In Tucson, 700 people participated in a rally and march to the downtown federal building. The rally consisted of music, speakers (Beirut refugee spoke on experiences in Lebanon-“George Bush is trying to totally re-make the Middle East”, Dr. Julian Kunnie head of Africana Studies at the UA- spoke about Katrina, Bush a part of centuries old system of exploitation), an open mic, and guerilla theater with gitmo prisoner and soldier, and a lady dressed up as the statue of liberty with chains around her. The Rally went on 1.5 hours after it was scheduled to end. We were informed that the amplification was so loud that it was heard in classrooms and discussions broke out in class. It was the largest protest at the U of A that anyone can remember in at least the last ten years.
The gathering at the Federal Building downtown was met by counter-protesters (about 25 people) with signs that said “give war a chance”, “nuke Syria and Iran, kill them all, let god sort them out.” One woman shouted repeatedly at us, “Behold the terrorist threat.” There was chalking all over the sidewalk outside of the federal building. One man was pulled away by the cops and fined for “graffiti” because he chalked on the wall.
There was very little press, but it got on local Access LIVE with 6 people (two WCW, rest from crowd). The crowd was vibrant and excited. People decided to do a march around downtown. The Highlight was an 11- year old boy leading chants through the bullhorn (inventive, bold, fearless, very knowledgeable). We met with 3 young adults from a local community college and made plans to get a group started there and plans to do a concert with local musicians SOON! There were over 150 people at the Federal Building (around half were new faces not present at rally earlier in day)
People present were 9-11 truthers, peace movement, democracy now supporters, anarchists, a few high school, a moderate amount of University students, a few professors, some community college students, non-student youth, and a handful of families.
There is a meeting planned for Oct 11th. Many said they will come out. We were constantly asked “What now, what next?” Once again, people grasped that this is a movement, not just a protest. We Want to do more!!!!
****** Significantly larger turnout than NOV 2nd, with significantly fewer organizers and resources!!!!! Much more than Nov 2nd, brought forth a lot of stuff that we can build on, pull people in, move forward- have potential to expand considerably off of this!!!