Back home

Sigh. We made it back to Minneapolis at 10:30 p.m. on Monday. Ah! The joy of sleeping in my own bed and seeing my cats!

The Demo

We left our hotel in Bethesda around 8 a.m. We had breakfast and got some good coffee, then headed to the Metro. On the Metro, we saw lots of folks with signs and T-shirts that indicated they were going the same way. A woman with a Free Palestine T-shirt offered me her seat (damn, I've reached that age!) and we talked for a while. We got out at Farragut North, had another shot of coffee, then headed to the Ellipse. The authorities had blocked off several streets around the White House, the Executive Office Building and the Treasury Department, so we had to zigzag our way to the event.

The stage on the ellipse for the pre-march rally was fairly small. The press platform blocked some of the view. But the sound was terrific. There was a long banner hanging at the back of the stage that literally rotated between UFPJ and ANSWER. The banner was flipped back and forth depending on which group's speakers had the microphone.

We spent most of the time wandering through the crowd and bumping into people we knew. The buses from Minneapolis got there shortly after I did and I started seeing my "Bring the Troops Home Now" signs made up as sandwich boards. Very nice and very distinctive! The anti-war committee had a banner that had an outline map of Minnesota and the phrase "You betcha Minnesotans say no to war." It drew lots of interested photographers.

We marched with the Minnesota group first, then wandered back to the U.S. Labor Against the War contingent. As we were waiting in gridlock, a friend pointed up to the small group of 50 people or so who were waiting in line to go inside the Washington Monument.

Friend: "Do you know who those people are way up there?"

Us: "No."

Friend: "Those are the people who refuse to march with ANSWER."

Yeah, after all the bruhaha about differences of opinions, it was clear on the ground that the vast majority of people were there to end the war and welcomed people who also supported all kinds of other issues as well.

At one point I found myself amidst a large group of women with green shirts and signs that said "Gennossee County against the war." I asked them where they were from. A woman answered, Flint, Michigan.

"I'm from Michigan, too!" I said. "I was born in Ann Arbor."

She shook her head, held up her hand and said, "Do it the right way!"

My husband groaned as I pointed to the thumb of my own hand. "I'm from here!" I said.

Ah, we Michiganders are just so predictable!

I saw lots of great signs:

One man had a lovely peace sign with a cartoon strawberry and the words, "Just Another Fruit for Peace."

A woman and her young son held up a sign that said, "No Iraqi ever left me on my roof to die."

As far as numbers go, the march was smaller than the choice march in 1986 which was 750,000 or more. The largest crowd I've personally counted was a little over 10,000. My guess is there were about 250,000 people there. The press said "at least" 100,000 and the organizers said 300,000. No question, the turnout was much larger than expected. We should be proud of our work!

The march curved around past the White House. "Billionaires for Bush" were dressed in formal wear and standing across the street from the White House. One woman waved her hand oh so serenely while her partner tipped his yachting cap. Their signs included "Cronyism is competence!" "Photo Ops are Accomplishments!" and, my favorite, "It's a Class War and We're Winning."

By far, the most active and loud participants were various groups of young people who danced and chanted their way through the crowds. They chanted "Move Bush! Get out 'the way! "Get out 'the way, Bush, get out 'the way!" or "Bush! You liar! We'll set your house on fire!"

There was almost no grassroots security visible anywhere along the march. In fact, the only security folks we saw were around the stages. There were tiny groups of counter-protesters along the march. I started to fade toward the end of the march and took a short-cut back, so I missed the planned counter-demonstration. I heard, however, that they only managed a few hundred.

We stayed for only the start of the after-march concert. We heard Cindy Sheehan speak and then Steve Earle sang. Here's where I became intolerant. He seemed like a child, urging the crowd to yell Fuck Bush and complaining about how hard it was to buy cigarettes these days. Oh, boohoo. We gathered up our various flyers and buttons and headed back to the Metro station.

One thing we noticed: almost nobody sold decent buttons. They were either too small, too unclear or just plain messy. Oh, well.

One of the joys of participating in a national demonstration that local activists don't talk about so much is what a joy it is to be at a demo at which somebody else does all the work. Over the past 20 years, we have consistently done media work for every demonstration, which means sending press releases, making phone calls, assisting the media at the events, doing crowd counts, providing informed commenters, doing follow-up calls, etc. There were tons of volunteers on hand and I had done a ton of work to build local participation. The Anti-War Committee members took responsibility for organizing the buses and keeping track of people during the event. On Saturday I had the unusual pleasure of being a participant and enjoying the event with no nagging responsibilities. Definitely an enjoyable experience!

