WAMM Activist: Marie Braun

by Marie Simpson, WAMM

The Minnesota Alliance for Progressive Action (MAPA) recently chose longtime activist and WAMM member, Marie Braun, to receive their Progressive Activist award. Anyone who has observed, with awe, Marie's dedication, energy, and persistence is certainly not surprised that Marie's work is being recognized. She is a phenomenal grassroots activist working against the UN/U.S. sanctions imposed on the people of Iraq.

Marie, who became a WAMM member shortly after WAMM was formed, has been an active participant in numerous actions, including the Honeywell Project, protests against the School of the Americas, and vigils at Alliant Techsystems to protest the production and use of indiscriminate weapons systems, including landmines, cluster bombs, uranium 238 shells, and the objective individual combat weapon. Most recently, however, Marie has been a woman deeply compelled to do whatever she can to put an end to the suffering of the Iraqi people under UN/U.S.-imposed sanctions.

When Marie retired from her work as a therapist in December, 1997, she took three months to engage in some introspective reflection before deciding how to expend her energy and time in retirement. Two weeks short of the end of the three months, she ran into Mike Miles. Mike told Marie about his plans to go to Iraq as part of a group of 100 people willing to carry in medicines and medical supplies under the auspices of the International Action Center, a humanitarian group formed by Ramsey Clark.

Marie went home and informed her life partner, John, that she wanted to go to Iraq. She pulled the application form off the Internet (was it serendipity that she and John had just purchased a home computer and obtained Internet access?), applied for her passport, and--within five weeks--Marie was on her way to Iraq.

Since her trip to Iraq--an experience that challenged Marie to focus more attention on U.S. foreign policy--Marie has been a local force to be reckoned with. She has spoken at over 70 gatherings, including classrooms, churches, house parties, and civic group meetings. Marie will go any place where she is invited to speak. She has become knowledgeable and articulate about the immoral and ineffective nature of the economic sanctions against Iraq, their impact on Iraq's most vulnerable, and the "fallout" from U.S. use of uranium 238 in Desert Storm.

Marie is always stressing the need to involve the grassroots in the effort to lift the sanctions. She was instrumental in forming the WAMM Campaign to End Sanctions, the Twin Cities Campaign to Lift Sanctions, and the weekly vigils held each Wednesday at the Lake Street/Marshall Avenue Bridge to protest the sanctions and the bombing of Iraq. She works unendingly to involve people of all ages in this cause, at the grassroots as well as in the offices of local religious and legislative leaders.

Her efforts (along with the efforts of many others, she is quick to add) have resulted in supporting several people from the Twin Cities in their decisions to travel to Iraq, and encouraging the formulation and publicizing of a statement by the Minnesota Roman Catholic Bishops to lift the economic sanctions on Iraq. Over the past two years, she and other Minnesotans met with their elected officials on numerous occasions and in January, 1999, six Minnesota legislative representatives signed onto a letter to President Clinton asking that the economic sanctions against Iraq be lifted.

Marie organized a meeting between local religious leaders and Sen. Paul Wellstone (Dem., MN) in which the religious leaders asked the senator to circulate a letter to his colleagues in the Senate and to speak out unequivocally against the sanctions. She has been instrumental in involving many new young activists in the work of lifting the sanctions, and in helping to organize education and protest activities, too numerous to list, all with the goal of ending the UN/U.S. imposed sanctions on Iraq.

Marie Braun, a retired Minnesota social worker, may well be the best advocate Iraqi children will ever have. Congratulations, Marie, and from all of us, thank you.

Congratulations, Marie!

The Minnesota Alliance for Progressive Action (MAPA) will honor WAMM activist Marie Braun at their 2000 MAPA dinner, auction, and celebration entitled "People, Power, and Politics: Growing the Grassroots." Marie will be honored as a progressive activist alongside Remembering with Dignity (progressive campaign), the Building for Women Economic Justice Project (progressive youth collaboration), and Bruce Vento (elected official).

People, Power, and Politics: Growing the Grassroots: The MAPA Dinner, Auction, and Celebration
Saturday, December 2, 2000, 5:30 p.m.