With IVAW, The People Courageously Crossed the Line

By Kevin Gosztola

My agenda was the first indication that
Wednesday, August 27th, would be a rousing day for me. However, I did
not expect that it would become fulfilling and spark great energy on
the streets of Denver. I did not know or fully understand the brilliance
and shrewdness of Iraq Veterans Against the War’s (IVAW) move to confront
Obama.

At 11 am yesterday, IVAW sponsored a
concert along with Tent State University. The concert was headlined
by none other than Rage Against the Machine.

Rage Against the Machine, along with
a popular band in Denver known as The Flobots and The Coup and State
Radio, pulled in a crowd of somewhere between 7,000 and 9,000 people.
(The Denver Coliseum, where it was held, can seat about 10,000 people.)

This crowd was a mixed bag. Some in attendance
were there from the beginning to march down to the Pepsi Center with
IVAW in solidarity with their demand that Obama adopt their “three
points of unity.” But, many were simply there for Rage Against the
Machine, a band that has a stunning way of politicizing a crowd thanks
to the very lyrics of their music.

IVAW’s message focused in on the need
for the people to support G.I. resistance and also indicated that they
wanted to make sure Barack Obama knew what he was going to do when elected
president.

Since a large amount of people there
had no plans to march, organizers had to convince them or supply reasons
why they should be out in the streets with IVAW.

A Tent State University representative
provided some of that reasoning at one point saying:

“They”re not some politician
telling you, feeding you shit. They”ve actually been there. They”ve
experienced it. These are the people that we need to be listening to.
These veterans have a message for you today. And they need you to help
them take their message to the politicians at the Pepsi Center. So,
we need to take all this energy and we need to march. We need to make
it nonviolent and passionate. We need to do it with dignity. We need
to support Iraq Veterans Against the War.”

IVAW came out later during the concert
to show people how the march would function. IVAW would stand in formation
in uniform at the front of the march. A banner would stand about ten
feet behind and behind that banner all the people standing in solidarity
with IVAW would follow.

The march was unpermitted and so when
people were entering the Denver Coliseum, they were notified that they
would be risking arrest along the way.

They were also informed that the bands
who played the concert would be holding the banner and following IVAW
down to the Pepsi Center.

IVAW was prepared to make it difficult
for any sort of arrests to occur, for any sort of confrontation to break
out.

The veterans ingeniously set it up so
that if at anytime the police said they could go no further, those wishing
to risk arrest would be asked if they wished to cross a line and move
forward with IVAW. A leader of IVAW would march forward and present
the police with a flag folded in the shape of a triangle (folded in
the way it would be at a flag-folding ceremony). All present would become
silent and a trumpet player from IVAW would begin to play taps. Taps
would ring throughout the streets of Denver making it difficult for
the police to make a move, making it difficult for politicians and people
watching to not find the IVAW’s actions for the day righteous.

Ron Kovic, a man who has been protesting
war from a wheelchair for 40 years now and a man who is a Vietnam veteran,
spoke to the people in the Coliseum:

“This is our country. This
is our country. They”re not going to take this country from us. They”re
not gonna shut us up. They”re not gonna shut us down. We will not
bow. We will not stray. We will stand tall. We will march. We will end
this war. We”re gonna bring all the troops home. We will do this nonviolently.
We will do this with dignity and the spirit of Martin Luther King and
the spirit of Nelson Mandela. We are going to make history in the streets
of Denver today. The whole world is watching. The whole country is watching.
I want you to make a commitment. I want every single one of you to look
at me. Look at my brothers and sisters. Recognize the sacrifice that
we”ve made and the love of country we have. Our determination to change
the course of history, to change this country. I want you to find the
courage within your hearts to step over that line today to join with
us, march with us and let the world see what this country that we love
see who you are. Lastly, Mario Savio once said, “A time comes when
the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at
heart, that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part
and you”ve got to put your body on the gears, upon the levers, upon
the whole apparatus, and you”ve gotta make it stop. And you”ve gotta
let those operating know that unless you”re free, the operation will
be prevented from working at all.”

The stage was set. Rage Against the Machine
came out and stood in formation with IVAW and when IVAW marched off,
Rage played a deafeningly exhilarating concert.

Following the concert, thousands moved
to the street on the side of the Coliseum to march down to the Pepsi
Center with IVAW. The showing was what antiwar leaders wanted to see
on Sunday.

For the most part, the march looked like
it would go off without a hitch, but along the way, IVAW was halted
and went through several renegotiations with police so that they could
keep making their way closer to the Pepsi Center to confront Obama.

Every step of the way, despite their
intimidating ways, the police were extremely supportive like IVAW indicated
to us during the concert. The police blocked off streets and helped
these veterans lead the people to where they wanted to go.

