The United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) national conference took place from June 22 – 24 in Chicago. A little over 300 people, representing 184 organizations, attended. I was there as a delegate from Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace. Also from our area was Elliot Adams of Vets for Peace. Other attendees came from the Hudson Valley, Syracuse, Buffalo, the New York City area and from 35 other states; there also were several international guests.

The conference called for regional demonstrations to be held on October 27th in six to eight cities around the country. In our region, there will be Boston and New York City demonstrations. Additionally, the conference adopted a call for a series of actions starting in August, which would comprise a moratorium against the war. These will include some continuing actions of the Occupation Project and activity on the 3^rd Friday of every month.

On Saturday night, an inspiring rally was held. Fourteen young men and women from Iran who are on a bicycle trip that started in Iran were present. They went across Europe and are now in the US. This is a bicycle tour for peace in which they are contacting government officials and peace activists to ask them to join together to oppose an attack on Iran. Additionally, the rally heard from two Iraqi Union leaders who are on a tour of the country sponsored by US Labor Against the War. The Iraqi union leaders are Feleh Abood Umara, General Secretary of the powerful Iraqi Oil Workers Union, and Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, President of the Iraqi Electrical Utility Workers Union and the first women union president of an Iraqi union. Both gave impassioned talks calling for the withdrawal of US troops. Then they made a gesture of solidarity with the Iranian bikers, hugging them as bothers and sisters for peace. Other speakers included Dr. Mona El-Farra, Vice President of the Gaza Red Crescent, who spoke of the recent fighting and pointed the finger of blame directly at the US government. Tran Xuan Thu, president of the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin, spoke while other victims of Agent Orange and Dioxin stood behind her. She talked about the widespread destruction that Agent Orange caused in her country in the form of birth defects, cancer, and death.

Also speaking was Jeremy Corbyn, a member of the UK Parliament since 1983 and leader of the British Stop the War Coalition. When you see the British Parliament discussions on CSPAN, you may not realize that the questions asked of Tony Blair are from MPs chosen by lottery. By chance, Corbyn won the lottery for Wednesday, 6/27/07, Blair’s last day as Prime Minister. He will ask a question about the topic that caused Blair to leave office: Iraq.

A new steering committee of 29 people was elected. This steering committee will choose an additional 11 members. The UFPJ leadership felt that it was important to do it in this way to achieve diversity goals for the steering committee that are part of the UFPJ by-laws. I was put forward for the steering committee by Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace but was not elected. In the future, it might be important for our region to get together and insure a representative on the steering committee. We have achieved much in this area, and our experiences could make an important contribution to the steering committee. We also recognize the limitations that we need this national coalition to help overcome.

If anyone would like to discuss the conference in greater depth, please call me at 518-439-1968.

Peace,

Joe Lombardo