban 5
Sept 13, 2008

Cheney in Chains
Sept 8, 2008

No Bush, No War
June 11, 2008

May Day ILWU Solidarity Action
May 1, 2008

War Tax Day
April 15, 2008

World Social Forum Global Day of Action
Jan 26, 2008

Shut Down Guantánamo Now!
Jan 11, 2008

No U.S. Military Base in Vicenza
Dec 15, 2007

Meeting Iranian Artists
Dec 05, 2007

End the War in Iraq, No War on Iran
Oct 27, 2007

Report on Final Days of No Dal Molin Festival in Vicenza, Italy
Sept 16, 2007

Camping for Peace in Vicenza, Italy
Sept 12, 2007

Impeach Them Both +
Judiciary Fax Blast

July 23, 2007

I-M-P-E-A-C-H !
April 28, 2007

4th Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq
March 20, 2007

No Dal Molin, Vicenza, Italy
Feb 17, 2007

Congress: Act Now to End the War
Jan 27, 2007

No Military Bases, Vicenza, Italy
Dec 2, 2006

No War, No Cluster Bombs
Sept 23, 2006

Protest Calling for Cease-fire in Lebanon
July 26, 2006

Military Spending
Bean Poll

July 18, 2006

Stop the Escalation
in the Middle East

July 17, 2006

Refusing to Kill
July 06, 2006

Shailja Patel:
Poetry in Times
of War

July 05, 2006

Troops Home Fast
July 04, 2006

Italian Vote on
Military Missions

June 27, 2006

Peace Parade
June 02, 2006

Michael Uhl of
Veterans for Peace

April 29, 2006

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Hidden in Plain Sight

April 26, 2006

War Tax Day
April 15, 2006

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Hotel Palestine: Killing the Witness

April 12, 2006

National Anti-war Protest in Rome
March 18, 2006

Soldiers Against War
March 18, 2006

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Aristide and the Endless Revolution

March 15, 2006

Women (and men!) Say No To War
March 8, 2006

An Eyewitness Account of Post Katrina New Orleans
March 2, 2006

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Life and Debt

February 09, 2006

Vote to Renew Italian Mission in Iraq
February 09, 2006

Cindy Sheehan
February 06, 2006

NBC Today
Show Blitz

February 06, 2006

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
The Revolution Will
Not Be Televised

January 26, 2006

Cindy Sheehan
In Rome

January 18, 2006

Crimes & Lies:
with Dave Lindorff
and Maurizio Torrealta

January 13, 2006

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Peace Propaganda and
the Promised Land

January 12, 2006

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
The Oil Factor

December 15, 2005

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Plan Colombia

December 01, 2005

Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre
November 30, 2005

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Wal-Mart

November 17, 2005

Protest at U.S. Embassy: White Phosphorus in Fallujah
November 14, 2005

Control Arms Petition
at Piazza Chiesa Nuova

November 12, 2005

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Invisible Ballots

November 10, 2005

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
The Corporation

October 27, 2005

Movie Night:
Viva Zapatero

October 25, 2005

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Hidden Wars of
Desert Storm

October 13, 2005

Anti-war rally
at U.S. Embassy

Sept 24, 2005

USC4P&J Social
at the Beehive

June 22, 2005

Die-In with
Articolo 11
at Palazzo Chigi

June 21, 2005

Collecting Photos
with Control Arms

June 18, 2005

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Unconstitutional

June 16, 2005

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Outfoxed

June 09, 2005

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Weapons of
Mass Deception

May 19, 2005

Vigil at Palazzo Chigi with Articolo 11
May 05, 2005

Vigil at Palazzo Chigi with Articolo 11
April 28, 2005

Vigil at Palazzo Chigi with Articolo 11
April 21, 2005

International Day of Protest
March 19, 2005

Condoleeza Rice in Rome Italy

Protest calling for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire in Lebanon

July 26, 2006

On July 26, 2006, USC4P&J organized a sit-in in front of the US Embassy, together with Italian activists including Un ponte per..., to demand an immediate and unconditional cease-fire in Lebanon and a stop to the delaying tactics of Condoleeza Rice and the Bush Administration.

