Grandmothers Molly Klopot and Betty Brassell came from New York to protest against the Iraq war before the US Congress.

Molly Klopot is put into a paddy wagon by a New York City Police officer after being arrested in 2005 for blocking the Times Square military recruiting station. Klopot and Betty Brassell came from New York to protest against the Iraq war before the US Congress. Veteran activists, the two women were proud of their untiring plea for peace. (AFP/Timothy A Clary)

Veteran activists, the two women were proud of their untiring plea for peace.

"We are going to monitor our elected representatives to see if they do what we voted for them to do," said Klopot, 87, who says she has been a militant for more than 60 years.

The pair were among several dozen grandmothers from 21 US states who gathered Thursday in the Capitol building to make their voices heard. They were backed by US congressman and Iraq war foe, Dennis Kucinich, who is seeking the Democratic Party's 2008 presidential nomination.

Klopot said she had fought all her life to improve the lot of women and workers and build peace.

"It keeps me young," she told AFP, laughing, and added that in Polish her married last name means "trouble," as if somehow that predestined her for activism.

"When the society gives us trouble, we have to do something about it," she said.

Klopot said she had worked during World War II in a Ford automobile factory in Detroit, Mich., where she became involved in a union and organized a women's committee.

Many women at that time were anti-union, she said. "We had to win them over to unionize them."

Around her neck hung a sign plastered with photographs of her four grandsons, aged 12, 15, 19 and 24.

"They won't enlist," she said. The 19-year-old once had said he wanted to go into the army, she recalled, "but not now, he doesn't want to go. Not now in this unjust war, this savage, illegal war."

Brassell, 76, and her 29-year-old grandson discovered activism some six years ago. In 2000 she participated in demonstrations against the US Navy training exercises conducted on Vieques Island in Puerto Rico. The protests led to the navy's departure in 2003.

"Since 2000, my life has been turned upsidedown," she told AFP.

A paper flower in her white hair, Brassell wears huge glasses that dominate her face and uses a support to walk.

She said she had worked for 37 years for the telecommunications giant AT and T.

"When I was working, I hardly voted but when I retired, I met some neighborhood people and became involved.

"And when I get involved, I get totally involved," she added. In addition to her anti-war protests, she participates helping homeless people in her neighborhood in Manhattan's Lower East Side.

Hanging from her neck is a picture of Earth.

"This is the USA," she said, pointing with her finger to her map painted in the colors of the US flag: red, white and blue.

"See the blood dripping from the red ... over in Iraq, Iran, all over those places," she said.

She and Klopt were arrested on October 17, 2005, with 16 other women, aged 59 to 91, when the group tried to enlist in the US military in New York's Time Square to replace grandchildren who had been deployed in Iraq.

Detained for several hours, they were acquitted after a six-day trial.

The arrests gave birth to The Granny Peace Brigade. Now, more than a year later, the pair were still clamoring for recognition from the government.

"We will not be silent!" is the brigade's motto.

© Copyright 2007 AFP

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