[Marxism] 3,000 march/rally in Salt Lak City on Sept. 24

[Dayne Goodwin <dayneg@xxxxxxxx>]

        Over 3,000 people marched and rallied in Salt Lake City on
September 24.  Saturday's demonstration was organized around unity on one
political issue: "Support the Troops, Bring Them Home Now!  U.S. Out of
Iraq."  The crowd was fairly representative of the (limited) diversity of
Utah's population.

        The rally at the city government building included anti-war songs,
hip-hop, poetry and speakers in the following order:  Salt Lake City Mayor
Ross "Rocky" Anderson, Reverend Dan Webster of the Episcopal Peace
Fellowship, United Steelworkers union representative Julie Holzer of U.S.
Labor Against the War, Isaac Giron of Youth for Socialist Action (who
participated in World Youth Festival in Venezuela in August), Tala
Fakhouri of Utahns for a Just Peace in the Holy Land, Gina Cornia of
Utahns Against Hunger, Robert Littlehale, M.D., of Veterans for Peace and
Joan Maymi of Gold Star Families for Peace.

   In addition to the growing opposition to the war, the mayor's support
for the protest had a lot to do with it's relative success.  I met Rocky
Anderson when he became an activist in the Central America solidarity
movement some twenty years ago; he is an unusually independent-minded and
radical Democrat.  Last month an Anderson e-mail promoting protest when
President Bush came to Salt Lake to speak to the Veterans of Foreign War
national convention (August 22) was leaked to the press.  Instead of
retreating, Anderson stepped up his support for that protest (of around
2,000 on short notice) and he sent out a letter supporting the local
September 24 demonstration.

        Whereas the August 22 anti-Bush protest was a happy, united affair
among the liberals and 'radical' Democrats who naturally took leadership,
preparing the September 24 protest was difficult, with tension among
organizers over issues that brought out political differences between
Democrats, 'radicals' who want to influence the Democrat Party,
revolutionaries who want to build a politically independent mass movement,
and the local 'anarchist' expression of ultraleftism.  The continuing
bitter split in the Utah Green Party (between those who supported the
independent Nader-Camejo 2004 presidential campaign and those who
supported the GPUS national officer clique in _de facto_ support of John
Kerry) and the resultant overlay of personal antagonisms that involve some
key local anti-war activists, exacerbated the usual challenges facing a
small group of volunteer activists.

        Although we weren't a very happy group, and organizing work
suffered as a result, we still managed to work together and mobilize a
strong anti-war demonstration that was even larger than the pre-war early
2003 demonstrations in Salt Lake City.
        Dayne


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