Near West Citizens for Peace and Justice (NWCPJ) is a group of Riverside, Brookfield, Berwyn, Lyons, La Grange, La Grange Park, North Riverside, Western Springs, Countryside and Stickney residents in Illinois' 3rd Congressional District who came together in opposition to the continued Iraq War and its disastrous consequences.
Near West Citizens for Peace and Justice members led the effort to place the following questions of public policy on the ballots in Berwyn Township:
1. Shall our representatives in Congress hold current and former public officials, and private contractors accountable for war crimes, including torture and unprovoked aggression, in connection with the Iraq war?
2. Shall our elected officials in Illinois take steps to phase out nuclear power in the state, replacing it with renewable sources such as wind and solar?
Join NWCPJ for Iraq Moratorium each third Friday of the month to protest the ongoing Iraq War and Occupation. The Iraq Moratorium is a national movement occurring on the THIRD FRIDAY of every month beginning Friday September 21 until the war ends.
Sign up at the website and join with millions to:
- Wear & distribute black ribbons and armbands
- Buy no gas on that day
- Pressure politicians and the media
- Hold vigils, pickets, rallies, and teach-ins
- Hold special religious services
- Coordinate events in music, art, and culture
- Host film showings, talks, educational events
- Organize student actions: Teach-ins, school closings, etc.
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For more information or events in your area contact The Iraq Moratorium.
No Expulsions for Morton West High School Antiwar Students!!
NWCPJ thanks all those who signed petitions, wrote letters, made calls and attended the rallies and meetings to support the Morton West High School students who were threatened with
expulsion after staging a sit-in to protest the Iraq War on November
1, 2007.
More than two hundred students participated in the All Saints Day anti-war
protest through the course of the day. Our next jobs will be to clear the records of the students involved and to get counter-recruiters into the campus on a regular basis.
Thanks also to Students for a Democratic Society for their petition for individuals: http://www.petitiononline.com/mortonw/
and for Student,
community, civil liberties, human rights and labor organizations: http://cccsds.wordpress.com/
In order
to have an organization placed on the petition, please contact cbrenz [at] gmail.com ASAP.
Here's the story: Dozens of Berwyn High School Students Faced Expulsion After Antiwar Sit-In on November 1. The school cafeteria event served in part as a counterpoint in the
school setting to military recruiters on campus, who routinely visit the high
school multiple times each week seeking to enlist young people into military
service. More than two hundred students participated in the All Saints Day
anti-war protest through the course of the day.
Students
complied with a school administrator's request to move the action outside the
cafeteria after initially being assured that the only disciplinary action they
would face was citation for cutting classes. But administrators subsequently
threatened expulsion, including for students who joined the sit-in later in the
day. Administrators have since issued formal notices to dozens of student that
they will be expelled from the school, suspended many more, and threatened to
bring criminal charges against students age 17 and older who participated in
the anti-war action.
School
administrators also put the school on lockdown briefly during the All Saints Day
protest. That action stands in stark contrast to administrators’ response to a
report of a student with a gun on campus last month. In that incident,
administrators chose not to lock down the school.
The
District has said they will issue final decisions on appeals of the
suspensions, on Tuesday, however, they say the orders of expulsion still stand.
The District 201 School Board is scheduled to meet at 7PM at Morton East High School on Wednesday evening.
Morton West High School parents are planning a press
conference for Tuesday morning, where they will read a letter to the school
superintendent demanding complete amnesty for the students, and then parents
and students will take questions from the press before delivering the letter to
the School
District
201 office. You can also read more about
the event here:
[ http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/80059/index.php
]
Oct. 27, NWCPJ and others took part in the Stop the War Now! Chicago Regional Mobilization Against War and Occupation in Iraq. More than 100,000 marched in the 11 regional and scores of local demonstrations throughout the country. Full details and pictures are available at oct 27.org and at oct27chicago.org.
 A Concert for Peace, on Sept. 8, was fabulously successful and a lot of fun. NWCPJ thanks all those who helped in this effort: the artists and performers who donated their time and all the volunteers from Unity Temple and Oak Park Coalition for Truth and Justice.
The Vote was "Yes" for Peace November 7, 2006! Illinois voters took the opportunity to vote yes for withdrawal from Iraq.
Election results of Townships:
- Berwyn-yes 71%
- Riverside-Yes 61%
- Oak Park-Yes 76%
- DeKalb-yes 58%
- Geneva-Yes 52%
- Aurora-Yes 58%
- Downers Grove-Yes 55%
- Champaign-Yes 58%
- Cunningham (Urbana) -Yes 65%
- Capital (Springfield) -Yes 59%
Election results of Counties:
- Cook Co.- Yes 73%
- Whiteside- Yes 59%
NWCPJ's message to Rep. Dan Lipinski: After repeated requests, our Congressman finally published his Iraq position on January 10. This, our reply, dated January 22, 2007 was delivered to his offices during the lobbying efforts tied to the national protests of the Iraq war. The complete letter follows.
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