[Mb-civic] In case you missed it: 350,000 march for peace in NYC

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

350,000 March for Peace, Justice, and Democracy
in New York City

United for Peace and Justice | Press Release

Saturday 29 April 2006

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/043006X.shtml#1

Largest antiwar labor turnout in US history.

Oscar Winners Susan Sarandon, Mercedes Ruehl and
Jonathan Demme, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Reverend Al
Sharpton, Hurricane Survivors, Iraq War Veterans,
Military Families, Immigrant Rights Activists,
Religious Leaders and Labor Unions Join Together to
Call for New Priorities

29 April 2006, New York, New York: The streets of New
York City echoed today with the chants, songs and
shouts of at least 350,000 people from across the
United States. Mobilized around the calls to end the
war in Iraq, to say no to any attack on Iran, and to
support the rights and dignity of all people, including
immigrants and women, the marchers brought a renewed
urgency to the clear demand for change. The march
featured the largest antiwar labor contingent in US
history.

Initiated by a historic alliance linking a diverse
coalition of national organizations - United for Peace
and Justice, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the National
Organization for Women, Friends of the Earth, Climate
Crisis Coalition, US Labor Against the War, Veterans
for Peace, National Youth and Student Peace Coalition,
People's Hurricane Relief Fund - the March for Peace,
Justice and Democracy embodied the understanding that
all those working for such goals must come together to
right the reckless, dangerous, and wrong-headed
direction the U.S. government has been following.

The march kicked off at noon on a sunny Saturday in
Manhattan. The lead contingent included Oscar winning
actors Susan Sarandon and Mercedes Ruehl; Oscar-winning
film director Jonathan Demme; writer/actor Malachy
McCourt; NYC Transport Workers Union leader Roger
Toussaint; Air America host Randi Rhodes; Michael Berg,
whose son was the first U.S. civilian hostage killed in
Iraq; Reverend Jesse Jackson; Reverend Al Sharpton;
Gold Star mother Cindy Sheehan; Faiza Al-Araji, a peace
and women's rights advocate from Iraq; John Wilhem,
president of UNITE/HERE; National Organization for
Women President Kim Gandy; and Anne Wright, the first
State Department diplomat to resign protesting the Iraq
War.

At the march's conclusion in Foley Square, a vibrant
sea of flags, banners and signs welcomed marchers to
the "Peace and Justice Festival." Issue tents featured
speakers, literature, t-shirt sales, food and music
highlighting the key issues of the wide-ranging March
coalition: the war in Iraq and threats of war and U.S.
nuclear attacks on Iran, a Palestine tent featuring Q&A
on Israel/Palestine and folkloric dance in an Arab-
style "café," counter-recruitment campaigners, a Labor
tent featuring the NYC Labor Chorus, and others. A
special Children's Peace Tent featured puppet-making
and peace crane art projects, "Putt for Peace" and
other games, face-painting, musicians and jugglers.
Films, music, performances by the Raging Grannies and
many other activities were featured as well.

According to Leslie Cagan, national coordinator of the
1,500-organization strong United for Peace and Justice
Coalition, "An unprecedented range of organizations,
committed to varied constituencies and a wide range of
priorities, came together to march today. We all
recognize that until we end this lethal war in Iraq - a
war that is destroying so many lives in Iraq and here,
and costing so many billions of dollars so desperately
needed for rebuilding lives, cities and countries -
that we cannot succeed at reclaiming our democracy."

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Marching in New York City

By Tom Engelhardt
TomDispatch.com

Sunday 30 April 2006

"I'm already against the next war."

[Note for Tomdispatch readers: It seemed
appropriate, given the piece that follows, to
recommend Anthony Arnove's book, Iraq: The Logic of
Withdrawal. Clear and concise, it presents in a
nutshell the background for, and the arguments for,
getting our troops out of Iraq. It is the book to
take with you, if you are planning to argue the
case with family members, friends, co-workers, or
others. Tom]

It's the perfect day for a march. Sunny, crisp,
clear, spring-like. The sort of day that just gives
you hope for no reason at all, though my own hopes
are not high for New York's latest antiwar
demonstration. I haven't received a single email
about it. Many people I know hadn't realized it was
happening. I fear the outreach has been minimal and
despite all the signals of danger (of another war,
this time with Iran) and of possibility (nosediving
presidential approval polls, an administration in
disarray, and the Republican Party in growing
chaos), I approach this 30 block march with
something of a sinking heart.

