Rally in Washington Is
Said to Invigorate
the Antiwar Movement
By Kate Zernike, New
York Times
Wednesday, October 30
Emboldened by a weekend antiwar protest in Washington
that organizers called the biggest since the days of
the Vietnam War, groups opposed to military action in
Iraq said they were preparing a wave of new
demonstrations across the country in the next few
weeks.
The demonstration on Saturday in Washington drew
100,000 by police estimates and 200,000 by
organizers', forming a two-mile wall of marchers
around the White House. The turnout startled even
organizers, who had taken out permits for 20,000
marchers. They expected 30 buses, and were surprised
by about 650, coming from as far as Nebraska and
Florida.
A companion demonstration in San Francisco attracted
42,000 protesters, city police there said, and smaller
groups demonstrated in other cities, including about
800 in Austin, Tex., and 2,500 in Augusta, Me.
"The rally was like a huge gust of wind into the sails
of the antiwar movement," said Brian Becker, an
organizer of the Washington protest. "Our goal was not
simply to have a big demonstration, but to give the
movement confidence that it could prevail. The massive
turnout showed it's legitimate, and it's big."
Building on those demonstrations, a coalition of
groups called International Answer -- short for Act
Now to Stop War and End Racism -- is asking people to
vote in a referendum called VoteNoWar.org, which
organizers hope will serve as a countervote to the
Congressional resolution in support of military action
in Iraq.
The coalition, which has absorbed several smaller
groups around the country, is also planning another
protest on Jan. 18 and 19 in Washington, to coincide
with the commemoration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.'s birthday and the 12th anniversary of the
Persian Gulf war. Organizers are also planning what
they call a Grass Roots Peoples' Congress to publicize
the results of the referendum.
Smaller groups that attended the demonstrations in San
Francisco and Washington said they were planning their
own protests back home. Protesters plan to march in
New Orleans and Tampa, Fla., this weekend; in
Charleston, S.C., in mid-November; and again in San
Francisco on Nov. 22. A group in Louisiana is planning
a peace walk between Baton Rouge and New Orleans at
the end of November, and the National Council of
Churches is discussing another rally in Washington for
Nov. 24.
MoveOn.org is conducting an online petition drive and
has raised about $2 million for candidates, including
the late Senator Paul Wellstone, who opposed a war in Iraq.
In California, college students are leading teach-ins
against the war at high schools. Richard Becker, an
organizer with Answer in San Francisco, said the group
was setting up an emergency response plan to
accommodate a mass protest -- complete with sound
systems, placards, the requisite permits and even
portable toilets -- on the day United States troops
enter Iraq.
"There is not going to be one speech or one
demonstration, after which everyone goes home," said
Barbara Lubin, the founder of the Middle East
Children's Alliance in Berkeley, Calif. "This is a
movement against war, and it's building momentum."
Those who have been organizing and attending
demonstrations for several months said the swelling
size of the protests showed how much antiwar sentiment
had increased as the threat of war intensified.
In San Francisco, a march on Sept. 6 drew 2,500
people, one two weeks later, 6,000, and one on Oct. 6,
10,000.
"People are very emboldened right now," said Mike
Zmolek, an organizer with the National Network to Stop
the War in Iraq. "We've been in a financial crunch
since we started -- suddenly people are sending checks
out of nowhere."
Mr. Zmolek said his organization had attracted 100 new
antiwar groups across the country in the last three
months.
The march in Washington was planned by International
Answer, with coordinators of local chapters working in
more than two dozen cities around the country. It
attracted homemakers as well as college students,
seasoned activists and those who had never attended
any kind of political rally before.
"It was beautiful," said Merrill Chapman, 35, who
called herself "just a housewife" in Charleston, S.C.
"I'm in a very conservative town, and I feel like the
lone voice. Being in Washington energized me, by
seeing I was not alone."
Ms. Chapman had never been to a protest before the
demonstration in Washington, but got involved after
organizing a group called Thinking People in Charleston.
She is planning a rally for Nov. 16 in her city.
In Houston, Lois Wright, a 46-year-old saleswoman in a
drapery workroom, said she felt compelled to take the
two-day bus ride to Washington, because the Bush
administration seemed "hellbent on going to war."
"It's O.K. to do stuff in Houston, but nobody gets to
hear about it," she said. "I felt if we were right in
their faces, they couldn't ignore us."
Polls show that about 50 percent of Americans support
sending ground troops to Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein
from power. Antiwar organizers acknowledge some public
support for military action, but said that until now,
the voices of those who do not support the policy have
not been heard.
"I think the president has considerable support," Mr.
Zmolek said, "but I think the nation is pretty divided
on this."
Certainly, there is still debate. In Austin, the
University of Texas student government passed a
resolution on Oct. 22 opposing an attack, by a vote of
20 to 17. Some students seek to have that vote
overturned, saying it does not reflect the sentiment
of the campus's 50,000 students.
