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M19 DASW: Bechtel Action -- photos

by dave id
additional photos from M19 DASW events in S.F.
2004mar19-0720.jpg

Direct Action to Stop the War-sponsored Education, Living Wages, and Healthcare — Not Warfare! day of action campaign to mark the one-year anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq and the subsequent shutdown of downtown S.F. by an estimated 20,000 people jamming the gears of empire. Events included early morning action at war-profiteer Bechtel headquarters in S.F., Housing Action near the Civic Center in S.F., and a rally at the Superior Court in Oakland to highlight, prior to its one-year anniversary, last year's violent break-up of the community picket of anti-union, war-profiteers APL and SSA at the Port of Oakland.

These photos cover the gathering at Justin Herman Plaza in S.F. (photo #1 with Healthcare/Market Street and Education/Mission Street contingents), the Bechtel action itself, and the start of the march down Market Street to the Housing Action.

See http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/04/1677211.php for videos of the continuation of the march and Housing Action on Page Street.

§Yoga and non-violent ways of life
by dave id
2004mar19-0722.jpg
§TV news was all over Bechtel Direct Action
by dave id
2004mar19-0754.jpg
...and this leads to a funny story about super-dooper, overdramatic hyperbole by TV anchors/writers hoping for the "big story" that participants who did not videotape the morning news probably missed. Fox2/KTVU had cameras on Beale Street, and this on-air exchange in their studios happenned about 8:05am...

Frank Somerville: "Back over now to Sal Castaneda. Our worst fears seem to be coming true about these protests. They seem to be getting bigger by the moment. Sal, what's going on?" S.C.: "Police estimate now that 400-600, 400-600 people out in front of the Bechtel building, they seem to be converging and they also reported that people are using, some, some of them are setting up with the armbands and tieing them together. Now they started at Justin Herman Plaza, marched up Market Street, are eventually to go, going to Civic Center," while live images of Beale Street protest and muliple waiting police buses set up at Civic Center appear on the screen.

WORST FEARS?!? Yes, several hundred latecomers were showing up as time went on, but personally my worst fears involve much more terrible things than temporarily blocked traffic (like actual war, maybe). Also, it's kind of surprising that the cops and TV news people had no idea what the full agenda was. It's understandable that the location of the squat was kept secret until the last, so as not to blow their cover overnight until the crowds arrived, but TV kept reporting that protesters were heading to Civic Center (for wut kind of Direct Action would you have there?) and even the police were massing there in the morning. No, Frank, your worst fears did not come true.
2004mar19-0909.jpg
See http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/04/1677211.php for videos of the continuation of the march and Housing Action on Page Street.
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