A month ago, the press was reporting that somewhere in the range of 90% of all Turks were against an American war in Iraq. But that, of course, was dismissed as so much Muslim sentiment. Utterly expectable. Some weeks ago, a poll in France indicated 77% of the French were against such a war. Today, according to the New York Times, a poll in Germany indicates that more than 80% of Germans have weighed in negatively. I guess, if you’re sitting in the Pentagon, maybe you can say, well, that’s just the world, but clearly something is happening even in the media.
Today, to my amazement, the Times, despite its utterly humdrum, minimalist coverage of the demonstrations, actually had a fine editorial,“A Stirring in the Nation”. It takes a lot to break through the media sense of ho-hum, just-another-Saturday-event-to-cover, but at least a few papers like the Boston Globe definitely burst out in front-page fashion.
It may not be 80% antiwar sentiment in the United States yet (or ever), but I think it’s fair to say that we’ve never — not certainly in the 1960s — seen anything like this. Where events lag behind the 60s is in the Senate and in the Democratic Party. In the Vietnam era, Senators Morse and Gruening went into opposition to the war quickly, and Senator Fulbright followed. Despite the mainstream nature of the antiwar movement, as far as I know not a single Senate Democrat even made an appearance at the Washington demonstration. In a piece in today’s Guardian, “US marchers take to streets in echo of 60s, As opposition grows, Bush’s ratings slump,” Matthew Engel offers this sharp bit of analysis:
“On the Mall there was great pessimism about the future of mankind, but the optimism about the future of the cause was palpable. After a year of chuntering, the president’s opponents have begun to find a means of expression. With the Democratic Party still fearful of directly opposing Mr. Bush, it is starting on the streets rather than inside the political system. The president’s iron grip on Americans’ patriotic impulses is undoubtedly weakening. As one anti-war poster in the Mall put it: ‘It’s OUR flag too.'” To read all of this Guardian piece click here
But whatever was in the press or on TV, what amazed me were the emails I received from all over the country recording demonstrations that will never make it into the major papers. This is essentially a do-it-yourself movement and so I thought I might turn over the rest of this dispatch to the comments of various readers, who give a far more vivid sense of how quickly and deeply this movement is entering the mainstream of our culture than the media ever could (or would) — and I want to end with a longer description of the massive San Francisco demonstration written by a journalist friend of mine. Tom
Toni from Santa Barbara, for instance, wrote me:
“Here in Santa Barbara we have had an anti-war protest every Saturday up and down the main street for the past 20 weeks. On the 18th the estimates were around 5000. Police said it was the largest demonstration in 20 years. Question: of towns our size (about 300,000 but I’m guessing), do you know of others with a similar or greater turnout.”p>
But whatever was in the press or on TV, what amazed me were the emails I received from all over the country recording demonstrations that will never make it into the major papers. This is essentially a do-it-yourself movement and so I thought I might turn over the rest of this dispatch to the comments of various readers, who give a far more vivid sense of how quickly and deeply this movement is entering the mainstream of our culture than the media ever could (or would) — and I want to end with a longer description of the massive San Francisco demonstration written by a journalist friend of mine. Tom
Toni from Santa Barbara, for instance, wrote me:
“Here in Santa Barbara we have had an anti-war protest every Saturday up and down the main street for the past 20 weeks. On the 18th the estimates were around 5000. Police said it was the largest demonstration in 20 years. Question: of towns our size (about 300,000 but I’m guessing), do you know of others with a similar or greater turnout.”p>
I have no way of answering that question, but Jeff Clark, a reader from Maine, has, in effect, this to say:
“Just as a follow-up to the Portland Press Herald article I sent last week: Maine ultimately sent twelve buses and 600 people to Washington for Saturday’s protest march. I’ve heard that so many people wanted to make the trip that they ran out of available buses. (The companies that rent them don’t do a big business in the winter, so most are garaged.) Many others drove down or took the train from Portland.
“Even Mainers (we loathe the term Mainiacs) who couldn’t make the trip turned out for local marches. Take out your map of Maine and follow the coast all the way down to the Canadian border, to the tiny, economically depressed town of Lubec, population 1,652 on a good day, on a spit of land as far east as you can go and still be in the United States. Sixty people turned out there in single-digit temperatures, shoveled the snow away from a downtown intersection, and sang antiwar songs. Up the road a piece in Calais (pronounced “Callas” up here, thank you very much) 120 Canadian war protesters marched across the border from St. Stephen to the delight of locals, “occupied” Calais for twenty minutes, then went home again. All, I might add, without being bothered by the border guards on either side of the line.”
