---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 10:02:18 -0800
From: radtimes <resist@best.com>
Subject: In D.C., Echoes of Vietnam
In D.C., Echoes of Vietnam
Over 100,000 rally against war in Iraq
COMBINED NEWS SERVICES
October 28, 2002
Washington - More than 100,000 people marched this
weekend in protest of a military strike against Iraq, in
an anti-war demonstration that organizers and police
suggested was likely Washington's largest since the
Vietnam era, but the Bush administration stood firm
and said it was time for United Nations action.
Marchers carried signs and joined in chants that
echoed a common theme: A war against Iraq would be
unjustified and there is no consensus for it. The signs
bore slogans such as "Regime Change Begins at
Home" and "No More Blood for Oil."
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, an organizer with International
ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism),
said the rally "shows that when George Bush says
America speaks with one voice, and it's his voice, he's
wrong."
Similar demonstrations worldwide drew crowds of thousands, from San Francisco
to Augusta, Maine, and overseas in Berlin; Frankfurt, Germany; Copenhagen;
and Stockholm.
Organizers said Saturday afternoon's protest was the largest anti-war rally
in the
capital since the Vietnam War. They said they originally had hoped for 75,000
participants, but as the day wore on they assessed attendance at well over
100,000, perhaps as many as 200,000. Shoulder-to-shoulder crowds filled the
streets for several blocks.
Speakers included civil rights leaders Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, actress
Susan Sarandon, singer Patti Smith and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark.
Notably absent from the list of speakers were any elected officials, with the
exception of Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), recently defeated in her party's
primary.
Senate Democrats appeared none too popular in the crowd of anti-war liberals
and old-fashioned leftists. Signs criticized Sens. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.)
and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who both voted in favor of a
congressional
resolution that authorized the president to attack Iraq.
But the most unpopular figure of all appeared to be John Ashcroft, the U.S.
attorney general. The mere mention of his name prompted boos to swell from the
crowd, followed by semi-obscene chants.
President George W. Bush was not in Washington during the protest, but in
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, attending the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation
forum. Among other things, Bush was seeking to rally fellow leaders behind his
Iraq stance. He is also urging the UN to pass a new resolution that
requires Iraq
to give up any weapons of mass destruction or face dire consequences.
In Phoenix yesterday, Bush told a political rally, "If the United Nations
won't act,
if Saddam Hussein will not act, if he continues to defy the world, the United
States in the name of peace will lead a coalition to disarm Saddam Hussein."
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