Photos From ILWU Hornblower Solidarity Picket At End Of Anti-War March

Many people have commented on the puzzling situation we have . More people than ever are opposed to the war . Yet we had one demo that was probably the largest in California history shortly before the war (estimated 250, 000) but none larger than 20, 000 since the invasion began .
Today i doubt that we had more than 5, 000 present .
But we did successfully tie in it with the Alcatraz ferry workers struggle. We got unions such as the Master, Mates , and Pilots to endorse and actively participate . (First time that M.M. P. had ever joined(as a Union ) in a antiwar demo . Unlike the Inland Boatmen's union , who are part of the I.L.W.U. , The M.M. P. are affilated to the Far more conservative , east coast based International Longshore Association . So today was really a welcome step ) Also we broke from the same old , tired march routes by marching down the Embarcadero ., where ,while maybe not that many locals saw us but camcorders and Digidal cameras wielded by tourists from Tennessee to Tokyo recorded us for posterity .
All that was good but we still have to really up the numbers . I think we need a Open, democratic mass meeting to discuss, debate and stragerize how to bring that about and force an end to the Imperialist adventure in Iraq and Afghanistan .

With no draft, we had 15,000 on 1/27/07 in a milestone labor and peace march, a demonstration that came in the winter one month after the big holidays. With the same no draft, we had 50,000 on 9/24/05, less than 1 month after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. See http://www.indybay.org/archives/archived_blurb_list.php?page_id=18&page_number=9

It was the draft that gave the peace movement a big national boost in the 1960s and when the draft ended in 1973, that was the end of most of the protests, although Vietnam was not liberated until April 30, 1975. Congress did not stop funding the war against Vietnam until 1974, 1 year after US soldiers officially left Vietnam due to the Paris Peace Accords of 1973, and 1 year before liberation. See
http://www.actionsf.org/anscall0703.htm

With the above figures with no draft, if Congress is ever so stupid to restart the draft, the whole government would fall. The war has to hit home for people to act. The reason we had even as much as stated above is because the economy is in serious trouble. The latest is the housing bubble has finally burst. In addition, there are no wage increases for the past 6 years, college tuition is rising, medical coverage is rising astronomically, and in total, there is no opportunity for advancement in this society.
The lack of political thinking is widespread in the US. This is a country where we have about 50% functional illiteracy, meaning they can perhaps write their name and read a recipe, but that is about it. At all levels of society, both educated and not educated, the pre-occupation with the latest TV shows, sports, clothes, diets, movie stars and their garbage movies and the rest is common. Thinking is uncommon and acting on one's political thoughts is practically heretical. These demonstrations are all advertised in the SF Chronicle (this one was in the Friday and Saturday papers and on their website), KPFA, in the Bay Guardian and on this website.

Please note what did have tremendous national turnout: The May Day labor-immigration marches, which will be repeated again this year. There were MILLIONS of people marching nationwide, including perhaps 100,000 in San Francisco alone. There were marches in places such as Santa Rosa and Concord. In other words, the workingclass shows up when they feel their lives are threatened. See http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/05/03/18206591.php

I suggest we have more labor-peace marches and that the peace movement again join this year's May Day labor march. There will be no peace until labor has the strength to carry out a nationwide general strike.

There was not 15, 000 at the San Francisco march . Period . The person called ''Observer/organizer ''might have lowballed the number a bit but there wasn't 15, 000 on our march . I spoke to several experienced activists and the hioghest estimate was 8, 000.
Let's don't exaggerate our numbers . That's a bad habit of A.N.S.W.E.R. Let's be scruplously accurate and honest, in contrast to our common enemy .

Hello, it wasn't an ANSWER march-- it was a United for Peace and Justice march! UFPJ isn't quite the same thing here as it is on the east coast- it's more of a coalition, and i think it includes a lot of less-experienced organizers (tho it does include a lot of the usual suspects from the socialist groups).

That said, i do think that it was over 10,000. I haven't looked at that many sets of photos, and I wasn't there, but the crowd did look quite big.

Assuming this picture shows half the crowd how many people were at the protest?

http://indybay.org/uploads/2007/01/27/2_massive_crowd.jpg

Its more than 2-3 thousand but is it 10-20 thousand or 8-9 thousand.... its really had to tell but 15 thousand seems as good an estimate as any.

Look at the link in the previous comment and find the Kucinich banner in it and then look at this picture. The crowd still continues back around the corner onto Market.
from the first picture I get at least 40 people across and at least 150 deep and from the second at least an additional 30 across and 100 deep so thats 9000 between the two pictures alone. It could be the crowd ends right after the pic and there are not many ahead of the first pic (since that wasnt the start of the march). Assuming an additional 40 across and 20 deep before the first pic (since the crowd was more dense near the start of the march) and lets say 20 across and 100 deep after the end of what is visible in the 2nd pic (assuming it barely goes around onto market) that would give 9000+2000+800 = about 12,000 (and thats being conservative with most of the estimates in the pictures)

Based off the pic from Embarcadero Center several down here
http://indybay.org/newsitems/2007/01/27/18353338.php
it appears that the crowd ahead of the first pic is at most 5 deep and 50 across or less than 250 rather than 2000.
So that would give a conservative crowd estimate at 10,000 and if the march ended right afetr the end of the 2nd pic and maybe 20,000 if those 2 pics are only of the first half of teh crowd (and since large demos tend to decrease in density as the crowd goes back and the 2nd pic shows a fairly dense crowd even around the corner on Market when you zoon in) it wiouldnt be unresonable to say the crowd could have been large as 25,000 (although 15,000 seems the best guess with maybe a 10% chance it was lower than 9000 and a 10% chance it was more than 20,000)

This protest was not nearly as big as some of the earliest protests since Spring 2003-- but my sense was that it was VERY big-- certainly not the 3000 to 5,000 initially reported on SFGate, the San Francisco Chronicle's internet presence.

