National Boycott To Impeach for Peace and Justice
A Non-Partisan Coalition of Americans Standing Together for Justice
Tax Day (April 15) ’til Earth Day (April 22)
The following information is from www.wearenotbuyingit.org.
Many resources are available at this site, including “worst banks,” organizations to support, video, artwork, and much more.
WHY A BOYCOTT?
On January 27 2007, 500,000 people marched on Washington D.C. to call for an end to the war and the impeachment of the president and vice-president. Those calls were ignored. This boycott comes on the heels of millions of letters and phone calls, dozens of books, scores of speakers and action after action since the first charges were levied against the administration.
President Clinton faced impeachment on the grounds of lying about having sex with an intern. In short order, millions of dollars were spent investigating these allegations. If Clinton’s sexal misconduct warranted impeachment preceedings, then surely this administration’s Constitutional misconduct requires scrutiny.Yet, none of the public pressure so far has been enough to even spark a word of indignation against this administration.
If the speeches are not heard, the marches are not witnessed, the votes are not counted and the voice of the people is not loud enough to get the attention of lawmakers then we must do something else. We must show our strength not only in political terms but also in economic terms.
The marches, books, movies, lectures and petitions all speak directly to the politicians…and they aren’t listening. So let’s put pressure on the people they do listen to 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The boycott provides us with a way to send a wake-up call to the corporate backers of our political leaders. America, holding back on our spending for even one week will show the corporate powers that the people are serious, we are determined and “We’re not buying it anymore.”
By uniting the work of so many millions of people into a single week of protest in which we make sure that the money talks loud and clear, we can give fair warning to our representatives that the time for truth has come, justice is demanded and a full accounting is expected from Washington and Wall Street.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS & COMMON PERSPECTIVES
QUESTION: WHY IMPEACHMENT?
If you saw somebody break into a neighbor’s house, kill their family with machine guns, take their possessions and then boldly walk away, would you call the police? If the police then said, “The DA says it’s not politically convenient to press charges at this time.” Would you question the DA’s motivations? Would you wonder, “Who’s next?”
What would you be willing to do in the pursuit of justice.
This is the situation. Serious charges have been levied against not only the president and vice-president, but against virtually the entire administration. These charges carry the weight of not just one crime, but hundreds of crimes.They affect not just a few lives, but hundreds of thousands of lives. These charges strike at the very foundations of our nation’s principles.
Ignoring the charges, refusing to investigate and allowing the executive branch the leeway to attack the Constitution and the Bill of Rights through expanded executive power amounts to aiding and abetting. Arguments for political convenience or a ‘spirit of bi-partisanship’ are nothing more than an abandonment of the principles of justice that form the bedrock of our way of life.
PERSPECTIVE: IT WON’T ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING.
The impeachment process begins with an investigation. The surest cure for corruption is transparency, shining the light on the backroom deals and secret meetings that have been the hallmarks of this administration. This act may reveal just how endemic corruption is in our government. The only way the American people can restore faith in their government is to cut out corruption without regard for party, Democrat or Republican, to confront the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and to deal with what is revealed in a swift and sure manner.
DANGER
The danger of ignoring this administration’s roll back of our Constitutional rights, through establishing a national security state and through engaging in horrifying bloodshed on the pretense of lies and deceit, is that it establishes a dangerous precedent. If America is to continue as a free nation, a democracy of citizens all with an equal voice in government, then the balance of powers must be restored, must be strengthened by new legislation. Without impeachment and a rolling back of the legislation that has weakened all of our protections from abuse at the hands of government, we stand the risk of becoming not the masters of our government, but its slaves. We must not allow politicians of any stripe to stand by the wayside and condone the actions of the executive branch. To do so is to sound a death toll for democracy.
OUR MISSION
It is the purpose of this group of committed volunteers to seek out justice and to protect the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We do not deny that the American people have enemies abroad, more now than ever before. But we also do not deny that great damage has been done to our democracy by those who have acted as enemies within.
It is our mission to hold accountable those who through fraud and malfeasance have sought to promote an agenda of constant warfare, endemic corruption and heartless disregard for the lives and well-being of the poorest and most defenseless among us.
We will promote and help to organize at the local level in every Congressional district in America citizens who demand that their voices be heard and that justice be done. On April 15th, we will begin a one week shopping boycott. At the same time, we will help to provide coordination with other legal forms of civil disobedience that endorsing organizations may want to engage in.
By building a communications network of citizens who all agree that there is something so rotten in Washington that we absolutely MUST do something and do it now, we will help to set the stage for bringing together all of us who, in our hearts, believe in an America that truly stands for Freedom, Liberty, Truth and Justice for all. Because we all know that if we don’t stand together, then we will fall apart. (emphasis added)
Origins
One of the leading researchers into the agenda and actions of the Bush Administration, Dr. Peter Phillips, the Director of Project Censored at Sonoma State University, proposed a new tactic in the ongoing campaign to hold the administration, their neo-conservative backers, spin doctors, consultants and henchmen accountable.
It is the belief of the organizers that this Administration must be held to task for the host of charges that have been levied against them. Dr.Phillips, a professor of Sociology, has spent his professional career investigating the origins and purposes of the “Power Elite” in general, and neo-conservatives in particular. (See, for instance,
Phillips struck upon the use of a boycott as a means to draw together all of those who oppose this administration and their policies. We can not simply rely on the work of progressive activists. We must bring together all citizens who feel strongly that crimes have been committed and an accounting is due.
A boycott is simply a form of non-violent resistance. By simuntaneously withdrawing our support from the economy, millions of people can have a dramatic impact on the policies of individual corporations and even national governments. In 1990, ACT-UP staged a boycott of Phillip Morris that resulted in providing millions of dollars for AIDS` research.
In 1994, a boycott waged against Shell Oil, Kellog’s and Coca Cola, helped to increase the momentum of the anti-apartheid movement. In 1995, the International Peace Bureau called for a boycott of all French products in oppositioon to nuclear testing.
The French wine industry was especially hard hit and the threat of “economic disruption” spurred President Chirac to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. National polls now show that well over half of ALL Americans believe that this administration should be impeached. A much higher percentage want to see this war end and virtually everyone wants to know the truth behind the events of the last 7 years.
What the people want, and what they get, can be two entirely different things if left up to the consideration of career politicians.
The marches, books, movies, lectures and petitions all speak directly to the politicians…and they aren’t listening. So let’s put pressure on the people they do listen to 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The boycott provides us with a way to send a wake-up call to the corporate backers of our political leaders. America, holding back on our spending for even one week will show the corporate powers that the people are serious, we are determined and “We’re not buying it anymore.” To that end, we are building a network of individuals and organizations from coast to coast and around the world to support this action.
By uniting the work of so many millions of people into a single week of protest in which we make sure that the money talks loud and clear, we can give fair warning to our representatives that the time for truth has come, justice is demanded and a full accounting is expected from Washington and Wall Street.