Last Weekend in DC - Saturday

Saturday was the day of the anti-war rally, sponsored by Veterans for Peace.  There were speakers and singers, then we had a short march around Lafayette Park, and then over one hundred people stood at the White House fence and were arrested.  Here are some of my photos.

 I brought this banner - EVERY WAR IS A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN.

Some representation of the Libyan protesters.

 Very cool sign - I liked it.

 Daniel Ellsberg speaking at the stage.

 Jason and Rochelle - they told me they are going to hike the Appalachian Trial from start to finish soon.

 Chris Hedges speaking at the Vets for Peace rally.  I accidentally erased the photos from the Code Pink rally that was just before the Vets for Peace rally.

 Gotta have SWAT team for the non-violent, unarmed protesters!

 David Swanson at the White House fence.

 This guy chained himself to the White House fence.

Here is a report from ANSWER on the rally and protest in DC on 3-19-11.

Over 1,500 people participated in a veterans-led civil resistance action initiated by Veterans for Peace that led to the arrest of 113 people at the White House. The ANSWER Coalition, March Forward! and many other organizations supported the event.

At the rally in Lafayette Park, Brian Becker, the national coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition, said: “The U.S. government never tells the people that ‘we’ are going to invade or bomb another country in order to control and exploit its natural resources—especially oil and natural gas—or the labor of the occupied people. That is, of course, the truth. But no mother or father would allow their child to go to war for the crass function of exploitation. The U.S. government always states that each Pentagon invasion or bombing attack is for humanitarian rather than imperial objectives.

“Today, on the eight anniversary of the criminal invasion of Iraq, the United States, Britain and France are poised to begin a massive bombing of Libya--again, they say, for noble, humanitarian reasons. That is a lie that we must expose. Libya is the largest producer of oil on the African continent and the imperialists want to re-conquer the country and its resources. We, in the ANSWER Coalition, stand against any military action against Libya. The Libyan people, and they alone, must be the masters of their own destiny.”

Caneisha Mills, an organizer with the ANSWER Coalition, also addressed Libya in her talk, saying: “The U.S. government claims it will bring democracy and freedom to Libya; these are the same terms used to invade Iraq! After the massive and ongoing slaughter in Iraq and Afghanistan we know that is not true!”

Ryan Endicott, a member of March Forward! and an Iraq war veteran who served in Ramadi, told the crowd: “We know firsthand that our enemy is not the people of Iraq, who for eight years have been struggling to survive a brutal occupation. It is not the people of Afghanistan who for over a decade have been struggling to survive a brutal occupation. The biggest threat to the people of the United States is not thousands of miles away, but hundreds of yards away, right here in the White House, in the Pentagon, on Wall Street. It’s the bankers that take our homes, the CEOs that lay off from our jobs only to take million dollar bonuses.”

A unidentified protester lifts his legs as he is arrested by U.S. Park Police near the White House while protesting against war on the 8th anniversary of the Iraq invasion in Washington, on Saturday, March 19, 2011.   (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The veteran in the photo is Zach Choate.