International Day of Mass Action to Prevent U.S. Attack on Iran
San Francisco: 600 March Demanding NO WAR ON IRAN!
On February 4 hundreds rallied downtown before a march of 600
took off down Market Street, demanding NO WAR ON IRAN under wonderful signs and
banners. Their chants were united
and very loud - often making shoppers a block away stop and look up.
Before the march, a fast-paced hour flew by as speakers poured
out their best arguments against a war on Iran, the stakes of stopping it, and what people in the U.S. should
do. The speakers' diversity of
views, within the unity of the "Four No's" slogan, captured intense listening
from the whole crowd. An emcee
team from World Can't Wait and the ANSWER Coalition called on us many times to
bring together the unity of this demand even as we bring to it different
political outlooks. The crowd
cheered this point every time- and the crowd itself was growing larger AND more
diverse even during the rally and march. Hundreds crowded forward to hear Cindy Sheehan, Daniel Ellsberg, Larry
Everest of Revolution newspaper, Veterans for Peace, Fr. Louis Vitale, Al-Awda
Palestine Right of Return, Dr. Henry Clark (West County Toxics Coalition),
Iranian professor Kaveh Afrasiabi (Campaign Against Sanctions and Military
Intervention in Iran), Code Pink, ANSWER Coalition, and Solidarity with
Iran. And at the second rally when
the march reached United Nations Plaza,
we heard speeches from Occupy San Francisco, Iraq Veterans Against the
War, Stanford Says No To War, BAYAN, Party for Socialism and Liberation, World
Can't Wait, and Courage to Resist/Bradley Manning Support Committee.
VIDEO here, here and here.
San Francisco: 600 March Demanding NO WAR ON IRAN!
On February 4 hundreds rallied downtown before a march of 600
took off down Market Street, demanding NO WAR ON IRAN under wonderful signs and
banners. Their chants were united
and very loud - often making shoppers a block away stop and look up.
Before the march, a fast-paced hour flew by as speakers poured out their best arguments against a war on Iran, the stakes of stopping it, and what people in the U.S. should do. The speakers' diversity of views, within the unity of the "Four No's" slogan, captured intense listening from the whole crowd. An emcee team from World Can't Wait and the ANSWER Coalition called on us many times to bring together the unity of this demand even as we bring to it different political outlooks. The crowd cheered this point every time- and the crowd itself was growing larger AND more diverse even during the rally and march. Hundreds crowded forward to hear Cindy Sheehan, Daniel Ellsberg, Larry Everest of Revolution newspaper, Veterans for Peace, Fr. Louis Vitale, Al-Awda Palestine Right of Return, Dr. Henry Clark (West County Toxics Coalition), Iranian professor Kaveh Afrasiabi (Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran), Code Pink, ANSWER Coalition, and Solidarity with Iran. And at the second rally when the march reached United Nations Plaza, we heard speeches from Occupy San Francisco, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Stanford Says No To War, BAYAN, Party for Socialism and Liberation, World Can't Wait, and Courage to Resist/Bradley Manning Support Committee.
Spirits were high yet sober. One veteran of the anti-war movement told us she
was "holding my breath on the way here, I was so afraid the rally would be small. I've been feeling so sick about war on
Iran but we haven't had a protest yet. When I saw this crowd it lifted me: the turnout and how many different
groups are here together." Speakers and marchers alike talked all day about feeling such urgency and
outrage, whether they called it criminal, or imperialist, or ungodly, or
immoral. Some talked of pressuring
Obama, others saw Obama as part of the problem; some brought the Occupy spirit,
others spoke the world needing communist revolution. There were different views
about the government of Iran, too. But everyone came because they see the war clouds looming and they feel
responsibility to be part of stopping it.
Many said during the day that they felt this was one of the
more powerful protests by the
local anti-war movement in recent years. They pointed to different reasons for this power: its diversity, but also the passion in
such people wanting and creating unity to make the "Four No's" demand
reverberate.
Spirits were high yet sober. One veteran of the anti-war movement told us she
was "holding my breath on the way here, I was so afraid the rally would be small. I've been feeling so sick about war on
Iran but we haven't had a protest yet. When I saw this crowd it lifted me: the turnout and how many different
groups are here together." Speakers and marchers alike talked all day about feeling such urgency and
outrage, whether they called it criminal, or imperialist, or ungodly, or
immoral. Some talked of pressuring
Obama, others saw Obama as part of the problem; some brought the Occupy spirit,
others spoke the world needing communist revolution. There were different views
about the government of Iran, too. But everyone came because they see the war clouds looming and they feel
responsibility to be part of stopping it.
Many said during the day that they felt this was one of the more powerful protests by the local anti-war movement in recent years. They pointed to different reasons for this power: its diversity, but also the passion in such people wanting and creating unity to make the "Four No's" demand reverberate.
National Website
Local Contact
San Francisco, CA 94103
sf@worldcantwait.org
415-864-5153