Unfortunately, the police were given
orders and we ended up being marched into a cage that had been put up
around a school nearby the Pepsi Center. When inside, there was nowhere
to disperse. People were dehydrated from a 3-to-4 mile hike to the Pepsi
Center. And the stormtroopers (otherwise known as the police) were lined
up in formation ready to shoot tear gas at any moment.

IVAW chose to call Barack Obama at this
point and speak with somebody, somebody like a representative.

I think they wanted Obama himself to
come to the secured cage we were in and speak with the veterans, but
despite the fact that I think this would have been a great political
move, Obama did not come out. And, when they asked to speak with a representative,
IVAW was denied.

IVAW turned the march around and went
back the way they had come so that they could get out of the cage and
disperse and not be tear gassed. At least, that’s why we thought we
were turning around.

Really, what ended up happening was at
7:30 MT, IVAW came to a concrete barrier fork in the road and informed
people that they could go left or right. Left would be risking arrest
and right would be okay.

A dump truck that you could walk around
helped create this fork, but this was not a very good barrier. People
quickly realized there was no risk of arrest despite the coalescing
of a massive police force blocking the street that runs across the entrance
to the Pepsi Center.

IVAW went right up to the stormtrooper
police force that had amassed and people from all over Denver that had
not been part of this thing focused their attention on the showdown.

On a road that was split into two by
a giant grass meridian, they asked again for a representative to come
out while legal observers informed people that those on giant grass
meridian could be risking arrest.

IVAW seized the moment and began to connect
what they did in Iraq to what the police might do this evening. They
made the point that whatever force any policeman uses tonight, he or
she will have to live with that for the rest of his or her life in the
same way veterans live with the fact that they killed people.

All eyes were on the situation wondering
what would happen. Thousands of people were standing by.

With the sun setting, IVAW was notified
that they could wait for a representative of Obama to come out, a demand
they wished to make again now that they were closer and more visible
to the people of Denver, the country, and the world. This relaxed the
police who had been closing in and around the people who were confronting
Obama in solidarity with IVAW.

The whole world was watching just like
Ron Kovic said they would.

After much ado, a representative did
come out and take the letter to Obama. IVAW was told that Obama would
consider IVAW’s “three points of unity.”

IVAW
reports on its website that:

When they arrived at the
DNC, representatives of IVAW asked to meet with Barack Obama to present
their message. After negotiations with the 
Former Texas Lt Governor Ben Barnes came out of the convention to accept
a letter from the IVAW members. Jeff Key, a former Marine said the IVAW
members intended to stay in place until a representative from Obama’s
campaign came out to talk with them.

“I’m a patient man. I’m
not going anywhere,” Key said. 
 
Key, a former Marine from Salt Lake City, and Liam Madden, a former
marine from Boston, were then escorted into the convention where they
met with Phil Carter, head of veterans affairs for the Obama campaign.
IVAW is now waiting for a formal response to their request address the
delegates from the podium.

Lt. Vince Porter of the Denver
Police Department said the department coordinated the meeting with the
secret service and Obama’s office.

“The police in Denver have
been exceptional and very, very supportive,” Key said. “This cannot
be an easy job for them either, and they”ve just been incredible.”

This victory was huge for IVAW, which
had not been contacted by 3 pm as demanded and which had been ignored
by Democrats (except for maybe Dennis Kucinich) when they held their
“Winter Soldier Investigation.”

Those in World Can’t Wait and other
groups had members who later indicated that they felt this was not a
good ending to a stunning act of people power. But, this point of closure
was exactly what IVAW needed because it indicated that they have the
power to leverage Obama.

No other group in existence today can
speak with the moral clarity that IVAW does and confront Obama to change
his foreign policy in Iraq and even in the Middle East. That Obama bended
proved IVAW could go out again in the next months and push Obama some
more.

That we struggled so much with Obama
yesterday should be indication that he does not intend to reverse Middle
East policy.

I expect the mixed reaction to what IVAW
did by many Obama supporters and so-called progressive Democrats. But,
IVAW’s march and their demands were and still are righteous and if Obama
does intend to be the “antiwar candidate,” he must take up IVAW’s
demands or expect us all to dispel ourselves of any illusions that he
could ever be for peace, freedom, and justice.

The people will stay tuned to see if
this notice of consideration was just a political way of not saying
yes or no or if it was indication of something more. Should Obama fail
to act properly, the people will act.

People in Denver want change. The people
want it from the bottom-up and they want the change to recreate an America
that operates under a system far better than what the corporate war
parties in power wish to govern.

This was truly one of the most fulfilling
days of my entire life. And I am so pleased that I had the opportunity
to participate in it.  

Kevin Gosztola goes to Columbia College
in Chicago where he is studying film. He hopes to become a documentary
filmmaker. He is currently working as a production assistant on a documentary
called “Seriously Green” which traces the development of the
Green Party throughout the 2008 election.