Now I’m privileged to be learning about the history and culture of Iran.

This spring, the GPB decided it was critical speak out along with others who are trying to Prevent Another War, namely on Iran.

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The first event held on February 4th started with a demonstration in front of the New York Times’ building, protesting the newspaper’s coverage as being distorted and even war-mongering, and calling on the Public Editor to correct the coverage. Then we marched to Times Square for a larger rally and on to the UN Missions of Israel and the United States, all along passing out our literature.  After its disgraceful role in the lead up to the war in Iraq, we were outraged that once again, the Times is using innuendo and bluster to gin up the drive to attack Iran.

At a meeting to plan a second event, I mentioned that I knew very little about the country, other than that the US had overthrown Mosaddegh in 1953, and that in 1979 the country overthrew the Shah [King] and became an Islamic Republic. I wished there could be tourism between the two countries so I could go there and get to understand it better.

Even before learning much about the country, I also couldn’t understand the purpose of the sanctions that are spoken of so highly by governments trying to look like they would do anything to prevent themselves from bombing another country too hastily.  What has Iran done that requires other countries to punish them?  Will this punishing action [sanctions] make them toe the line, which line?  Has Iran, or its leaders, been given a list of things to do, or not do, which will cause ending of the sanctions? Aren’t sanctions, like a blockade, an act of war?

Ann Shirazi then told the committee that a way of making people aware of the Iranian culture was right in front of our faces, because NowRuz was coming.

What’s NowRuz, or NoRuz?

NoRuz means New Year and it’s known as the Persian New Year.  It began 3000 years ago in the Zoroastrian civilization and is celebrated today in the Middle East, South East Asia, the Indian subcontinent and Northern Africa. It occurs from the first day of spring for 13 days and includes preparing a table with [at least] seven items beginning with the letter “S” which symbolize things like peace, hope, rebirth, love, fertility, patience, health and beauty. The table is called a HaftSeen table which means seven S’s. Some of the items are familiar — garlic, vinegar, apples, and others are less so — crushed sumac berries (a red powder, like paprika), samanu (a sweet wheat pudding) and sabzeh (sprouts that look like the catnip in the green market).

As we planned when and where we would do the action and who would do what, I asked Ann to recommend a book about the country and its history.  She gave the names of two: “All the Shah’s Men,” and “The Ayatollah Begs to Differ.” I got both books from the library and read them quickly, learning so much more about the people and their values and the 20th century history of Iran.

Ann and I took a short bus ride to New Jersey to a fair in a hotel that was held to help people buy the ingredients for NoRuz. She told me stories of her visits to Iran over the years that gave me more of a feeling for the generosity and warmth of the people.

A few days before our second event, the Left Forum had a panel discussion about the looming war fever where I learned even more.

The second event on March 21st, the second day of Spring, took place in Times Square where we had a table with the seven S items and others, and passed out literature to the public explaining the  holiday and providing “Facts about Iran.”

I look forward to deepening my understanding about Iran as we plan additional events.   We hope to have a Teach-In in the coming months with experts who can explain more about the political, moral and economic aspects of world behavior toward Iran.

-Edith Cresmer
for the Granny Peace Brigade
Photos 1 & 3: Masahiro Hosoda
Photos 2: Caroline Chinlund

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Everyone gets 20 pennies to distribute among the eight categories. When we tally the pennies we divide the total by 20 to see how many people voted.

- Edith Cresmer
for the Granny Peace Brigade
Photos: Eva-Lee Baird

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The outreach action provided parents with information and questions to ask in order to better understand military recruiters’ promises and tactics. The response was positive, pro-education, and anti-military. There was no doubt that families need support, information, and resources to help their children succeed and reach their goals.

“The military won’t  get to my child.”

A volunteer notes that people were very receptive to one of our key pitches: ‘With the spring and warmer weather, the recruiters are going to be coming out again trying to get our kids. We want to make sure they are ready to challenge the lies they’ve been telling to get new bodies. The recruiters paint rosy pictures but we see how the new soldiers are when they come back.”

