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Vermont towns vote down the war

Published Mar 9, 2005 3:16 PM

Vermont activists put the Iraq War on the agenda of Town Meeting Day here this year. The New England tradition of town meetings is rooted in the 17th century.

On March 1, a snowy day, Vermonters spoke out in what is believed to be the first formal referendum on the U.S. war against Iraq. The resolution got on the agenda in some 56 towns--more than 20 percent of the state's municipalities--after 5 percent of the voters signed petitions.

By evening, at least 40 towns had passed the call for the president and Congress to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.

Three other towns tabled the resolution for consideration, three refused to consider it, and four defeated it.

Vermont has the highest per-capita rates of National Guard deployment and casualties in the Iraq War of any state in the country. National Guard members from 200
of this small state's towns and cities have been shipped
off to fight a war which the resolution made clear was based on lies.

While the resolution has no sharp teeth, anti-war activists who worked to put it on the agenda stress that they did so to create a grassroots discussion in schools, town halls and libraries.

Feinberg spoke to an audience of 900 in Burlington on March 4. She urged all to take the grassroots anti-war movement into the streets on March 19.