|
March8 03 4000 code pink whitehouse { March 9 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/03/09/MN10934.DTLhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/03/09/MN10934.DTL
Code Pink, Women in Black say no to war
Females protest from Union Square to D.C.
Ryan Kim, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, March 9, 2003
©2003 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback
Thousands of women from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., and dozens of places in between took to the streets Saturday to honor International Women's Day by protesting against the possibility of war with Iraq.
Some wore pink as a symbol of oppression. Others wore black as a symbol of death. They carried placards, chanted slogans and sang songs.
Some even got arrested.
The biggest rally was in Washington, where 4,000 people gathered near the White House to condemn the Bush administration's steady march toward war. Women chanted "Bush says Code Red; we say Code Pink" and "Peace, not war" as they marched through downtown to the Ellipse.
"A lot of us are mothers and grandmothers, and we identify with the women of Iraq who will suffer the most," said Sara Hinkley, 31, of Oakland, who joined the rally in the nation's capital. "Now women who may have never been politically active can relate to losing a child or having their home destroyed. "
The protesters listened to speeches from the likes of authors Alice Walker and Maxine Hong Kingston, singer Michelle Shocked and nuclear disarmament activist Helen Caldicott.
"The best substitute for war is intelligence, and we have it . . . and we have good hearts," said Walker. "We have to believe we have good hearts, that we don't have to murder to change minds."
The rally was organized by Bay Area activists Medea Benjamin and Andrea Buffa. Twenty-five demonstrators were arrested after refusing to leave the pedestrian mall outside the White House. Walker, Kingston and Benjamin were among those arrested, officials said.
Not everyone who took to the streets opposed the possibility of an attack on Iraq. Many voiced support for President Bush and those who may be sent to war.
More than 1,500 gathered at Point State Park in Pittsburgh to support the troops. Several thousand more braved chilly weather to attend a rally in Omaha,
Neb., where former Sen. Bob Kerrey urged them to back the soldiers.
"If it becomes necessary for our commander in chief to order our sons and daughters into war, my belief is that America will come together as one nation and honor the commitment that our sons and daughters are making for us," said Kerrey, a former governor and Vietnam War veteran who now is president of the New School University in New York.
Closer to home, scores of women, many dressed entirely in black, converged on Union Square in San Francisco to decry the march toward war. Dozens more gathered in Walnut Creek to cheer speeches and distribute flyers calling for a change in U.S. foreign policy.
"It's fitting on International Women's Day, when pioneering women a century ago were able to give women a public voice, for women to gather today to shape the world our children will live in and to tell President Bush not to rush into war in our name," said Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, who addressed the crowd in Walnut Creek.
The San Francisco protest began at noon when 75 demonstrators, most of them women, gathered outside the downtown offices of Bechtel Corp. The event, part of the fourth annual Global Women's Strike, sought to direct U.S. funds away from the war.
Lori Nairne, of the International Wages for Housework Campaign, said the U. S. government could eradicate many domestic ills by redirecting some of its military budget toward social issues.
Military spending "deprives us, women and children globally, of food security, health care, housing, education and other life-giving services," she said.
The protesters marched to Union Square, where they joined a silent vigil by Women in Black, an international movement protesting violence and war. Dressed head to toe in black, the women stood along the south side of Union Square, holding signs calling for peace.
With the prospects for war mounting, Saturday's protests took on added urgency, some protesters said. Demonstration organizers acknowledged that the odds of an invasion have increased in the past week but said they remain confident that there is still time to avert a war.
"It's easy to get incredibly cynical and depressed, but you can't allow yourself to do that," said Judith Mirkinson of Women in Black. "You have to say, 'We'll protest and keep protesting until something different happens.' "
Chronicle news services contributed to this report. / E-mail Ryan Kim at rkim@sfchronicle.com.
©2003 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback
Page A - 3
|
|
