[L-I] In D.C., a Diverse Mix Rouses War Protest

The best thing about the October 25 rally and march in D.C. to Bring 
the Troops Home Now and End the Occupation of Iraq was a large and 
racially diverse turnout of veterans and military families whose 
loved ones are deployed in Iraq.  Signs featuring enlarged 
photographs of uniformed soldiers and demanding their immediate 
return, held up by their parents, spouses, and children, were common 
sights.  Both national organizations such as Veterans for Peace 
<http://www.veteransforpeace.org/> and Military Families Speak Out 
<http://www.mfso.org/> and local organizations of veterans and 
military families mobilized their new and old members well.  The 
October 25 mobilization and media coverage of it, in turn, will help 
them recruit more members.

Voices of veterans and military families help amplify the dissent 
within the rank and file soldiers deployed in Iraq that has been 
widely publicized even in the corporate media (cf. 
<http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?list=type&type=22&all=1>) 
-- the dissent fueled by Iraqis' own resistance to the occupation 
(ranging from non-cooperation, sabotage, demonstrations, to armed 
struggle) which has made clear to thinking servicemen and -women that 
what they are asked to defend is in the interest of neither the Iraqi 
people nor themselves (cf. 
<http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?list=type&type=16>).  The 
war for an empire becomes the empire's own undoing when the empire 
loses the support of its own soldiers (cf. Richard R. Moser, _The New 
Winter Soldiers: GI and Veteran Dissent during the Vietnam Era_ 
(1996); Joel Geier, "Vietnam: The Soldier's Revolt" (August-September 
2000), <http://www.isreview.org/issues/09/soldiers_revolt.shtml>).

Protesters' own estimates of the size of the D.C. demonstration 
ranged from 50,000 to 100,000 -- the turnout was smaller than the 
largest US demonstrations during the period of peak buildup of 
opposition before the invasion of Iraq, but much larger than the 
first national mobilizations against the bombings of Afghanistan. 
Coming at the time when support for the Bush administration -- 
including its policy on Iraq -- is plummeting, the protest served its 
purpose of raising the visibility of growing organized oppositions to 
the occupation of Iraq (as well as other aspects of Bush's foreign 
and domestic policies), at the same time as reinvigorating core 
organizers and activists who have never stopped organizing against 
empire-building.

In Columbus, OH, weekly protests against the occupation of Iraq 
continue at 15th Avenue and High Street: 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM on Fridays 
and 5 PM - 6 PM on Sundays.

*****   In D.C., a Diverse Mix Rouses War Protest

By Manny Fernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 26, 2003; Page A08

Tens of thousands of antiwar demonstrators marched in Washington 
yesterday to call for an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq, turning 
out in smaller numbers than for prewar protests but making plain 
their opposition during a noisy yet peaceful procession.

 From a stage on the Mall and along a route that ringed the Washington 
Monument, the White House and the Justice Department, protesters 
lodged an array of grievances against the Bush administration's 
domestic and foreign policies, including the financial and human 
costs of the occupation and the effect of the Patriot Act on civil 
liberties. Organizers of the two coalitions that sponsored the 
demonstration, International ANSWER and United for Peace and Justice, 
said the morning rally at the Washington Monument and a march through 
downtown that grew throughout the afternoon signaled a revival of the 
antiwar movement, which had not staged a major street demonstration 
in Washington since the fall of Baghdad in April.

"The movement has gotten a very big gust of wind in its sails at the 
very moment that the Bush administration is slipping in the polls," 
said Brian Becker, an organizer with ANSWER, which stands for Act Now 
to Stop War and End Racism.

Yesterday's march coincided with protests in more than two dozen 
cities across the United States and around the world, including San 
Francisco, Anchorage and Paris. D.C. police and U.S. Park Police were 
out in force in vehicles, on motorcycles and bicycles and on 
horseback in the District. D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey and a 
Park Police spokesman said no arrests had been made as of late 
afternoon.

