Code Pink

CODEPINK IS BRINGING THOUSANDS of women together
to struggle for peace, even if it requires civil disobedience.
The organization is working around the clock, to
educate the public about the costs of war and its affect
on the world and our lives. Their expressed purpose is
to help redirect the energy, money and time spent on
war toward our common good—education, healthcare,
job training, alternative energy development, and
deficit reduction.
With slogans like Raise a Rukus, Make-out Not War,
and A Million Knockers for Peace, the group has taken
the streets by storm, working tirelessly to bring attention
to the issue and stir dialogue about the need for
fundamental change in this country. They took their
special brand of organizing to the Republican Convention
in St. Paul last month, calling for peace, while
protesting the Republican vice-presidential candidate
Sarah Palin’s pro-war and pro-drilling position.
As the women marched in crowns, sashes and pink
clothing, the police surrounded the women and began
to push them up onto the sidewalk and against a metal
fence. The women were told to clear-out or be arrested.
In a symbolic gesture of civil disobedience—asserting
that free speech cannot be caged and that all of America
is a free speech zone—four of the women crawled under the
fence. Police immediately arrested them.
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the women’s peace group,
praised those arrested. “We are proud of the CODEPINK women
who did civil disobedience to show their outrage at the Bush and
McCain policies and the nomination of Sarah Palin,” With banners
reading “Palin is not a woman’s choice” and “End the occupation
now,” CODEPINK women proclaimed, “We are ready for a
peaceful world.”