Wednesday, October 17th: Today in Berkeley, two raucous groups of approximately 100 people each faced off on opposite sides of a busy 3 lane, downtown street at the new Marine Corps Recruiting Center.
The occasion? Angered at how this recently-opened recruiting station is attracting more and more anti-war protests, the ultra right wing pro-war groups Gathering of Eagles and Move America Forward, with promotion by right-wing media flacks Melanie Morgan and Michelle Malkin, staged a counter-demonstration “at high noon” to “defend our warriors in recruiting stations” (their rhetoric).
On our side were approximately 100 anti-war protestors, mainly from Code Pink, World Can’t Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime, the ANSWER Coalition and Progressive Democrats of America.
Code Pink was at the recruiting station today as they are every Wednesday to protest this immoral and illegal war, talking with potential recruits who need to hear the truth about the war crimes they are being lured into. World Can’t Wait has also begun protest actions outside this recruiting station and called for more protestors to come there today to join a “gathering of the people, a telling of the truth” denouncing the U.S.’s ongoing wars (Iraq, Afghanistan) and now the threat of new war against Iran.
Pro-war talk radio hack Melanie Morgan (of KSFO radio in San Francisco) may have been responsible for today’s noisy turnout of pro-war numbers. The belligerent pro-war rhetoric from her broadcasts carried over and sank to fist waving and menacing threats. Many of the same forces involved in the rightwing “Islamo Fascist Awareness Week Campus Campaign” were there to join the large bullies screaming at and threatening the anti-war protestors. [Note: most of the “Gathering of Eagles” crowd was older white men, but there were a visible number of well-dressed, affluent young white women with them too, as well as some women and men who said they were parents of soldiers serving in Iraq.]
World Can’t Wait agitators worked 4 bullhorns, displayed 6 huge enlargement photos of Abu Ghraib torture victims, distributed orange (via shirts, ribbons and bandanas) and turned a large masked “President Bush” loose to roam the two-sided demonstration preaching the virtues of torture, endless wars, dictatorships, depleted uranium, etc.
The pro-war forces were thoroughly whipped up, and there was a good deal of pushing, shoving, angry shouting, and ugly behavior from them (all completely supported by the police on the scene). CBS News reported 200 counter protesters, outnumbering anti-war people about 3 to 1. Other news reports estimated the two crowds as roughly equal at “about 100 each.” The pro-war people came in force — waving American flags, physically jabbing us with their flag poles, singing God Bless America, and chanting “USA! USA! USA!” When we held up the Abu Ghraib pictures of the tortured, they called us traitors and screamed that they wished it was us being tortured. One friend from “Vets For Peace” got slammed to the ground by them, and when a person on the antiwar side got arrested for burning an American flag, the “Gathering of Eagles” crowd chanted to the police, “Taser him, taser him!”
A few of them rode back and forth on very big Harleys, and would periodically (especially when they didn’t like our chants) rev their engines at deafening levels.
Soon police told us that “someone [among the Gathering of Eagles] had a knife” so we would have to move to the other side of the street. Of course, we continued to agitate as our crowd moved people, supplies and tables. The Eagles people now started yelling to the cops that someone on OUR side had a knife (a total lie). At that, the cops began to physically force and shove us across the street. The anti-war demonstration continued, ending only after the pro-war crowd had packed up and left.
Many passerbys stopped to watch, frequently giving us words and signs of support; a lot of them did actually join us and stay for a while. A group of African-American youth from nearby Berkeley High joined us, including some with family in the military, and spent the afternoon yelling at the proto-fascists. Many we spoke with were quite indignant that these right wing, fascistic types could openly threaten Code Pink and all other anti-war protestors for demonstrating outside the Marine recruiters, and yet it was OUR side getting shoved around by the police.
As today’s action illustrates this is an extremely TWO-SIDED situation, exemplifying the growing tension in this country – its people are sharply divided over this war. With the war in Iraq having already killed a million Iraqis and the steady march toward yet another new war threatening even worse in Iran, will there be a recruiting station open for its deadly business in downtown Berkeley??? Will recruiters be able to work here, just blocks from the university and the junior college on one side and the city’s high school on the other???
Peaceful protestors being threatened and assaulted by right-wing thugs – will this become the new normalcy of a historically anti-war place like Berkeley, or will people take a clear and massive stand to say NO? It’s widely known that a majority of the American population is against this war and wants it ended, and yet far too many people watch public anti-war protest, saying they agree and support — while they go about their daily routines without getting involved and taking a stand themselves. If people hate this war and are sickened by the whole program of the Bush regime, it does not count unless they act to show it. This is true everywhere; Berkeley is not exempt. If you want change, you must help make the change happen.
“That which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn – or be forced – to accept.”
As for what comes next at this particular demonstration site – the new Marine recruiting station in downtown Berkeley – discussions and inspirations are being shared among the different anti-war organizing groups, as we plan the next steps. Call or write to get involved yourself: sf@worldcantwait.org and (415) 864-5153. The World Can’t Wait!