Camp Democracy Comes To Washington DC
By Kevin Zeese
28 August, 2006
Countercurrents.org
Camp Democracy, an outgrowth of Camp Casey in Crawford, TX, will be coming to Washington, DC this Fall to put the spotlight on the Iraq War and other issues. The mid-term elections have shown the power of opposition to the war in the mid-term elections, Camp Democracy is likely to highlight the war as an electoral issue. Camp Democracy is being sponsored by a wide array of organizations, including Democracy Rising. It is spearheaded by David Swanson who is the Washington Director of Democrats.com and of ImpeachPAC.org. He is co-founder of the AfterDowningStreet.org coalition, creator of MeetWithCindy.org, and a board member of Progressive Democrats of America. He serves on the steering committee of the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice and on a working group of United for Peace and Justice. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including Press Secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, Media Coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as Communications Coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson serves on the Executive Council of the Washington Baltimore Newspaper Guild. He obtained a Master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1997. His website is www.davidswanson.org.
Kevin Zeese: What is Camp Democracy? When and where will it be occurring? Who is involved?
David Swanson: Camp Democracy is an attempt to bring together movements for peace and justice to demand change. It's motivated by:1) Lots of ordinary people around the country demanding to know when they could come to Washington and refuse to leave without peace and accountability;
2) The need for Bush not to be able to escape Camp Casey by leaving Crawford; and
3) The need to bring movements together that are interwoven on the policy level but not at the level of grassroots organizing
Camp Democracy will bring together movements for peace, Katrina recovery, immigrants rights, labor rights, electoral reform, women's rights, environmental sanity, accountability and impeachment. We'll open the camp in Washington, D.C., on September 5th and run at least until September 21, the International Day of Peace, when a movement called Declaration of Peace has planned massive civil disobedience. We will provide nonviolence training during Camp Democracy. We'll also provide panel discussions, workshops, dramatic performances, concerts, lobbying training, and lobbying for an end to funding of the war -- because the war must end and because we need our money for useful projects.
This will not be a march preceded by speeches. It will be a Chautauqua, a teach-in, a movement-building festival. And its’ aim will be to kick-start the sort of massive occupation of our nation's capital that ought to come spontaneously from an aware and responsible public. This is do-or-die time for the people of this country if we want to have a government of, by, or for us, if we want to have a world without endless war, if we want to have social justice or security, if we want to have a sustainable planet for our grandchildren.
On September 5-8 and 12-21st, if not longer, we'll be on the grass between the Mall, Constitution Avenue, 14th St, and 15th St. On September 9, 10, and 11, we'll be on the Mall between 3rd and 7th Streets. See http://www.campdemocracy.org
KZ: What will happen during these days on the mall?
DS: There's an extensive schedule at http://www.campdemocracy.org/schedule and a wide array of activities will be going on in a number of large tents. This will be a chance to hear from and talk to well-known authors, academics, activists, singers, and elected officials, to learn lobbying and civil disobedience and political art and performance from the best trainers there are, and to make connections between movements that have been too separate. This is a chance to form a progressive agenda for this country and pressure our government directly for fundamental change.Opening Day is being organized for Cindy Sheehan's arrival from Crawford, along with Veterans for Peace, Gold Star Families for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Military Families Speak Out. Members of the military resisting service in an illegal war, including Lt. Ehren Watada, will be there, and there may be some new announcements of lawful resisters of illegal orders.
There will be days on which we hear from and talk to Congress Members and Senators, days dedicated to immigrants' rights, labor, peace, the climate crisis, electoral reform, a day for lobbying, a day dedicated to impeachment, etc. There will be chances to learn from historians like Howard Zinn, directors like Robert Greenwald, journalists like John Nichols and Joel Bleifuss, former government officials like Ann Wright, Karen Kwiatkowski, Ray McGovern, Larry Johnson, and too many more to name...
Check http://www.campdemocracy.org/scheduleKZ: What are the major issues Camp Democracy is focusing on?
DS: Tents will provide activist activities, trainings, workshops, and entertainment on these themes: End War: Peace, nonviolence, accountability, and impeachment | Human Rights: Civil Rights, Immigrants Rights, Workers Rights, Women's Rights, Voting Rights, Katrina | End Corporate Welfare, Meet Human Needs: Healthcare/ Energy/ Education/ Environment | Communications and Creativity: Hands-on Media and Arts Training.
KZ: What do you hope to accomplish? Is it timed in September in part as an effort to set the tone for the mid-term election campaign?
DS: It's timed to begin when Camp Casey ends in Crawford, when the heat diminishes in Washington, specifically when Congress returns from vacation to wreak more havoc beginning September 5th, and far enough from the November elections so that activist organizations are willing to engage in activism that is not exclusively electoral. If it grows, we'll stay until the elections or beyond.Camp Democracy is nonpartisan, and is sponsored by the Green Party of the United States, Democrats.com, and Progressive Democrats of America, among many other organizations, and while Republican and Democratic members of Congress have been invited to speak, only Democrats have said yes thus far.
Voters for Peace (www.votersforpeace.us) will be signing up voters throughout the camp. And we will be building pressure on candidates, incumbents and challengers, to join the majority of Americans in opposing the war and shifting our priorities to the environment, education, health care, civil liberties, jobs, and justice.
KZ: Will there be entertainment or other activities to draw people to the event?
DS: There will be concerts, dramatic performances, hands-on arts workshops, freeway blogging lessons, media trainings. There will be radio shows broadcasting live. This is what democracy looks like!
For more information see http://www.campdemocracy.org.
