American protesters urge Bush to drop war plan

Harry Bhaskara, The Jakarta Post, San Francisco, California

As the world holds its breath over the possibility of war between the U.S. and Iraq only weeks from now, antiwar activists around the world are intensifying their campaigns. Protest rallies were held over the weekend in a number of countries, including the U.S., Japan and Egypt.

In San Francisco, activists held one of the largest anti-Iraq war rallies in the country, with more than 100,000 people thronging the streets on Saturday (Sunday in Jakarta). They arrived on foot, by bus and on Bart trains (the local Bay area rapid transport system) to the Civic Center meeting point on the northern part of this coastal city. Others came from as far afield as Canada and Sweden.

The state government of California offered a free Bart train ride to thousands of protesters coming from all five localities of the Bay area.

"The state government tends to lean to the left," said an Indonesian who has lived in California for years.

Compared with Indonesia, where political divisions tend to follow long-established lines, in the U.S., political division looks simple. Those who side with the underdog are considered leftist, as opposed to the rightist who side with powerful business groups.

The big turnout on Saturday only confirmed California's long history of activism, notably the antiwar movement in the 1960s. News station abc7 reported on Saturday evening that a similar rally was held in Washington D.C., with 30,000 people taking part.

Most rallies of this kind are fascinating to watch. The atmosphere along the street passed by the marchers was not unlike that of a carnival. The rallies combine attempts to attract onlookers with getting the message across. Supporters flashed victory signs from atop statues adorning the streets, atop bus stops, bus roofs, and from adjoining high-rise buildings along the route.

Marchers sang along with trumpets, guitars and a variety of percussion instruments. Others held balloons and placards saying, "Arabs and Muslims are not the enemy, corporate greed is" and "Drop Bush, not bombs".

Others brought with them their pets, with antiwar messages draped on their pets' bodies.

Protesters also staged numerous performances on side streets, including an acoustic wooden percussion orchestra from Zimbabwe that resembled North Sulawesi kolintang.

Organizers claimed that some 50 trade unions took part in the rally. Heart-wrenching was the wide cross-section of ordinary people taking part that included retired elderly couples who had difficulty walking, wheel-chair-bound people, school children, teenagers and mothers with their babies.

President George W. Bush said in Washington D.C. on Saturday that protests were common in a democracy.

A protester, Zoe Petersen, who was confined to a wheelchair, said the problem did not lie with the Iraqi people but the U.S. government.

Asked what the impending war would mean for her, she said, "It would be a criminal act. We don't need to bomb the Iraqi people."

Petersen, who came from Oakland, said she had attended peace rallies at least twice, including the Oct. 26 rally.

"But this is clearly the largest, with no less than 100,000 people taking part," she said.

In North Berkeley bart station, demonstrators waited for more than one hour in the morning before they could secure a space on a train to get to San Francisco. Most of the incoming trains were fully loaded. Not a square inch of space was available in the trains, similar to the ritual homebound train trips (mudik) made annually by Jakarta settlers during the Idul Fitri holiday.

Despite the overcrowded trains and the huge number of people on the streets, things kept moving in an orderly fashion, while the police were barely visible. Protesters dispersed gradually after 4 p.m. Bart stations, now much less crowded than in the morning, were filled with homebound protesters. Once inside, the train cars assumed their normal air, protesters sitting in silence with placards folded. The protest rallies in San Francisco and Washington D.C. were organized by the International ANSWER.