Day 3 Greenfield and Boston, MA

We spent the night at Trap Rock Peace Center, oh my gosh it was gorgeous up on the hill in the middle of the forest. We all live in cities and really appreciated the outdoors. The night was really clear and I could see the stars from the field surrounding the center. Sunny our host at Trap Rock organized everything, she made sure we all had a full healthy breakfast. Our event in Greenfield was at the public TV studio, it was a different environment than we had had so far and it was really cool. We set the event up with an audience Trap Rock had gathered as an in-studio live show. Trap Rock has DVD’s available now for distribution, so your local community can see the event on public access! Email Sunny here for info on how you can get a copy. We will also have them on our website soon.

Boston University

In Boston we were hosted by MassPeaceAction, we arrived early and to set up in a huge room in the Law School unfortunately the room was not filled by the time we were ready. Turn out was difficult since BU no longer has an anti-war group. Students need to get activated at BU on ending the war. This was a little disheartening but we met a few engaged law students from BU and are hopeful they will get something started!

Antonia started the talk and launched into how corporations are driving the oil timeline for the war. She explained how the top five oil companies in the world control the biz. They control refining, marketing, and extraction. This not only allows them to control how much oil is turned to gas everyday and how much drivers pay at the pump this gives them un-due influence over US elected officials. Antonia went on to explain, for the first time in US history the top leaders (16 of them) in US government have spent more time as oil company executives than working for government! This includes, President, George Bush, Vice President, Dick Cheney and Secretary of State, Condi Rice who spent 10 years on the Board of Directors of Chevron/Texaco. (Click the link for more info on Chevron/Texaco’s achievements).

Antonia emphasized that WE have the power to end the war in Iraq! We have already kicked Halliburton out of Iraq. This was no easy task as they wanted there billion dollars in contracts and Cheney wanted them to have it too. But OUR public pressure exposing the corporation’s failure to rebuild sewage, water, and electrical systems ended that dream for Halliburton and Bechtel!

One important piece of our work in the next months is to continue pressuring the independent contractors in Iraq such as KBR, click here for an article in the New York Times about KBR’s dirty practices.. One important way to do that is by telling our representatives to STOP FUNDING US corporations to reconstruct Iraq and to support the continuation of the Iraq Inspector General. (As of the 109th congress’ last session, the Iraq Inspector General’s position has been further secured!) Click here for exact language of the bill. Lets keep the pressure on and make sure the position gets more funding to uncover the fraudulant reality of reconstruction in Iraq.

Also I wanted to let you all know Mass Peace Action and the Massachusetts movement to end the war just had a major victory! While we were on tour voters in Mass cast ballots to end the war immediately! Click here to read an article in the Boston Globe about it.

Jessica