FLYERS
Click here for downloadable .pdf flyer version1     version2

COSPONSORS AND ENDORSERS
Click here for full list of over 121 cosponsors and endorsers (final list 10/2/04)

MARCH ROUTE
Click here for .pdf map of the march route

PREVIOUS INFO
Click here for initial calendar listing


Peace and Justice Works
  Iraq Affinity Group
  PO Box 42456
  Portland, OR 97242
  (503) 236-3065 (Office)
  pjw@pjw.info
  http://www.pjw.info/Iraq.html

NEWS ITEM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE         September 30, 2004

THOUSANDS EXPECTED TO RALLY AGAINST WAR AND FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Sunday's Peace Rally in North Park Blocks Not Expected to Interfere with Marathon

Portland's eighth large-scale, permitted peace rally in the last two years is planned for 2:00 PM this Sunday, October 3rd, starting at the North Park Blocks, NW 8th & Everett. The event is free and open to everyone who embraces the themes of the "Rally and March for Peace and Justice." Peace and Justice Works (PJW), one of the key organizations working on the event, expects thousands of participants to make their voices heard.

"With a war raging increasingly out of control in Iraq; with over 1000 U.S. soldiers dead--an unbalanced proportion from Oregon; with U.S. airplanes dropping bombs on civilian targets against a people who have no air defenses, and with important issues for human rights which are not necessarily being talked about by any national or local candidates, Oregonians are anxious to get out in the streets again," said Dan Handelman, a founding member of PJW.

The date of the rally coincides roughly with the two-year anniversary of the U.S. war on Afghanistan, a country still plagued by many of the problems that existed prior to that war despite the upcoming U.S.-backed elections.

Over 115 organizations from the social justice, labor, faith, student, business, environmental, and peace communities from Oregon and SW Washington have signed on to cosponsor or endorse the event.

Speakers and music will begin at 2 PM, followed by a 2-mile march, which will pass by the finish line of the Portland Marathon just after its official end time of 3 PM. More speakers and music in Park Blocks will wrap up after the march, with the event ending at 5:00.

Subthemes for the day to be addressed by speakers including veterans, military families, clergy, labor activists, and students are:

-- End the Wars and Occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan and the West Bank/Gaza!
-- Fund Health Care, Jobs, Housing and Education, Not War!
-- Defend Civil Liberties and Democracy: Equal Rights for All!

People planning to attend the march are encouraged to take public transportation or to approach the Park Blocks by taking I-405 to avoid marathon traffic.

A partial list of co-sponsors of the October 3rd event include Peace & Justice Works Iraq Affinity Group (503-236-3065), Portland Peaceful Response Coalition (www.pprc-news.org), Women in Black, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Portland Labor for Peace and Justice, KBOO 90.7 FM Community Radio, Portland Catholic Worker, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Living Earth, Portland Solidarity (portlandsolidarity@post.com), Love Makes a Family, Peace Justice and Environment Committee of the Portland Mennonite Church, Oregon PeaceWorks (503-585-2767-Salem), East Timor Action Network/Portland (503-235-4986), Portland Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights, Peace Action Group of the First Unitarian Church, Jews for Global Justice, St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, War Resisters League-Portland (503-238-0605), National Lawyers Guild - Portland, NW Constitutional Rights Center, North Coast Peace Coalition, Reedwood Friends Church Peace and Social Concerns Committee, Portland Area Rethinking Schools, Justice for Mumia Coalition, Palestine Children's Welfare Fund, Portland Alliance (media cosponsor), National Organization for Women--Portland Chapter, Rainbow Coalition of Portland-Oregon, Christ the Healer - United Church of Christ, Families for Peace, American Friends Service Committee, Sisters of the Road, St. Andrew Catholic Church, Peace and Social Concerns Committee of the Multnomah Meeting of Friends (Quakers), Radical Women, Freedom Socialist Party, Vancouver For Peace, East Side Democratic Club, St. Philip Neri Catholic Church Peace and Justice Commission, Journey Catholic Community, Ash Creek Press, Friends of Voices in the Wilderness/Portland, Bridge City Friends Meeting (Quakers), Portland Jobs with Justice (503-236-5573), street roots (media cosponsor), Black Monday Committee, Islamic Center of Portland - Masjed As-Saber (503-293-6554), Amnesty International Group 48, Portland Metro Pacific Green Party, Alliance for Democracy - Portland Chapter, West Hills Friends Church, Lewis and Clark Military Counseling Project, Augustana Lutheran Church, Victims of Child Abuse by Churches Against the War, Green Party of Clark County, Corvallis Alternative to War, Progressive Responses--a program of CALC of Lane County, Cascadia Magical Activists, Sierra Club and others.

Endorsers include Veterans for Peace-chapter 72 (VFPchapter72.org), Northwest Veterans for Peace, Board of Peace and Social Concerns of Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends, PSU Progressive Student Union, PSU Green Party, Friends of Sabeel-North America, Portland Radical Cheerleaders Local #2, Oregon Wildlife Federation, International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 8, Back to the WALL, FireTheLiar.com, crossroads, Left Turn-Portland Collective, Eugene Justice Not War, Send Sardo to Salem Committee, Tienda Tikal, In Other Words-Women's Books and Resources, Muslim Community Center of Portland, Pax Christi Portland, No War Drum Corps, Bridgeport United Church of Christ, Great Vow Zen Monastery (Clastkanie), Palestine Arab-American Association, Centro Proceso Social (Lima-Peru), Rights 101 Oregon, Oregon Action, Metanoia Peace Community, 18th Ave Peace House, Cross Border Labor Organizing Coalition (CBLOC), Portland Central America Solidarity Committee (PCASC), Virginia Lopez and the Mambo Queens, Mojo's Coffee Den, Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, The Light Ministry, Silverton People for Peace, Citizen Democracy Watch of Florence, Eugene PeaceWorks, Shelly's Garden-Honkin' Huge Burritos, Laughing Horse Books, Human Dignity Coalition (Bend), Portland Nurses For Peace, Lincoln High School Activist Club, Rural Organizing Project, Furniture Craft, Cascadia Rising Info Shop, Lane County Taxes for Peace Not War, WAND of Lane County, Linn Benton Chapter of the Pacific Green Party, Columbia River Raging Grannies, Flying Focus Video Collective (media endorser), Columbia River Fellowship for Peace, Red and Black Cafe, Stumptown Printers, Peace and Justice Team of Michael Servetus Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Reed Student Peace Action Network (rspan@reed.edu), NW RAGE - Resistance Against Genetic Engineering, Oregon NORML and others.

For more information or to get involved, contact Peace and Justice Works (PJW) at (503) 236- 3065 or the Portland Peaceful Response Coalition (PPRC) at (503) 344-5078.

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Page updated October 2, 2004