2004-12-08 - 3:24 a.m.
a piece i wrote about the rally:
http://www.aamovement.net/news/2004/Anti-war12.04.html
On December 4th, 2004, over 500 Boston area students and youth held a protest against war and occupation in Iraq in an attempt to reignite the local anti-war movement after the presidential election. The event was organized by Student Mobilization to End the War, representing over one dozen college campuses and one high school in the Boston area. The initial rally in Boston Commons attracted a variety of organizations including Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, New England Community to Defend Palestine, legal observers from the National Lawyer’s Guild, and a variety of left political parties. Students spoke out against the brutality of a war waged for oil and empire from a variety of perspectives.
Howard Zinn, the final speaker, noted that even while America purports to be establishing democratic political systems abroad, no major presidential candidate represented opinion polls showing anti-war sentiment among nearly half of the U.S. population. He described the Democrats as a “pathetic excuse for an opposition party” and compared the student-led rally to protests on the Commons against the Vietnam War. “We had rallies of exactly this size,” he said. “And we also had rallies one hundred times this size,” calling on students to continue organizing against occupation and war.
Anarchist youth apparently led the march off the permitted route. The crowd of protestors eventually marched to Copley Square, the designated ending point. While some protestors continued listening to speakers, a group of about one hundred students and youth, anarcho-syndicalists prominent among them, led an “unpermitted” breakaway march from Copley Square through downtown Boston. A team of over one dozen police on motorcycles followed close behind, unable to pass the tightly packed group which spanned the width of the street.
After marching the length of the Newbury shopping area and several other major downtown roads shouting, “Bombs are dropping, why are you shopping,” “The enemy is profit,” and “Occupation of Palestine – shut it down,” police motorcycles began rushing the back of the group, dispersing protestors and attempting to keep them on the sidewalk. Marchers regrouped chanting “Off of the sidewalks, into the streets!” As this process repeated itself, police became increasingly aggressive, shoving youth to the ground and attempting to confiscate the lead banner which read “Disarm the State.” The march ended in confusion as police attempted, unsuccessfully, to chase down and arrest one protestor who was targeted because he carried a bullhorn and, some protestors speculate, because he appeared to be of middle-eastern descent.
Corporate media, predictably, underestimated crowd size, identified everyone as “peace activists,” and reported only liberal slogans and messages. According to the Boston Herald, a police spokesperson denied there was rough treatment by police or that any marchers deviated from the permitted route. The rally organizers plan another march during the presidential inauguration. Some youth who attended the rally plan to start chapters at their own high schools. Those dissatisfied with the strategy of symbolic protest were satisfied that “business as usual” was disrupted for at least a few hours.
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law school exams suck