The demonstrators represented a diverse mix of dissent, from suburban 
high school students to gray-haired retirees, from fathers pushing 
their children in strollers to Muslim American college students 
shouting through bullhorns. There were people from D.C. Poets Against 
the War, the Louisville Peace Action Community, Northern Virginians 
for Peace and Central Ohioans for Peace, among many others. Banners 
in Spanish, Korean, Urdu, Hebrew, Arabic and Tagalog decried the war. 
Smaller marches began at various locations in the city and led to the 
main rally, including those organized by Muslim American and by 
African American activists.

Demonstrators criticized the administration's prewar assertions about 
Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and ties to al Qaeda and 
condemned the domestic war on terrorism as an attack on civil 
liberties, particularly the Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism 
legislation the president signed into law two years ago today. They 
also denounced the administration's request for $87 billion for 
reconstruction and military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan while 
money for schools and social services at home dwindles. . . .

The crowd did not appear to match International ANSWER's Jan. 18 
demonstration, the largest antiwar rally in Washington since the 
Vietnam War. That protest, was put at 100,000 by police and 500,000 
by organizers. Nonetheless, Becker and other organizers said 
yesterday's turnout exceeded their expectations, and they estimated 
the attendance at 100,000, with crowds on the march route spilling 
over what they described as 23 Washington blocks. Ramsey estimated 
that the event drew 40,000 to 50,000 people.

Organizers said a large number of veterans and military families with 
loved ones in Iraq participated. Around her neck, Nanci Mansfield of 
Burnsville, N.C., wore a heart-shaped sign with a picture of her son 
in military uniform and the words: "Love my soldier. Hate this war." 
Some of the biggest applause at the rally, which filled a corner of 
the monument grounds at 17th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, came 
when Fernando Suarez del Solar of Escondido, Calif., whose Marine son 
was killed March 27 in Iraq, addressed the crowd. "We need to make 
Mr. Bush understand: He's not the owner of the lives of our 
children," he said.

Bill Perry, 56, a construction worker from Levittown, Pa., who served 
in Vietnam, stood at the edge of the monument grounds in the morning, 
holding a homemade sign demanding that the United States get out of 
Iraq and the United Nations get in. "About six blocks up the street, 
there's a beautiful memorial for 58,000 of our brothers and sisters 
who died in Vietnam," said Perry, wearing a yellow sweat shirt 
emblazoned with an "Airborne" eagle insignia. "Already, we've lost 
about 350 of our own brothers and sisters in this war. One can't help 
but wonder how big the memorial for this war is going to have to be."

The demonstration, organizers said, signified a new phase in the life 
of the antiwar movement. It illustrated new cooperation among 
often-divergent factions, as for the first time, two of the biggest 
coalitions put their organizational muscle behind one event, sharing 
expenses and logistical duties. But it also seemed to reveal the 
movement's erratic momentum, peaking in number and visibility at the 
start of the year with prewar demonstrations in Washington, New York 
and around the world, going without large-scale street protests since 
April and now turning out thousands to rally.

Organizers have said that mobilizing large numbers during a 
protracted occupation as opposed to a dramatic, imminent threat of 
war has been a challenge and that street demonstrations are just one 
way the movement manifests itself. "No one demonstration changes U.S. 
policy," said Leslie Cagan, national coordinator of United for Peace 
and Justice. "But it's part of a process, and a demonstration like 
today's helps to get people recommitted.". . .

About 4 p.m., as the march ended and the crowd began to disperse, 
Mardi Crawford of Albany, N.Y., said that the day had been a success. 
"I think it's wonderful people are out in the streets saying the same 
thing a lot of people are saying inside their homes," she said. 
Crawford protested here in January and March. She said she would keep 
returning to Washington to protest, as long as she felt a need.

Staff writers Spencer S. Hsu, Sylvia Moreno and Monte Reel 
contributed to this report.

[The full text is available at 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17636-2003Oct25.html>.] 
*****

-- 
Yoshie

* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
* Calendars of Events in Columbus: 
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, 
<http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>

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