White Roses: We Will Not Be Silent!

White Rose was a World War II non-violent resistance group in Germany famous for a leaflet campaign in which they called for active opposition to the Nazi regime. The group initially consisted of five students, all in their early twenties at Munich University. Between June 1942 and February 1943, they prepared and distributed six different leaflets, in which they called for an end to Nazi oppression and tyranny through active opposition of the German people.

"We Will Not Be Silent" was a statement of the White Rose resistance movement in Nazi Germany. Today, a group of artists/activists is building a national campaign based on that message.

Therefore, demonstrators were encouraged to bring white roses to the Jan 27th mobilization as a symbolic gesture to demand that Congress end the occupation of Iraq and bring to justice those responsible for a U.S. policy of torture and illegal detentions. At the end of Saturday's march, thousands of white roses were to have been collected.

Today, Monday, 29 January, approximately 800 antiwar activists from 47 states will convene on Capitol Hill for the UFPJ Congressional Advocacy Day to meet with over 270 Senators and House Members or their staff to urge them to end the Iraq War, prevent an expansion of the Iraq War into Iran, and hold the Bush Administration accountable for the claims it made in launching the Iraq War. Today's effort is the third in a series of Congressional Education Days organized by United for Peace and Justice, organizer of Saturday's half-million-strong antiwar demonstration.

Some armed with white roses and tags that read "We Will Not Be Silent!" grassroots lobbyists will ask their representatives to stop funding this war and begin funding the safe, orderly, and speedy withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq. They will demand that Congress block any escalation of the war, and investigate how and why the Bush Administration went to war in the first place. They will call on Congress to back up symbolic statements of opposition to the Bush policy with measures that have teeth, including using its "power of the purse" to bring this war to an end.

Activists will advocate for a number of bills aimed at cutting off war funding and establishing a timetable for withdrawal, including HR 508 (the Woolsey-Waters-Lee Bill), the most comprehensive bill on the table for bringing the troops home, caring for them when they get home, and fulfilling our obligations to the Iraqi people to repair the devastation caused by the war.

WHEN: Monday, January 29, 2007, from 9 am to 5 pm EST; breakfast at 9 am in the Rayburn Cafeteria

WHERE: Organizers and lobbyists will be based in the Rayburn Office Building, Room 2138, Independence and 1st Street, SW.

See United for Peace amd Justice press release dated 29 January 2007.

Learn more about the White Rose - We Will Not Be Silent! global campaign at www.thecriticalvoice.org.

Click photo to view my ongoing White Rose: We Will Not Be Silent! Project.