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DEMONSTRATIONS
A tale of two protests
BY RICHARD BYRNE

WASHINGTON, DC — It was a glorious spring day in the District. Late-blooming cherry trees were exploding with blossoms in bright sunshine. It was a perfect day for frisbee or al fresco dining — as well as a bit of free speechifying at two rallies held within 10 blocks of each other in the nation’s capital.

From the attendance at a pro-war rally held near the US Capitol and at an anti-war rally at Freedom Plaza, however, you might have thought the city was still in the grip of blizzards rather than blossoms. The turnout at the flag-bedecked pro-war rally was an anemic 1000 to 2000 at best, while the anti-war march and rally fell tens of thousands short of the 100,000 or more who marched here in February.

It was difficult to escape the overwhelming aura of fatigue that permeated both gatherings. The pro-war event was advertised as a rally to support the troops, but most of those in the crowd were more interested in advertising their disdain for other cultures. Just how many ways can you insult the French? Lots and lots! One woman sported a snazzy T-shirt that has the French auto symbol (a red, white, and blue oval with the letter " F " in the middle) emblazoned on her shirt, with the words THE FRENCH printed below it. Ha ha! " F the French, " get it? There were buttons, too: CHIRAC IS FULL OF CREPE and IF YOU AGREE WITH THE FRENCH, RAISE YOUR HAND. IF YOU ARE FRENCH, RAISE BOTH YOUR HANDS. At times, the sentiments were so infantile that the Pampers and baby wipes being collected by College Republicans " for the troops " and their families could have proven useful at the rally itself.

Police presence at the pro-war rally was light, bordering on zero. Yet a walk down Pennsylvania Avenue NW to the anti-war rally at Freedom Plaza revealed that hundreds of DC’s finest were not being denied a little protest overtime. It was the most overwhelming police presence I’ve seen at a protest thus far, and that’s saying a lot for the District. The police lines literally penned the protesters into the plaza itself, with ingress and egress severely limited.

There was little indication such force was needed. The anti-war book and button vendors were more in evidence than ever, and the few thousand who grooved along to drum circles heard all over again the same sort of speechifying that has stymied the anti-war movement. In an hour or so, I heard at least three times as much about Palestine as I did about Iraq. While there’s no doubt that the intifada and its brutal suppression are pressing humanitarian and security issues, the obsessive focus on Israel by speakers at ANSWER-sponsored rallies has clouded rather than clarified the Iraq-war protests.

From this evidence, it was hard to escape the conclusion that the anti-war movement has just about petered out. The forces that united it — however briefly — are fragmenting once again and seeking the safe harbor of their respective identity politics. It was a sad scene, indeed. In fact, one moment at the pro-war gathering spoke so loudly to the peace movement that I was shocked not to have heard it at the anti-war rally. The proponents of war stopped their rally at one point to read off the names of the US soldiers killed in combat in Iraq — a list of over 100 names. A similar gesture at the anti-war rally would have seized necessary moral high ground. As it was, such ground remains unoccupied by the anti-war movement.

Issue Date: April 17 - 24, 2003
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