While the city and police attempted to deny protest permits, they did not stop the momentum that is building with World Can’t Wait in San Francisco.
Prior to the 12:00 start time, High School students showed up en masse at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco to show their support and enthusiasm for the movement to drive out the Bush Regime. They picketed passing traffic, shouted, and began the “buzz” which would carry into the rally and subsequent march. Representatives from various Bay Area High Schools who had the courage to walk out of school for this cause, spoke to the gathering crowd and took turns sharing their passion in driving the Bush Regime from power. Their message was strong, articulate, and empowered with a drive for change. They will not stand aside and let an authoritarian regime move this country further towards war, torture, and theocracy. The speeches pumped up a crowd ready to bring change to this country.
In the pouring rain, thousands gathered to listen to these students as well as noted speakers Daniel Ellsberg, radio personality Miguel Molina, and others. Ellsberg’s message was one of faith in struggle. As he notes, great movements always start with a minority. It is up to us to persist in a struggle which is just, no matter the numbers. At approximately 1:00, the crowd enthusiastically began its march up Market street in downtown San Francisco. Led by the High School and College Students, the march consisted of mixed ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds numbering approximately 3,000.
Strong and determined, the crowd picked up passersby as it moved along. Downtown San Francisco was forced to acknowledge a true and growing movement to Drive the Bush Regime from power.
For marchers and many reporters alike, the thundering soundtrack of the U.S. war planes overhead only added to the power of the day’s message. The Blue Angels is a U.S. Navy air show that puts Navy fighter jets in formation swooping over the city, simulating the sounds of war, bombing, and terror from the skies that – as so many people pointed out that day – is for some people in the world the last sound they ever hear. Our chants were punctuated by this roar, and it only roused us to chant louder, march stronger.
The march returned to Justin Herman Plaza at 4 PM, ready to start the main rally and peoples” tribunal to try the Bush regime for war crimes. But as the exuberant marchers poured into the plaza, representatives of the Recreation and Parks Dept. pulled the plug and cut the power. Permit negotiations had gone on for weeks, with World Can’t Wait supported by the ACLU and several City politicians, pursuing every process. On absolutely no legitimate grounds, the traditionally liberal City of San Francisco turned October 5th into a statement of the emerging American police state. This march and the whole message of World Can’t Wait are widely popular in the Bay Area, and the authorities politically were in no position to outright refuse to let the march happen. They simply refused to allow amplified sound -at its main rally! This afternoon rally was known far and wide as the place people from all walks of life would join those who had marched to hear powerful speeches, poetry, and other performances. With the Blue Angels still ripping open the skies above with their maneuvers, San Francisco authorities tried to shut this demonstration down.
Undeterred, the program went on! First, a large group of the speakers came to the front of the stage and using a bank of bullhorns, began delivering their speeches. A generator was cranked up and the sound went back on. Then the KPFA Flashpoints team – who had been poised to begin live broadcasting of the rally already – jumped into motion. Producer Dennis Bernstein and his team went live on the air, laid out the facts of this “developing confrontation” and then got right up on stage and began broadcasting the speeches: Peter Phillips – Rabbi Michael Lerner – Susan Galleymore from GI Rights Hotline – Jack Hirschman – Larry Everest – Krissy Keefer – Father Louie Vitale and World Can’t Wait organizers mixed in between the speakers calling for the crowd to take out their cell phones to phone the mayor calling for the sound permit to be issued on the spot, announcing the next World Can’t Wait meeting, and pumping the vision of everybody present going out to bring a hundred more new people into the World Can’t Wait movement.
Although the authorities attempted to quiet the gathering, dedicated and committed supporters stayed on to listen to yet more speakers including spoken word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph, the Impeach Bush Cheney spokesperson, San Francisco BayView newspaper publisher Willie Ratcliff, a statement was read from the Revolutionary Communist Party, Carol Brouillet from San Francisco 911 Truth, Richard Becker from the ANSWER Coalition, representatives from Vets for Peace, and others. Poet devorah major was followed by Elmaz Abinader – Act Against Torture delivered testimony and challenge – Not In Our Name hit hard at the need for resistance to war – and two young organizers from Education Not Incarceration spoke as well.
Hundreds maintain their support in the plaza through the evening, as victims of the Bush Regime share their heartfelt stories of repression and abuses. A 24 hour permit had been granted — even with the sound permit denial in effect — and there will be supporters spending the night in the Plaza as part of an overnight vigil. Over 60 people stayed after the rally, worked together cleaning up the site and getting hot coffee and food from the tent (thank you Food Not Bombs and all other donors) before sitting down in the vigil tent to start “Camp Wake the Folk Up” listening to the passionate, deeply informative presentation by Sureya Sayadi, an Iraqi physician. As Giovanni Jackson, a SF chapter organizer states, “This regime does not quit its policies of torture, war, and repression at night, and therefore we will maintain our resistance into the night as well.”