The sit-in took place the same day as delegations from countries from around the world met in Rome at the Farnesina (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) to seek an end to the Lebanese conflict. USC4P&J had originally asked the Questura for permission to stage the protest in the morning, while the Conferenza sul Libano was taking place. The police refused so the sit-in was moved anticlimactically to the afternoon. Protesters did however get the chance to yell at the heavily guarded limousines whisking delegates away from the Conference and past the Embassy.

Besides giving out a hundred leaflets to the passers-by, the nearly 35 protesters had a letter to consign to the U.S. delegate at the Conference, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, criticizing her delaying tactics (“A cease-fire can wait”, she had declared previously and, at the Conference, imposed that policy on everyone). But how to consign the letter? A long discussion ensued with the plain-clothesmen from the DIGOS (the Italian political police) who did not want any American citizen from USC4P&J to enter or even approach the embassy. A compromise was finally reached: a representative from the Embassy was telephoned by the DIGOS and accepted the envelope at the Embassy gate, which bore a U.S. postal Office stamp, promising to put it in the U.S. Mail box inside the compound. Cleverly, before introducing himself and taking the envelope, the man waited until the TG3 television camera and the newspaper photo-reporters were all busy shooting pictures of the flag-burning event staged by Un ponte per... So the consignment of our letter went unrecorded.

The flag-burning event was a powerful image, indeed. Instead of the usual burning of an American (or, in this case, Israeli) flag, Fabio and Paola of Un ponte per... did just the opposite: they had an activist, wearing a Condoleeza Rice mask and dressed in a typical suit worn by the Secretary of State, set fire to a peace flag and then trampled on it. “Peace can wait” she declared and then turned around showing an Israeli flag she wore as a dangling shawl. The message was clear: the U.S. and Israeli governments are acting back to back to extend the military crisis in the Middle East at the cost of peace.

On the downside, the 4 to 6 pm sit-in lacked real cohesion between the U.S. and Italian groups – there were no commonly worked out slogans so none were chanted at all; there was no common policy on activities, so while the Americans wandered around leafleting, the Italians were in a circle discussing events. But since the sit-in was organized in only 3 days' time, perhaps the fact that it actually came off is reason enough to be satisfied.

The sit-in ended with a beautiful Special Event: a short talk and a song offered by peace activist Jean Rohe – the student from the New School in New York City who, at her graduation ceremony held in Madison Square Garden last May in the presence of special guest Senator John Mc Cain, changed her commencement address at the last moment and rebuked Mc Cain publicly for his pro-war views. Jean was passing by Rome on her way back home from the Montreux jazz festival in Switzerland, where she had just sung, when she ran into USC4P&J at the march for Lebanon the week before. She promised she would come to sing for the sit-in and she did. Her musical offering was “We're living on a living planet, circling a living star” and her voice left the public breathless.

Patrick Boylan


Letter to Condoleeza Rice

26 July 2006

To Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice:

We, US Citizens for Peace & Justice, have written Ambassador Spogli voicing our concerns over American foreign policy. We feel that to achieve peace and to improve the reputation of the US worldwide, the United States must cease being seen as an aggressor in illegal wars. Our letters have been ignored and remain unanswered.

Ignored we're used to. Without the lie that Saddam Hussein was linked with Al Qaeda how many Americans would have wanted an unjust war with Iraq? Not many, as polls show today. But the administration you serve – and that you counsel – ignored public sentiment and took us into war anyway. Your administration has consistently manipulated intelligence and lied to the United Nations, lied to the citizens of the world, lied to the American people that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that Saddam Hussein could launch nuclear attacks on the United States. By terrorizing with words, you multiplied the fear Americans have felt since the attacks of September 11th and you set in place the war the Bush Administration wanted. Over two hundred thousand Iraqi civilians have been killed to the great shame of our country. Almost as many U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq as civilians killed on 9-11. You justify this killing with the convoluted logic that attacking and occupying Iraq is getting back at Al Qaeda.

No wonder, then, that you see Israel's attack on Lebanon as defending herself. You see taking the lives of innocent civilians as fair game. It is not. It is a war crime.