I notice that SFGate has amended its story today-- it does not give specific crowd estimates-- but implies that protest organizer Snehal Shingavi was significantly exagerrating numbers. What is clear is that SFGate reporters do not themselves have a clear idea of the real numbers.

In my opinion, the Chronicle and SFGate are downplaying the protest-- its readers should ask: Why?

January 27 SFGate story
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/27/BAG6GNQBK75.DTL
"Some 3,000 to 5,000 protesters marched through city streets in a passionate condemnation of the administration's handling of the war effort."

January 28 SFGate Story
"Protest organizer Snehal Shingavi said he thought about 10,000 people showed up, although the crowd wending through the Financial District and along the Embarcadero looked to be considerably smaller than that."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/28/MNGASNQE6J1.DTL

Robert Livingston posed a rhetorical question , why does the corporate media low ball the numbers of our demos ? The answer of course is that they want to downplay the significance of the antiwar movement . (Though to be fair , many individual reporters would dispute that , claiming that they are for withdrawl from Iraq and therefore wouldn't intentionally ''low ball '' the numbers . Of course there is the question of what about their editors ? )
But that doesn't mean that our movement should do the opposite , exaggerate our count . I think that hurts our crediability .
There was over 10, 000 there , maybe as many as 25, 000 some say ? Let's assume for the sake of argument that there was 10, 000 on Market st. If so they split en masse when they reached the Ferry Building ! There was certainly no more than 2-3000 when they arrived at Pier 33 . I spoke to seven very seasoned activists , (as i wrote before )the highest estimate for the entire march was 8, 000.In response to Luci, i'm well aware this march wasn't run by A.N.S.W.E.R. . It had far more democracy and inclusion in the planning of this event . I was pointing out that A.N.S.W.E.R. was known for being ''bad with Math '' and i hope that this new alliance would be far more accurate in these matters .

First, concerning this demonstration: The rally at the beginning was overflowing and the beginning of the march was huge. One report had us from 2d to 5th street, taking over all lanes and both sidewalks on Market at the start. We were shoulder to shoulder and "nose to tail" if you will, not moving until the person in front of us moved, from Powell Street to Kearny and in some sections to the Hyatt Regency where we turned. Lots of people quit the march at the Embarcadero as 2 miles is difficult for many people. Of those of us who survived the whole march, putting mind over matter for sure, many of us (but not all) could not walk the picketline but did manage to listen to a few speeches. The picketline seemed to have at least 20-50 people for a while. The first 4 speeches, before the priest, were excellent. Then we took our dizzy, exhausted selves to the nearest F train or whatever else was rolling away and left. The capitalist press always under reports our demonstrations because the Chronicle, etc are all mouthpieces of the capitalist class that perpetrates these wars to maximize their profits. Most significantly, they did not push the labor connection, which was the milestone achievement of this peace march.

Now, for the real numbers: There are 750,000 residents of San Francisco; there are 7 million residents of the 9 counties of the Bay Area. If we want even 100,000 marchers, we must be part of a labor movement. Look around you when you go shopping and dining. You will see the labor force is overwhelmingly immigrant, mostly Latino, and in San Francisco, Asian. In areas where there is a significant African-American population, the labor force will also be significantly African-American. It is from this labor force that the military tries to recruit which is why counter recruitment is so important. These peace marches are still mostly intellectuals, albeit not rich, reacting to political pronouncements, all very esoteric to the average worker. Please be there March 18, and especially be there for May Day. If you cannot make it to the march, try to get to the rally at the Civic Center. Only with a strong labor base can we build a serious peace movement.

Short of aerial photos (which i doubt ''Homeland Security '' is going to share with us ! ) we aren't going to know exactly how many of us were there on the 27th . Let's Moveon to the main point that the first person raised . Whether 5, 000 or 15, 000 it's still far smaller than the ones we had before the war began . Why is that ? Are those who marched in late 2002 and early 2003 so demoralized that they feel marching is useless ? Or do they feel that since the Democrats have a majority that '' Barbara '' or '' Nancy '' will take care of it ?
Let's talk about that . Not arguing over how many bodies hit the street .
I think that whatever the body count the Labor link was great . Kudos to those on the Labor Left who made that possible .

"Hello, it wasn't an ANSWER march-- it was a United for Peace and Justice march!"


No- it was a unity coalition between UFPJ, ANSWER and World Can't Wait- all three organizations had representatives in the planning committee!