300,000 at SF Peace March 2/16

On a cool, sunny day in San Francisco, February 16, 2003, we had about 300,000 people march for peace on Market St from the Bay to the Civic Center.

The peace movement is clearly growing by leaps and bounds, at the same time and in the same manner as the war economy is sinking to the bottom of the sea. The number of empty stores, amount of commecial space for lease and apartments for rent seem to increase daily and this writer has never witnessed such a decline in San Francisco's economy, which is to say the entire US economy.

Our peace march was a celebration of the cultural and political activity of the San Francisco Bay Area and most of Northern California.

The labor contingent was significantly larger, with hospital workers, nurses, muni bus drivers, longshore workers and many others there in significant numbers.

As we passed one corner, we were entertained by a Musicians for Peace band, and of course, throughout the march, there was the usual variety of percussion and brass instruments of all kinds from all around the world.

Every ethnic group and every age group was represented. Perhaps the most fun, and so very common in San Francisco, was the Chinese dragon with traditional Chinese cymbals and drums.

At the rally, which remained densely packed until after 4 p.m., perhaps because this is a three-day weekend for many of us, we had many speakers and entertainers.

This writer must, at this point, make some requests regarding future speakers. Considering these peace marches are organized primarily by the socialist community, it is inexcusable and downright insulting to have religious speakers and Democratic Party politicians on the platform of any peace rally.

We all know that science means knowledge and religion is superstition. Yet, there was no speaker from the scientific community. At the very least, there should always be speakers from the medical community, such as Physicians for Social Responbility, the California Nurses Association and hospital workers, SEIU 250. They could speak on how money spent on war means less money for public healthcare services and the need for a national healthcare system, guaranteeing free healthcare, including dental care, to every resident of the US (anyone who happens to be here) from cradle to grave, which can only be done if we put people before profits. Our healthcare crisis is so bad that we have about 45 million uninsured people, half of all labor strikes are over healthcare benefits and almost 50% of personal bankruptcies are due to inability to pay medical bills, even with insurance.

Another section of the scientific community that should be represented on the speakers' list is the environmental, public power community, a very big issue in San Francisco, which has been trying to get rid of private profit Pacific Gas & Electric Co which illegally provides our gas and lights, in violation of the Raker Act of 1913. The environmental movement is very strong in the San Francisco Bay Area, and could easily have provided a wide variety of speakers on how we can do with much less oil, for example and the need for promoting free and adequate public transportation and building housing near where we work and go to school.

Scientific speakers are always very informative and provide information that we can all use, which is what we need. Believe it or not, they do not speak in terms of mathematical formula; they speak very well in terms we all can understand.

Then there are the Democrats. It was bad enough to have State Senator John Burton, a promoter of the Willie Brown-John Burton political machine of San Francico; Rep Barbara Lee of Berkeley-Oakland who routinely votes for money for Israel and voted for the resolution supporting Ariel Sharon last year as well as voting for the Democratic Party ticket and giving money to Willie Brown's re-election in 1999. In addition, we had Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who is good on many issues, but he does vote the Democratic Party ticket from President, to California's 2 horrible US Senators, to our equally despicable governor, and all the rest, as well as being a supporter of stadium swindles and of Israel, just like both the Democratic and Republican Parties always are.

By far the worst two Democrats that were on that stage were Cecil Williams and Amos Brown, two proud and long-time members of Willie Brown's election fraud team. Willie Brown is a lifelong reactionary, election-frauding pro-gambling and pro-tobacco politicians, who became a millionaire supporting the real estate interests against tenants, while using progressive causes as a cover, in other words, a typical Democrat. Brown is also viciously anti-public power, anti-labor and anti-tenant. He is rotten to the core. Cecil Williams and his Glide Church are many decades members of Willie Brown's election fraud team. For more on that election fraud and Cecil Williams, see:
http://www.brasscheck.com/stadium
and
http://www.brasscheck.com/jonestown

Amos Brown, while supervisor, was a complete puppet of Willie Brown, refusing to support the living wage petition, and all other progressive causes. He was viciously anti-tenant, anti-homeless, anti-public power, anti-labor, anti-gay, anti-immigrant and was a complete spokesperson of the Chamber of Commerce, as is Willie Brown. His statement on the events that 9/11/01 that America must have done something horrible to cause people to be so angry with it is also erroneous. The 9/11/01 events were a Reichstag Fire, perpetrated by the US military and CIA, to promote war abroad and fascism at home, the same as Nazi Germany did. There were no hijackers on those planes; they were on automatic pilot. The 9/11 events were the CIA's Operation Northwoods realized when the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff approved, only to be vetoed by Defense Secretary McNamara, a plan to have the CIA do a variety of provocative actions, such as blowing up a US airplane, and blame it on Cuba to have an excuse to invade Cuba.

To have Amos Brown and Cecil Williams on the stage is to make the peace movement look ridiculous in San Francisco. Since we all know the Democratic Party exists to keep the Reds out of office by singing the progressive tune to get votes and carrying out the same capitalist agenda as the Republican Party when in office as it is a twin capitalist party, it is outrageous that any Democratic Party politician is even allowed on any peace movement stage. All of the above-named Democrats are staunch supporters of the US military base in the Middle East to protect US oil profits, namely Israel. They all support the entire Democratic Party ticket.

It is time the preachers of all religions and the Democratic Party politicians not be invited to speak at the peace rallies.

As to political leaders, the socialist and other workingclass organizers of these demonstrations and the workingclass communities are outstanding speakers in both form and content, and it is they who need to be heard. I look forward to all of them running for office so we have real choices on the ballot.

My favorite event on the stage was the performance of Joan Baez. Her voice is just as gorgeous as ever. Her duet with Bonnie Raitt was outstanding.

The wide variety of literature tables provided a golden opportunity to obtain more information and exchange ideas with members of our peace community.