Twenty University students traveled to New York City on Saturday to join the shouts and chants of the March for Peace, Justice, and Democracy. An estimated 350,000 American and international participants attended, according to the National Organization for Women (NOW).
“The more we can get involved in causes, especially causes off-campus, the more we can make an impact,” said Students for Ending the War in Iraq member Nat Lichten ’08. Lichten, along with group members Ellen Dinsmore ’08, Devaka Gunawardena ’09, and Erik Rosenberg ’08, organized the University’s participation in the march.
The March for Peace, Justice, and Democracy was initiated by the collaboration of nine disparate coalitions, including United for Peace and Justice, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, NOW, Friends of the Earth, U.S. Labor Against the War, the Climate Crisis Coalition, the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund, the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition, and Veterans for Peace. Despite the different groups’ individual goals, the march’s focus was to protest against the war in Iraq and support immigrant and women’s rights.
“These issues are definitely related,” Lichten said. “All of [them] are a product of the [Bush] administration.”
Participants gathered at 22nd Street and Broadway and marched two miles to Foley Square, which is bordered by City Hall and the New York City courts. Students composed a significant portion of the crowd, displaying signs and leading chants.
“One of the things I immediately noticed was the age of the crowd,” Lichten said.
Having attended numerous past marches, Lichten noted that Vietnam War veterans and their contemporaries predominantly made up crowds at pre-war marches. On Saturday, at least two-thirds of the marchers were in their teens and 20s.
During and after the march, a Grassroots Action Festival took place in Foley Square, “designed to connect those who attend[ed] the protest with a wide array of organizations and campaigns,” according to April29th.org. Activist groups distributed information and updates on their causes, leaflets, and how-to guides. Experienced organizers were on-hand to speak about activism and musicians performed protest songs.
Gunawardena noted the pros and cons of scheduling multiple events for a single demonstration.
“It can be a force of disunity, but I think there’s a danger that [individual] speakers, especially politicians, don’t represent many of the marchers,” Gunawardena said.
“Considering how many people were there, it was good to have multiple things going on in multiple places,” Dinsmore agreed.
However, Gunawardena disapproved of one portion of the tabled groups.
“I was a little annoyed with the big sectarian presence,” Gunawardena said, referring to Communist and Socialist groups. “I feel like they detract from the energy.”
The march was heavily guarded by police and security guards, but required no intervention.
“I think it’s significant that there weren’t any counter-protesters,” Rosenberg said. “It shows that no one’s vehemently for this war.”
Marchers welcomed a peaceful protest, but some feared that the peacefulness outweighed the protest’s energy.
“It felt constrained,” Gunawardena said. “I don’t know if it was spontaneous enough. I think spontaneity is a real key thing, but how do you do that without violence and getting arrested?”
A common sentiment was anger with the media’s lack of coverage of the demonstration.
“The media is trying to point the peoples’ attention to other matters,” Rosenberg said.
Dinsmore mentioned the lack of publicity and said that she had to search the New York Times for coverage of the protest.
For future demonstrations, University activists hope for greater participation and energy.
“The movement has to think about how to reach out to [more] people who are anti-war,” Lichten said.
“Coverage of the Iraq war isn’t really big news anymore,” Dinsmore said. “If we do more of these things in other cities, we can do something. We need more people to unite. That’s what it’s going to take to get Congress to do something.”
University students traveled to and from New York on the Peace Train, a New Haven Metro North train that was organized specifically for the NYC march by activist groups such as the Greater New Haven Peace Council, CT United for Peace, and CT Opposes the War (COW). It had a capacity of 1200 passengers and carried 800 on Saturday.
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