Washington Post on Oct. 25 protest

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

(A remarkably evenhanded article from the Washington Post. This would
indicate to me that divisions in the ruling class are beginning to deepen
in a serious fashion.)

Protesters Try to Revive Antiwar Effort

By Manny Fernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 24, 2003; Page B01

Deep in a cluttered basement in Southeast Washington, the message comes to
life. A 51-year-old courier from San Diego and a 24-year-old law student
from New Jersey's Rutgers University crouched over a yellow banner
yesterday, dipping brushes in black paint to complete the slogan that
brought them both to Washington: "End the occupation of Iraq."

"I think we're not going to solve this problem just at the voting booth,"
said David Tworkowski, who flew in from San Diego on Wednesday night to
help with logistics and banners at an organizer's office in preparation for
tomorrow's antiwar march. "We have to put people in the streets."

Tworkowski was part of a small first wave of protesters that began arriving
Wednesday. Tens of thousands more are expected to call for an end to the
occupation of Iraq at tomorrow's demonstration, organizers said, as
protesters from across the United States and Canada try to give renewed
energy to the antiwar movement.

Buses are picking up participants at 13 locations in and around New York
City. The Boston area is sending nine buses, and Philadelphia is sending
eight, organizers said. Cleveland and Buffalo will fill four buses each,
and one veteran opposed to the occupation started driving in his RV last
week from Washington state.

"I have two granddaughters," said Nancy Jakubiak, 54, a legal assistant
preparing for a 12-hour trip to the District on a charter bus leaving
Louisville tonight. "They're 3 and 1, and I do this for them. I tremble
when I think of the world they're going to grow up in."

With two of the biggest antiwar coalitions sponsoring the demonstration,
International ANSWER and United for Peace and Justice, a broad range of
protesters is planning to take part. Student activists from Columbia
University, Ohio State University and several Washington area colleges will
join the march. Muslim and Arab American activists are expected in large
numbers, as well as family members of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, organizers said.

U.S. Park Police and D.C. police officials said yesterday that street
closures would follow the marches, both with and without permits. Cmdr.
Cathy Lanier, head of the D.C. police special operations division, said
that based on permits for the event, police were expecting "well over
30,000 people." She said no disturbances were expected. D.C. police
announced they will activate their network of 14 closed-circuit cameras in
the downtown area and set up five more cameras along and near the march
route to "assist with crowd management and public safety."

At 9 tonight, veterans and military family members have a vigil scheduled
at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to demand that the troops come home. Among
them will be Stephen Cleghorn, 54, an executive at a D.C. nonprofit group
whose stepson is in the U.S. Army in Iraq. "I believe he's a conscientious
young man who went into the service to defend his country," Cleghorn said
in an interview. "I just think he's been put on the wrong mission."

Protest leaders estimated tomorrow's crowd, in discussions with the
National Park Service, at 30,000, but some organizers expect to exceed
that. ANSWER organizer Brian Becker said the gathering would not be as
large as ANSWER's Jan. 18 march, which police said drew 100,000 but
organizers said attracted 500,000. Activists have said one of the
movement's challenges has been to mobilize large numbers in the face of an
occupation as opposed to the imminent threat of war that sparked previous
demonstrations.

In the days leading up to the January march, protesters in about 250 cities
across the country were coordinating transportation to Washington. This
time, activists in about half that number of cities are organizing bus and
car trips. "The bar was set very high last winter," said Leslie Cagan,
national coordinator of the United coalition, which organized a protest in
February in New York. "It's really not a numbers game. It's about keeping
alive the notion that there is a place for public dissent."

The purpose of tomorrow's march, organizers said, is to demand the
withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and to protest the Patriot Act, the
legislation enacted two years ago that expanded the government's powers of
surveillance and detention.

The last major peace rally in Washington was an ANSWER protest in April
that police said as many as 30,000 attended. The weeks and months since
then without major street protests were not a sign of defeat, organizers
said, but instead a period of reflection and education. Some said they and
others felt a kind of demoralization when their efforts failed to stop the
war. One New Jersey organizer even had a name for it: "discouraged peace
activists syndrome."

ANSWER announced plans for tomorrow's march at the end of June, with the
date selected to coincide with the Patriot Act's anniversary and to give
organizers time to mobilize college and high school students. Activists
said ANSWER's timing for a display of dissent could not have been better,
as attacks continue against U.S. forces in Iraq, as the House and Senate
discuss different versions of an $87 billion spending package for Iraq and
Afghanistan and as support for President Bush's Iraq policy slips in the
polls. "It's called a movement for a reason," Cagan said after a news
conference Tuesday in Washington. "It has its ebb and flow."

The permitted protest begins with an 11 a.m. rally at the Washington
Monument. A march at 1:30 p.m. will pass the White House and the Justice
Department. Black Voices for Peace and the Muslim American Society Freedom
Foundation are planning separate feeder marches.

Anti-capitalist activists in the Washington area said they will protest an
expo to attract residents to the District at the Washington Convention
Center before joining the main march. Protesters say they will meet at
Seventh and P streets NW at 11:30 a.m. Michael Loadenthal, 20, an American
University student and an organizer with the unnamed group sponsoring the
event, said the purpose of protesting the city-living expo is "to send a
very loud message to the mayor and real estate prospectors that there are
people in this city who say no to gentrification."

Kristinn Taylor said he is helping to organize a counter-demonstration to
let protesters know that "their anti-American message is not going to go
unanswered, like it was during Vietnam." Taylor, 41, co-leader of the D.C.
chapter of Free Republic, said 1,000 people are expected for a rally at 11
a.m. at the West Front of the Capitol to show support for U.S. troops and
protest tyrannical regimes. At 2 p.m., they plan on being at Pershing Park
on Pennsylvania Avenue NW to greet marchers, though they are not looking to
start trouble, he said.

Staff writer David A. Fahrenthold contributed to this report.



Louis Proyect, Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org


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