At San Francisco Anti-Occupation Rally, Iraqi-Americans Speak Out

Anti-war movement returns
Thousands take part in S.F. protest calling for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq

Patrick Hoge and Jose Antonio Vargas, Chronicle Staff Writers Sunday, October 26, 2003


In what organizers billed as the largest anti-war protest in San Francisco since the war in Iraq officially ended months ago, thousands of people from across California marched through the city's streets Saturday calling for U.S. troops to leave Iraq.

Crowd estimates varied wildly -- organizers put the crowd total at 15,000 while police estimated as many as 5,000 were on the streets -- but the peaceful procession of sign-waving, chanting demonstrators stretched for at least 12 city blocks as it snaked from Civic Center Plaza through the Tenderloin, up Market Street to Hayes Valley and finally to Jefferson Square.

The mood at Saturday's protest was mostly subdued, with demonstrators on stilts, wandering musicians wearing tie-die and mobile ice-cream vendors doing brisk sales as the temperature rose into the mid-80s. Traffic backed up at intersections as the procession passed. Police said there were no major incidents or arrests, although some protesters on bicycles briefly blocked various intersections.

Despite a month of planning by organizers, Saturday's demonstration was a far cry from the sizable protests in March. At those, tens of thousands of demonstrators clogged the city's streets, hundreds were arrested, intersections were blocked for hours and splinter groups committed vandalism and clashed with police.

But the smaller crowds Saturday didn't stop organizers from hailing the event as a sign that the anti-war movement is gaining new strength.

"The movement is coming back together, is resurging,'' said Richard Becker, a member of the steering committee for International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism), one of the organizers of the day's event.

"We are extremely happy that this many people are here,'' said Becker. "Huge numbers of people understand that the war was justified on lies."

Saturday's rally coincided with a larger demonstration in Washington, D.C., where crowd estimates were put in the tens of thousands. Organizers said that also was the largest rally since the Bush administration declared an end to major combat in Iraq on May 1. Since Bush's announcement, 108 U.S. soldiers have been killed, more than were killed during the invasion, as well as an unknown number of Iraqis.

Bill Tilden, 60, an Oakland resident who has attended all of the anti-Iraq war demonstrations in San Francisco, said he was sad that more people had not come out for Saturday's protest in San Francisco.

"I was a little disappointed we didn't have more age representation there. I don't think it was a wide spectrum,'' said Tilden, recalling how the large crowds at previous demonstrations had given him hope that U.S. policy could actually be changed.

"I guess people are burned out, or whatever,'' Tilden said. "It's really sad, I don't see how we as a country can get out of this morass. It's just like Vietnam.''

Samira Alqazzazi, 61, a native of Baghdad who now lives in Sacramento, was hopeful.

"I did not expect to see so many people,'' said Alqazzazi, who came to the United States in 1963 to get a master's degree in sociology. "As more people die, I think there will be more resistance.''

Accompanying Alqazzazi was Lamia, a 36-year-old native of Baghdad who now lives in Davis (Yolo County).

"I think people are listening now because Americans are coming home in body bags,'' said Lamia, who asked that her last name not be used. "I think the troops are dying for the government's greed.''

The women said they believe more people would be protesting if they knew what was really happening in Iraq, as they do from communicating with relatives in the country.

"I think Americans are generally a very good people. I think a lot of Americans don't know the horrible things that are being done in their name,'' Lamia said, adding that while ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was a bad man, Iraq's infrastructure is now decimated and U.S. corporations seem to be benefiting at the expense of Iraqi citizens.

Joan Carter drove four hours from San Luis Obispo County for the rally, the second she has attended since the war began.

"People feel helpless. They think their voices don't count. They think that taking to the streets can't and won't make a difference,'' said Carter, 69, a retired health care worker.

"That's why I think the anti-war rally kind of died down in the last few months. But it's getting re-energized, you can feel it.''