Dispatches from the Peace Movement

By Don Hazen and Tai Moses, AlterNet. Posted October 28, 2002.

Yes, a Movement

There can be no doubt about it -- there is a peace movement. Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld and the armchair Chicken Hawks have provoked a full-fledged peace movement in just a few months, helped along greatly by the Internet.

In a funny way, the peace movement seems all there from 30 years ago; a lot grayer perhaps, yet filled in by a new generation of enthusiastic and playful young people. Even the sectarians looked the same, passing out leaflets, hawking their papers, which looked identical to those from 1970, except now, everyone has a Website. Street theater is alive and well, creative sign writing of high quality. In a funny way, at least in San Francisco, history seemed to have stood still.

--Don Hazen

Bombshells Not Bombs

We were near the head of the massive crowd of people, marching slowly down Market Street to the Civic Center, when I realized that something crucial was missing. “Give me your lipstick,” I said to Valerie, one of two girlfriends walking with me in Saturday’s antiwar demonstration in San Francisco. Valerie, Traci and I hiked up our shirts and drew peace signs around our bellybuttons with Valerie’s dark purple MAC lipstick (long-wearing, as it turns out -- it still hasn’t washed off). With a few strokes of color we had joined the spirit of the crowd -- what might be the largest peace march in SF since the Vietnam War.

We were walking in a sea of signs and placards: “No Blood For Oil” was the most common. Others read “Drop Bush, Not Bombs;” “Bush, The Moron With the War On;” “Regime Change Begins at Home” and “Bombshells Not Bombs” (the girl brandishing this sign was vamping for the crowd in a sexy cocktail dress). There were people carrying baguettes baked in the shape of peace signs; others pushing baby carriages and leading dogs.

Many of those present said they had never attended an antiwar rally before, or any other kind of rally, for that matter. Two teen-aged boys with mohawks and “Punks for Peace” emblazoned on their army jackets walked in solidarity with a group of elderly ladies toting a “Grannies Against the War” banner. There were several men in baseball caps with “Giants Fans for Peace” signs and a man with a sign that read “Bush Lies” had a long Pinocchio nose affixed to his face.

The legendary San Francisco fog cleared and the sun shone brightly, making it comfortable for those, like us, who had bare midriffs.

Crowd estimates vary (see "The Counting Game," below), but the march drew at least 40,000 to the streets of the city. The line of slowly walking marchers stretched more than a mile. Even when the rally at the Civic Center was well underway, walkers continued to pour into the plaza, making the speakers urge the crowd to make room for the newcomers. A line of police in riot gear stood at attention on the steps of the state building; other police cruised the perimeters, but this was a peaceful gathering, interested primarily in getting a single message across: that the American people do not want war in Iraq.

When one of the speakers called for a moment of silence in honor of Minnesota senator Paul Wellstone, killed in a plane crash Friday, the wildly cheering and clapping crowd immediately quieted. Other speakers included Rep. Barbara Lee and actor Mike Farrell.

Speakers urged the media to point their cameras not at them but out at the full panorama of the crowd and to honestly portray the numbers present. "The news media won't be able to say 'Only a few hundred showed up,' " said one speaker.

On our way back to the East Bay that afternoon, crowds thronged the BART station, overtaxing the system, so station managers opened the turnstiles and let thousands of protesters ride for free. “BART for peace,” cried Valerie, as we boarded the peace train for home.

--Tai Moses

Media Coverage

Even the Washington Post recognized the presence of a new peace movement. The lead graph in its Sunday story read: “Tens of thousands of people marched in peaceful protest of any military strike against Iraq yesterday afternoon, in an antiwar demonstration that organizers and police suggested was likely Washington's largest since the Vietnam era.”

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