Berkeley has really changed

Report on protest of Berkeley Marines Recruiting Center
Mike, Stephanie and Noel,
World Can't Wait

Today in Berkeley, two raucous groups of
approximately 100 people each faced off on opposite sides of a busy 3
lane, downtown street at the new Marine Corps Recruiting Center.

Angered at how this recently-opened recruiting station is attracting
more and more anti-war protests, ultra right wing pro-war groups
converged. The Gathering of Eagles and Move America Forward, with
promotion by right-wing media flacks Melanie Morgan and Michelle
Malkin, staged a counter-demonstration "at high noon" to "defend our
warriors in recruiting stations" (to use their rhetoric).

On our side were approximately 100 anti-war protestors, mainly from
Code Pink, World Can't Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime, the ANSWER
Coalition and Progressive Democrats of America.

Code Pink was at the recruiting station as they are every Wednesday to
protest this immoral and illegal war, talking with potential recruits
who need to hear the truth about the war crimes they are being lured
into. World Can't Wait has also begun protest actions outside this
recruiting station and called for more protestors to come to join a
"gathering of the people, and a telling of the truth" denouncing the
U.S.'s ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now the threat of a
new war against Iran.

Pro-war talk radio hack Melanie Morgan (of KSFO radio in San
Francisco) may have been responsible for today's noisy turnout of
pro-war numbers. The belligerent pro-war rhetoric from her broadcasts
carried over and sank to fist waving and menacing threats. Many of the
same forces involved in the rightwing "Islamo Fascist Awareness Week
Campus Campaign" were there to join the large bullies screaming at and
threatening the anti-war protestors. [Note: most of the "Gathering of
Eagles" crowd was older white men, but there were a visible number of
well-dressed, affluent young white women with them too, as well as
some women and men who said they were parents of soldiers serving in
Iraq.]

World Can't Wait agitators worked 4 bullhorns, displayed 6 huge
enlargement photos of Abu Ghraib torture victims, distributed orange
(via shirts, ribbons and bandanas) and turned a large masked
"President Bush" loose to roam the two-sided demonstration preaching
the virtues of torture, endless wars, dictatorships, depleted uranium,
etc.

The pro-war forces were thoroughly whipped up, and there was a good
deal of pushing, shoving, angry shouting, and ugly behavior from them
(all completely supported by the police on the scene). CBS News
reported 200 counter protesters, outnumbering anti-war people about 3
to 1. Other news reports estimated the two crowds as roughly equal at
"about 100 each." The pro-war people came in force -- waving American
flags, physically jabbing us with their flag poles, singing God Bless
America, and chanting "USA! USA! USA!" When we held up the Abu Ghraib
pictures of the tortured, they called us traitors and screamed that
they wished it was us being tortured. One friend from 'Vets For Peace'
got slammed to the ground by them, and when a person on the antiwar
side got arrested for burning an American flag, the "Gathering of
Eagles" crowd chanted to the police, "Taser him, taser him!"

A few of them rode back and forth on very big Harleys, and would
periodically (especially when they didn't like our chants) rev their
engines at deafening levels.

Soon police told us that "someone [among the Gathering of Eagles] had
a knife" so we would have to move to the other side of the street. Of
course, we continued to agitate as our crowd moved people, supplies
and tables. The Eagles people now started yelling to the cops that
someone on OUR side had a knife (a total lie). At that, the cops began
to physically force and shove us across the street. The anti-war
demonstration continued, ending only after the pro-war crowd had
packed up and left.

Many passerbys stopped to watch, frequently giving us words and signs
of support; a lot of them did actually join us and stay for a while. A
group of African-American youth from nearby Berkeley High joined us,
including some with family in the military, and spent the afternoon
yelling at the proto-fascists. Many we spoke with were quite indignant
that these right wing, fascistic types could openly threaten Code Pink
and all other anti-war protestors for demonstrating outside the Marine
recruiters, and yet it was OUR side getting shoved around by the police.

As today's action illustrates this is an extremely TWO-SIDED
situation, exemplifying the growing tension in this country – its
people are sharply divided over this war. With the war in Iraq having
already killed a million Iraqis and the steady march toward yet
another new war threatening even worse in Iran, will there be a
recruiting station open for its deadly business in downtown
Berkeley??? Will recruiters be able to work here, just blocks from the
university and the junior college on one side and the city's
high school on the other???

Peaceful protestors being threatened and assaulted by right-wing thugs
– will this become the new normalcy of a historically anti-war place
like Berkeley, or will people take a clear and massive stand to say
NO? It's widely known that a majority of the American population is
against this war and wants it ended, and yet far too many people watch
public anti-war protest, saying they agree and support -- while they
go about their daily routines without getting involved and taking a
stand themselves. If people hate this war and are sickened by the
whole program of the Bush regime, it does not count unless they act to
show it. This is true everywhere; Berkeley is not exempt. If you want
change, you must help make the change happen.

*"That which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn
– or be forced – to accept."
*<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001o0o3kV6HrKZHrWPB-wsoGe_geFhJCNrgqT662A7uoWqQPPSHBxNFS50-hLS4cU4BExgX7CPnn8whW5BWLorJwrsB5LaruBLVjHEm2iotB9XcjyJZ4gj6XMFqVMAtf2a2UarC8qBvGpfkkOUiE9vB06MgHmsiU65hXfuf31etgtqF0mKkFPlGIzIgDM4R_VJ_uaNtf23T1dYbDGnBsF2uug==>

As for what comes next at this particular demonstration site – the new
Marine recruiting station in downtown Berkeley - discussions and
inspirations are being shared among the different anti-war organizing
groups, as we plan the next steps. Call or write to get involved
yourself: sf@worldcantwait.org and (415) 864-5153.
The World Can't Wait!

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