Fw: [ANSWER]: Washington Post Coverage of October 26 Anti-War Demonstration

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg at tin.it>]

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From: "A.N.S.W.E.R." <answer.general at action-mail.org>
To: <answer.general at action-mail.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 27, 2002 6:05 AM
Subject: [ANSWER]: Washington Post Coverage of October 26 Anti-War
Demonstration


> 100,000 Rally, March Against War in Iraq
>
> By Monte Reel and Manny Fernandez
> Washington Post Staff Writers
> Sunday, October 27, 2002; Page A01
>
> Tens of thousands of people marched in peaceful protest of
> any military strike against Iraq yesterday afternoon, in
> an antiwar demonstration that organizers and police
> suggested was likely Washington's largest since the
> Vietnam era.
>
> Organizers with International ANSWER, a coalition of
> antiwar groups that coordinated the demonstration, had
> hoped for a turnout rivaling that of its pro-Palestine
> rally in April that officials estimated at about 75,000.
> Organizers said they easily eclipsed that figure
> yesterday, assessing attendance at well more than 100,000.
> D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey also said he figured
> yesterday's rally turnout exceeded that in April, but he
> didn't provide a specific number.
>
> "We think this was just extremely, extremely successful,"
> said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a D.C. organizer with
> International ANSWER, Act Now to Stop War and End Racism.
> "It absolutely shows that when George Bush says America
> speaks with one voice, and it's his voice, he's wrong."
>
> After a rally that lasted more than three hours at
> Constitution Gardens, near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial,
> the march began at 21st Street and Constitution Avenue.
> Using 17th, H, 15th and E streets NW, they circled the
> White House and returned to their starting point.
> Shoulder-to-shoulder crowds filled the streets for several
> blocks. When marchers at the front of the procession
> returned to Constitution Avenue on their way back, they
> had to wait to allow demonstrators at the tail of the
> march to pass.
>
> Other demonstrations in cities including Rome, Berlin,
> Copenhagen, Denmark, Tokyo and Mexico City were held to
> coincide with the Washington march, and in San Francisco
> at a sister march, thousands marched through downtown.
>
> Protesters arrived by the busload, by car and by Metro
> early yesterday morning, some carrying signs and later
> joining in chants that echoed a common theme: A war
> against Iraq would be unjustified, they said, and there is
> no consensus for it.
>
> "Nebraskans for Peace" and "Hoosiers for Non-Violence"
> chanted alongside silver-coiffed retirees from Chicago and
> a Muslim student association from Michigan. Parents could
> be seen enjoying a sunny, picnic-perfect afternoon by
> pushing a stroller with one hand and carrying a "No War
> for Oil" sign with the other, and police on horseback
> monitored nearby.
>
> The tone of the rally was far different from D.C.'s last
> major protest -- the September demonstrations against the
> annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the
> World Bank. During those events, anti-globalization
> protesters had intended to paralyze the city with
> disruptive throngs, but their numbers were much smaller
> than expected, and they were dominated by a massive police
> presence. More than 600 people were arrested during the
> IMF and World Bank protests; yesterday, police reported
> three arrests.
>
> Several groups, including the Anti-Capitalist Convergence
> that organized one of September's protests, mounted an
> independent march that fed into yesterday's rally and said
> everyone had agreed upon a non-confrontational goal from
> the outset.
>
> "I don't think police want problems, and I don't think we
> want problems either," said Pat Elder, 47, a Bethesda
> antiwar activist who participated in the unpermitted
> feeder march.
>
> The morning began under hazy skies on the wet grass at
> Constitution Gardens, as thick mud sucked at the heels of
> the arriving demonstrators and the nearby Washington
> Monument appeared truncated by fog. But by noon the skies
> cleared and most of the lawn was shoulder-to-shoulder with
> people listening to Jesse Jackson, actress Susan Sarandon,
> singer Patti Smith and former Attorney General Ramsey
> Clark, among other speakers.
>
> Several speakers referred to Vietnam era protests, and
> organizers were eager to compare the current movement with
> the one that peaked with a rally of between 250,000 and
> 500,000 people in Washington in 1969. The last large-scale
> peace protest in Washington was in 1991, when about 75,000
> demonstrated during the height of the Persian Gulf War.
>
> Unlike those protests, yesterday's rally was different in
> that it preceded war, and many interpreted that as an
> indication of a potentially powerful movement.
>
> "During the Vietnam War, no demonstration of comparable
> size took place until 1967, three years after the Gulf of
> Tonkin Resolution [that gave President Lyndon B. Johnson
> congressional authority to expand the war in Vietnam],"
> said Brian Becker, co-director of the International Action
