Activists Protest Five Years of War

Protesters gathered at dawn at Market and Sansome Street and soon departed on snake marches throughout the Financial District.

Direct actions, including blockades and lock-downs, took place at several locations, including offices of Chevron, Bechtel, and the local army recruiting station. Bike blocs took off from Justin Hermann Plaza throughout the morning.

At noon, most of the activists regrouped at Market and Montgomery Street outside the offices of Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-SF), to protest her support for the war. The diverse crowd of young and old included members of Direct Action to Stop the War, Code Pink, the Raging Grannies, and many others.

A group of about 50 people conducted a die-in, blocking Market Street traffic for nearly two hours. As the die-in participants were being arrested, another group of 20 activists, chained together and clad in orange jumpsuits and hoods to represent prisoners at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, arrived and also blocked the intersection. All were arrested, the last around 2:30 pm.

In all the day's actions through 5 pm, there were an estimated 150 total arrests. At that time an antiwar rally called by World Can't Wait/ANSWER was taking place at Civic Center, with a march to the Mission scheduled to depart at 6 pm.