Tuesday, July 24, 2007

ACTIVISM


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PROFILE OF CODE PINK

ZACHARY COILE, SF CHRONICLE - When a lawmaker's office is stormed, a
hearing is disrupted or a protester is handcuffed on Capitol Hill these
days, it's a safe bet the activist being hauled away will be female and
wearing pink.

Code Pink, a group spawned by Bay Area peace activists, has become the
vibrantly hued public face of the anti-war movement in Washington.
Launched in 2002 to oppose the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq,
the female activists are gaining new attention as a thorn in the side of
Democrats, urging the new leaders of Congress to move faster to end the
war.

"People try to marginalize them as being 'left,'" said Sen. Russ
Feingold, an anti-war Democrat from Wisconsin. "But they serve as a
reminder to (lawmakers) of the broader concern in the country over the
war."

Publicly, top Democrats say they share the group's anti-war goals. But
privately they grumble about its in-your-face tactics -- including
disrupting Democratic press conferences and setting up a protest camp
outside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Pacific Heights home in San
Francisco.

When activists from CodePink interrupted her speech to a Democratic
group last month, Pelosi shot them a steely look and urged them to focus
on getting Republicans to oppose the war. "Instead of fighting us --
which is your right to do -- let's all work together to end the war and
bring the troops home," Pelosi told the activists.

Code Pink's leaders say the comments show they've touched a nerve with
Democratic leaders. After three years of mostly fruitless actions
against the Bush administration, the group feels it's finally gaining
leverage by pressuring Democrats. . .

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/12/MNGK0QV7HO1.DTL


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