> Center, one of the groups that make up International
> ANSWER.
>
> But if the passions of the Vietnam era led to protests
> that often trembled on the edge between control and chaos,
> yesterday's event suggested that this movement is burning
> at a lower flame.
>
> "Here I'm not being spit on, people aren't throwing
> tomatoes at me and Joan Baez isn't singing," said protest
> veteran Dot Magargal, 77, from Media, Pa. "People just
> want to come out and say that not everyone wants to go to
> war. This is a lot of people, a lot of voters, and it has
> to count for something."
>
> For those looking for symbols often associated with
> left-wing demonstrations -- Grateful Dead T-shirts,
> dreadlocks, anti-corporate slogans, Socialist newsletters
> -- plenty could be found. But it wasn't necessary to comb
> through the fringe to find people who didn't fit the mold.
> Many said they were first-time protesters who had never
> attended a rally. Some said they were against all war, no
> matter the circumstances, and others said they were simply
> against the possibility of an Iraq invasion.
>
> "I've never in my life done anything like this before,"
> said Marie Johnson, 31, of Columbia. "What I wanted to do
> was say that even though Bush puts forth that everyone
> supports going to war against Iraq, some of us don't. I
> just thought it was important for me to do something to
> show how I felt."
>
> Peggy McGrath, 59, said she hoped that Bush would look out
> of the windows of the White House to see that thousands
> disagreed with him. She said she remained optimistic that
> he might change his mind, especially if enough people
> voiced opposition.
>
> "I think there's actually been a shift already in Bush's
> rhetoric in the last two weeks," said McGrath, who was on
> one in a caravan of eight buses from Chicago. "The hope is
> that maybe he'll see this, and maybe it can be stopped
> before it's started."
>
> Bush, however, wasn't at the White House. He and first
> lady Laura Bush flew yesterday from their Texas ranch to
> Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where the president was attending
> the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Among other
> things, Bush was seeking to rally fellow leaders behind
> his Iraq stance.
>
> The president had some support at the rally from a group
> of about 100 counter-protesters who gathered at 17th
> Street and Constitution Avenue. Along with activists from
> the national group Free Republic, a group of Iraqi exiles
> chanted slogans against Saddam Hussein. In one of the few
> points of tension during the day, police stepped into a
> scuffle between peace activists and counterprotesters and
> led away two of the former.
>
> One who joined the counter-protesters, Imam Husham
> Al-Husainy, explained that he came to Washington from the
> Detroit area with about 40 Iraqis to present the view of
> people who had suffered under Hussein.
>
> "Most of these people across the street, they don't know
> the reality in Iraq," Al-Husainy said.
>
> Although the main protest message was focused on opposing
> war in Iraq, a few other causes slipped into the mix. Many
> of the same people who marched for Palestinian rights in
> April joined yesterday's march, waving Palestinian flags.
> But like others who had become activists for other causes,
> they said opposing the war was what brought them out
> yesterday.
>
> "I don't come here to carry signs for fun," said Ribhi
> Ramadan, 36, who brought his family of seven from
> Paterson, N.J., to the protest. "I support not just
> Palestine, but everywhere that's threatened by war."
>
> Luigi Procopio, 45, a social worker from the district,
> wore a pink triangle with "$ FOR AIDS NOT WAR" written on
> it. He said even though he normally focuses his activism
> on issues in the gay community, he and at least a dozen
> friends came to protest the war in Iraq.
>
> "It's time, man. . . .it feels imminent," he said.
> "Congress has just rolled over."
>
> Some protesters said they had been worried about
> attendance before they arrived at the rally. Larina Brown,
> 22, a student from the University of Minnesota-Morris,
> said she had feared that she and the 30 friends she
> traveled with would be greeted by scant crowds.
>
> "It's a relief, really," Brown said. "I really wanted this
> to be a big statement, to show it's not just radical,
> anti-American people who go to these things."
>
> Most of those who arrived in the morning on buses climbed
> back aboard shortly after the rally ended. By 5:45 p.m.,
> the streets were almost deserted, and protesters had put
> downtheir signs and were sitting on park benches snacking.
>
> Mark Zheng, 33, of Amherst, Mass., stopped to take a photo
> of two friends in front of a fountain in Lafayette Square.
> Zheng, from China, had been at the Tiananmen Square
> protests. He said he was impressed by the orderliness of
> the march.
>
> "I think maybe people have different thoughts on things,
> but one thing is clear," he said. "Peace."
>
> Staff writers David A. Fahrenthold, Ylan Q. Mui and Mary
> Beth Sheridan and special correspondent Liz Garone in San
> Francisco and wire services contributed to this report.
>
>
>
>
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