March and Rally to End the Wars

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anti-war demonstration:

> Saturday, March 20, 7th Anniversary of the Iraq War & U.S. occupation - Close the Army Experience Center - Jobs not Wars

by Rich Gardner | 10.18.2010

A project of the United Antiwar Committee of Philadelphia. Words & pictures by Rich Gardner with hat tips to Chris Robinson, Bob Smith and Betsey Piette for helping to identify the many friends and allies taking part in the action. Yes, the anti-war movement is alive and well, even though we have a Democratic president in office!

R.W. Dennen of Delaware Valley Veterans for America with his peace flag and his back to us and Mary Jo MacArthur from Code Pink. She's a long time member of the Brandywine Peace Community, march and rally co-sponsor, and war resister. We all rallied at City Hall prior to moving off to the Liberty Bell. I was asked the day before why we were conducting the march. My answer was essentially to show that we were still around, we still opposed the wars and we hadn't "gone dark" simply because we had a Democrat in the White House.

Betsey Piette of the International Action Center and John Kirkland of Philly Against War and Socialist Action, also co-sponsors of march and rally. They've both been interested in pulling together Philadelphia's many peace groups to act in concert with each other. As we can see by the endorser's list on the demonstration website, Philadelphia's peace community was pretty successful at doing that. The demonstration took place under the umbrella group of the United Antiwar Committee of Philadelphia.

Pam Africa, International Family & Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal, speaks in front of Phila. City Hall before start of the Oct. 16 march.

Cheri Honkala, the national Economic Human Rights Campaign, speaks in front of Phila. City Hall

I initially got to the rally point at 11:40 and despaired at seeing the small number of people there "Aaugh! The rally's a complete bust! No one will show up!" Not to worry. By 12:20, this was the crowd and it got still bigger.
Brave New Foundation is a multimedia group that, four years after G.W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech, put out a YouTube asking "Tell Us the Mission" and conducted several other public campaigns.

Our official post-demonstration press release puts our number at over 100. I told folks that we were numerous enough to take up the far-right lane. We were numerous enough to use the street, but not enough to cut off traffic entirely.

The demonstration by United Anti-War Committee was a true cross-section of Philadelphia, both old and young, black and white were present. Several organizers spoke prior to the parade down Market Street to Independence Mall.

Nancy Mitchell, an organizer from ANSWER, denounced the U.S. occupation of the two Southeast Asian nations, saying that it had caused the current depression, unemployment, and foreclosures. She said, “We are in a class war in which the rich are attacking working people in Afghanistan, Iraq and the United States. Their goal is ‘Profits first, People last!’” Mitchell called for the demonstrators to fight back for “Justice not Greed!”

Rethink Afghanistan is the latest project from Brave New Foundation. As a member of Facebook, I get their regular updates and they're well worth getting as we get a side of the war that the regular media doesn't bother to present. How's the war there proceeding, by the way? There's been an enormous increase in violence and firepower and air and missile strikes. Does any of that translate into actual political progress? That's far from clear.

From Wired:

Except that IED attacks have been rising, not falling. Isn’t that a bad omen for the effort against the bombs and their networks? Not according to the general. That increase could be a counterintuitive measure of progress. [emphases in original]

Sylvia Metzler, Health Care for All PA, she's a health care professional, war resister and international solidarity worker, holds sign during march.

John Braxton, U.S. Labor against the War (USLAW) and John Kirkpatrick. From our post-demonstration press release:

John Braxton... assured the militants [in front of SEPTA headquarters on Market St] that they could greatly enlarge their numbers if they reached out to co-workers and neighbors. “Be patient,” he said, “Educate your friends. Talk with people, don’t yell at them.”

Children from Kensington make their demand!

Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL) was asked how he would act if he were in President Obama's shoes and had a few months where Congress wasn't doing much and probably wouldn't support anything he wanted to do anyway. Grayson's very first answer was:

End the wars, and bring the troops home. Even if Obama didn’t cut a dollar from the defense budget, all the money spent on the troops, and all of the money that they spend, would be spent in the United States, and that money would circulate in the United States, boosting aggregate demand and creating jobs.