After about an hour, the crowd had doubled. Someone came up and greeted everyone and there was some peace and love music. Because I was at the rally to support the end of the Iraq war and not peace I went to the back of the crowd and watched the anarchist cheerleaders (they were awesome!).
A little while later I found the "bloc" and met some of the people from the Seattle Anti-imperialist group. The bloc had a banner that read "Fuck The Troops!" complete with a yellow ribbon crossed out, a circle A, and a circle E. Personally I thought this banner was great. It did not scape-goat our "leaders"; instead it called upon those holding the weapons to realize what they are doing is wrong.
After about 30 min. - 45 min. of speeches and music the march got started. There were so many people in the streets that we spilled over the dividing line, and half the marchers had to be rerouted to permitted territory. Much chanting and dancing followed.
About 10 min. into the march a group of five cops started tailing the bloc. At some point, according to a second hand report, a minor was threatened by cop who said, "I'm gonna fuck you up." The bloc could take it no longer. We stopped in the middle of the march and demanded the police stop giving us special treatment.
Most of the marchers kept going past us, but the Seattle anti-imperialists stayed in solidarity as well as about one out of ever 100 marchers that passed. After a minute or two a representative from the march organizers came to moderate between the police and us. We made it very clear we would move on as soon as the police stopped targeting us.
Meanwhile at the opposite end of our lock-down a middle aged man had begun to yell vulgarities about how he owned the street due to taxes and that we had to move on. Someone threw a firecracker which startled everyone a bit, but the situation was resolved thanks to the cool heads in the bloc.
Back at the police line we had been told that if we moved on the police would then leave us alone. We immediately turned this down, and another negotiator came in to help. By this time our lock down had grown to a size significant enough to slow the march nearly to a halt. After a minute or two of the march negotiaters talking to the police. The police moved on. Screams of joy could be heard from everyone the bloc and every other marcher I could see.
The march continued. The bloc got it's heckling from people here and there, but on at least one occasion some hippie dude came to our defense and said, "Stop yelling at them to take off their masks. That's not cool man."
As we moved forward there was a group of detainees locked down in the middle of the street. It was a very moving reminder.
Near the end of the march we came to a gauntlet of police officers. We all linked arms and the cops didn't touch us. It was a great feeling to be arm in arm with my comrades walking fearlessly past mounted police.
Then we reached the end of the march. There was dancing and flag burning. Fox news came out of no where and got 3 seconds of footage before we stopped them.
A psychotic liberal tried to take a megaphone from a protester, but was calmed down by other marchers (liberal and bloc alike).
Then we had a short street party. I thought about how great the day was. Although I know the ruling class could care less about this march, I was able to express my thoughts to a large amount of people.
While others might complain that this march contained no direct effort to end the war I will not complain. I don't understand why people are criticizing the organizers for that. The organizers in my opinion did a great job, and their negotiation efforts with the police is that of legend. If there was not enough "action" for some people I think it is important to look at ourselves. Why would the organizers plan a revolution, or a building takeover? Have we forgotten about the power we hold as individuals? If you think this is what is needed the I suggest you go for it, or at least blame yourself for not taking said action before putting blame on the organizers of this event.
My memories of M19 can be summed up with what happed just before I left. As I was walking away some liberals pointed at the scarred spot on the pavement where some flags had been burned. They said, "It must have been some fireworks." To which I responded, "the most beautiful fireworks I have ever seen."
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