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Washingtonians March Against the War: A View From
the Grassroots
By Nadrat Siddique
Over a thousand people marched in Washington,
D.C. on Saturday (March 22) as
part of an emergency protest called at extremely
short notice by the
A.N.S.W.E.R.
(Act Now to Stop War & End Racism)
Coalition. At the start of the
protest, park police penned in the protestors for
a short while, within a
barricaded area near the White House, not
allowing people to leave, nor the
march to proceed. Many of us realized that this
was part of an intimidation
tactic used to deter anti-war protestors from
future protest actions.
Nevertheless, the protest remained peaceful, and
finally the predominantly
youthful, ethnically diverse crowd was permitted
to march.
MEET LEILA:
I marched along with a fiery black woman
named Leila, from WOL (one of
D.C.’s
few independent radio stations) and her young
son, Antony. Leila had been
part of the civil disobedience action on Thursday
in which Daniel Ellsberg
(recall him from the Pentagon Papers) and many
others had taken part. I asked
her about her arrest, and the petite woman with
long braids described how
she’d laid down in the middle of the road to
block traffic; ten to twelve
police officers had surrounded her before she was
lifted bodily off the
roadway and into the police vehicle. Leila said
that she probably wouldn’t do
any more civil disobedience for a while, as she
couldn’t afford the $200 it
had cost to get out, but that she would continue
marching against the war. I
told her I admired her for the courage of her
convictions.
MIXTECA INDIAN: WAR VETERAN ON CRUTCHES
Marching with Leila and I was a Mixteca
Indian from the Indigenous Nations
Network. He was a Vietnam veteran and on
crutches. As police herded us away
from the White House area uptown (toward Adams
Morgan), he exhibited a
determination that was inspiring, leading
anti-war chants and keeping up with
us for at least twenty-five city blocks, despite
being in great pain (he
ordinarily used a wheel chair and not crutches),
which he shrugged off, saying
he would take some painkillers when he got home.
As we marched through the neighborhoods, the
level of support for the
anti-war effort by long disenfranchised D.C.
residents was evident. Although
most just watched and gave us the thumbs up
signal or the peace sign, some
joined the march as it passed; others had hung
anti-war banners and flags from
their balconies. "Whose streets? Our streets" we
chanted as we passed a
massive police blockade.
TALIBAN REFUSED TO SIGN
One young black man who had just gotten off work
from a nearby gym, where he was a personal
trainer, joined us. He told me in
great detail about the composition of the
Bush
cabinet (oil men,
Zionists,
and
Zionist oil men), as well as about the meetings
between the Taliban, the Bush
administration, and Unocal reps in Texas, where
the Taliban declined to sign
over drilling rights to Unocal, precipitating the
U.S. bombing of that
country. Thus the level of awareness of ordinary
District residents was
evident.
IRAQI
CHILDREN ARE NOT TERRORISTS
Chants ranged from "The people united will
stop this war," and "Money for
jobs and education, not for war and occupation."
In addition to the standard
signs against the war, protestors carried signs
saying "Impeach Bush," "George
Bush does not speak for me," "Iraqi Children are
not Terrorists," and "U.S.,
Israel–hands
off Iraq." This last was my
creation, and I carried it proudly,
in the awareness that from start to finish, this
war–whose aim is to ensure
complete hegemony of the zionist entity in the
region--is a continuation of
Israel’s attack on Iraq, which began with its
outright bombing of Iraq’s
Osirak nuclear reactor and continues today in the
form of the current assault
spearheaded by the zionists like Richard Perle,
who persist in their vitriol
against Iraq even despite
CIA
and MI-6
recommendations against such a war.
LONG LIVE PALESTINE
As the march turned and headed back toward the
White House, all of a sudden
pro-Palestinian
chants broke out: "Long live
Palestine, long live the
Intifada!" It was young American protesters, not
Palestinians, who had
started this chant, evidently realizing the link
between the assault on Iraq
and the injustice against the Palestinians.
Finally the march arrived back at the White
House, where rallies continued
until sundown.
U.S., Israel–hands off Iraq!
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2003-03-27 Thu 10:17ct