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Biggest Anti-War Protest
In Boston Since Vietnam

From Les Blough
3-29-3


I just returned from our anti-war protest in Boston, which began at 11:30 a.m. This was without question the biggest peace action in Boston since the Viet Nam War. Local media estimated the crowd would be at 50,000. Based upon numbers at previous actions in Washington and D.C., I would place the number between 30,000 and 50,000. But you know how those things go. We filled up the Boston Common - an area about the size of 4-6 football fields?
 
The crowd was absolutely pumped. No quarter was given to anything the real causes or the execution of the Bush Wars. Police presence was everywhere - this time in black uniforms (a first), pants tied at the ankles, black boots, some in full riot gear. Incidentally, yesterday a Black Hawk Helicopter toured the skies around Boston, "Looking for favorable sites to land to extract Governor Romney, if it becomes necessary", according to evening news. The police were pretty well-behaved and not nearly as aggressive as they were in NYC on February 15.
 
The protest was peaceful, but loud and full of energy. We had about 2 hours of speakers, music and street theatre in Boston Common before beginning the march out Beacon Street, through Back Bay (wealthiest section of Boston), over to Boylston Street (main artery leading to downtown), ending at the end of Boylston Street at the Common where we began. When we came to the end, tens of thousands of us did a "Die In", lying down on the streets to portray those dying in Iraq. It was moving to lie down in the middle of the street and to imagine those who are being crushed in the street in Iraq. I made what was for me - a very personal decision - to remain as long as it the rest, even if it meant being arrested. We lay there in silence with the sounds of the bells chiming from a nearby (activist) church.
 
One of our ANSWER organizers took our names in the event we were going to be arrested. There were police on the sidewalks along side us and I thought they were going to begin making arrests. But they walked away. How do you arrest 50,000 people? The crowd rose to their feet with a roar that could be heard echoing through downtown. When I left there were still many thousands of people chanting to the sounds of drums, filling Boylston Street. I don't know if - or how many remained behind for another "Die In".
 
Today, the Boston Phoenix reported similar protests around the world,
 
". . . antiwar demonstrations in london drew an estimated 200,000. Barcelona saw twice that number. Tens of thousands of Australians clogged the streets of Sydney and Melbourne, while at least 11,000 Japanese came out to oppose the war in their own island nation. Protesters have condemned the US invasion of Iraq from Italy and Bangladesh to Mexico and Chile. Throughout the Middle East, angry demonstrators have gathered before US embassies, burned American flags and beat up effigies of President George W. Bush . . . " and on and on.
 
This grassroots movement is big and it is definitely growing.
 
Les Blough
Boston, MA


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