Hi there,

In this chaotic news cycle it may be tempting to tune out, but we hope you won’t—only an informed and engaged public can defend democracy. In these times of deep political polarization we need news that goes beyond play-by-play headlines, news that goes to the heart of each story by asking people to tell their own stories of abuses of power and injustice in their own words. If our journalism is important to you, please donate today. Every dollar makes a difference. Thank you so much.

Democracy Now!
Amy Goodman

Non-commercial news needs your support.

We rely on contributions from you, our viewers and listeners to do our work. If you visit us daily or weekly or even just once a month, now is a great time to make your monthly contribution.

Please do your part today.

Donate

Peace Activists Take Action to Keep Focus on War During Presidential Campaign

StoryJanuary 04, 2008
Watch Full Show
Listen
Media Options
Listen

Over a dozen antiwar activists were arrested this week at the Iowa offices of Mike Huckabee, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. The protests were part of a campaign called Seasons of Discontent: A Presidential Occupation Project. We speak to Frank Cordaro, a Des Moines Catholic Worker member who took part in the protests. [includes rush transcript]

Related Story

StoryMay 19, 2025Project Esther: NYT Details Right-Wing Plan to “Rebrand All Critics of Israel” as Hamas Supporters
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We wrap up now with staying in Iowa. Juan?

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, we end today’s show with a different perspective from Iowa. Over a dozen antiwar activists were arrested this week at the Iowa offices of Mike Huckabee, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. The protests were part of a campaign called “Seasons of Discontent: A Presidential Occupation Project.”

Frank Cordaro joins us in Des Moines. He took part in the protests this week and is a member of the Des Moines Catholic Worker. Welcome to Democracy Now!

AMY GOODMAN: Thank you, Frank.

FRANK CORDARO: Great to be with you.

AMY GOODMAN: Thanks for coming in. What did you do this week? We have just one minute. Explain what happened.

FRANK CORDARO: Well, we tried to interject the war into the issues of the presidential candidates. And what your last two guests said about there’s no difference between Hillary and Obama and/or Edwards about the war, they’re correct. They’re all about managing the war. They’re all about keeping the empire afloat. And we were simply trying to interject into the public arena, through a great American democratic tradition of civil disobedience, a real discussion about this war, about this country’s standing in the world, about us being an empire, and about us being an outlaw nation. So we did the best we could.

AMY GOODMAN: Frank, does the Occupation Project continue into New Hampshire?

FRANK CORDARO: Well, we sure hope it does. We hope it continues into the country. Folks, civil disobedience is the way we’re going to get anything changed in this country at this moment. A lot of people are doing it. We need a lot more.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, we’re going to have to leave it there, Frank. I want to thank you for being with us. Again, arrests at the various offices of the presidential candidates around the issue of war. That does it for our broadcast from Iowa.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Up Next

Project Esther: NYT Details Right-Wing Plan to “Rebrand All Critics of Israel” as Hamas Supporters

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top