MEDIA ADVISORY for Sat. Jan 21 , 2017
Contact: Paula Kahn, CODEPINK LA, (818) 667-8800, [email protected]
Los Angeles, CA January 21, 2017 - CODEPINK made international headlines last week protesting Senator Jeff Sessions’ Attorney General confirmation hearing in D.C., dressed as KKK members to expose Sessions’ historically racist behavior. Today, CODEPINK chapters across the states will also be rising up in unity for the Women’s March on Saturday 21, 2017.
WHERE: 9AM, Meeting 5th St. & Hill St. Corner of Pershing Square dressed in pink
WHAT: CODEPINK’s Paula Kahn will be speaking at the opening of the march.
CODEPINK Los Angeles is leading a growing contingent of women boldly advocating for peace, justice, and redistribution of resources via the end of militarism which is at the core of the U.S. economy. The U.S. military budget for fiscal year 2017 is $773.5 billion.
Cofounder of CODEPINK Medea Benjamin reported, “In 2016 alone, the Obama administration dropped at least 26,171 bombs. This means that every day last year, the US military blasted combatants or civilians overseas with 72 bombs; that’s three bombs every hour, 24 hours a day.”
In Washington D.C
Meanwhile in Washington D.C, CODEPINK is distributing 5,000 “pussy hats” knitted by women around the country for the Women’s March today. The hats, filling half of a U-Haul van will arrive in the morning to done the heads of women marching for the world they want to live in. We will also do the One Billion Rising Dance.
“This is our third day out in the streets of DC expressing the audacious power of women to stand up to militarism, misogyny and hate. We are here as accomplices with those most vulnerable within the US and the countries negatively affected by US foreign policy,” said CODEPINK cofounder Jodie Evans.
“While CODEPINK protested the endless wars during the Obama years, very few people came out to join us. Now we have an outpouring of women—young, elderly, former activists and newbies—who are determined to get active,” said Ariel Gold, a mother of two young teenagers. “This inauguration is just the beginning.”
Yesterday, 40 members of CODEPINK disrupted the Inauguation, with about 10 being removed:
“I disrupted Donald Trump’s inauguration to express my opposition to militarism, misogyny, and racism. I am an accomplice with those who most negatively affected by US foreign policy and Trump’s rhetoric of hate. We are here to support those who are most vulnerable,” said CODEPINK cofounder Jodie Evans.
“Trump has stacked his administration with climate deniers, oil industry execs, Wall Street vultures and military hawks. This is not the direction we want our country to take,” said CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin.
Updated schedule: http://www.codepink.org/inauguration
Founded in 2002 to prevent the US war on Iraq, CODEPINK is a women-led grassroots organization working to end U.S. wars and militarism, support peace and human rights initiatives, and redirect our tax dollars into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming programs.
