About 45 Swarthmore students attended a national anti-war march in Washington, D.C. last Saturday. The Swarthmore group was organized jointly by Why War? and the Swarthmore Progressive Action Committee (SPAC). Student participants marched along with more than 75,000 other protesters in the name of peace.
ìPersonally, I think that the anti-war movement is important, because it is coming out of the anti-globalization movement that began so strongly in Seattle,î Why War? founder Micah White í03 said. ìThat movement was working on developing an intellectual theory that I personally find very interesting and on target.î
ìSPAC has historically gone to protests,î SPAC co-coordinator Cathy Meals í04 said. ìWhen we saw the issues that were going to be addressed, there was no question as to whether or not we would go.î
A20, as the march was named, called for a re-orientation of United States foreign policy according to what organizers consider the requirements of social and economic justice. In addition, its leaders condemned racial profiling and military recruitment of non-white youth, supported government funding for non-military-based financial aid for education, and backed full disclosure of military contracts with universities. They also marched against the ìdegrading secret imprisonment of immigrants.î
At the beginning of the march, the Swarthmore contingent attended a rally at the Washington Monument. This event was coordinated by the Stop the War Coalition, which is an umbrella organization composed of ìa lot of anti-war groups and a lot of student groups,î SPAC co-coordinator Matt Armstrong í05 said. ìThe rally was probably the largest that I have been a part of. The atmosphere was very positive and non-violent.
ìWe saw some speakers [at the rally], including Martin Luther King III,î Armstrong said. ìThe speakers discussed the ways in which a non-violent movement could be successful,î and ìdescribed ways we could work in conjunction [with other organizations] and what to do when we went home.î
After the monument rally, the group began to march toward the U.S. Capitol building, past the White House and down Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the Department of Justice.
There were no arrests in conjunction with the events on Saturday, which were all permitted marches, though other arrests did occur at related rallies throughout the weekend. ìThe police presence was very low, which surprised me,î Meals said.
ìI thought it was a great [event] and much larger than I expected,î White said. ìOn the whole, I was pleased that it was so large and that there were so many individuals who were middle-aged.î
As Meals was marching, she ìturned around to see all these people. It was pretty great. The vibe was good. High sprits and peaceful.î
ìThere is really no way to describe what it felt like to look forward and back in the march and see so many people,î White said.
There were ìfour different rallies in the city that day,î said Meals, all four of which ìcame together to march to the Capitol.î In addition to the anti-war march, an explicitly pro-Palestinian event, an anti-IMF and World Bank rally, and calls to end U.S. support for a military dictatorship in Colombia took place on Saturday.
For Meals, it was ìinteresting to see the different people marching [for] different issues. You had anti-corporate people marching next to pro-Palestinian people.î
Some members of the Swarthmore contingent were taken aback by the strong presence of some pro-Palestinian marchers. ìThe size of the Palestinian contingent was a surprise,î White said.
Toward the end of the march, ìthe feeling was more militant than a lot of us were comfortable with the pro-Palestinians marchers,î Meals said.
Despite these sentiments toward the marchís end, those who attended found it a worthwhile experience. It is important to ìshow visibly how many people support the [anti-war] cause,î said Meals, ìand are marching for peace.î
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