This is only reinforced by the scene that meets the
full staff of Tomdispatch.com - Nick Turse and me -
as we leave the subway at 18th street and head east
about an hour before the demonstrators are to step
off. The streets are still largely empty of all but
the police, gathered in knots at every corner.
Their blue sawhorses ("police line do not cross")
rim the sidewalks seemingly to the horizon and
everywhere you can see stacks of the metal fencing
with which the NYPD has become so expert at hemming
in any demonstration. None of this inspires great
confidence.

Sometimes, though, surprise is a wonderful thing.
Who would have guessed that several hours later I
would be standing on Broadway and Leonard Street
looking back at perhaps 20 packed blocks of
demonstrators - bands, puppets, signs by the
thousands, vets by the hundreds (if not the
thousands), huge contingents of military families,
congeries of the young, labor, women, the clergy,
university and high school students, raging
grannies, radical cheerleaders, and who knows who
else - an enormous mass of humanity as far as the
eye can see and probably another 10 to 15 blocks
beyond that. It was enough to make the heart leap.
I had no way of counting, no way of knowing whether
what I saw was the 300,000 the organizers claimed
or merely the vague "tens of thousands" mentioned
in most media reports. It was, to say the least
though, a lot of people, mobilized on limited
notice.

As someone who lived through the era of Vietnam
protests, this demonstration had quite a different
feel to it, and not just because of all the
military families (and the surprising number of
people I talked with who knew someone, or were
related to someone, who had served in our all-
volunteer military in Iraq), but because no one in
this demonstration had the illusion that the White
House was paying the slightest bit of attention to
them. The same, by the way, might be said of the
mainstream media. On the ABC and NBC prime time
news this night, the reports on this huge
demonstration, sandwiched between what would be
billed as major stories, would zip by in quite
literally a few seconds each. In each case, if you
hadn't been there, it would be easy to believe from
the reporting that this event had essentially never
occurred.

As I often do, I spent as much time as I could
prowling the crowd, talking to as many protesters
as possible. A demonstration of this size is a
complex beast, one I would hesitate to
characterize. I've tried instead to offer below
some of the voices I ran across - or at least as
much of each of them as my slow hand could madly
scribble on a pad of paper. As modest as the cross-
section I encountered was, I had the feeling that,
while the march was calm, lively, and upbeat, many
of the demonstrators had no illusions about what
the future might hold. The ones I met were almost
uniformly disappointed in, or disgusted with, the
Democratic "opposition," fearful of a new war in
Iran, realistic about how hard it will be to get
the President's men (and so our troops) out of
Iraq, and yet surprisingly determined that those
troops should be brought home as soon as humanly
possible.

Perhaps such demonstrations are now not for the
Bush administration, nor really for the mainstream
media either, but only for us. Perhaps they are a
reminder to all those who attend and to those
numbering in their hundreds of thousands, if not
millions, on the political Internet that we are
here, alive, and humming. That is reason enough to
demonstrate.

Throughout these years, signs - individually made,
hand-lettered, sometimes just scrawled (not to
speak of masks, puppets, complex theatricals,
elaborate visuals of every sort suitable for a
world of special effects) - are the signature
aspect of such demonstrations. Here are some of the
signs that caught my eye, not necessarily the
wildest among them, but ones that give something of
the flavor of the event:

"From Gulf to Gulf, George Bush, a category 5
disaster" "Drop Bush, Not Bombs." "Fermez La Bush"
"No ProLife in Iraq." "1 was too many, 2400 is
enough" "War is terrorism with a bigger budget"
"Axis of Insanity" (with George, Condi, Don, and
Dick dressed as an     Elmer Fudd-style hunter)
"One Nation under Surveillance" "G.O.P. George
Orwell Party" "How Many Lives per Gallon?" "War Is
Soooooo 20th Century" "Civil War Accomplished in
Iraq-Nam" "Give Impeachment a Chance" "I'm Already
Against the Next War" "Expose the lies, half-
truths, cut and paste rationales for going to war"
"Mandatory Evacuation of the Bush White House"

for the rest of this article, go to
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=80922


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"A war of aggression is the supreme international crime." -- Robert Jackson,
 former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice and Nuremberg prosecutor

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