'Bush & Blair--put the handcuffs there!'
Cleveland youths halt rush hour
By Martha Grevatt
Cleveland
Instead of a typical Friday evening rush hour, Cleveland's
downtown streets were virtually empty of automobiles March 28
as hundreds of anti-war youths took over the streets. They left
their high schools and college campuses in response to a call
issued a few days before to "Shut down Cleveland, no business
as usual!" The action was called by a network of local
activists and endorsed by the ANSWER coalition and Not In Our
Name.
As in other cities, the murderous bombing of Iraq has
ignited militant street protests here, with a rage that police
have been unable to contain. In fact, the cops had to block off
the main downtown area and divert traffic away from the
demonstration. Although the marchers lacked a permit, they were
able to hold the streets for almost two hours.
It wasn't until the march was nearly over that police began
arresting leading activists and other participants, handcuffing
people while they were forced to lay face down on the
ground.
Then cops in riot gear surrounded the demonstration, forcing
everyone back on the sidewalk, also shoving newspaper and radio
reporters in the process.
The demonstrators responded to the arrests with chants of
"Bush and Blair, put the handcuffs there" and "Let them
go!"
Chanting and drumming continued into the night.
As of March 31, three of the five arrested activists
remained behind bars and may face felony charges. The anti-war
movement plans to pack the courtroom when they are arraigned
and to mobilize to get the charges dropped against the dozen or
more activists who have been arrested since the bombing
began.
Reprinted from the April 10, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
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