The Bush Administration, and your untiring efforts in aiding its doctrine, have brought the world into this new, dark age of injustice; you have given us a world in which nation states may break international law, disregard calls for peace in the UN; you have given us a world in which highly militarized nation states feel impotent against terrorists, are intolerant of political resistance, utilize international organizations only to promote their own agendas, not to seek compromise: you have played a crucial role in giving us a world in which military powers are the bullies of the world.

No wonder you tell us ceasefire is something we should wait for; you don't want something that is “only temporary”; you share a vision with George Bush of a war that will be decades long; yet you tell the world you want to build a lasting peace. Do you expect to be believed?

Waging war on civilians, devastating infrastructure and national economies, using illegal weapons, committing war crimes do not build lasting peace.

Lying to the UN, sharing faulty and manipulated intelligence with other governments and occupying other countries does not build lasting peace.

Imprisoning people without charge, attempting to by-pass international law and determining Geneva Conventions to be “irrelevant” does not build lasting peace.

Never finding fault with Israel's actions, faithfully vetoing resolutions that call for Israel to abide by international law, being the largest weapons supplier to Israel – all the while playing “neutral peace-broker” – does not build lasting peace.

When the world learned there were no weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq, you and the Bush Administration changed your battle cry to “Democracy in the Middle East.” How is aiding and abetting Israel's attacks on its democratic neighbor, Lebanon, and perpetuating the lie in our media that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, supposed to “spread democracy”? How does saying no to Lebanon's call for an immediate ceasefire reflect US support of a fellow democracy?

Secretary Rice, nation states do not have the right to attack the citizens and infrastructure of other countries in retaliation for terrorist or resistance groups working within such borders.

We, U.S. Citizens for Peace and Justice, will not stand for the killing of innocents and therefore call for a cease-fire to save innocent lives. Your insistence on permitting Israel time to complete its mission and attaching conditions for ceasefire that the Hezbullah cannot possibly accept suggests a (not so well hidden) “˜hidden agenda”. The US collusion with Israel is in fact being speculated upon in the press and in living rooms across the world as the attempt to create a pretext to invade Syria and Iran. It's no secret the Bush Adminstration will lie, erode the Constitution, break international law and sacrifice innocent lives to serve its ideology.

If you truly want lasting peace and credibility, you will join us in calling for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire in Lebanon.

U.S. Citizens for Peace and Justice

Resources

Flyer (English and italiano)

Letter to Condoleeza Rice

Letter by "Jewish and Arab Israeli citizens against war and occupation"

Patrick's commentary on the message we communicated at the sit-in

Ongoing/Future Events


Our Eyes Wide Open Film Series is suspended; for further information click here.


Upshot of our Nov. 9th group discussion on current politics:

It wasn't the Russians that got us Trump. Or Comey. Or even the massive GOP election fraud. It was the DNC.*
*Dem National Committee

To learn how to stop the DNC from delivering us another Trump, read Autopsy: the Democratic Party in Crisis.


Photo of a school in Yemen bombed by Saudi Arabian jets supplied by the U.S. and fueled in the air by the U.S. Air Force. Tell Trump to STOP THIS CARNAGE, not fuel it! Click here.

Also participate in the CodePink email and/or phone initiative:




Click here to sign a petition, to put an end to the sanctions against Syria - their only effect is to take a terrible toll on the population, causing them to migrate! And click here to see the video by the Italian Committee to lift sanctions against Syria.



Iraq Deaths Estimator
Did someone tell you that U.S. military intervention in Iraq was over? Not true: we're at it again. This time the pretext to drop bombs is "curbing ISIS" (which was created by the U.S. in the first place, to overturn al-Malaki in Iraq and then Assad in Syria, and is now out of hand. Like what happened to "our" creature al Qaeda in Afghanistan). And the death toll continues to rise...
Write your senators and tell them: "Enough! U.S. out!! Iraq has shown it can curb ISIS by itself!"

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Copyright © 2006 Patrick Boylan  All rights reserved
U.S. Citizens for Peace & Justice - Rome, Italy