------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Feb. 7, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
BLACK HAWK DOWN: RACIST, PRO-WAR FILM GETS "THUMBS DOWN" "Shut Black Hawk Down!" Demonstrators in Manhattan on Jan. 23 picketed the opening of Ridley Scott's racist, pro-war movie. Thousands of passersby took leaflets and hundreds stopped to get more information. The International ANSWER-- Act Now to Stop War & End Racism--coalition organized the informational picket. Hollywood and the Pentagon collaborated on this blockbuster to distort history and demonize the Somali people, at the very moment the Bush administration is considering another invasion of that war-scarred and impoverished African country. The movie warps what really happened on Oct. 3, 1993, when tens of thousands of Somali people, mostly civilians, fought off an attack by U.S. commandos in the capital city of Mogadishu. The movie is getting a giant "thumbs down" from protesters across the country: in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Houston, Boston, Minneapolis, St. Paul and Tempe, Ariz. The Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis called for a boycott. The FBI visited the group's executive director, Omar Jamal, after the organization criticized U.S. policy on Somalia and the shutdown of facilities Somalis used to send money home. Activists expressed outrage at the decision to hold the Washington, D.C., premiere on Jan. 15--the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "Dr. King was an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War. How dare they hold a gala showing of this racist film on the 73rd anniversary of his birth," said Sarah Sloan, a youth organizer for the International Action Center. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
