Snaps from inside the SP-USA contingent at J27, DC.

Thanks to all who came out. Below are quick reports from the j27 anti-war marches in DC and San Francisco.

Greg in DC

Here are some of the folks who took part in the SP contingent. I also saw, Oregon Hunter and his family, Bob & Hopi Auerbach, Jesse Heiwa and we missed a bunch of you, bit I'm sure you took part in one of the many other contingents. Glad everyone attended. Thanks to NYC for bringing their banner. We'll have a new SPUSA banner for the next event (promise!:)

http://www.sp-usa.org/campaigns/j27washingtondc.html.

If you have photos, especially those of you who marched with other folks, please send them to me at natsec(at)sp-usa.

In Unity,

Greg [gpason(at)sp-usa.org]

Harry in SF

Hi Greg & others;

While we didn't have a big enough contingent to carry an SP banner (which we don't have) 3 (as far as I know) SF Bay Area SPers were in SF's 1/27 anti-war march & demo which ended up at Pier 33 with a rally in support of the maritime unions who lost their jobs as the Alcaraz cruise ferry contract held previously by the union Blue & White Fleet had been given by the US Park Service to the non-union Hornblower which is being boycotted. Cde Tanya Smith carried her UPTE union banner in the labor contingent, and Cde. Jack Gerson, Oakland Educ. Assn., also was in the labor contingent which led the March, led by the Inland Boatmen's Union, ILWU. I marched in the IWW contingent as part of the labor contingent, and helped carry one of the two impressive large Wobbly red and black banners which drew a lot of attention from photographers. Also other members of the IWW carried smaller red & back IWW banners mounted on collapsible sticks which could be raised high above the crowd. Another FW carried an r&b banner reading: "Abolish Hierarchy!", with a "One Big Union" pennant mounted below it. About 10,000 people were involved.

I saw only one organized contingent calling itself "socialist". That was the "International Socialist Organization" (ISO) which had a good-sized loudly chanting group carrying a large banner. Newspaper scalpers from Trot groups, Socialist Action, Spartacist League, The Organizer, and SWP were out selling their papers along the route and at the rally but had no organized marching contingents. The CP, COC, or DSA never have contingents at these demos or marches. The Sunday before, Tanya Smith and I were in the Bay Area Committee for Reproductive Rights counter-demo against the Catholic church 3rd annual annual Right to Lifers march along the Embarcadero. They had 10,000, we had maybe a thousand, but we didn't let them off the hook with our chanting and signs. They didn't seem very happy. I kept walking alongside them wearing my "No Gods, No Masters" t-shirt, loudly urging the Right-to-Lifers to go picket Death Row at San Quentin against the death penalty instead, and to join us the next Sat. in the anti-war march to protest the murderous policies of the US Govt in iraq, calling Geo W. the real mass murderer. I forgot whether the ISO was at this one but the Trotskyist Freedom Socialist Party was a very active part of BACORR and did tabling. I don't buy their Cannonite line, but am friends with several of them who are also pretty nice folks personally. Bay Area Atheist groups from SF, East Bay, and Silicon Valley participated for the first time with signs.

All for now.

Down with ALL bosses, Harry Siitonen

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