Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2003 19:01:45 -0800 (PST)
From: Floyce White <anti_property-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: AUT: Los Angeles 25,000 march


The San Diego protest was divided into two actions, so
I took the Greyhound to LA.  I was the fifth person to
arrive at the Hollywood and Vine subway station
assembly point.  The ANSWER truck started setting up a
few literature tables (they sold picket signs too). 
There was no start rally, only assembly.   Police
officers, cameramen, provocateurs, and helicopters
would have been intimidating, but they were quickly
outnumbered and repeatedly delayed their usual
motorcycle sweep to intimidate those at the rear of a
march.  (Afterwards, police kept the street blocked
off with heavy presence and ran sweeper trucks as if
it was the Rose Bowl Parade.)  Parking is notoriously
scarce on the west side of LA, and every arriving
subway train brought a fresh wave, as did feeder
marches.  Totally inadequate number of toilets. 
Fortunately it was cool (about 65 F) and partly
cloudy, so the lack of water wasn't a big problem.  I
got a cell call from England with the news "2 million
in London, the biggest ever in English history." 
Marchers in LA reacted favorably but were not
surprised.  I couldn't stay for the end rally, but so
many people were leaving early that the lines at
subway ticket machines blocked egress and caused
police to let them ride for free (note this is while
the march was still going on).  I suspect that
estimates of the march will vary from 5,000 to 100,000
due to the inability to get everyone into the event. 
It is totally possible that more people joined the
activity after I left, parking far away or just trying
to make the end rally.

The size of the crowd was at least five times what
you'd expect an LA rally to reach.  Protestors were
NOT the typical college-age youth that we were so
accustomed to seeing in the tiny events of the '90s. 
A great many were greying, balding, or paunchy.  Many
whole families came.  Typical of peace marches, it had
disproportionately small participation by dark-skinned
people.  The only trend that had any noticeable group
presence was the social-democratic Green Party and
Peace and Freedom Party milieu.  Pro-PLO knots were
planted along the way to intervene in and try to
co-opt the march, but did not have the big flags and
banners as they did at SF April 2002.  WWP/ANSWER
youth tried to convince everyone who arrived early to
wear pink cardboard triangles with the names of
individual martyrs, but were soon lost in the mass. 
(Gee, whatever happened to "brick by brick, wall by
wall, we're gonna free Mumia Abu-Jamal?")

The participation of socialist and anarchist
organizations was miniscule.  They badly
underestimated anti-war sentiment and did not organize
contingents.  Very few numbers and varieties of
leftist newspapers and leaflets were available. 
Hardly any black-garbed types were present--those that
were often had very positive messages, such as
equating domestic police violence with foreign war.

I passed out 667 leaflets, and could easily have given
out hundreds more.  Surprising to me, several people
recognized the leaflets as part of my Antiproperty
series of articles.  Several socialists also
recognized me with looks of disapproval (aww).  Neil
(who posts on this board) was there passing out his
group's leaflet, and we talked briefly.  We agreed
that the greatest threat to the growth and success of
this peace movement is its diversion into temp labor
for the 2004 election campaigns.  Since ISO (US
version of the British SWP) exploded into three
splinters after its Ralph Nader opportunism (and was
nearly invisible at this rally), election politics
especially disorients its advocates.

And, yes, there were a few Hollywood stars in the
march, if you looked carefully at a lot of faces.  All
in all, "two thumbs up."

P.S.:  Agreed with Tom--the minute the ground fighting
breaks out, the protests will evaporate.

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