A crowd of jubilant and angry youth estimated by the police to number
6,000 ripped through the streets of Denver on Wednesday, August 27, in
a powerful march demanding an end to the war in Iraq, no attack on
Iran, and support for GI resisters. Marching from the Denver Coliseum,
where Rage Against the Machine, the Flobots, and the Coup had just
finished a mind blowing concert, to the Pepsi Center in downtown
Denver, the youth filled the streets of an industrial district, a
residential area, and the canyons of downtown Denver with their chants
and songs: “They”re our brothers, they”re our sisters; we support the
war resisters”; “the people of Iraq are under attack – what do we do,
stand up, fight back!”; “Not a new face on a brutal empire, Revolution
is what we need, to liberate humanity!
Iraq Vets Against the War had issued three demands after their march through the central district of Denver on Tuesday:
1. The immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces from Iraq.
2. Full and adequate health care and benefits to all returning service members and veterans.
3. Reparations made to the Iraqi people for the destruction caused by the U.S. war and occupation. These demands were addressed from the stage during the concert, and RATM members called on people to stand with the veterans and join them in their march downtown.
This march was not politics as usual or protest as usual. Youths had come prepared with their homemade signs, proudly and defiantly holding high their declarations on pieces of cloth or cardboard. A small sample: Funk the War; Bush is to Iraq as Obama wants to be to Iran; Fuck your Crusade; Drop Beats, Not Bombs; Who would Jesus Bomb?; Save the Planet from the War Mongers. They challenged bystanders to join them, and many did, from guys in work clothes who had just finished their shifts, to at least a few delegates to the DNC, to well dressed downtown office workers who stood with fists or peace signs raised as the march went by, before finally taking the plunge to join the march.
A young woman from a small town in Kansas said “we”re just sick of the fucking war, and they aren’t even talking about it. Somebody’s got to do something”. A young man who goes to college in nearby Boulder said “a lot of the people here don’t usually go to protests, because they don’t see what good it does. But this is our voice being heard”.
Large contingents of heavily armed riot cops looking like 21st century ninjas were everywhere. As the march neared the Pepsi Center, police tried to heard the youth into the infamous “freedom cages”. But the vets, and the youth, refused to go. Several vets spoke briefly as the march stopped for a few minutes, hemmed in by police, concrete barricades, and wire fences. One of them was a young solider who defiantly announced that a few months earlier he had refused to deploy to Iraq. “Our enemies are at home, ladies and gentlemen. We stand here in defense of our Constitution, and against the illegality of this government. I will not take another’s life, who never did anything to this country to begin with. Let us never stand by in apathy, while lives are taken overseas and our rights here are stripped”.
Another soldier, Sholom Keller, said “the police are in full battle rattle. The police appear to be ready for war, but we stand here ready for peace. Police attempts to move us into this thing called a freedom cage are going to fail”.
The march of youth and veterans was an invigorating and challenging break with the politics of compromise, accommodation, and acceptance. The youth who marched insisted on being heard – and they represent millions of others in this country sick at its direction and what it is inflicting on humanity and the planet. The power and determination expressed during this march, even in a beginning way, must become much more forceful and determined in the weeks and months ahead.
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Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman took public funds to build an auditorium for his chums to meet for their convention. The Bush people orchestrated the entire republican convention as well as pre-emptive arrests of media journalistsincluding Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. The viciousness and violence of the police established the Twin Cities as a police state for the during of the convention. A pat on the head to the national media for failing to report any of the violence. Good doggies, here\’s a milk bone.
Contrast the peacefulness of cops at the Denver anti-war protest with the violence of the police at the Republican Convention in St. Paul! It\’s easy to see who the people who want a police state are!
WE THE PEOPLE
need to start asking
WHY did the worlds greatest military
power FAIL to defend even its own HQ?
Lets Roll!
Don\’t let anyone tell you our youth don\’t care — THEY DO!! AND THEY JUST SHOWED US!! POWER TO OUR YOUTH AND OUR FUTURE!!!
The 6,000 marchers were my representatives in Denver, not the convention delegates from Texas. Obama said little about the war on Iraq precisely because he intends to do little about it as president. And he wants his own surge– in Afghanistan. It will fail there as it has in Iraq. But people there will die and the bodies will continue to mount until we stop these futile and bloody foreign policy mistakes. The foreign policy is bi-partisan: America uber alles. We can\’t be lulled into complacency by a Democratic win in November. The struggle in the streets to bring real change and stop the military killing machine should continue without let-up.
I just want to say a big THANK YOU to all those brothers and sisters who stand up, act out and fight back. My heart is with you!
I\’m still looking online for any sense at all that other than happy democrats and snippy newscasters there was nothing else going on in Denver. No protests, no crowds, everybody\’s happy, right? Maybe not the families of the children we bombed in Afghanistan last week, but I don\’t know anybody who was killed there, so why me worry? or as our President would say, \”Duh.\”
I was one of the Iraq Vets Against the War organizers of the event. I marched with my brothers and sisters through the streets and ultimately it was me who negotiated with the Denver Police and secret service to keep my platoon (and several hundred of the RATM concert goers) from getting arrested in exchange for a meeting with Obama\’s staff. I\’m here in Denver performing my one-man play based on my journals from Iraq called \”The Eyes of Babylon\”. It\’s gotten great reviews all over this country and in Europe, it\’s won awards and was the subject of the Showtime documentary \”Semper Fi: One Marine\’s Journey.\” It is my principle form of activism. It is my way of telling my story. The meager ticket price ($15-$25) is just to keep the lights on. No one gets rich off of doing small theatre. The only problem is, here in Denver, ALMOST NO ONE IS COMING! Night after night the house is almost empty except for a few Iraq Vets. How can people say they care when they won\’t even hear our stories? Can you please help me get the word out? [url]http://www.myspace.com/the_eyes_of_babylon[/url] I don\’t know where else to turn. WCW has stood alongside us since I first joined the movement. I\’m praying that you can help us. The MySpace page tells people how to find us. Here are the websites for my charity foundation, the play and the movie: Contact me with any questions JeffKey@MehadiFoundation.org
http://www.MehadiFoundation.org
http://www.TheEyesOfBabylon.com
http://www.SemperFiTheMovie.com
The treasonous media \”marvelled\” that no one brought up their opposition to the war.
NONE of the mainstream media (ABC,NBC,CBS,PBS) showed any of this!
The media is the #1 impediment to freedom and justice in this country.
We need the Fairness Doctrine back and on steroids immediately. F&ck Reagan.
Amazing show and rally. It was easily the largest and most inspiring march and rally I have been to in Denver. I just wish WCW would have really been involved with the Alliance for Real Democracy, IVAW and Tent State to make this even bigger. Instead WCW castigated these groups from the side and then acted like they played a big role making this happen.
This didn\’t get into the mainstream news this morning!