More than 200 Oberlin students spent Valentine’s Day en route to a rally against an impending U.S.-led attack on Iraq.
Three buses organized by the Oberlin Coalition Against the War (OCAW) took off for a Feb. 15 protest in New York, one of over 600 cities worldwide participating in United for Peace and Justice’s day of mobilization against the looming war. United for Peace and Justice is a new national campaign that brings together more than 70 national peace and justice organizations against the war.
The event’s organizers have called Feb. 15 “the largest day of coordinated protest ever known.” More than eight million people attended rallies and marches in locations from Baghdad to Dhaka to Memphis to Melbourne, with the largest turnouts in European cities such as London and Rome. Crowd estimates of the New York protest ranged anywhere from 100,000 to well over 500,000, depending on which side did the counting.
Although most demonstrators described the rally as largely uneventful and peaceful, a number of Oberlin students were arrested. Lynn, a protester who didn’t wish to give her last name, was detained while walking with a group of about two hundred to Times Square.
“Fourteen girls were packed into the back of a paddy wagon in one compartment,” Lynn said. “We were picked up at about 6:30 p.m. and did not get out of the paddy wagon until 10:30 or 11. During those hours we had no food, no water, no lights, no utilities and no heat. Two of the girls ended up peeing on the floor of the car.
“As soon as I entered the cell, the next door toilet overflowed, leaking urine and feces all over the floor of the neighboring cell,” she continued.
“The girls inside asked to be moved, but were refused. At one point we were given sandwiches that consisted of two slabs of white bread and possibly bologna. Most of the girls in there, however, were vegetarians and they were offered no substitute. Though we stayed the whole night, we were offered no blankets and no pillows. They told us that they would bring breakfast at 6 a.m., but it never came.”
She also reported that during her 14 hours in police custody, “we were never read our rights, we were never told what we were being charged with, there was even some confusion as to whether or not we were really being arrested for quite some time.”
Others, though, reported an entirely different experience.
This was first-year Naomi Lipke’s first protest.
“There were people who had dressed up in masks of Bush and Cheney. It seemed very primeval,” she said. “It brought you back to medieval times.”
Demonstrators lined First Avenue, entertaining themselves with street theater, dancing, music and anti-war chants and songs.
First-year Jonah Jacobrown called the atmosphere of the rally “very empowering.”
He regretted that the media didn’t seem to convey the energy of the streets.
“They just showed one pathetic arrest by the police,” he lamented.
The New York demonstration was plagued by security issues.
“I felt like there was a real attempt by the city to almost keep us from being able to congregate or organize,” first-year Meredith Dowling said of the problems.
Because of the heightened “Code Orange” security alert for the weekend, organizers were denied a marching permit.
Instead, protesters were only allowed to congregate behind wooden barricades guarded by police officers.
Not everyone fit into the sectioned-off areas, and many protestors had difficulty making their way to the demonstration site.
Parking was only available a long subway ride away, at Shea Stadium, and portable toilets and wooden sign posts were also deemed a security threat.
Sophomore Paul Parker felt the security measures hindered protestors unnecessarily.
“The police were definitely blocking the progress of the demonstration and preventing protestors from feeling a sense of unity,” he said.
Despite the problems, most demonstrators remained upbeat about the rally.
“The lack of a permit to march made it a somewhat frustrating experience, but still a good one overall,” Dowling said.
According to some attendees, the crowd represented a larger cross section of the American population than the hard-core protesters who often show up at such rallies.
“I thought it was great how diverse the body of protesters were,” junior David Brown said. “Particularly, I liked that whole families showed up.”
Sophomore Rachel David expressed appreciation for the older protesters present.
“They were pushing the fences up against the police officers,” she said. “This old guy was fighting the cops. It was awesome.”
According to the New York Times, Bush likened the protest to a focus group.
The president said that his overriding goal was to protect the American people, and that leadership sometimes involves bucking public opinion.
“Yikes,” Dowling said. “Apparently we are no longer living in a representative government.
I’m not sure what we do from here,” she continued.
“All we can really do is keep trying to make our voice heard and hope that people across the world will understand at least that the actions of the U.S. government do not necessarily reflect what the U.S. citizens support,” she concluded.