MARCH
24, 2004 --
Some supporters
of the presidential candidacy of Congressman Dennis Kucinich traveled
through the night by bus from Cleveland, to be rewarded on reaching
the starting point between 9:00 and 9:30 A.M. by getting a position
at the head of the line. Congressman Kucinich was among the speakers
who spoke briefly at a pre-march rally. As the march got underway,
a group of Palestinian flags fluttered at the starting point.
Crossing Fifth
Avenue on 23rd Street, David Cline, of Jersey City, NJ gave the
cadence call to a contingent of Vietnam veterans. Mr. Cline told
LPR that he served in Vietnam with the 25th Infantry Division,
and was wounded three times in 1967.
Approaching Sixth
Avenue, LPR spotted women carrying a clothesline with pink slips
from it. (A photo of this gibe at President Bush suggests that
subjects of photos may tend to smile upon the click of the camera.)
|
“Pink
Slip Clothesline” targeting President Bush on Sixth
Avenue.
|
March signs ran
the gamut from anti-Bush to pro-Kerry-- with a good deal of branching
out to advocate same sex marriages and to oppose microwave testing
of Americans, U.S. present involvement in Haiti, U.S. policy in
Korea, U.S. support for Israel, with plenty of anit-Israel signs
and statements. Palestinian flags abounded. There were not many
authentic U.S. flags. Most flags that at a distance appeared to
be "Old Glory" proved to have the peace symbol on the
blue field, or corporate logos there.
The march proceeded
along a rectangle about two miles long that went around the Empire
State Building. LPR heard no suggestions that the Empire State
Building might be serving as an observation post. Helicopters could
be seen hovering above the line of march.
So far as LPR
could tell, there were no posters denouncing the March 11 terrorist
atrocity in Madrid, suicide bombers in Israel-- indeed, LPR saw
no posters denouncing terrorism, generally.
There is no denying
that United for Peace and Justice has the capability of getting
tens of thousands of people into the streets of Manhattan to denounce
the Bush Administration for waging "pre-emptive' wars of aggression"--
quoting from the UFPJ June 2003 unity statement. The unity statement
includes a call for "respect for national sovereignty," but
it is not clear that this would comprehend Israeli responses to
Arab violence against her citizens.
The unity statement
commits United for Peace and Justice to working for "peace
and justice through nonviolent means." The statement then
declares:
"When the
U.S. government invaded and occupied Iraq-- though Iraq posed no
imminent threat and had already been devastated by 12 years of
punishing economic sanctions-- it broke international law and defied
world public opinion, killed thousands of Iraqi civilians and soldiers
unnecessarily, treated U.S. soldiers as cannon fodder, and devastated
Iraq's ancient cities and modern infrastructure."
Clearly there
are tens of thousands of people who are ready to march in Manhattan
against the corporation-serving "aggressive" militarism
of the Bush administration, aimed at dominating the globe and imposing "right-wing
policies at home under the cover of fighting terrorsim." (The
UFPJ unity statement also criticizes the failure of the Democratic
party to challenge the selling of the Iraq war by the Bush White
House.) Per the UFPJ unity statement, "The war drive has served
as a pretext for attacking basic rights of workers while serving
as a cover and distraction for the sinking economy, corporate corruption,
and layoffs."
There is, alas,
no call in the unity statement for an end to intrusive, money-grabbing
seatbelt and parking violations by the City of New York.
Howard Kurtz,
in The Washington Post, and Russell Shorto, in the New
York Times Magazine, recently discussed the prospects for
the coming liberal talk radio project. The prospects are not good
-- not if hundreds of thousands of liberals will march against
the right, while millions of people will just listen to conservatives
by radio.
United for Peace
and Justice will welcome delegates to the Republican National Convention,
in New York City, late this summer, with an opposition march, Sunday,
August 29.
|
President
Bush accused of making all Americans the target of terrorism.
|
|
Left
of the Empire State Building.
|
|