The Options for Life After High School flyer is a resource page which provides websites and contacts for CUNY/SUNY colleges, financial aid, scholarships, job skill programs and more. This flyer was popular and every parent wanted one.   As parents left the school after the meeting, I noticed they were still carrying the brightly colored sheets as they waved goodbye.

Volunteers were thanked; parents sincerely valued the outreach. Rob, a volunteer, writes, “I think people really appreciated hearing views that were consonant with their own unspoken ones. Really important we were out there just telling it like it is.”

And everyone can continue to tell it like it is. For downloadable copies of the flyers, tips on leafleting, and websites to visit, go to the Counter Recruiting page of the GPB website

- Barbara Harris
for the Granny Peace Brigade
Photo: Harry Bubbins

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At first, we don’t seem to be connecting — but Edith and Nancy start hustling the crowd and Bev and Joan are on the banner…and before you know it, our street-mojo kicks in and there’s a line at the table.  A young photographer with a great smile wants to take some photographs, then he takes a stack of pennies and starts feeding Ms. G.  Once again, we are dazzled by the smarts of the Average Joe and Josephine.

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These folks really think about the best use of our tax dollars. Now if only the people in Washington making the real budget decisions were as responsible and humane…

A very special shout-out to Eva-Lee, who did the impossible — she actually got a Man In A Suit to stop, hear our pitch and participate.

And to this unknown gentleman, you blew us all away with your thoughtful allocation of pennies.  Thank you, sir.  You are a rare breed.

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Until next time — and in peace always,

- Fran Sears

Photos 1 & 2: Eva-Lee Baird
Photo 3: Caroline Chinlund
Chart: Edith Cresmer

for The Granny Peace Brigade

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I am an American-born Iranian citizen  (member of the Granny Peace Brigade) married to a native Iranian for over 40 years. We go to Iran frequently. In fact we just returned last month and are making a return trip this month due to family illness. We have a huge family in Iran and so are involved with daily life and attitudes there. Iran, like all countries , has societal problems, and Iran is no exception. But as an American, for every human rights violation I read about in Iran, I think about the number of crimes in my own country, from Guantanamo  to our prison industrial system, to the increasing abuse of power by our government on human rights – invasions and murders, secret prisons around the world for “extraordinary rendition[sic]; domestically, the death penalty, HR 347, the Military Commissions Act, NDAA, Patriot Act,  torture, rapes and assassinations; and locally, as you know, the unending harassment and arrests of so many of us out on the street.

Iranians are more than capable of making changes in their own country. We cannot forget that Iran is one of the few countries that had a successful revolution to overthrow an American puppet regime. Because of this, it has been under attack and sanctions for over thirty years. In addition, some of the people who have written to you seem to think that everyone in Iran and abroad are against the current regime. This is not true. A majority of Iranian citizens , despite their suffering from high prices and hardship caused by the sanctions, are still supportive of the government. Whether we or anyone else in the US is in favor of a theocracy-and obviously most of us are not- this is strictly for Iranians living in Iran to decide. The opposition to sanctions and constant threats of war which are illegal under international law must be unconditional.

Human rights violations is an international issue–whether they occur in Iran, the US, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, or anywhere else. Yes, we must all oppose and work for change, beginning with our own government. But to isolate this issue regarding Iran gives the US an excuse to attempt to bully Iran into submission, to give up their rights in order to install another puppet regime and again steal their resources.

The last thing Iran needs is another CIA-orchestrated regime change like the one in 1953. The majority of Iranian people are very aware of the efforts of the US and its allies to destabilize and overthrow their government.  This is a time for us in the anti-war movement to stand with ALL the Iranian people against attack and sanctions, not just those with a particular agenda.

We really would like to be part of this most crucial conversation.

