BROOKLYN ANTI-WAR RALLY

New York, July 26th

Support is growing all over New York for a major anti-war rally in Brooklyn's House of the Lord Church, for over 40 years a center of peace and justice activism in the Black community. The Rev. Herbert Daughtry
and the MLK Jr. Peace Now Committee of his church have called the rally to "Bring the Troops Home Now."

Sponsored by International ANSWER, the rally calls for an end to the colonial occupation of Iraq: "No more lying or dying for oil. Money for jobs and human needs, not war!"

"I have spoken to a mother whose son came home dead. I spoke to a family whose daughter is missing in Iraq," Daughtry told Workers World. His largely Black congregation is skeptical of the lies about the war.
"We in the African American community are born skeptical. We live with lying presidents. We live with reneging presidents, and we live with
terror. Terror didn't start with Sept. 11, 2001," said Daughtry, alluding to the terror that has plagued the Black community since the beginning of slavery.

"Now the larger population is becoming more skeptical, but this war was so unnecessary, so unjustified. It is so painful. We have been saying
that all along. The war in Iraq started in 1991, and it never let up. Right-wing religionists have invoked 'Godblessings' upon the Bushites'
war on Iraq.

"Now we are learning to unravel the lies about 9/11, about the non-existent weapons of mass destruction, the non-existent links between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. The administration said, 'We are doing this to liberate the people of Iraq.' The media abdicated any semblance of impartiality. And the people [in the United States] went along with it.

"We were beaten with the American flag. 'You have to support our troops.' Now our kids are being killed. Well, we say: Bring them home! We don't want to be there to support the oil companies.

"We were saying the war was wrong all along. We have invited Cynthia McKinney to come to the rally. She was blasted for telling the truth."

McKinney, who opposed Washing ton's war mobilization all along, lost her position as representative from Georgia in the U.S. Congress as a result of an unre lenting rightist campaign against her.

"We are getting a good response already for Aug. 19," said Daughtry.

This excitement is echoed by youth from International ANSWER and the anti-war, GI-support group SNAFU, which have been conducting street rallies around New York to get out the word about the Brooklyn event.
These rallies feature anti-war speakers and the hip-hop sounds of Movement in Motion. The activists have been leafleting and "raising anti-war consciousness among working class people," according to Judi Cheng, one of the ANSWER organizers. "We are telling people about the dangers of militarism abroad and cutbacks and job loss in our communities.

"Recruitment is a poverty draft," said Cheng. "When we meet people in the streets, they are put off by the war. They're saying, 'No way, we're not joining the military.' We're saying to young people, 'Join the anti-war movement.'"

Movement in Motion singer David Rosen described a meeting in Harlem where they played music and passed out leaflets in front of an armed forces recruiting station. "We staged a die-in. People were really engaged with the music and the street theater. We are bridging the gap between the artists and the activists. After we sang, we all lay down and there were dolls covered in fake blood. One mother brought her kids up close and said, 'That is what our government is doing, you'd better stop and look at them.'"

Rosen said that Movement in Motion and organizers from SNAFU and ANSWER would be at Utica Avenue and Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn on Aug. 13 to
perform and to leaflet for the Aug. 19 rally.

"We use our music as a tool for outreach, to let people know about events like the Aug. 19 and Oct. 25 rallies against the occupation," said Rosen. After a Saturday street meeting in the Bronx, Monica, another SNAFU activist, said, "We gave out all our literature. People
were really positive and interested in the Brooklyn rally. This event is really building."