For Immediate Release
January 6, 2021
“END THE WARS” PROTEST TODAY (JANUARY 6)
IN FRONT OF SENATOR BOOKER AND SENATOR MENENDEZ’S OFFICE
IN NEWARK, NJ
Date: Wednesday, January 6, 2021
Time: 5:30 – 7:00 pm
Place: 1 Gateway Plaza, Newark, NJ
Contacts: Madelyn Hoffman at (973)876-1023
Lisa Davis at (973)517-1405
Bob Witanek at (908) 881-5275
THE PEOPLE ARE SICK, THE PEOPLE ARE DYING, THE PEOPLE ARE TIRED, as Senators Menendez and Booker turned their backs on the people of NJ, while voting to allocate 740 billion more dollars for these continuous, outrageous, immoral wars! The United States Congress has imposed an austerity budget on the people of the United States as many are barely hanging on during the COVID-19 Pandemic!
People are sick, people are dying, people are hungry, people are on the verge of being evicted in New Jersey, as our cries fall on the cold hearted, Wall Street bought, war mongering ears of the United States Congress, with the complicity of Senators Booker and Menendez! And while people have lost their jobs, are without healthcare, are being threatened with foreclosures, are living on the street, the US on average spends over 1 trillion dollars a year for the military. (But of course Congress is insulated from all of this as they make on average $174,000 per year, and are guaranteed 80% of their salary in retirement, in addition to all of the money they can accrue from speaking fees, etc.)
The NJ Anti-War Agenda, the Green Party of New Jersey, the Black is Back Coalition, and the Young Eco Socialists condemn the actions of Senators Cory Booker and Robert Menendez for their pro-war, anti-humanity vote. We call for an end to all of the was and demand that money be directed towards the needs of the people!!
Our senators should be ashamed of themselves for not allowing this proposed increase in the stimulus check to even get a vote in the U.S. Senate. Shame on them for being so out of touch with the people in their states struggling through this pandemic. Shame on them for thinking that somehow $600 is enough for people who have now accumulated seven more months of rent since the first stimulus check was sent out in May 2020. Simple math reveals that $600 amounts to a little more than $85 a month. Is this supposed to provide relief for the millions of U.S. residents struggling to survive?
To top it off, ending the filibuster opened the door for the U.S. Senate to vote on overriding Donald Trump’s veto of the NDAA, a bill that allocates $740 BILLION to the military budget to wage wars across the globe. This year’s version of the bill includes $33 million to overthrow the duly elected leader of Venezuela, a blatantly illegal and imperialistic action. It also continues the practice of sending $3.8 billion to the Israeli government annually for its continued brutal occupation of Palestine. Even in this time of a global pandemic, a larger number of Democrats than Republicans found it more important to allow a vote on the continued funding for war, death and destruction (to the tune of more than 50 cents on each of our tax dollars) than to have a vote on increasing the ability of the U.S. government to assist its own residents during these unprecedented and challenging times.
The actions of our senators and the others who voted to end the filibuster reveal, in one extremely significant moment, much of what is wrong with the direction of this country and much of why the people of this country are finding it so difficult to survive. The public is without single-payer improved and expanded Medicare for All, without cancellation of rents, mortgages and evictions incurred during this pandemic, without student debt forgiveness, without significant efforts to address climate change and much more, because the clear priority of the vast majority of those who represent us in the US Senate (Democrats and Republicans alike) is making sure the military gets all that it asks for, while the people are told to fend for themselves.
$600 is not enough to pay even one month’s rent, let alone seven! Especially in this day and age, but at all times, social programs should take precedence over anti-social programs.
Please join the NJ Anti-War Agenda, the Green Party of New Jersey, the Black is Back Coalition, the Young Eco Socialists and others on Wednesday, January 6th from 5:30pm to 7:00pm to protest these latest votes and to call for an end to U.S. imperialist wars! We will gather in front of the offices of Senator Menendez and Senator Booker at 1 Gateway Plaza in Newark.
Please follow the link below (to Instagram) to hear a statement from Anthony Samaniego, who chairs the YES Caucus’ peace committee as he discusses tonight’s action in Newark… his vision for a demilitarized world, a peaceful future, and a world where the U.S. respects the sovereignty of other nations.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CJuBoNWn7Gw/?igshid=ui6svj906ydf