•  HOME 
  •  ARCHIVES 
  •  BOOKS 
  •  PDF ARCHIVE 
  •  WWP 
  •  SUBSCRIBE 
  •  DONATE 
  •  MUNDOOBRERO.ORG
  • Loading


Follow workers.org on
Twitter Facebook iGoogle




Thousands march in West Coast protests

Published Sep 29, 2005 1:12 AM

Across the country, anti-war rallies were held on Sept. 24 in conjunction with the massive protest held in Washington, D.C. Protesters made the connection between the war and occupation of Iraq and the war and occupation of the U.S. Gulf region.

In San Francisco, over 50,000 turned out to protest the wars and occupations. Some held signs that read: “From Iraq to New Orleans, fund people’s needs, not the war machine.” Speakers included Clarence Thomas of the Million Worker March Movement and the mother of a Black disabled youth who had been shot and killed by the SFPD. At the end of the march, about 50 union workers and supporters caravaned to a picket line of hospital workers on strike at one of the facilities in the area owned by Sutter Health.

It was high drama in San Diego as a loud, spirited feeder march of 1,000—their lead banner reading “Justice for Palestine! Justice for Immigrants! Justice for the Katrina Survivors!” and with Palestinian and Mexican flags flying high—poured out of the street and into the rally site where another 1,000 protesters were waiting.

Over 2,000 people attended the rally in Balboa Park. The feeder march, which was initiated by the San Diego Al Awda—Palestine Right of Return Committee, began with a rally at San Diego City College where speakers called for an end to the occupations of Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti and everywhere. Gloria Verdieu, a leader in the San Diego movement for the Millions More March, reminded the crowd of the recent execution of Frances Newton in Texas, tying it to racist U.S. aggression abroad and calling on everyone to fight against “the inhuman death machine.”

A powerful march followed through the downtown area and then to the park. At the main rally, the International Action Center’s Carl Muhammad told the crowd, “There are many facets of racism. We see racism in New Orleans today. We see $14 billion that were allocated towards the war were supposed to prevent the atrocity in New Orleans. And we believe that was based on the race and class of those people!”

Justino Jiménez of San Diego FIST (Fight Imperialism, Stand Together) addres sed the struggle to defend immigrant workers: “The war and militarization of the border are tools of the same U.S. imperialist aggression and corporate greed.” Over 500 flyers announcing the December 1 Nationwide Strike against Poverty, Racism and War were distributed.

In Seattle, 6,000 demonstrators mar ched through downtown opposing imperialist war. Speakers included Esther “Little Dove” John, an African American activist and the first person to walk solo from Seattle to the United Nations for world peace in 1983, as well as African Amer ican County Councilperson Larry Gossett, Celso Tolman of the Longshore Workers, and Congressperson Jim McDermott.

While over 700 people filled 14 buses from Wisconsin and over 300 more traveled in car and van caravans to the rally in Washington, D.C., those staying behind held protests and other actions across the state in LaCrosse, Milwaukee, Madison and elsewhere. Many organizations in the area are gathering signatures for a statewide referendum to officially call for the return of U.S. troops in Iraq. Thus far 5,000 of the 16,000 signatures needed by Nov. 4 have been collected.

In Los Angeles an estimated 50,000 people filled the streets in a march to the downtown Federal Building. Among the speakers were actor Martin Sheen; Derrick Williams, a survivor of Hurricane Katrina, Ron Kovic (Born on the Fourth of July); and Vicky Castro, Gold Star Mothers for Peace.

Contributing to this article were Bob McCubbin, Maggie Vascasseno, Bryan Pfeiffer, Jim McMahan and Joan Marquardt.