Movement stays vigilant against war & injustice

Tens of thousands of people joined nationally coordinated local protests throughout the United States on the weekend of March 18-19, the third anniversary of the war on Iraq, to demand the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. occupying troops from this oil-rich country.

In Tacoma, Wash., about 1,000 people marched in a demonstration organized by Black community and church groups. More than 300 crowded a downtown square in Buffalo, N.Y. In downtown Grand Rapids, Mich., the local press reported “skirmishes” with protesters who had taken to the streets “without a parade permit.” Jersey City, N.J. peace activists chanted and passed out literature in front of a military recruiting office in Journal Square before joining a Times Square protest in New York City.

Hundreds marched through gentrified downtown Detroit—the poorest major city in the U.S., in the state with the highest unemployment. Chants spoke to the extreme need for jobs, education and health care. Across the Detroit River in Canada, Windsor anti-imperialist acti vists, including a strong delegation from the Lebanese community, rallied.

In Charlotte, N.C., about 100 people marched to a military recruiting office, encircling the building. In Denver, 2,500 people marched from majority Black inner-city East High School along Denver’s longest street, all the way to the State Capitol. In Washington, D.C., demonstrators marched from Vice President Dick Cheney’s residence to Dupont Circle. In Seattle, 5,000 anti-war demonstrators marched through the downtown area.

Despite a concerted attempt by the San Francisco Chronicle and other big business media to deter protesters from atten ding, the country’s largest anti-war demon stration took place on the streets of San Francisco. The protest, called by ANSWER, wound its way through downtown San Francisco, stopping at several hotels to express solidarity with hotel workers.

Demonstrators chanted loudly when passing the Chronicle, which, under new ownership, is working hard to bust its workers’ unions. Several anti-war demonstrations also took place in other Bay Area cities; thousands also rallied in Los Angeles.

In Columbus, Ohio, two marches converged on Statehouse Plaza. The “Faith March” arrived from south of the plaza after an interfaith prayer service. The “Rise Up! March” contingent arrived from the north, complete with homemade drums, banners and signs.

In an event called “Music, Art, Words,” members of the Cleveland community presented poetry readings and sang songs, bringing home with fresh intensity the need to end the war in Iraq and work for socialism. Heart-wrenching prints showing the pathos of war lined the walls of Pilgrim Church, along with an original charcoal drawing of Malcolm X.

NEW YORK CITY

Protests began at recruiting centers throughout the city, with more than 100 rallying at the recruiting station in Harlem at 125th Street.

Anti-war and community groups in Queens—the most internationally diverse county in the U.S.—held a morning protest outside the U.S. Army “Career Center” in the predominantly Latin@ neighborhood of Jackson Heights. Several dozen acti vists chanted, distributed fliers in Spanish and English, and picketed for over an hour while Army recruiters peered nervously out of second-floor windows. After a brief speakout, protesters then marched for sev eral blocks through the neighborhood before traveling to Manhattan to join the city-wide demonstration at Times Square organized by the Troops Out Now Coalition.

More than 7,000 rallied in Times Square near the infamous recruiting center. They then marched to the United Nations demanding “no war on Iran” and the right of Katrina and Rita evacuees to return to New Orleans and the other devastated areas of the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Many young people took part in the spirited march as it spread along 42nd Street. Activists from BAYAN USA carried a banner stretching nearly half a block that read “U.S. Troops Out of the Philippines.” A large “Free Leonard Peltier” contingent was also present, while Palestinian flags blew in the wind. This demonstration received a lot of national media coverage.

CHICAGO

A broad alliance of over 100 community and political organizations staged a day-long series of anti-war rallies in different neighborhoods of the city, followed by feeder marches, car caravans and “Peace Trains” converging at a rally and march down Michigan Avenue, Chicago’s major commercial street. Police estimated the crowd at 7,000 to 15,000.

Three years ago, a crowd of 15,000 protesting the U.S. attack on Iraq took over Lake Shore Drive and Michigan Avenue. In response, the Chicago police arrested and detained as many as 1,500 protesters, shoppers and other passers-by. Since that time, Mayor Richard Daley’s administration has denied all requests for permits for anti-war protests on Michigan Avenue, instead using police power to force demonstrations onto side streets.

