Through the whole day numbers were 4-500. We started the day with 2 (known) banner drops on major freeways for rush hour. One was a major crosswalk for Wayne State the local university. From there we rallied and then marched from Wayne State. People did a guantanamo skit, made signs, called on other students to join us. We had some people read the call and kind of an open mic and students spoke saying things like “this is about your lives and future””We then marched through the campus and then down towards a local high school we had built for the day at. We had 8 guantanamo detainees and they made a big impact through out the march and whole day. A definite highlight was the high school students joining us. We planned it so we would march by as they got out. We were declined a permit, but as we started marching the cops showed up including homeland security. We snaked over criss-crossing the streets to the school, but as we marched by it was pretty empty like they were delaying dismissal, so we walked up a block crossed the street and came back and stood across from the school calling out to join us after over 5 minutes we marched back past the doors and a bunch of kids started yelling and screaming “fuck bush” and approximatly 100 joined us. Unfortuanately the majority only stayed with us for a few blocks. People noted how extremly supportive passing cars were honking, especially at the rally; it was deafening at points.
The crowd was very diverse and determined and definetly a lot more youth than last year. There were more Black, Arab, and Latino people as well. One Iranian woman came up and told someone that we can’t understand how much this means to her to do this. The speakers also covered a variety of topics from Katrina to women’s rights and theocracy and the responsibility of “American’s”. A group of female highschool students spoke from their hearts about why they came out today. Something missing was the music-no drum core, just 1-2 people showed up with a drum.
Another significant point is that we had not reached all the groups we wanted to contact, but 2 showed up despite never having been reached. John Conyers came in the morning to Wayne State saying he was there to speak, so we asked him to come to the rally which he did, and also Jeff Montgomery from the Triangle Foundation ( a gay rights group that relates to groups nationally) came to the rally to be a part of it, so we also asked him to speak right then. When we picked up the pictures they took from Conyer’s office they had taped the flyer for the 5th right on the window and had placed the new flyers for the meeting in the front of the officer. He also said he would be at the 10-12 meeting.
Media coverage consisted of the Wayne State paper southend, WWJ interviewed an organizer, and Conyer’s at the rally.