Since November 17, Code Pink: Women's Pre-emptive Strike for Peace has maintained a vigil in front of the White House in Washington to protest against US President George Bush's planned war on Iraq. Women at the site have been fasting for days or weeks at a time.
Starting as a coalition of a number of women's organisations, including UnReasonable Women for the Earth, the National Organisation of Women and Women United for Peace, Code Pink has huge resonance among women in the US. Code Pink organising committees, protests and vigils have sprung up across the United States, involving thousands of women. Protesters wear an intense shade of fuchsia to give their actions a visual impact.
Code Pink is a play on the US government's terrorist alert "Code Red" and has a range of meanings. Hospitals use "Code Pink" to alert staff that a baby may have been abducted, this reference highlights the likely danger to innocent victims in war. The phrase also signifies protection of civil liberties, the promotion of peace and the celebration of life.
The explanation on the Code Pink web site reads, in part: "We love our country, but we will never wrap ourselves in red, white and blue. Instead, we announce a Code Pink alert, signifying extreme danger to all the values of nurturing, caring, and compassion that women and loving men have held. We choose pink, the color of roses, the beauty that like bread is food for life, the color of the dawn of a new era when cooperation and negotiation prevail over force."
"We are the mothers and wives and sisters of those who will be killed for oil", commented activist Anise Jenkins at the November 17 vigil.
Code Pink condemns the Bush administration for being prepared to spend billions of dollars on a war for oil, while basic social services such as healthcare and education are inadequate for millions of US people.
The web site also highlights the suffering of innocent civilians that will result from the war itself and poverty caused by the destruction of infrastructure and resources.
It says: "In Iraq today, a child with cancer cannot get pain relief or medication because of sanctions. Childhood diarrhea has again become a major killer. 500,000 children have already died from inadequate health care, water and food supplies due to sanctions. How many more will die if bombs fall on Baghdad, or a ground war begins?"
Rape is often used as a weapon of war, and women suffer worse from war's after-effects due to their greater poverty. Women are more likely to become refugees as a result of war.
Code Pink has also condemned the hypocrisy of the US government during the 2001 war on Afghanistan. After previously installing the Taliban government, and funding al Qaeda, with no regard for the negative impact this had on women, it claimed that women would be freed if the Taliban were removed from power. But little has changed under the new Afghan government.
The Bush administration's hypocrisy is even more sharply highlighted by its attacks on women in the United States, particularly on abortion access.
The enthusiasm behind the Code Pink protests has been remarkable, and is clearly reflected by the comments of activists on the website . "Most of the folks that we saw were really positive and supportive — taking flyers and buttons, signing the petition, and cheering us on", wrote picketer Autumn Leonard.
Code Pink intend to continue this action until International Women's Day on March 8, when there will be a women's peace march as part of a week of actions against the war.
The Code Pink web statement ends: "We call on all outraged women to join us in taking a stand, now. And we call upon our brothers to join with us and support us. These actions will be initiated by women, but not limited to women. Stand in the streets and marketplaces of your towns with banners and signs of dissent, and talk to your neighbors.
"Stand before your elected representatives: and if they will not listen, sit in their offices, refusing to leave until they do. Withdraw consent from the warmongers. Engage in outrageous acts of dissent. We encourage all actions, from public education and free speech to nonviolent civil disobedience that can disrupt the progress toward war."
BY NATALIE ZIRNGAST
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, January 22, 2003.
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