Call to Organizations and Individuals to Help Rebuild a Broad-based Peace Coalition in Tucson

Calling all interested local organizations and individuals to meet and discuss rebuilding a broad-based peace coalition in Tucson. Let’s get together:

Tuesday, April 14th at 7:00 pm
@ Salt of the Earth Labor College
1902 E. Irene Vista

Background: When the US went to war against Serbia in 1999 the local peace movement was unprepared so it took time to build the peace coalition that had died out after the Gulf war. We called our coalition the Tucson Peace Action Coalition (TPAC). When the war was over, we kept the coalition alive even though we had shrunk to just a few activists. By keeping it alive we were prepared for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, especially Iraq. We were able to expand the coalition quickly and organize massive rallies and actions. Our largest march and rally brought out 6000 participants, and more if you counted dogs and cops. It was sponsored by 40 local groups. I believe that the actions we took combined with huge demonstrations across the country and the world came close to preventing the war. We failed in that, but kept the pressure on for several years. When I stepped back from leading the coalition, nobody stepped forward to call meetings and the coalition stopped meeting.

It’s time to regroup, with new leadership and the new energy coming from the anti-MAGA movement and the movements against Israeli aggression. We don’t need to use the same name or the same tactics, but we need a broad coalition to be effective.

For more information about this meeting, please contact me at (520)235-0684 or stelnik@webtv.net.
Joe Bernick
Peace activist since 1964