SAMPLE CAMPAIGN:

Contact anti-war,student,religious groups
Draft an anti-war resolution for your city council
collect no-war petitions

SAMPLE CAMPAIGN POST/FLYER

(your city)stands on the brink of becoming the (?)U.S. city to pass a resolution opposing the Bush administration's war on Iraq! City Council is poised to introduce & vote on an anti-war resolution on (Give Date). To help seal the deal, we need everyone's help. (Read on for the text of the draft resolution.)

2. What you can do
a. contact city council members and tell them you support the proposed resolution opposing war in Iraq.

b. Get your civic/business/religious/educational/political organization AND prominent individuals to ENDORSE the effort. If you have any contacts at such organizations, please call them to ask for such a letter!!! The Council has stressed that RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS are of particular interest. Please ask these people to identify how large their membership is. Fax the letter (preferably on the group's letterhead) to the mayor's fax number, (GIVE INFO. ALSO: address the letter to City Council, (GIVE INFO). We'll make copies and provide them to the individual council members. You can also email the text of the letter to the addresses below

Contact information for city council:

Mayor and City Council Offices are located at (GIVE INFO). The Mayor's phone number is (GIVE INFO). The FAX number is (GIVE INFO).

Call the Council Message Line at (LIST TEL NUMBER) to leave a message for your council member.

Mayor (LIST NAME & CONTACT INFO)


City Council (LIST NAMES & CONTACT INFO)

When e-mailing Mayor and/or Councilmembers, please include your telephone number and address to facilitate an appropriate response.

2. Show up at these meetings.



3. Other U.S. city councils that have passed anti-war resolutions:

Washington, DC
Sebastopol, CA
Berkeley, CA
San Francisco, CA
Santa Cruz, CA
Ithaca, NY
New Haven, CT
Oakland, CA
Takoma Park, MD
Carrboro, NC
Haines Township, PA
Kalamazoo, MI
Seattle, WA
Santa Fe, NM
Albuquerque, NM
Danby,NY
Madison, WI
Pending:

Arcata (CA)
Baltimore

4. at (YOUR CITY)city council caucus meeting, we also presented them with a list of other cities that have passed resolutions and news articles about those resolutions as well as a copy of the no-war petitions we have been circulating.


SAMPLE DRAFT CITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION

WHEREAS many cities in America have been concerned and become engaged and determined to express themselves on the question of Iraq and current United States government foreign policy, including
Washington, D.C.; Seattle, Washington; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Takoma Park, Maryland; Santa Cruz, California; Ithaca, New York; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Danby, New York; Sebastopol, California; New Haven, Connecticut; Kalamazoo, Michigan; Oakland, California; Carrboro, North Carolina; Haines Township, Pennsylvania, Madison, Wisconcin; with resolutions pending in Arcada, California; and Baltimore, Maryland.

WHEREAS the United Nations declared this decade, 2000-2010 as the "International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World" (UN Declaration 53/25, November 10, 1998), urging all people and all levels of government to seek non-violent approaches to conflict resolution and wider education about international law and alternatives to war;

WHEREAS the ultimate security of the United States depends on using our great wealth to help all nations, working together cooperatively, to eliminate poverty, injustice, inequality, environmental degradation and other factors that breed war and terrorism;

WHEREAS former United Nations weapons inspectors, other experts, and world leaders have contested the Bush Administration's claim that indisputable evidence exists of Iraq's present possession of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and immediate ability to deploy such weapons;

WHEREAS according to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, a war to remove Saddam Hussein is the most credible scenario that would cause Iraq to use any weapons of mass destruction that it might possess;

WHEREAS the United States has been the primary force behind twelve years of non-military sanctions against Iraq that have resulted in the death of over 500,000 children under age 5 due to inadequate water, food, and medicine, according to UNICEF and other international relief organizations;

WHEREAS a further war in Iraq could bring extensive grievous suffering to the Iraqi people, with estimates of up to 500,000 potential civilian casualties, and jeopardize the lives of American men and women serving in the U.S. armed forces;

WHEREAS past military conflict in the region, including the use of depleted uranium, resulted in widespread environmental destruction, widespread damage to the civilian infrastructure of Iraq and widespread suffering and death of Iraqi civilians and its total impacts on the local population and U.S. war personnel (such as Gulf War Syndrome) have not yet been mitigated or understood;

WHEREAS a United States war against Iraq has been projected to cost as much as $200 billion, could prolong current economic difficulties and insecurity and aggravate endemic under-funding of needed social, health and education services, and given that the costs of a U.S. war against Iraq would be borne by the American people;

WHEREAS a United States war against Iraq could have significant impact on citizens local to (your city), both in terms of the potential loss of life and disability among our members of the armed forces, as well as increasing the potential for exposure to terrorist attacks and resulting further impingement upon civil liberties, and given that the cost to the City of Ann Arbor has been estimated at $45-$90 million (based on our population and income*);

WHEREAS unilateral, preemptive military action would violate the United States Constitution and the United Nations Charter (Articles 2 and 51);

WHEREAS our Congressional Representatives, Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow and Congresspeople Lynn Rivers and John Dingell have courageously spoken out against unilateral war by the United States against Iraq and have urged the United States to cooperate with the United Nations in any decision on military action against Iraq, and would be encouraged by our support;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT the City Council (your city):

1)HEREBY expresses our opposition to the United States' threatened violation of the United States Constitution, United Nations Charter and of international law by a preemptive military action against the nation of Iraq;

2) HEREBY opposes continuing non-military sanctions, continuing United States' military action against Iraq, and proposed escalated military action by the United States against Iraq;

3) HEREBY urges the Bush-Cheney Administration and our representatives in congress to work with and through the United Nations to obtain compliance by Iraq with United Nations Security council resolutions concerning the disarmament by Iraq of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and to support fully the work of the international weapons inspectors to Iraq for that purpose;

4) BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that no war against Iraq be undertaken. We call on all governments, in particular the US government, to turn away form the military approach to resolving conflicts and instead seek to eliminate together the root causes of conflict and find their solutions by peaceful means for the common good of all. We urge an emergency program, supported and directed by the United Nations, to rebuild critical civil infrastructures such as hospitals, schools and universities, water purification plants, and agricultural production, and to ensure that dual-purpose materials are used exclusively for civil purposes.

5) BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this resolution and support materials be sent to the President and Vice President of the United States, the Secretary of State of the United States, the (your state) Congressional Delegation, the Governor of (your state), the U.S. Council of Mayors, the local members of the (your state) House and Senate, and to the local city governments of the (your area).