The anti-war group United for Peace and Justice is currently organizing a “March on Washington” for January 27-29 in Washington D.C. to send a message to the new Congress about the putting an end to the Iraq war.  The group describes itself as: “a coalition of more than 1300 local and national groups throughout the United States who have joined together to protest the immoral and disastrous Iraq War and oppose our government’s policy of permanent warfare and empire-building.” 

The group, founded in 2002, has been organizing protests using grassroots organizing and unifying with hundreds of other peace and justice groups nationwide.  The main campaigns of the group include the following: 

End the War on Iraq: Hundreds of Iraqis and U.S. and international occupation troops are dying in what the Bush administration calls “liberated” Iraq. 

No War on Iran! No Nukes!: United for Peace and Justice opposes any military action against Iran, as well as covert action and sanctions. We reject the doctrine of “preventive war.” All diplomatic solutions must be pursued. 

Justice in the Gulf Coast: While the federal government neglects its responsibilities, grassroots groups rooted in the Gulf Coast’s African-American communities have launched efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast from the ground up. United for Peace and Justice urges you to support these efforts. 

Counter Recruitment: Many of the nation’s schools are now faced with either becoming feeder institutions for the U.S. military, or risk losing federal funding because of the controversial No Child Left Behind Act. 

Global Justice Corporate: globalization is central to the Bush Administration’s broad empire-building agenda and a key cause of militarism and war. 

Nuclear Disarmament: The US government demands that other nations not possess nuclear weapons. Meanwhile it is arming itself. 

Palestine/Israel: The lesson of Abu Ghraib isn’t that a few bad apples went awry, as Rumsfeld and Bush want us to believe. It’s that occupying other people’s countries inevitably requires brutal and dehumanizing means to try to make the occupied accept foreign control of their land and resources. 

Civil Liberties/Immigrant Rights: Bush’s strategy for winning popular support for his war policies relies upon portraying people of color within the U.S., Iraq, and elsewhere as security threats, and their lives and rights as less valuable than that of others. 

Faith-based Organizing: In partnership with United for Peace and Justice, Clergy and Laity Concerned about Iraq is an interfaith coalition of religious leaders, faith communities, institutions, organizations, and lay leaders committed to peace and justice.