Sue Erlewine of Athens, Ohio wrote me, in part, in response to Chris Appy’s account of being a “rookie” antiwar protester,
“My husband Tom and I were first-timers at the rally on Sat. as well. Our small (but active!!)town of Athens, Ohio, sent 2 buses to the rally. And the majority were townspeople, not Ohio University students. (OU is here in Athens.) Tom video’d as well as photo’d the rally. He then spent all day Sunday making this website
“It was an amazingly beautiful and inspiring day for all of us. I just wanted you to see it from the viewpoint of the ‘regular’ folk who care. We all wonder who CNN and the rest of the media is polling when they say the majority support Bush and his war.”
A friend wrote of the approach to the vast San Francisco demonstration,
“BART [the subway] was so full, no one could squeeze on at later stops. The announcer told people to get off in the city one stop away from the demonstration’s starting point and walk, as the streets were so clogged with people, you couldn’t get up the stairway from the BART station.”
If you want a striking image of what the San Francisco demonstration looked like from the air — of the mass of people there — go to www.antiwar.com and take a look at the photo they display this Monday. (Should you read this later in the week, just click on “Monday” to see it.)
Robert Gunnison, director of school affairs at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and a reporter in Sacramento for the San Francisco Chronicle and United Press International for more than two decades, attended the demonstration and he offers this vivid account of what it was like.
“Yahoo Maps says it is two miles from the Embarcadero to City Hall in San
Francisco, and for the better part of three hours Saturday that stretch was
crammed with people protesting the prospect of war with Iraq.The parade of people was continuous from 11 in the morning. until after 2, when the
rear guard made it up Market Street. The cops said the crowd was more
than 50,000, but it was clearly larger than that. That is the size of a small
sports stadium. Yankee Stadium holds 57,545 (down from the 71,699 it
held in the 1930s.) To think about big sports crowds, consider that
Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the biggest sports venue in the world, a
capacity of 250,000.It was the roars that gave the impression of size. Every few minutes the
noise of thousands of people yelling and cheering would wash over the
crowd and work its way up Market Street’s canyon of buildings. Many people
put their hands over their ears while they added their own cheers.The organizers claimed 200,000. If they were wrong by 50 percent it was
still a much bigger crowd than the cops or the press would acknowledge.
The New York Times this morning barely mentioned the San Francisco
demonstration and the story from Washington was on page 12, with a
page one picture. The TV networks last night gave wide coverage. Their
numbers seemed low, but the images were good.People came from all over Northern California. There were buses from
Nevada City and Sacramento. A woman clinging to a light pole shouted
that she was from Mendocino. All ages and ethnicities were represented.
The Communist Progressive Labor Party folks were there and largely
ignored. From their loudspeaker, someone barked about oppression
from the police. A woman’s voice from behind us said she didn’t feel that
was a problem.We parked at the Stockton St. garage and walked to Market and watched
the early marchers go by. About 11:30 we slipped into line and inched
along.The signs were excellent. One of my favorites was “George Bush
Couldn’t Run a Laundromat.” Nearby was bearded fellow holding aloft a
long clothesline with t-shirts and socks. “Global warming will be worse
than Saddam’s weapons,” one sign on the line said. His clothespins
were new, suggesting he did not have a real clothesline himself. I was
hoping Laundromat man and Clothesline man would get together.SUVs were the target of many signs – “No SUV War,” “SUV = Riding with
Bin Laden,” “How many lives per gallon?”, “Inspections must start in our
driveways,” “If war is inevitable, start drafting SUV drivers.” The last was a
printed sign, provided by Working Assets, the long-distance telephone
service with a progressive agenda.Bush was a target, too. “Hey Bush – Are you sending the twins?” “The
end is near. Thanks, Bush,” and “Axis of Weasel.” One of the most
sophisticated signs cited the “Bush-Carlyle Group” and Bushwatch.net.The What-Would-Jesus-Do theme was thoroughly worked – “Who would
Jesus Bomb?” and What-Would-Jesus-Say about an un-elected president? That last
message was on a large fabric banner of red spangled material.Closer to City Hall we saw a young man who had rigged his bicycle into an
oil tanker and christened it “Condoleezza Rice.” On the cardboard stern
was the Chevron emblem.We stayed in the procession on Market Street for several hours, and then
stepped onto the sidewalk, which was almost as choked as the street.
We made our way to the San Francisco Shopping Centre (sic) to find the
bathrooms. Some were on the first level of Nordstrom. There were lines
for both the men’s and women’s rooms. The escalators, stores and halls
were filled with people with backpacks, floppy hats, stickers and signs.
The Nordstrom clerks were helpful and smiled at everyone.Back on Market Street, we walked on the south side and made our way to
city hall. Tom Amiano, the San Francisco supervisor, was speaking. “We
are having a budget crisis,” he said, “so please don’t turn over any police
cars.”This was not a car-turning-over crowd. Many would have looked at home
at Starbucks or Andronico’s. Some teenagers near us in the procession
hoped to see the women from West Marin who spell “no war” with their
nude bodies. Alas, the Chronicle reported, they chose to wear black body
bags instead.”