Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice

Among the resolutions passed by Charlottesville City Council are these:

• 1971 End the War on Vietnam

• 1973 Condemning Nixon’s freeze on affordable housing funding

• 1981 For funding for defense lawyers for indigent

• 1981 In support of Equal Rights Amendment

• 1982 For nuclear disarmament

• 1983 For nuclear disarmament

• 1984 Against Apartheid in South Africa (First in U.S. South.)

• 2000 For abolishing the death penalty in Virginia (First in Virginia.)

• 2003 Against attacking Iraq

• 2003 Against the PATRIOT Act

• 2004 For the repeal of same-sex marriage bans

• 2006 Against same-sex marriage bans

• 2007 End the War on Iraq

• 2008 Flying Tibetan flag

• 2012 No War on Iran (First in U.S.)

• 2012 For clean elections

• 2013 No drones (First in U.S.)

• 2015 In support of convention for elimination of discrimination against women

• 2017 For citizenship for immigrants

• 2017 For moving the money from militarism to human needs

• 2019 Divestment from Weapons and Fossil Fuels

• 2020 No War on Iran

• 2020 Demilitarizing the Charlottesville police

• 2024 For a ceasefire in Gaza

The most common objection to local resolutions on national topics is that it is not a proper role for a locality. This objection is easily refuted. Passing such a resolution is a moment’s work that costs a locality no resources.

Americans are supposed to be directly represented in Congress. Their local and state governments are also supposed to represent them to Congress. A representative in Congress represents over 650,000 people — an impossible task.Most city council members in the United States take an oath of office promising to support the U.S. Constitution. Representing their constituents to higher levels of government is part of how they do that.

Cities and towns routinely and properly send petitions to Congress for all kinds of requests. This is allowed under Clause 3, Rule XII, Section 819, of the Rules of the House of Representatives. This clause is routinely used to accept petitions from cities, and memorials from states, all across America. The same is established in the Jefferson Manual, the rule book for the House originally written by Thomas Jefferson for the Senate.

In 1798, the Virginia State Legislature passed a resolution using the words of Thomas Jefferson condemning federal policies penalizing France.

In 1967 a court in California ruled (Farley v. Healey , 67 Cal.2d 325) in favor of citizens’ right to place a referendum on the ballot opposing the Vietnam War, ruling: “As representatives of local communities, board of supervisors and city councils have traditionally made declarations of policy on matters of concern to the community whether or not they had power to effectuate such declarations by binding legislation. Indeed, one of the purposes of local government is to represent its citizens before the Congress, the Legislature, and administrative agencies in matters over which the local government has no power. Even in matters of foreign policy it is not uncommon for local legislative bodies to make their positions known.”

Abolitionists passed local resolutions against U.S. policies on slavery. The anti-apartheid movement did the same, as did the nuclear freeze movement, the movement against the PATRIOT Act, the movement in favor of the Kyoto Protocol (which includes at least 740 cities), etc. Our democratic republic has a rich tradition of municipal action on national and international issues.

Karen Dolan of Cities for Peace writes: “A prime example of how direct citizen participation through municipal governments has affected both U.S. and world policy is the example of the local divestment campaigns opposing both Apartheid in South Africa and, effectively, the Reagan foreign policy of “constructive engagement” with South Africa. As internal and global pressure was destabilizing the Apartheid government of South Africa, the municipal divestment campaigns in the United States ramped up pressure and helped to push to victory the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986. This extraordinary accomplishment was achieved despite a Reagan veto and while the Senate was in Republican hands. The pressure felt by national lawmakers from the 14 U.S. states and close to 100 U.S. cities that had divested from South Africa made the critical difference. Within three weeks of the veto override, IBM and General Motors also announced they were withdrawing from South Africa.”

Watch us argue for a resolution on March 20, 2017: