FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 22, 2009

Jollene Levid, Gabnet Secretary-General

secgen@gabnet.org

Tel: 323-356-4748

GABNET/MA-AL AT D.C., LOS ANGELES & SAN FRANCISCO ANTI-WAR RALLIES



GABNet of the Mariposa Alliance was present at all three major anti-war rallies called by the ANSWER Coalition. The biggest assembly was in Washington D.C. where 10,000 marched past the PENTAGON and the headquarters of major war profiteers like Halliburton's Kellogg, Root and Brown Corporation. Several tense moments transpired when Pentagon and State police tried to block the delivery of mock caskets to the war profiteers' headquarters.



One casket was draped with the Philippine flag, to represent those killed by U.S. troops in the island of Mindanao, as well as those killed by U.S. imperialism's puppet government in the Philippines headed by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Four thousand U.S. troops are in the Philippines, ostensibly for the annual joint military exercises with the Philippine Armed Forces but actually to engage in the suppression of the Moro sovereignty movement, as well as the progressive movement in the archipelago.



GABNet joined forces with the Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines in Washington D.C., women flocked to the Gabnet contingent in Los Angeles, and in San Francisco, Gabnet was pivotal to forming a women's contingent, alongside WILPF, CODEPINK, Women for Genuine Security, and other women's organizations. Pictures attached.