In solidarity,

- Ann and Ahmad Shirazi
for the Granny Peace Brigade

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The Honorable Michael Oren
Ambassador of Israel
Embassy of Israel
3514 International Drive N.W.
Washington, D.C.20008-3021

Excellency:

Respectfully I write to you concerning the Government of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, making particular reference to the closure of  Shuhada Street in Hebron and recommending its reopening.

The Government of Israel continues occupation of the West Bank and as the administering power has, along the sides of Shuhada Street, formerly a busy marketplace in this Palestinian City,  allowed settlements to develop and settlers to become privileged dwellers.  Palestinians are denied basic rights as residents.  In 1994 Shuhada Street was closed to Palestinians by the Israeli army after the killing of Palestinian worshipers by a settler. Thus the victims were punished!  The overall injustice to which Palestinian families, for many Hebron has been home for generations/centuries, have been subjected appears to be for the benefit of non-Palestinians simply because the non-Palestinians are Israelis.

It is appalling!  Palestinian-operated businesses have been closed; Palestinians may not leave their homes through a door that opens onto Shuhada Street — for a period passes were issued to allow use of doors opening onto Shuhada Street; there is military surveillance; Palestinians are forbidden to work or to drive on Shuhada Street. The settlers reign supreme in the home of Palestinians.  The humanity and the understandable and justifiable anger of Palestinian Arabs should be acknowledged.

Palestinian Mizrahi and Palestinian Arabs have lived together in these lands for centuries. As is known there have been documented conflicts in Hebron between Arabs and Jews.  Reference is made here to the 1929 massacre of Jews by Arabs.  Many Jews were saved by Arabs who took them into their homes.  In 1994 an Israeli settler attacked Moslem worshipers inside the Cave/Tomb of the Patriarchs — a place of worship both for Jews (Me’arat ha Machpela – Cave of the Double Tombs) and for Moslems (Al-Haram Al-Ibrahim – Sanctuary of Abraham [also] Ibrahim’s Mosque) — both people the “seed of Abraham” — both people  Semites.

Should not the plight of Palestinian Arabs be kept in mind by the Israeli occupiers?  Over the decades so many Palestinians have had to leave their homes, some of them ancestral homes.  Yes, there was a Holocaust but the Palestinians had no involvement in it — it was European.  The Palestinians did not turn away the St. Louis — It was the United States.  It is necessary for us to consider history forthrightly, to weigh culpability carefully, to assess ‘action and reaction’ accurately and with sensitivity/fairly.

The powerful combination of the Government of Israel and the Government of the United States makes it possible for the occupying power to act — while the world watches — often in disregard of rights and well-being of the people whose homeland it occupies.

I, Excellency, strongly believe it is within reason that all in life should have the right, among other rights, to –
sanctity of one’s of home and its property
one’s orchard/grove/farm
adequate access to homeland water supply
adequate access to energy sources and resources
leave and return home unimpeded
a childhood
learning
work
travel
freedom

Why should Palestinians be denied basic rights in their own homeland? Even the Balfour Declaration stated ‘… it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.’

Empathy for those perceived as ‘the other’ is needed.  Do we have sympathy for the people in both the town and the village dealt with here?  In her ‘New York Times’ op-ed article, December 28, 2011, ‘Honoring All Who Saved Jews,’ Eva Weisel described what happened in December 1942 when German troops occupied her hometown.  She was 13 years old.  I point out that a Palestinian of Eva Weisel’s generation also could describe an event no child — or adult — should have to experience.  In April 1948, the Arab village of Deir Yassin, in a part of Palestine which was to become part of Israel, was seized and occupied.  As I see it, if continuing physical and social carnage are ever to be understood as non-solutions in conflict resolution,  all of us will have to take to heart the plaintive utterance of Shylock  “…If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die?….”

Excellency, it is my request to your Office that your Government be urged to act to restore the rights of Palestinians, and in this connection that you recommend the permanent reopening of Shuhada Street in Hebron.