Veteran antiwar and LGBT activist Andy Thayer, acting for the coalition, submitted this year’s permit application with exactly the same itinerary of a big-business pre-Christmas parade called the “Festival of Lights.”

The city was forced to either admit to their unconstitutional pro-war bias or grant the permit, which they did. Org anizers dubbed it the “Festival of Rights” and staged it complete with anti-war floats, a marching band and drill team.

Rallies and marches began in the morning. A rally in the Puerto Rican community of Humboldt Park, principally organized by the National Boricua Human Rights Network, was joined by a Palestine Solidarity Contingent and marchers from the Committee on Filipino Issues, and swelled to as many as 500 as it marched toward Union Park. A Mexican@ contingent marched from Pilsen.

SAN DIEGO

Activists, veterans, students and families came together in San Diego to protest the third anniversary of the occupation.

Members of the San Diego Inter na tional Action Center (IAC) and FIST joined forces with local members of Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, and the California Coalition Against Poverty for a feeder march under the slogan “Tear Down the Walls! No Wall Is for Peace!”

According to a statement from the organi zers, the march was a “demand for an end to all occupations from Iraq to Pale s tine, Haiti, Afghanistan and everywhere; justice and the right to return for Pales tinians; justice for Katrina survivors and all people of color; and freedom for Ahmad Saadat, Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners, including the children of Palestine.”

Feeder marches ended at a peace festival in historic Balboa Park, where San Diego IAC speaker Gloria Verdieu linked together the struggles of Katrina survivors, immigrants and Palestinians. Ver dieu told listeners, “We must link these issues because the U.S. government links them. African Americans and immigrants make up the majority of the poor and working people in the U.S. We continue to pay a huge cost for U.S. war and occupation, with our tax dollars, our sweat, our sons and daughters who join the military because they see no other alternative means for supporting our families.… We must unite all people, black, brown, yellow, white!”

BOSTON

In a decisive progressive step forward for the Boston anti-war movement, over 2,000 came out for a march and rally to demand “Stop the Violence—Stop the War at Home and Abroad.”

Uniting against poverty, racism, sexism and war and demanding that the troops be brought home now, this historic action was built, led and joined by mostly people of color, youth and women especially under the auspices of the Rosa Parks Human Rights Day Coalition.

Speakers represented anti-police brutality activists, cultural workers, education, housing and health care organizations, immigrants, labor, LGBT organizations, liberation struggles including Haiti, Palestine and the Zapatistas, unions, women’s struggles, youth and veterans.

Askia Toure, an African American elder and cultural worker, invoked the presence of the ancestors to open the rally and said, “I hope that we continue in this process of struggle, transformation and liberation.”

Felix Arroyo, Chuck Turner and Sam Yoon, members of Team Unity, an alliance of Boston City councilors of color, received warm greetings and sustained applause.

Mahtowin Munro of the United Amer ican Indians of New England captured the spirit of the day with these words: “This fight against the war, against imperialism, is a fight that we have been fighting since 1492, since Columbus first got here. It’s a fight that we’re going to win.”

After the rally, participants stepped off for the march, led by youth of color. Onlookers clapped, raised fists, chanted in solidarity or joined the march. Banners and Cuban, rainbow, Pales tinian, Puerto Rican and Vene zuelan flags flew proudly.

En route participants stopped briefly several times at Boston police headquarters to protest police brutality; at a proposed site of a Boston University Biolab where activists say weapons of mass destruction would be developed; at Down town Crossing, the heart of Boston’s shopping district; and at the Federal Building where the Department of Homeland Security and other repressive state agencies are housed. The march ended at the Boston Common in front of the State House.

Other actions took place in
New Haven, Conn.; Springfield,

Mass.; Rutland, Vt.; Portland, Me., Concord, N.H., Providence, R.I., Phoenix, Ariz., and dozens of other U.S. cities and towns. Active-duty GIs and veterans joined protests in Fayetteville, N.C., at the edge of Fort Bragg, and in New Orleans.

Sharon Danann, David Dixon, Judy Greenspan, Larry Hales, Kris Hamel, Justin Jimenez, Cheryl LaBash, Dustin Langley, Mary Owen, Lou Paulsen and Bryan Pfeifer contributed to this article.