Thousands fill streets of San Francisco
By
B. Sandburg
San Francisco
Published Mar 23, 2005 3:48 PM
About 25,000 people
marched through the streets of San Francisco on March 19 to demand an end to the
war and occupation of Iraq. Protesters came from throughout California and
included many student, community and political groups.
Labor
organizations brought out the largest contingent of people. Before the march
began they held a separate labor rally, linking the Bush administration’s
brutal war on the people of Iraq to the government’s campaign to slash
wages, education, health care and Social Security for people in the United
States.
The demonstration, organized by the ANSWER coalition, began with a
rally at Dolores Park and then marched to the Civic Center.
Those marching
included a campus anti-war group with a banner that read “College Not
Combat”; Women in Black, a group that opposes the Israeli occupation of
Palestine; a lesbian/gay/bi/trans contingent with rainbow flags; a Free the
Cuban Five contingent; and a Workers World Party contingent carrying a banner
that read, “Bring the troops home now! Support the global struggle against
U.S. imperialism.”
Workers World Party at March 19 protest.
|
International Longshore & Warehouse Union
Local 10 had a large contingent that included its dynamic drill team. The
Million Worker March Movement, Service Employees Local 790 and United Trans
portation Union Local 1741 of San Francisco School Bus Drivers were among many
other unions in the march.
The bus drivers also donated their labor to
drive ILWU Local 10 members from their union hall to the labor rally.
The
labor rally was co-sponsored by six Bay Area labor councils, as well as U.S.
Labor Against the War, the Million Worker March Movement, Bay Area Labor
Committee for Justice & Peace, ILWU Local 10 and Pride At Work.
As it
did last year, ILWU Local 10 shut down ports along the West Coast to commemorate
the second anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Local 10 President Trent
Willis told the crowd at the closing rally that the union had also stood against
the Vietnam War, the Korean War and the apartheid regime of South Africa. In
1984 the union refused to unload cargo from South African
ships.
“Our young members understand that in this struggle we have
to rise up at the same time,” Willis said. “We’re not working
the port of San Francisco or Oakland or any port we have jurisdiction over
today.”
Judy Greenspan of Workers World Party spoke linking the
U.S. war in Iraq, the threats against Iran and the continued Israeli occupation
of Palestine to the war against poor and working people at home.
“We have to be activist warriors, gladiators in the struggle,
whether it’s teachers, parents and the community fighting against the
private takeover of schools, or the nurses and firefighters battling Governor
Schwarzenegger’s plan to cut their wages and benefits,” Greenspan
said.
The Million Worker March held last October in Washington, D.C.,
“is the type of independent action that is needed in the days
ahead,” she concluded.
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