On July 4, 2007, over 300 delegates from diverse activist organizations and concerned citizens across America joined together at the Philadelphia Emergency Antiwar Convention to form a United Front, dedicated to resolving our national crises of endless war and presidential dictatorship.
These organizations included: Allentown Armory Activists, Alliance for a Sustainable Future, Boston 9/11 Truth, Coalition for Voting Integrity, DCOI Youth Group, DC 9/11 Truth, Delaware Valley Veterans for America, Family Victims of 9/11, Granny Peace Brigade, Green Party Philadelphia, Green Party Vermont, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Los Angeles National Impeachment Center, Military Families Speak Out, Northeast 9/11 Truth, Peace Action - Delaware Valley, Philly 9/11 Truth, Restore the Republic, Student Scholars for 9/11 Truth, Troops Out Now Coalition, Vermont 9/11 Truth, Vermont Coalition for 9/11 Truth, We Are Change, World Can’t Wait Philadelphia, Washington Grove Institute, 911truthsquads.org.
This is only the beginning; others are welcome to add their names and work toward our common goals. Write to info@actindependent.org.
At the end of the convention, the Philadelphia Platform was discussed, amended and adopted by unanimous acclaim. The following are abbreviated highlights of the five policy goals and five action points detailed in the Platform. See full text of document.
FIVE POLICY GOALS
We appeal to leftists, progressives, conservatives, libertarians, independents, and those entering or re-entering politics to transcend the artificial divisions that have diminished their impact. The antiwar, impeachment, anti-globalization, labor, civil rights, veterans, anti-tax, civil liberties, honest election, and 9/11 truth movements—along with civic and progressive religious groups and other issue groups—have been weakened too long by single issues and narrow focus. It is time for these movements to unite as a national coalition on a common platform for independent action. We call for a united front of all organizations and persons of good will based on the following:
1. Impeach, remove, and indict Bush, Cheney and their henchmen.
2. End all wars. All U.S. troops must be brought home at once from Afghanistan and Iraq by any means necessary, including the immediate cutoff of funding.
3. No Bush police-state dictatorship. Repeal the Patriot Act, restore full habeas corpus, respect the Bill of Rights and the Geneva Convention.
4. Government by the People, not by cliques of bankers and financiers.
5. 9/11 truth. Publish the full 9/11 documentation, and re-open the investigation.
FIVE ACTION POINTS
At a minimum, we aim to shape the climate of public opinion. We may become the focal point of a new political regroupment. These questions will be decided in the struggles that lie ahead. We suggest that questions of economic and social policy be deferred for now, and that they become the object of ongoing discussion. We also urge that organizational questions be postponed until a later time. We call on all organizations to join in launching the following urgent actions in support of the policies outlined:
A. We will nominate and support independent political candidates for public office at all levels of government in the 2007 and 2008 elections. Because of the problems of ballot access, such candidate may need to enter the primary elections of the Republican, Democratic, Green, Libertarian, or other political parties.
B. Truth squad interventions taking advantage of the new media (using camcorders to capture political content which is then posted on the internet) to intervene in the ongoing presidential primary campaigns of the Democrats, Republicans, and others, to focus public attention and political debate on the urgent questions outlined above, rather than on the divisive and artificial wedge issues preferred by the corporate media.
C. Mass political education through internet web sites, conferences, books, DVDs, and a sustained campaign to write our own fairness doctrine by using radio, cable access, and call-ins to take back the public air waves from the right-wing extremists and left gatekeepers.
D. This united front will exist as a process of political discussion, deliberation, mass organizing, and open debate open to political forces of all types who agree with its platform of ideas. Special attention will be given to campus organizing.
E. Carefully selected legal actions, as typified by the civil RICO suit against Bush-Cheney as a continuing criminal enterprise.
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