CODEPINK: On the Hill to Stay
Roll Call Staff
CODEPINK has staged anti-war demonstrations at the offices of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), disrupted committee hearings, chanted songs in Capitol Hill hallways and unfurled banners in the Hart Building.
But if some Members of Congress were hoping this female-led group would eventually go away, they’ll be sorely disappointed.
Earlier this spring, after spotting a listing on Craigslist.org, CODEPINK signed a one-year lease on a row house near Union Station — giving the colorful group a semipermanent base of operation within walking distance of its intended audience.
“I hope [Members] are shaking in their boots,” says 60-year-old Ann Wright, a retired U.S. Army colonel and diplomat, who resigned her post at the U.S. Embassy in Mongolia in protest against the war. Wright, who is now a full-time activist, frequently stays at the house when she’s in Washington, D.C.
Aside from a CODEPINK bumper sticker on the front entrance and a feminine doormat out front, there isn’t much to distinguish the rather nondescript brick walk-up at 712 Fifth St. NE from its neighbors. A lone green sign in the yard reads: “Impeach Him.”
Inside, however, lies a veritable pink wonderland. Living room walls are papered in anti-war and anti-President Bush signs that have been used at protests. There’s a communal computer for blogging and a TV nearly continuously turned to CNN or C-SPAN. A pink straw hat is perched on a lampshade. Pink feather boas hang from a row of hallway hooks. There’s a board listing contact information for the current occupants of the House and a map with pushpins showing where they hail from. Another board lists potential targeted news conferences, briefings and hearings for each day. A bookshelf is stocked with copies of the Constitution.
About 60 women — ranging from elementary-school-age to grandmothers — have slept in the five-bedroom, four-level house for stays that average about a week. There’s an online application for admission to the house, which is typically reserved for “core organizers,” says Barnard College graduate Rae Abileah, 24, CODEPINK’s local groups coordinator.
“It’s like a sorority house but better,” says Dana Balicki, a bright-eyed, 26-year-old who grew up in the San Fernando Valley and has been working for CODEPINK since getting involved “right before” the 2004 Republican National Convention.
And like a sorority, there’s a house mother. Desiree Fairooz, a 50-year-old former librarian and schoolteacher who left behind her family in Arlington, Texas, to join the cause, is “our mama,” Balicki says.
CODEPINK doesn’t like the word “rules,” Fairooz says, although there are a few house guidelines that include respecting yourself and embracing the “feminist/womanist principles” of “anti-racism” and “cooperation.”
That’s all good in theory, but how do roughly 20 women share two and a half bathrooms — yes, there are pink shower curtains — peaceably? Just fine, asserts Fairooz, noting that a 15-minute limit in the bathroom is suggested.
Food comes in part from donations — a local activist who collects bread for the needy also helps supply CODEPINKers. “We’ve been needy lately,” Fairooz explains. There also are periodic runs to Costco, and everybody who stays at the house pays $5 per day into a general grocery fund. Given the short stays, the kitchen cupboards’ contents are labeled for easy usage. Chores are a shared responsibility. A pink sign tacked to the dishwasher warns that the current load is “dirty.”
CODEPINK co-founder Jodie Evans says the group — which emerged in the months leading up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq and whose name is a spoof on the Department of Homeland Security’s color-coded threat level system — was inspired to lease the house after a group of CODEPINK activists had briefly rented a house on the Hill and found the “community” they shared there “nurturing.” Having an official house, Evans adds, allows the group “to work closer together” and to respond “more quickly” to events around Washington. The $2,200-a-month rent is paid through member donations.
And the coolest room in the house? That’s the basement “peace room,” says 8-year-old Autumnrain Symphony, who arrived last week with her mom, Deidra Lynch, to take part in Mother’s Day peace activities. “It’s my favorite place,” the bespectacled fourth-grader confides, before breaking out into a rendition of a protest song to the tune of “God Bless America.” In the “peace room,” Autumnrain says she can escape the other “crowded” rooms and play dress-up with the various costumes and props the group keeps for its demonstrations.
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