Peace and Economic Justice

The Peace and Economic Justice Committee could also be called the Brooklyn For Peace Direct Action Committee. For it is within this committee that many of the street activities – tabling, leafleting, marching for peace are planned and brought to fruition. In that regard, the planning and discussions that take place in the IAC most often result in the activities that are the public face of Brooklyn ForPeace.

Another important function of our committee is our interaction with our elected officials, particularly the six Brooklyn members of Congress. We are proud that over the last few years we’ve succeeded, through visits, petitions and the sending of thousands of postcards, in producing a consistent stand against continued funding of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by four of the six Brooklyn Congressional members.

An incomplete list of PEJ activities over the last few years is impressive:

• Organized a large peace walk up Flatbush Avenue to mark the fifth anniversary of the war on Iraq.
• Held numerous public forums on the war. That includes a January 2010 discussion with anti-war veteran Tom Hayden that packed the Park Slope Methodist Church with over 300 local residents.
• Distributed tens of thousands of flyers that have galvanized local opinion against the wars. This campaign was coupled with tables in various Brooklyn neighborhoods at which thousands of postcards to Congress were collected. The result has been a solid and consistent anti-war majority of Brooklyn Congressional representatives.
• Reached out to other Brooklyn organizations, community leaders and clergy to assemble a coalition of progressive forces that could be more effective in winning change.
• Helped to set up local peace groups on a neighborhood basis – Fort Greene Peace and Flatbush For Peace have already become recognized forces in their communities.

At a time when our economy needs tremendous resources to provide jobs, affordable housing, health care, decent education, mass transit and infrastructure upgrading, it’s scandalous that $12 billion per month continue to be spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We demand that our government INVEST IN AMERICA and not in ENDLESS WAR.

Find out about our current Peace and Economic Justice Campaign, what we were are doing and our latest Call to Action: Resolution 747A

We invite you to join Peace and Economic Justice Committee. Email us to find out our meeting schedule.

Developing connections with our community, its leaders and working together to tie social justice issue with the root cause of economic and human suppression – war and the military spending to sustain it.