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Peace corps
Maine’s anti-war activists have found a way to make their congressional delegates listen. Now they’re sharing it with people in other states
BY SARA DONNELLY

In December 2004, 13 anti-war activists gathered in Senator Susan Collins’s office in Portland, Maine. They read the names of American soldiers who had died in the Iraq war, as well as an equal number of Iraqi civilians who had died. They occupied Collins’s office for roughly four hours and, before leaving, they asked the senator to hold a "town meeting" to discuss the war with her constituents.

On February 4, 2005, 17 activists gathered in Senator Olympia Snowe’s office, also in Portland. Again, they read the names of American soldiers and Iraqis who had died in the war — more than 2000 in total by that date. After reading each name, the activists marked X’s, in red or black marker, on a giant piece of cloth. They then asked Snowe to hold a town meeting on the war.

On March 18, 2005, 35 people gathered in Representative Tom Allen’s Portland office. They read the names of the war dead, marked X’s on a white sheet, and requested a town meeting — which Allen eventually agreed to.

On August 26, 2005, 75 people showed up for another occupation in Collins’s Lewiston office. This time someone brought a bell, which tolled for each name of the war dead.

The number of people attending each of these events is swelling, as is the pace and number of the events themselves — and that sense of momentum was all part of the Pine Tree State organizers’ plan. In little more than a year there have been seven nearly identical occupations of three of Maine’s four congressional delegates’ offices (as well as several informal meetings with US Representative Mike Michaud, who held a town meeting December 21, 2005), and they were all part of a coordinated action called the "Frequent Visit Program" (FVP), founded last December by some of Maine’s most fervent anti-war activists.

FVP’s ready-to-wear war-resistance model — an office occupation, a roll call of the dead, a request for public dialogue — has also been used in a handful of other states, including Massachusetts, thanks to FVP outreach. And with public support of the war plummeting and lightning rods like Cindy Sheehan and US representative John Murtha spreading the anti-war message, FVP creators think their particular form of protest is about to catch hold nationwide.

DRIP, DRIP, DRIP ...

The Frequent Visit Program follows a simple plan. First, "Visitors," as the participants call themselves, call or visit the offices of congressional delegates in groups of three or four. They request private meetings to discuss their concerns about the war. If they can’t arrange a meeting after several attempts, they stage a sit-in — or, as they usually call it, an "occupation" — in which they eulogize the Iraq war dead. If they don’t get a commitment to a town meeting, or a reasonable promise of one, they make phone calls, send letters, and write e-mails, several times a month, over and over and over, repeating the request. They apply frequent, pointed pressure. They are the guests who won’t leave.

Each core group of organizers changes based on who’s closest to the action. So the activist movement is decentralized, making it as dynamic as sand in a windstorm and enabling participants to adapt as needed. Sometimes occupations occur outside the office. Sometimes, they’re inside. And oftentimes there’s opportunity for inventive flexibility.

At the most recent occupation, for example, held at Senator Snowe’s Bangor office on the day of parliamentary elections in Iraq, organizers skipped the reading of the names of war dead and instead held a press conference. Later, they were forced to improvise at the last minute. For the first time in FVP’s history, the doors to a Maine congressional delegate’s office were barred. Two leading activists, Bruce Gagnon and Pat Wheeler, managed to slip inside before the doors closed and office staff called security to guard the entrance. Gagnon and Wheeler refused to leave. When everyone outside had been arrested (by police summoned by the landlord), they then went out and "in solidarity" were arrested as well.

Such persistence and creativity is hard to ignore. Antonia Ferrier, press secretary for Snowe, says the senator has not "ruled out" a town meeting but that no plans have been made to hold one.

"[Senator Snowe] wants to be able to hear from [the Visitors] as well as any Mainer about how they feel on any issue," says Ferrier. "That helps her formulate her policy and explain to her colleagues in Washington what she’s hearing at home and what the political will is of her constituents."

Kevin Kelley, a press secretary for Collins, says the senator "welcomes the communications from constituents" but prefers to meet one-on-one rather than in large, town-hall meetings.

Despite Maine’s reluctant senators, Gagnon notes that "two of the four pillars have fallen" and that, meanwhile, FVP has managed to foster real discussion of the war.

"We’ve been getting more and more people coming out of the woodwork wanting to be a part of this," explains Gagnon, coordinator of Brunswick’s Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, and one of the creators of FVP. "That really says something about the state of activism. People are desperate; they just want to become a part of something."

"To get the senators to agree to a town-hall meeting, we’ve done all kinds of typical things — we’ve written letters, we’ve visited their offices in small groups. It’s come to the point where we feel we have to go this next step to show how serious we are. We will continue to do this; it’s not a one-shot deal."

They’ll be successful, too, if Maureen Block’s experience continues to be borne out by others. An activist from Swanville, Maine, she became hooked on the Visit program from the first meeting she attended. Block heard about plans for the March occupation of Allen’s office from friends, and was struck by how organized the sit-in was. "The Frequent Visit Program was the first thing that was presented to me that would produce tangible results," she says. "It was direct action in the offices, making statements with a clear purpose."

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Issue Date: January 6 - 12, 2006
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