Lee Wengraf, New York
As many as 300,000 protesters jammed the streets of Manhattan on April 29 for the first major anti-war demonstration in New York City in close to two years. The protest was organised by the national anti-war coalition United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), along with other liberal groups such as Operation Rainbow/PUSH, the National Organisation for Women and the People's Hurricane Fund.
A labour contingent of about 5000 kicked off the day with words from Roger Toussaint, head of the New York City transit workers union, who had just been released from prison the previous day, where he was sent by a judge for the union's determination not to accept the anti-union Taylor laws during last December's transit strike.
"A government that can't provide health benefits, pensions and education for its own has no business telling people around the world how they should live — has no business conducting an illegal war across the world", said Toussaint. "We need a working-class resistance."
Many people who turned out were driven by both anger at the ongoing occupation of Iraq and the administration's new war threats against Iran.
There were no speakers for the demonstration as a whole, though a few contingents organised speakers at their separate assembly points. This format was in keeping with the increasingly moderate orientation of UFPJ and other leading voices in the anti-war movement. Their goal for April 29 was for the protest to be part of a broader mobilisation behind the Democrats in the November mid-term congressional election — despite the failure of the Democrats, including its liberal wing, to take an uncompromising anti-war stand.
Veterans' and military families' groups had a large presence on the march, but this time around, their contingents were relegated far back from their usual spot at the lead — except for Cindy Sheehan, who marched behind the main banner with Reverend Al Sharpton, Reverend Jesse Jackson and Roger Toussaint.
[From Socialist Worker, weekly paper of the US International Socialist Organization. Visit <http://www.socialistworker.org>.]
From Green Left Weekly, May 10, 2006.
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