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Hundreds rally against the Iraq war About 400 anti-war demonstrators briefly marched through downtown Cleveland Saturday to draw attention to the war in Iraq and to support local and national labor leaders who were holding a two-day conference in the city aimed at organizing more Americans against the war. Shouting slogans such as "We want health care, not Bush's warfare," the demonstrators - escorted by police cars - walked about six blocks before rallying behind the Federal Office Building on East Ninth Street. U.S. Labor Against the War, a national group formed before the start of the war in Iraq, sponsored the event. It argues that the war is not worth the human or economic costs. Richard King, a self-described progressive Democrat and a Quaker from Summit County, said he marched to "show the country how much opposition there is against the war." Like others who braved the chilly breeze from Lake Erie, King said he was emboldened by the Nov. 7 elections, in which Democrats capitalized on flagging support for the war to win control of Congress. "I feel more optimistic because there is so much public opposition," he said, noting that major resistance to the Vietnam War took nearly a decade. Others were more aggressive in trying to win attention to the cause. Several beat plastic buckets while others portrayed prison abuse at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base by pushing a cage holding a man dressed in an orange jump suit and black hood. (Later, men in military uniforms dragged the man from the cage and pretended to beat him.) But the march, which included demonstrators from Connecticut to San Francisco, did little to win over bystanders because downtown - void of major retail and restaurant activity on the weekend - was virtually empty. To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: mnaymik@plaind.com, 216-999-4849
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© 2006 Northeast Ohio American Friends
Service Committee |
