by Jack A. Smith, Mid-Hudson National People's Campaign
The new Bush-era antiwar movement took a giant step forward Saturday, Oct. 26 with massive peace demonstrations in New York and San Francisco -- and a huge protest, relatively speaking, in Kingston, N.Y.
Demonstrations were held in scores of cities and towns in the U.S. and a number of foreign countries.
A total of 2,000 took part in Kingston's rally and march despite cold rains much of the day. The event was organized by the Mid-Hudson National People's Campaign and was backed by some 30 local groups. Observers said the spirited and militant demonstration was the largest peace protest in Kingston in anyone's memory. The 2,000 figure was based on final headcounts as the rally ended plus a fairly scientific analysis by two people trained in crowd estimates. In addition, five buses filled with activists from the Capital District and Mid-Hudson region left in the very early morning hours to attend the Washington protest.
15 photos from the demonstration, taken by Fred Nagel, appear on the website of the Dutchess Greens, http://www.dutchessgreens.org (click on Stop the War).
The Kingston protest was so large that all three local daily newspapers carried articles. The best coverage by far was in the Sunday Kingston Freeman which carried the article and two good photos on page 1, under a two tier, three-column headline reading, "Peace activists turn out in force." The article by correspondent Aimee J. Frank was thorough and balanced, giving the crowd total as 1,500.
The Times-Herald Record had an excellent 8 x 5 and 1/2 inch photo under a 5-column page 3 headline reading, "Chants for peace echo here." The article was a roundup of the worldwide protests, with seven inches devoted to Kingston (including two paragraphs devoted to a lone counter-demonstrator), noting that "hundreds rallied at Academy Green Park."
The Poughkeepsie Journal positioned an article and photo at the top of page one in its second section, under the 6-column headline, "Hundreds protest possible U.S. attack on Iraq. Two of its 12 paragraphs were devoted to the counter-demonstrator, who carried a sign reading, "Attack Iraq."
The ANSWER Coalition, which organized the worldwide protests, estimated that 200,000 people took part in the Washington demonstration, which featured a three-hour rally, followed by a march that circled the White House, and then a concluding rally.
The New York Times provided its customary inadequate coverage of the protest in D.C., but printed a large photo of the march on page 8. The Washington Post was much better, as it usually is in terms of popular protests, running a page one article headlined "100,000 Rally, March Against War in Iraq." The Washington police did not provide an official crowd count, but the Post said Police Chief Charles Ramsey "figured yesterday's rally turnout exceeded that in April," when he estimated 75,000 marched in an earlier protest.
ANSWER reports that 100,000 marched in San Francisco. At one point, the entire 1.7-mile march route was filled with demonstrators.
Dozens of peace movement veterans we have spoken to in recent weeks, in our local region and with representatives of the big antiwar coalitions, all share the view that the Bush-era antiwar movement is growing far faster than the early stages of the Vietnam-era movement. Saturday's protests underscore these views and constitute a very positive harbinger of things to come.
