War protesters persevere despite rain
Although the fighting is nearly over, spirited opposition to U.S. policy in Iraq continues

Vowing their work was far from done, several thousand anti-war demonstrators braved a daylong downpour Saturday to plot the peace movement's next move at a march through San Francisco.

While mass demonstrations two months ago filled downtown San Francisco streets with tens of thousands of people, Saturday's march from the Civic Center to Dolores Park drew a crowd estimated at more than 6,000 people, according to march organizers. San Francisco police no longer give official crowd estimates of demonstrations.

Other anti-war demonstrations held Saturday around the globe, even in drier climates, drew similarly diminished numbers compared to prewar rallies.

San Francisco organizer Bill Hackwell said the movement is entering "a different phase," which will include a mixture of actions, from a teach-in next Saturday at Horace Mann Middle School in San Francisco on the effects of a U.S. occupation to a nonviolent direct action at Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale April 22.

"We're very happy with the turnout," said Hackwell, an organizer with International Answer, the umbrella group that organized Saturday's event along with the Vanguard Public Foundation. "The American people have had to put up with a heavy barrage of propaganda. We don't think this is a liberation, as the media would have you believe."

Meanwhile, late Saturday afternoon outside the Fairmont Hotel, more than 150 people protested U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, for receiving the Alan Cranston Peace Award.

Demonstrators criticized Pelosi for supporting a resolution honoring President Bush's leadership during the war and for approving $79 billion to pay for the war's initial cost. They want Pelosi to give the award to the people of San Francisco for being the nation's most vocal anti-war opponents.

During Saturday's march, protesters acknowledged that the next few weeks will be a pivotal test of the movement's resilience.

On Monday morning, several hundred protesters are expected to participate in a nonviolent civil disobedience outside outside Chevron headquarters in San Ramon. Their aim: to show how U.S. oil dependence drives its foreign policy and to highlight companies that could profit by Iraq's fall.

Marchers Saturday said the failure of cheerleading "corporate-owned media" - - most notably Fox News and CNN -- to reflect the war's toll on Iraqi civilians accurately was on many protesters' signs and minds. Several wrote "Lies" in colored tape on top of their umbrellas.

Dorothy Brown, who works in a San Francisco law office, said it is crucial to continue to rally now to send a message that U.S. citizens have not entirely fallen in line with America's leadership.

"It's where the hard part begins," said Brown. "It easier to destroy than to rebuild. We must think carefully about that. And, there are consequences to our actions. We have further isolated ourselves from the rest of the world. We are in a transition time. We all have to play a role."

A major demand among demonstrators Saturday was that U.S. troops return home now, out of fear American forces will linger overseas as a "colonizing" army, providing cover for U.S. corporations to profit from the Iraqi rebuilding effort.

Kawal Ulanday of Oakland, chairman of Filipinos for Global Justice Not War, said, "In 1898, the Americans came to liberate us from Spain just like they want to liberate Iraq. It took 50 years before their government left and almost 100 for their military to leave us alone. We won't let that happen in Iraq."

"I believe in capitalism, but what's going on now is a corporate invasion of Iraq," said Tim Renstrom, 44, a San Franciscan who trains foreign currency traders. "But all these marches aren't going to do anything unless people get out and vote."

Several carried signs suggesting voter registration as the movement's next step. Renstrom suggested a unifying issue which could rally a wide swath of voters: the Patriot Act, which he said could threaten civil rights for many.

"It's something that could unite the Left Coast, the East Coast and Middle America," he said.

For now, said Sushawn Robb, 47, of Berkeley, the peace movement is trying to persuade the government to halt its move toward pre-emptive strikes. Several top U.S. officials have warned in recent days that Syria could be the next target of "regime change."

"We have a long way ahead of us," Robb said. "It's been encouraging, but the harder part comes now. War is more black and white than changing foreign policy."

And after marching from a noontime rally in Civic Center through the Western Addition, Haight-Ashbury, the Castro and ending up in the Mission District, many marchers were soaked, but still defiant.

Sage and Lotus Arias of Nevada City carried their two children in the driving rain, Lotus carrying Fiona, who just turned 1, and Sage carrying Felicity, who is 4.

"At least my kids are still alive. No American bombs have wounded them," Lotus Arias said. "It would be selfish of me to compare the inconvenience of marching in the rain to the suffering our tax dollars have caused in Iraq."