Note: The Socialist Party USA, Greater New York City Local has endorsed this event. SP members should make every effort to come out! --- http://www.newyorksocialists.org

War Resisters League

339 Lafayette Street
New York, NY 10012

www.warresisters.org.

Contacts:
Frida Berrigan 347.683.4928
Todd Eaton 917.620.7781
Ed Hedemann 718.768.7306

February 17, 2006 For Immediate Release

NEW YORK CITY WAR RESISTERS TO HOLD IRAQ WAR FUNERAL MARCH IN BROOKLYN ON PRESIDENT'S DAY 2006
Brooklyn, NY - The New York City Local of the War Resisters League (WRL) will hold a funeral march on Monday, February 20, 2006, to protest the loss of life in the war being waged in Iraq. Gathering across from the corner of Remsen and Court Streets (in front of Brooklyn Borough Hall steps) at 11:30 am on Monday, participants will assemble coffins draped in black and in American flags, representing the Iraqi and Americans killed in the war.

This is the fourth funeral procession in as many months and the NYC War Resisters League plans to continue the processions until the war in Iraq is ended and the last soldier is returned home. Organizers have announced that the marches will occur monthly and will visit a wide variety of New York City recruiting centers - in all five boroughs. This is the first of the marches to occur outside the borough of Manhattan.

The marchers for the February 20th protest will gather at the the Brooklyn Borough Hall steps at the rear of the bulding. From there, stepping off at 12:00, participants will march in a solemn procession bearing coffins and wearing bibs depicting US and Iraqi war dead. February's march will include a vigil at the recruiting station at 41 Flatbush Ave near the Fulton Mall.

No permits have been sought from the city of New York by the organizers of the march. Individuals interested in participating are invited to come to Borough Hall at 11:30 A.M. The march will proceed single file and obey all traffic laws. Participants are asked to maintain a solemn silence and nonviolent disposition throughout the march.

Thomas Good, a War Resisters League activist, states: "We intend visiting as many recruiting centers in New York City as possible in order to bring the war home to a military machine that preys upon our youth". War Resister and Brooklyn resident Ed Hedemann noted, "we are here to show that the opposition to the war is firmly rooted in all of New York City's communities."

Brooklynite Todd Eaton points out that, "we march to honor the massive number of Iraqi dead including victims of sanctions and the deaths that have occurred due to unrepaired infrastructure in the shattered nation of Iraq."

Among the organizers of the monthly funeral procession are members of the War Resisters League, the Industrial Workers of the World, Catholic Worker, CodePINK and several other anti-war and labor organizations. The monthly vigils have been endorsed by the Socialist Party of NYC and Next Left Notes, an independent news outlet.

The War Resisters League is an 82-year-old secular pacifist organization, headquartered in New York City, and is affiliated with the War Resisters' International, which is based in London. WRL believes war to be a crime against humanity, and advocates Gandhian nonviolence as the method for creating a democratic society free of war, racism, sexism, and human exploitation.

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