Granny Peace Brigade

The grandmothers in the Granny Peace Brigade are not irrelevant, doddering, and nodding rocking chair elders nostalgic for the good old days. They are on the front lines, picketing, bearing witness, lobbying, singing, and getting arrested to protest the costly war in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and the vast domestic war machine. These respectable older women-they prefer to be called “seasoned”-can be found in 33 states and can hardly be dismissed as radical kooks or [Page 644]naive youths. Protest keeps them vital and provides them with a friendship network.

The Granny Peace Brigade's Philadelphia branch marches at the Mummers Parade. In 2006, 11 members showed up at the Military Recruitment Center in Philadelphia to “enlist” in the military, “so that our grandchildren would not kill or be killed in Iraq.”

Their inspiration came from the colorful Raging Granny groups that sprouted up all over Canada in the 1980s. The Granny Peace Brigade evolved slowly in New York City in 2003 and began holding small weekly antiwar vigils at Rockefeller Center on Fifth Avenue. In 2004, between five and 50 women stood in protest for anywhere from one to three hours, sometimes joined by groups of veterans, curious tourists, or their grandchildren. By the next year, the New York Times, New York Newsday, and members of the foreign press wrote about them, and they became a tourist attraction-filmed, interviewed, and sometimes heckled.

Inspired by a Raging Granny group in Tucson, who the media covered extensively when they were arrested for attempting to enlist in the military, the New York group duplicated their action at the Times Square Recruiting booth in October 2005. Eighteen unthreatening grannies ranging in age from 59 to 90 years, some with walkers or canes, others blind and deaf, were jailed for blocking the entrance to the recruiting station. They did not want the youth, who were too busy paying for their education and working, sent to war, and felt they should go instead.

After the arrest, the activities of the Granny Peace Brigade expanded and increased. They formed the Granny Chicks chorus, staged teach-ins at colleges on issues like the closing of all U.S. military bases in the Pacific, held phone-a-thons at which passers by are asked to call their representatives about pending antiwar legislation, organized counterrecruitment actions at high schools to encourage parents to be proactive in monitoring military recruiters’ access to their youth, and protested in front of stores such as Toys R Us during the holiday season, asking shoppers to buy smart toys, not those that foster violence and war.

Their demonstrations are often colorful because they have know-how, time, and artistic and organizing skills. For Grandparents Day in September 2006, they paraded in black T-shirts-some in wheelchairs pushed by volunteers-across the Brooklyn Bridge, beating drums and carrying 25 enormous black balloons emblazoned with the words Troops Home Now. After they crossed to Manhattan, they held a press conference with politicians and actresses. The march ended at Ground Zero, where one Granny was arrested for talking back to a policeman who claimed they had no permit to demonstrate. As their song says, “Watch Out. We've Just Begun to Fight.”

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