[Peace-discuss] Marching for Peace in Washington

[patton paul]

from The Nation

Marching for Peace in Washington
by Liza Featherstone

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T he Alaskans for Peace didn't mind the weather; not only are they used to
bitter cold, but one of them was wearing a polar bear costume. Don Muller,
and his friend "Brian the Polar Bear" had traveled from Sitka, Alaska to
join a mass protest on Washington, DC's National Mall on Saturday, to
honor Martin Luther King and protest the Bush Administration's rush to
war.

Despite the freezing temperatures (which hovered in the mid-20s throughout
the day), the energetic protest drew over 200,000 people, by far the
largest US demonstration organized by the post-September 11 antiwar
movement. (Organizers placed the number at half a million, while the DC
police estimated 100,000.) The event was called by International ANSWER
(Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), a national coalition, and turnout
was orchestrated by countless grassroots organizations and individuals.

As the protest showed, the movement is growing so steadily that
controversies over the politics of national organizations like ANSWER are
increasingly irrelevant. (While the two major national antiwar coalitions,
United for Peace and ANSWER, have different politics, sensibilities and
organizing styles, they endorse each other's events. United for Peace has
called a national rally in New York City on February 15.) At Saturday's
demonstrations, it was the demonstrators, not the organizers, that set the
tone.

Some of those demonstrators were middle-aged, longtime peace and justice
activists like Kansas protesters Bill and Angela Douglas, who had, in
recent years, been busy with other aspects of their lives. This war had
drawn them back into the movement. "The situation in the United States now
is so disturbing," said Douglas, "it kind of woke us up." Ann Marevis, of
Alapine, Alabama, said quietly, "It felt important this time."

Many protesters looked like mainstream Americans: soccer moms, teenagers
with Nintendo sweatshirts, cleancut yuppies, union members. If you'd seen
them in a rest stop on the way to Washington that morning, you'd never
have guessed where they were going. They carried American flags, and signs
that read "Peace is Patriotic." Countless other signs quoted Martin Luther
King, or advertised church affiliations.

Yet the day had an invigoratingly confrontational mood, thanks to the
large contingent of young people and global justice activists. Many of the
signs--and marching chants--were as much anti-Bush, as antiwar. Bush,
Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz were colorfully depicted as puppet versions
of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Entertainers included Patti Smith, who has been a regular at recent
antiwar events, as well as the British band Chumbawumba, who performed for
the first time in four years. Speakers--including Jesse Jackson, Al
Sharpton, Jessica Lange, Rep. John Conyers and former Rep. Cynthia
McKinney--were livelier and had more popular appeal than speakers at some
past ANSWER events. Most focused on issues directly related to Martin
Luther King Day--economic oppression and racism--and to the impending war
on Iraq. But it didn't much matter what they said; the sound system was
poor, and in any case, most people had come to express their own
opposition, and were largely uninterested in the blaring podium.

Unfortunately, however, far too many people spoke--all saying essentially
the same thing--and the rally endured for over two hours. This,
particularly given the weather, showed little regard for the
demonstrators. No one I interviewed complained about ANSWER's politics,
but except for the Alaskans, just about everybody--irrespective of age,
race or political affiliation--complained about standing around in the
cold for too long. Fortunately the demonstrators took it upon themselves
to start marching long before the rally ended.

While many of the rally speakers were people of color, the demonstrators
were mostly white, even though the event was held in Washington, DC, and
in honor of Martin Luther King, and blacks oppose the war by a
significantly greater margin than whites. Bruce Tabbs, owner of Soul
Brothers, a Harlem store, had filled a bus with his neighbors and
customers. Though Tabbs has participated in mass protests--including the
Million Man March and the Million Woman March--he'd never been to an
antiwar rally before, and was startled by his fellow demonstrators: "I
expected they'd be about 50 percent white, but 80 percent white surprised
me."

In addition to the DC protests, tens of thousands demonstrated in San
Francisco and Portland, and solidarity rallies were also held in more than
two dozen other US cities and towns, including Fayetteville (Arkansas),
Oklahoma City, Columbia (Missouri), Rockford (Illinois), Menominee
(Wisconsin) and Yorba Linda, California (this last at the Richard Nixon
Library). Saturday demonstrations were also held in more than thirty
countries, including Japan, Ireland, Egypt, Argentina, South Africa,
Jordan, Sweden, Pakistan, Russia, Germany and England.

Back in DC, American protesters were united by a sense that US world
domination isn't right--and isn't in their interest. Said Bill Douglas,
"We want to be part of a democracy, not an empire."


__________________________________________________________________
Dr. Paul Patton
Research Scientist
Beckman Institute  Rm 3027  405 N. Mathews St.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  Urbana, Illinois 61801
work phone: (217)-265-0795   fax: (217)-244-5180
home phone: (217)-328-4064
homepage: http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~ppatton/index.html

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.  It is the
source of all true art and science."
-Albert Einstein
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