FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Military Veterans Join the 99% in December 12 West Coast Port Shutdown

Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War to march with 99%, call on fellow veterans, service members to join the movement.

OAKLAND/SAN FRANSISCO (December 9, 2011)—On December 12th, the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) Bay Area Chapter will march with the 99% as Occupy movements along the West Coast stage mass mobilizations to shutdown the hubs of commerce owned by the 1%.

Members of the IVAW Bay Area Chapter will Occupy the Ports to draw attention to the financial and human costs of the wars, and the ways in which veterans have been impacted by the economic and social issues raised by the Occupy movement. These issues include the challenges of veterans re-entering civilian life after war and trauma and during economic recession, and looming cuts to veterans’ health care and VA services. They also hope to help make veterans’ and service members’ participation in this movement more visible and deliberate.

Scott Olsen will join the IVAW Bay Area Chapter to march with the 99% in Oakland, CA—the city in which he was critically injured by a police projectile. Scott’s decision to demonstrate so soon following a serious injury is symbolic of the Occupy movement’s resilience following a series of nation-wide, coordinated crackdowns against the 99%.  Scott doesn’t plan on backing down, neither does the movement; IVAW will be there, boots on the ground, to occupy the ports and show our support for the 99%.

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Iraq Veterans Against the War is nonprofit 501(c)3 advocacy group of veterans and active-duty US military personnel who have served in the U.S. Military since September 11, 2001. IVAW currently has over 1,400 members in fifty states, as well as in Canada, Europe, Iraq and Afghanistan.