Vol. 73/No. 15      April 20, 2009

Organizers said the action commemorated Martin Luther King, Jr.’s April 4, 1967, speech against the Vietnam War and his assassination exactly one year later.

Participants in the march came mainly from the New York area but were joined by contingents from as far away as Michigan and Tennessee. Contingents of unionists in the Service Employees International Union, United Auto Workers, and United Federation of Teachers were among the marchers.

Supporters of the New York Socialist Workers campaign joined the march, carrying a banner that read “All imperialist troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq now: Not one penny, not one person for Washington’s wars!” Dan Fein, the Socialist Workers candidate for mayor, marched in the contingent along with Tom Baumann and Maura DeLuca, the party’s candidates for Manhattan borough president and public advocate respectively.

Patricia Garay, a sophomore at Kalamazoo College in Michigan, was among some 50 people who bused from that state. “The facts speak for themselves,” she told the Militant when asked why she opposes the war. “It’s important for people to come out to these things because war is not a one-time thing and it won’t just go away because there’s a new president. We have to work for it,” she said.

“We came out here to meet other people who are against the war,” said Sara Weathers, a student from the University of Michigan who also came on the bus. “What we do here has a real impact.”

“What do we want—Troops out! When do we want it—Now!” was a popular chant during the day. Many in the crowd prominently displayed signs demanding an end to the wars and military funding.

The rally began in Lower Manhattan and marched about a mile through the city’s financial district, passing by the New York Stock Exchange, where protesters organized by Bail Out the People joined in. They had been rallying on Wall Street against bankers at financial institutions that have received federal bailout money, blaming the current economic crisis on them.

The march ended in Battery Park, where people gathered for a few hours to browse literature tables and engage in political conversation.

Alex Ellefson, a bartender from New York, stayed after the march to discuss politics. “You can’t make a difference on your own,” he said. “If you want to make a difference, you have to be part of something bigger, like a cog in a machine.”

After the march socialist candidate Fein spoke to a gathering of protesters. “Working people need to take power out of the hands of the war makers,” he said. “The working classes in the United States, Iraq, and Afghanistan have a common enemy—the capitalist class. We need to build a revolutionary movement that can take political power and use it to build a society based on the needs of the majority, not profits.”

The day before, another demonstration took place in the financial district to protest bank bailouts and “corporate greed.” The action was sponsored by the Bail Out the People Movement and drew several hundred people.
 
 
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