During the opening night of the RNC the convention was interrupted twice by two activists with CODEPINK Women for Peace. As Gov. Walker concluded his remarks, Jodie Evans, 58 years old from Los Angeles, unfurled a banner that read “Wisconsin: Where Austerity Failed First.”   Responded to Walker’s talk, she shouted, “You just lied! You said Wisconsin unemployment went down but it is up to 8%!  Where are the jobs?  Where are the needs of the workers here? You only talk about business.  You only talk about corporations, not people. We need to support people over profits!”
 
“Listening to yet another Republican get away with lies about creating jobs when this party is destroying the economy made me heartsick,” said Evans, cofounder of CODEPINK.  “Wisconsin has suffered enormously under the Romney-Ryan economic plan of austerity, tax cuts, and attacks on workers.  We need a better plan for America.”  The Milwaukee Sentinel in July stated that Wisconsin unemployment had gone up by 8% and Wisconsin had lost 17,500 jobs.   
 
Moments later, Alli McCracken, 23 years old from Washington, DC, stood up during Rick Santorum’s speech and shouted, “People over profits! Money out of politics! Stop the wars! End the war on women!” McCracken articulated the sentiment that is on the hearts and minds of so many American voters who are appalled by the oversaturation of corporate money in the most expensive election ever.” As a young woman, McCracken felt compelled to speak out against GOP policies that prioritize corporations over human needs. “Both parties continue to profit from corporate interests and war,” said McCracken. “And the Republicans are particularly bad when it comes to women’s rights. I can’t be quiet while the GOP tries to take away the reproductive rights my parents’ generation worked so hard for.”
 
Evans and McCracken were both escorted out of the building and released. CODEPINK is coordinating daily actions to protest the Republican Convention and will protest corporate money in politics and ongoing wars overseas at the Democratic Convention as well.  Today, August 28, CODEPINK did a die-in outside the NRA sponsored shoot-out for RNC delegates, staged a mock-arrest of Condoleeza Rice, and live now CODEPINK is holding an open mic at Hamburger Mary’s in Ybor City to speak out against war and inequality and respond to Ann Romney’s speech.  

Photo of Evans and banner: http://www.flickr.com/photos/codepinkalert/7884678528/in/photostream

For the latest photos of CODEPINK at the RNC protests see here:  www.codepink.org/rncphotos