Respectfully submitted,

- Barbara Walker 
(retired United Nations staff member)

for the Granny Peace Brigade
Photo: Eva-Lee Baird

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Dear friends, I accept this award with pride but also with humility. It is a special honor to share it with Esther Cooper Jackson, a stalwart freedom fighter who has labored long in the vineyards for justice, dignity, equality  for the human rights of African and diasporan Africans.

Actors equity association gave me their Paul Robeson award almost 20 years ago. Paul Robeson and Bertolt Brecht have played influential roles in my development as an artist and in my journey as a human being working in theatre.  I take great pride in calling myself a cultural worker.

Shiba Russell, the NBC news anchor interviewed me a week ago on camera because she called me an unsung iconic heroine of theatre and black history. I like being called an icon but calling myself a cultural worker does not bring Hollywood contracts or running parts on daytime television or agents and managers, who send me in to read for Broadway roles, featured or starring or understudy or standby. If it’s a union contract, I will gladly work. I hope the NBC black history profile will air before the end of the month. Look for it on either the noon hour or 5 pm news slot.

Let us go back to the child I was going to Public School 10 and Junior High school 81 and Wadleigh, the girls only, high school in central Harlem. That black child had no understanding of the path that she was traveling. The present day octogenarian woman that I am can see the path clearly from the vantage point of time and distance, age and experience.

There is a difference between the path and the journey – the journey is the day to day, year to year, decade to decade experience which for me grew to become a deep abiding sense of identity and solidarity with all suffering peoples of the world and most particularly with women of the world.

Bertolt Brecht said “art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.”

Paul Robeson said “the artist must elect to fight for freedom or slavery”.

Paul made his choice and his courage helped me make mine.
Dear friends, let us stay on the move as we rededicate ourselves to the long, bitter but beautiful struggle for a just world, a peaceful world. Peace is our human right. we must not allow the forces of evil to take our human right for peace away from us.

Fight for peace.
Fight for the unborn children.
Fight for the spirits of our ancestors
Our ancestors from the inquisition,
From the middle passage,
From Hiroshima and Nagasaki
From all the brutalities that human beings through greed and ignorance have inflicted on one another down through the ages.
Peace is our human right
Speak up for peace
Speak out for peace
Stand up for peace
Because if we don’t, the evil, money grubbing profit making forces of imperialism and capitalism will roll all over us.

With that charge I gratefully accept this Bertolt Brecht award and end my remarks with this poem of Walt Whitman “So Long” from “Leaves of Grass.”

- Vinie Burrows

for the Granny Peace Brigade
Photo: Eva-Lee Baird

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I am a mother, grandmother, great grandmother and I am here with my colleagues who represent various organizations: women’s,  peace, social, labor – including among others  Code Pink, Womens International  League for Peace and Freedom, Women’s International  Democratic Federation, ETC.

We stand in front of the New York Times which represents the Fourth Estate an institution  which wields such power over the hearts and minds  of society with its ability to bring information to masses  of people – and with the authority of print.

We assert that the NY Times has used its tremendous power to bring disinformation to the people. To be precise, we accuse the NY Times  of printing on January 5, 2012  a front page  article about Iran and its nuclear intentions allegedly quoting the (IAEA) International Atomic Energy Agency that “Iran’s nuclear program has a military objective.”. Bowing to the avalanche of objections that this misstatement raised, the  NY Times later retracted the statement.

However the retraction was not printed on the front page but was hidden in the bowels of the paper.  We all remember the misinformation which aroused public opinions before our military invation of Iraq. We are seeing with alarm a similar situation vis-vis Iran. The front page of a recent New York Times Sunday Magazine section had an bold inflammatory image implying Iran’s nuclear proclivities.

For the past six years, the Granny Peace Brigade has borne witness to the terrible cost of our immoral senseless invasion of IRAQ and the carnage of Afganistan. Even as the administration wineds down involvement in these two shameful wars,  the NY Times and other media are ramping up their rhetoric to plunge us into yet another bloody conflict.  We demand that the NY Times reclaims it’s position as the “true paper of record” by returning to its journalistic integrity.

