NEW YORK - A group of New York City antiwar activists called attention to the disastrous U.S. occupation of Iraq at rush hour today when they unfurled a huge, colorful banner on the First Avenue overpass across 42nd Street facing west, reading, "No More Blood For Oil!" After carrying out the banner hang shortly before 9 a.m., they then briskly made their getaway. The action precedes the mass antiwar march and rally scheduled for this Saturday, March 20, protesting U.S. aggression in the Middle East and demanding accountability from those profiting from it.

The banner remained in place until nearly 10:30 a.m., prompting honks of support from motorists on 42nd Street and a great deal of attention from passers-by.

"The Madrid bombing last week and yesterday's bombing in Baghdad [which left 27 people dead] are more horrible examples showing that what our government has done since 9/11 is not the way to defeat terrorists! What is good for Halliburton is not good for human beings," said Wendy Sommers, one of the group's organizers. An activist with an affiliated group asked why the media have focused their attention on the U.S. military's casualties in Iraq while leaving the far higher casualty figures for civilians in the occupied country largely unreported: "The absolute minimum numbers that human rights groups in Iraq give range from 10,000 to 16,000 people. That's a mass slaughter of defenseless people. Our corporate media seem to feel with the Bush junta that the lives of people of color and Arabs are worthless and not even worth mentioning."

Peace groups in New York are expecting a large and perhaps hostile police presence to greet them on Saturday, when activists from all over the region will be coming to Manhattan to make their voices heard against the U.S. occupation of Iraq. They expect this to continue in the months leading up to the Republican National Convention in New York at the end of August, when they will again be in the streets to protest the war. Accordingly, activists are developing creative, nonviolent direct actions like today's banner-hang to get their message out.