Peaceniks Flood DC

In Dulles airport, on the morning of the September 24 antiwar protest, alongside the Washington Monument fridge magnets, a gift shop hawked a curious sign of the times: a T-shirt bearing the slogan DON'T BLAME ME--I VOTED FOR KERRY. There was no pro-Bush T-shirt offering political "balance," and the item was the most prominent in the store. Given Kerry's own failure to vote against the war, of course, the T-shirt reflected the dearth, within the political establishment, of true opponents of war and mayhem. But it was just another sign of how mainstream anti-Bush sentiment has become, along with the President's low approval ratings and the fact that more than half of Americans now oppose the war on Iraq. In such a climate, especially in the aftermath of the Administration's disgraceful response to Hurricane Katrina, it seemed that the day's march should have drawn at least a million people.

But organizing is never as simple as that. The two major coalitions behind the day's events, United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) and ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), had spent much of the summer fighting with each other. ANSWER attracts criticism wherever it goes, for such problems as a lack of political nuance (on issues ranging from Israel to North Korea) and a bullying attitude toward other antiwar groups. Many UFPJ activists had been reluctant to co-sponsor Saturday's events with ANSWER, arguing that the disagreements between the groups were real and that political alliances should not be forged out of fear (in this case, the well-founded fear that unless the groups joined forces, ANSWER would sabotage UFPJ). Others countered that the general protesting public doesn't care about the differences between antiwar groups and is annoyed and confused when two protests occur on the same day, an inevitable outcome of refusing to join forces. Besides, these big-tent advocates insisted, when the movement's divisions are exposed so plainly, everyone looks weak.

The success of the day proved that those in the latter camp were right. While some liberals were scared away by ANSWER's participation, a huge number of Americans--at least 100,000, probably many more--did attend. They traveled from places as divergent as Louisville, Kentucky, and Orange County, California. The march included many more families with children than usual and was more racially diverse. Plenty of clean-cut suburbanites turned out, some still proudly carrying a torch for the Kerry or Dean campaign. For the first time in history, a labor delegation assembled at the AFL-CIO headquarters, where it joined the march, a sizable and vocal crew.

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