Along the streets and at the rally sites, various groups had set up tables and were selling literature. We agreed that we would not pick up any material that was easily available in Minneapolis (People's Daily World, Workers World, Workers Vanguard, Socialist Action, Justice, Fight Back, etc). There was no shortage of people handing out information.

There is a hell of a lot of political activism out there. Some examples, in the order I pull them from the pile:

ANSWER had a 4-pg. tabloid newspaper with their wonderful graphics.

United For Peace & Justice had an 8-pg. tabloid that included a map of the march route and events.

The World Can't Wait had a nicely done flyer with wide distribution. They are calling for an anti-Bush rally in NYC on November 2.

Solidarity News has a small 12-page newspaper based in Detroit.

911 Truth has a half-sheet flyer demanding a new investigation into September 11.

The International Communist Current had a green flyer with lots of small type.

Troops Out Now had a flyer for the Nationwide Strike against poverty, racism and war on December 1, the anniversary of Rosa Parks' refusal to move to the back of the bus. They also printed a 4-pg tabloid paper with articles connecting the antiwar struggle to other issues.

Workers Democracy had a broadsheet focused on New Orleans.

World Social Forum had a flyer for their next event in Venezuela on January 24-29.

The Internationalist had a 12-page newspaper focussing on New Orleans.

The World Socialist Web Site handed out reprints from their website.

The Indypendent handed out their 4-color 20-pg newspaper from New York City Indymedia.

Socialist Appeal handed out a 16-page letter-size mag produced out of Fargo, N.D.

Campaign to Stop Killer Coke had a letter-size flyer explaining the boycott against Coke -- "The Drink that Represses!".

The Worker had a 4-pg. tabloid newspaper out of Chicago.

In These Times handed out their September 19 edition.

Take the Pledge had flyers and sign-up sheets to get people to cut their personal oil use in half by 2020.

United States Student Association had brochures promoting their training program for students.

Democratic Socialists of America handed out "Building the Next Left" documents and others.

The US/Cuba Labor Exchange handed out information on a December 9-11 conference in Tijuana, Mexico.

Arab Association for Human Rights had fliers about their activities, based in Israel.

The Korea Truth Commission had fliers and a statement on the current state of talks. We met Ye there. We had worked on a committee to bring her to Minneapolis several years ago. It was great to see her again.

National Conference to Reclaim Our Cities had a pamphlet for their conference in Detroit on November 11-13.

International Action Center reprinted articles. I picked up several, one suggesting Sudan is the next target, one comparing storm reaction in the U.S. with China, one on Venezuela.

International Solidarity had an 8-pg. stapled printout of their newspaper.

Voice of Revolution handed out their 24-page mag printed in Chicago.

Pride at Work has a brochure about GBLT rights in the workplace.

Books Not Bombs has a brochure about their work among students since September 11.

Military Free Zone passed out "fuck recruiters in our schools" stickers.

Iraq Freedom Congress handed out a 14-pg analysis of the current situation in Iraq.

Campus Antiwar Network had fliers supporting the "On the Frontlines" congress on October 22-23 in Berkeley, CA. They also handed out a 34-pg tabloid magazine called "A Mind is a Terrible Thing To Waste."

Socialist Worker sold their paper, based out of Chicago.

Anti-Imperialist News Service has a 4-pg. mag out of Chicago.

Working People's Advocate has a broadsheet with an article on New Orleans.

American Friends Service Committee has a 4-pg. document on "Building Hope for Iraq".

People Judge Bush has a printout on "US War Crimes in Iraq Talking Points" and "Shut down Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram and the Maricopa County Jail."

Challenge has a 8-pg. tabloid newspaper they handed out plus a flyer "From Gulf Coast to Persian Gulf: Capitalism Kills."

League of Revolutionaries for a New America had a flyer on "Hurricane Katrina and Its Aftermath" printed in Chicago.

The Spark had a 8-pg. tabloid newspaper out of Baltimore.

Stand Up for Democracy in DC has a pamphlet on their work to bring democracy to the citizens of the District of Columbia.

Visual Commentary handed out postcards promoting their website.