The Granny Peace Brigade’s Teach-In examines the implications of the new U.S. military command infrastructure, AFRICOM; and the direct threat to Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of peace, economic justice, and racial harmony AFRICOM poses on the 40th anniversary of his assassination.

AFRICOM would be the sixth Defense Department regional military command, and according to the Pentagon, would consolidate all U.S. functions (Agriculture, Commerce, Treasury, Peace Corps, and others) under its jurisdiction. The department expects to be “fully operational” in October 2008 but the only African nation willing to house the command’s continental headquarters is Liberia. Currently, AFRICOM is based in Stuttgart-Moehringen, Germany.

Vinie Burrows, actor, writer, and member of the New York Granny Peace Brigade will moderate the program.

Speakers:

• Emira Woods, co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies
• Horace Campbell, professor of African American Studies and Political Science at Syracuse University
• Frida Berrigan, senior research associate at the Arms Trade Resource Center, World Policy Institute
• Sonia Sanchez, poet, educator, and member of the Philadelphia Granny Peace Brigade

Admission is free. Donations are welcomed. Doors will open at 1:15 PM, and light refreshments will be available. For more information, call (212) 865-7875.

Founded in 2005 in opposition to the Iraq occupation, the Granny Peace Brigade stands for peace and condemns the use of military force to resolve conflicts. www.grannypeacebrigade.org.