This faith-based, pacifist community strives to make the connection between militarism and poverty. For example, community members have protested at the Pentagon, the White House, embassies involved in gross human rights violations and other institutions to condemn policies that harm the poor. Catholic Workers have endured jail sentences as a result of acts of civil disobedience. D.C. Art Laffin from the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker left on Sunday, February 8 for Iraq as part of a ten-person Voices in the Wilderness delegation.
Voices send delegates to Iraq with medical supplies to call for an end to the devastating sanctions.
United Nations statistics suggest 4,000 Iraqi children die each month from hunger and disease. The demonstrators will demand a nonviolent diplomatic solution to the crisis with Iraq, a cessation of military threats against the country and an end to sanctions, which are believed to have caused the death of some 1,000,000 million Iraqis, including an estimated 700,000 children. Detroit's Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton will join others in risking arrest by demonstrating in front of the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue. Five protesters calling for an end to the sanctions and a nonviolent solution to the crisis in Iraq were arrested in front of the White House on February 5. The peace and justice community in the Baltimore-Washington area will continue to organize against the sanctions and for a nonviolent diplomatic solution to the crisis in Iraq.