Activists back spending boycott

They're calling their protest "Not One Damn Dime Day" — or, just in case Internet spam filters don't like the expletive, "Not One Red Cent Day."

The idea, said Utahn Elizabeth Luntz, is to get President Bush to listen to dissenters who don't agree with his war policies in Iraq. Since he didn't heed anti-war protests before and after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the argument goes, maybe he'll take note of a national spending boycott on Inauguration Day 2005.

"Our roots are in non-violent civil disobedience. . . . This is how you overthrow an oppressive regime, and we feel this is an oppressive regime," said Luntz, one of hundreds of Utahns planning some form of protest on the day Bush officially becomes president for the second time.

The Wasatch Coalition for Peace and Justice, and People for Peace and Justice, are sponsoring an anti-war inauguration on Thursday, followed by a larger protest rally Saturday.

The groups are encouraging Utahns to hold "discussions, vigils, forums on war and moral values at your home, school, workplace, place of worship, community center" at noon Thursday. From 5-6:30 p.m. Thursday, the groups will sponsor a protest at the federal building, 125 S. State. Speakers will include Kathy Dopp of Utah Count Votes, the Rev. Dan Webster of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship, members of Veterans for Peace, and East High student activist Tyler Bugden.

The Saturday rally begins at noon at the federal building, followed by a march to the City-County Building at Washington Square for a 1 p.m. event with music and speakers.

"The idea behind the protest is to bring attention that there are dissenting voices," said Wasatch Coalition for Peace and Justice member James Mouritsen. The group is calling for "an end to U.S. military intervention in the Middle East and around the world"; money for jobs, education and health care rather than war; a repealing of the Patriot Act; and "an end to Israel's occupation of Palestine."

Not everybody who is against U.S. involvement in Iraq or other policies of the Bush administration favors the Not One Damn Dime Day boycott. At a recent planning meeting for the anti-war inauguration, said Mouritsen, people were divided on the matter. Some were concerned that refusing to buy anything on Thursday will tend to hurt small, local businesses.

Andy Fletcher, owner of Orion's Music in Salt Lake City, was against the war in Iraq but thinks Not One Damn Dime Day is a "counterproductive form of protest."

"First of all, the idea of not spending any money at all is ridiculous," he said. "You'd have to lie in bed, unwashed, in the cold with the lights off to not spend any money."