We have asked Mr. Arthur Brisbane, the public editor of the New York Times and responsible for retractions to join us. He is not here. From this location we shall march to Duffy Square to join the world communitiy in demanding demand- no war, no sanction, no intervention, no assassination against Iran.

From there, we will carry our message to the US and Israel Missions to the United Nations. Let us all join together to build a peaceful and just world.

I thank you and the Granny Peace Brigade thanks all of you who came out in such numbers to support this initiative.

- Vinie Burrows
for the Granny Peace Brigade
Photos: Bud Korotzer

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• Arts & Culture
• Education
• Environment & Clean Energy
• Health Care
• Housing
• Jobs
• Military
• Transportation

More about Ms. Gizmo here.

How did New Yorkers vote?

The message was clear:

Money for Jobs, Education, Housing, and Healthcare – Not for War.

The War Resisters League flyer of federal discretionary spending
shows how our money is really being spent.
We’ve got work to do.

Happy New Year! See you in the streets in 2012.

- Photos and captions: Eva-Lee Baird
- Chart: Edith Cresmer
for the Granny Peace Brigade

More photos on Facebook.

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Around 6:00PM Thursday evening three members of the Granny Peace Brigade, Bev, Pat D and I, joined about 60 other demonstrators and a bunch of cops in a ballet near the Brooklyn Bridge. We had our costumes and our moves worked out well in advance. The demonstrators sat; the cops stood; one had a bullhorn. That cop told us to move. We chanted so loud we couldn’t hear him but we knew what he said. We didn’t move and at the speed of light the officers asked us to stand and cuffed us. That was the end of the fast part.

The rest of the night was larghissimo all the way. Assigning us to officers took time, loading the buses took time (Thanks Buddy for being on the street waving!), the driver’s standup routine took time (he was funny), driving to One Police Plaza took time, being turned away and sent to Queens took time, and driving to the Queens Central Booking Unit really took time. And then it took hours to get all of us processed and into cells.

Each new arrival in the women’s cell was greeted with applause. We were an assorted group of gals; SEIU was well represented with Mary Kay Henry in the cell. There were several women from 1199 and a group from Make the Road. The oldest woman arrested will turn 75 next week and of course we sang “Happy Birthday.” One of our youngest cellmates was celebrating her birthday as an arrestee – we sang again – loud. My City Council Rep Melissa Mark Viverito was with us and was delightful company. We sat, we chatted, we sang a little more, we got hungry. The cops ranging in attitude from matter-of-fact courtesy to warm support and gratitude brought us water, milk and sandwich-like entities. When one of our cellmates complained about the cuisine another said, “At least they are trying. It’s whole wheat.” Now that’s a positive attitude! What ever “IT” is, it is tan and grainy and might be bread, and if you are hungry enough you eat it unless somebody has smuggled in an extra granola bar.

As the night wore on the heroic support team (it was a lot warmer in the cells) helped newly released arrestees find safe ways of getting home. Thank you Annabelle for being so gracious and steady throughout that cold night. Pat and I were released after 1:00AM and Pat went home to face work the next day. How she did that is beyond my comprehension – she’s tougher than she looks. Bev got out a little after 4:00AM and the support team got us a livery cab to share with 1199SEIU organizers going to Manhattan.

Our driver had been listening to the news throughout his 12-hour shift and thanked us for what we were doing. The car which belonged to the service, not to him, broke down in lower Manhattan. Hopelessly stalled, he called for another car. He called for a tow truck. He was worried that he would not be home in time to give his wife money so that she could get work and have lunch. They live day to day. Our driver was not making money while he was sitting with us in that broken car. The car was quiet but not his heart.

We are the 99%.

-Eva-Lee Baird
for the Granny Peace Brigade

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