The South Bay Occupation Project is organizing a campaign of sustained nonviolent civil disobedience to end the Iraq War and Occupation.
We began to occupy the offices of Reps. Honda, Eshoo and Lofgren starting February 5th and will continue the occupation until these “representatives” pledge to vote against continued war funding. We solicit your support in joining us and/or calling and faxing their local offices while we’re there with the demand that Honda, Eshoo and Lofgren pledge to vote against the supplemental appropriation of $124 Billion to fund the military occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the so-called Global War on Terror (and other goodies added by the Democratic leadership to buy votes).
You may participate in any way that works for you. Some may join us in sitting in the district congressional offices; some may choose to write letters and send faxes; some may choose to demonstrate outside the congressional offices; some will make other contributions. All are welcome.
Participants of the South Bay Occupation Project – California, met with Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA-15) on Wednesday, February 21st.
Our meeting was set for 2:30pm, and our group of 10 arrived at his office at about 2:20pm. Six of us were Mike’s constituents, 3 were Zoe Lofgren’s constituents (CA-16) and one was Anna Eschoo’s constituent (CA-14). Linda from Eshoo’s district works in the 1999 building where Honda’s office is located and she has joined us in occupying his office since February 5th. Doug, Maureen, Cherry (she is with Code Pink and joined us today), Ruth (with Veterans For Peace and who has been sitting in Honda’s office with us since before February 5th), Frank, (who recently joined our group and has a long history of confronting Honda on various issues related to violations of international law on the part of the USA) and I (Merriam) represented Honda’s constituency. Steve, (who is new to peace activism and has been with our occupation group since the beginning of February) Donna and Darlene (who have been with the Occupation Project since day one) represented Lofgren’s district.
We arrived for our meeting about 10 minutes early and filled up the reception area. Charlene, Honda’s staff person who schedules appointments, informed us that the meeting would be only with Doug and Maureen and for only 10 minutes. Our group was having none of that. Doug had set up the appointment a week before and it was confirmed at that time the meeting would be with the Occupation Project group and for 1 hour’s time.
Each and every one of us made it abundantly clear to Honda and his staff that we would not accept anything less than a meeting with our entire group and for the allotted time of an hour and that none of us were leaving until we had a meeting with Honda. Well, this sent Charlene and the staff into a flurry of action. We all sat there as we watched Charlene deliberating with Honda and Meri Maben, Honda’s Chief of Staff. We also watched as the 10 minutes allotted to Doug and Maureen slipped away.
None of us were budging on our demand to meet with Honda. Within 12 minutes we were all escorted into Honda’s office and had our meeting with Honda, Meri Maben and another Honda staff person. We were told as we were being escorted into the office that we would only have 25 minutes. In actuality we spent closer to 45 minutes in the meeting with Honda and we were fine with that. Our priority was to meet with Honda and we achieved that. We each had plenty of time to address Honda with questions, statements and demands.
Cherry asked Honda to co-sponsor HR 508, the Woolsey-Lee-Waters bill. Darlene demanded that Honda consider the Kucinich 12 point plan for Iraq. We all demanded that he pledge to vote against the Supplemental Appropriation bill.
Honda did not make this pledge to us.
Following our meeting, Honda became a co-sponsor of HR 508.
On Thursday March 15th, Honda voted in favor or reporting out the Pelosi-Obey Supplemental Appropriations bill from the House Appropriations Committee. Some of us were at Honda’s Campbell office on the 15th and Meri Maben, Honda’s District Chief of Staff, told us that the Democrats had to stay united behind the Pelosi-Obey bill. She also informed us that the reason the language prohibiting an attack on Iran was removed from the bill was because of the strength of the Israeli lobby.
We anticipate that Honda will vote in favor of the Pelosi-Obey bill in the House sometime in the next few weeks.
We also anticipate that Lofgren and Eshoo will vote in favor of the Pelosi-Obey bill.
Yesterday, March 20th, we staged a die-in in from of Lofgren’s office from noon to 1pm. We had eight participants and confronted Lofgren (who was not present) and her staff once again with their killing ways.
This last weekend, several people staked “Tell Mike Honda to Vote Against War Funds” signs around the district.
We hope you will support us in our endeavors.
Here is the contact info.
Mike Honda District Office 1999 South Bascom Ave Suite 815 Campbell, CA 95008 Phone: (408) 558-8085 Fax: (408) 558-8086
Zoe Lofgren District Office 635 N First St Ste B San Jose, CA Phone: 408-271-8700 Fax: (408) 271-8713
Anna Eshoo District Office 698 Emerson Street Palo Alto, California 94301 Telephone: (650) 323-2984 or (408) 245-2339 or (831) 335-2020 Fax: (650) 323-3498
In solidarity,
South Bay Occupation Project
