Compiled and written by Guy Dauncey, Victoria, BC, Canada
www.earthfuture.com

Ten Ways to Stop the War with Your Friends

61. Create a banner together, and hold it over a bridge or overpass. Here’s how to make the banner: www.traprockpeace.org/bannerpainting.html. And tell the media!

62. Rent some films and put on a public showing, If you go to United for Peace www.unitedforpeace.org, and click on “films”, you’ll find a listing of a dozen films, and where to obtain them, eg Hidden Wars of Desert Storm by Gerard Ungerman and Audrey Brohy, 2000. In Shifting Sands: The Truth About UNSCOM and the Disarming of Iraq by Scott Ritter, 2002. And tell the media!

63. Write letters together. Get together with your friends to write letters to world, political, media, business and artistic leaders. Sign each letter together, to give it more power.

64. Get together with your friends and neighbours and discuss what you can do. For a step-by-step guide to organizing a new group, see www.stopUSwars.org/organize.htm. Global Exchange has a superb organizing toolkit – see www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/iraq

65. Stand together in a silent vigil. Choose a prominent place, and maybe all wear the same colour – black, white, pink, green. Be creative. Women in Black hold their silent vigils to protest war, rape as a tool of war, ethnic cleansing and human rights abuses all over the world. See www.womeninblack.net. If you don’t want to wear black, and you’re a woman, wear pink! There are Code Pink vigils happening all over the place. See www.codepink4peace.org/support.html

66. Bare witness for peace. Get some friends and join in - it’s happening everywhere. See Baring Witness: www.baringwitness.org and www.baringwitness.org/Australia-ByronBay.htm. Wendy Polyploidy and her friends win the medal for bravery – they’re naked in the snow together in a very public place in New York City’s Central Park at Bethesda Fountain - see www.wendypolyploidy.com/nobush/index.html for this and many other Baring Witness photos. They’re doing it in Britain - see www.barewitness.org. They’re doing it in Salt Lake City: http://pages.ivillage.com/aspenmoonda. They’re doing it everywhere.

67. Persuade your city. Work together to persuade your local city, town or county council to pass a motion opposing the war on Iraq. For details, and a sample motion, see www.citiesforpeace.org. Hundreds of city and towns councils are doing it, including Toronto, Vancouver, Chicago, Washington DC,  Santa Fe, and Austin Texas. For the full list, see www.ips-dc.org/citiesforpeace/resolutions.htm

68. Collect Signatures. Get together, and go door-to-door, collecting signatures to one of the various petitions. You can download a petitions and pledge-forms from www.votenowar.org and www.peacepledge.org

69. Women – get together with your friends and form a Code Pink group. It’s just an incredible partnership of sharing and action. See www.codepink4peace.org For personal stories about what groups of women are doing, see www.codepink4peace.org/comments.lasso

70. Children – get together with your friends, and organize a protest together. Go for 24 hours without food; collect signatures to the peace pledge; write protest letters; tell the media. Ask the world “What are you doing with our world?”