Did you know that some 100,000 protesters joined in a peace
march and rally in Washington, D.C., in April? Margaret Nagel reports what most mainstream news outlets did not.

Turning out in force on April 20, 2002, for the peace march and rally in Washington, Chicago-area peace advocates witnessed first-hand the combined power, creativity and passion of as many as 100,000 like-minded citizens from across the nation.

Student activists from Northwestern, Loyola, De Paul and Columbia, and members of such groups as Chicagoland’s American Friends Service Committee, Chicago Leadership Religious Network, Neighbors for Peace, North Suburban Peace Initiative, Edgewater Greens, and the Unitarian Committee for Peace and Justice helped to prove that America’s peace movement is alive and growing.

In taking stock of this landmark event, mainstream journalism, for whatever reasons, got things wrong as usual. The prime focus of protest was not Israel and Palestine alone, and not abuses of world trade and globalization alone. Above all else, the peace multitudes gathered to protest the egregious foreign and domestic policies of George W. Bush and his associates. As the message printed on the Chicago groups’ bus tickets put it: “No more war! Defend our civil liberties!” Nothing could be more on target.

Locally, months of planning by the two umbrella groups—the Chicago Coalition Against War & Racism and Chicago Peace Response—preceded the event.

The journey began with five vans and four buses waiting behind the Art Institute in the chilly late afternoon of April 19—by happy coincidence, the anniversary of the American Revolution’s curtain-raiser, the Battle of Lexington and Concord.

Feeling ourselves well in tune with dissent and patriotism alike, we schlepped aboard our designated vehicles, waved at the many rush-hour drivers who honked encouragement, and settled into our seats. At 8:30am the next morning, we disembarked within short walking distance of our rallying point: the Washington Monument in hot but overcast D.C.

By noon, even as new streams of people arrive, our Chicago contingent remained highly visible among the throngs. Poised alongside the monument itself, a 15-foot banner for Chicago Peace Response dominated the horizon, sending out a plea for “Justice, Not War—Peace, Not Terror—Freedom, Not Fear.” An Evanstonian floated a brightly visible cluster of helium balloons into the sky.

Nearby, a Chicagoan from Refuse & Resist distributed blue paper triangles, each bearing the name of an immigrant presently imprisoned on dubious charges, or no charges, under John Ashcroft’s “anti-terrorism” campaign. “Wear the triangles,” she urged. “Name the names! No more Disappeared in the USA!”

Sharing the Chicagoans’ various messages were people from around the country. There were the solemn group of meditators who over the past six months had made their way from Seattle to Washington ... on foot. There were “raging grannies” in Granny D. t-shirts, furious about political chicanery and hypocrisy; advocates for the nations ground under by US policies such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Colombia; advocates for our beleaguered Constitution with its Bill of Rights; advocates for the victims of unbridled globalization; and advocates for peace in the Middle East.

Flyers and leaflets passed from hand to hand. George W. Bush and Richard Cheney made several appearances in effigy. An authentic-looking American flag turned out to have corporate logos in place of stars. A glorious flock of handcrafted doves in rainbow colors swung by on a pole. “Peace Woman” wore a headband with a glowing star, and a world flag for a cloak. Food and other creature comforts were not much in evidence. Purpose ruled the day.

Starting at mid-morning at an outdoor theater by the southeast slope, media heroine Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! hosted a program of notable speakers and singers. Among them were the Reverend Al Sharpton, Nawal Al-Sadawi, Michael Ratner, Amber Amundson, Phil Berrigan, Rania Masri, Julia Beatty, Ron Daniels, Medea Benjamin, Brenda Stokely, Altaf Husain, Hussein Ibish, Erica Smiley, Pat Humphries, David Rovics, and many more. Their intensity added greatness to an already great occasion.

After the words and the music, the march began. Around 1pm, the united streams of people set off along Constitution Avenue. Drumbeats and chants kept everybody in step. One chant grew louder and persisted: the one that called for a quick end to George W. Bush’s stay in the White House.

Surveillance helicopters flew overhead. Police, mounted or on foot, guarded the sidewalks. Rain fell in splatters off and on. Peacefully, determinedly, the marchers moved on toward the Capitol Building. “Hey hey, ho ho,” they chanted, “George Bush has gotta go.”

And George W. Bush had gone indeed—strategically, to Camp David, for the weekend. But as a spokesperson for the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition put it, the march’s “large turnout signaled the end of the perceived consensus, touted by corporate media and pundits, that the Bush administration is practically infallible, and has opened the door to dissenting voices, so critical to authentic democracy.”

Of course, some might argue that the turnout was miniscule in proportion to the whole nation. But riding homeward through the night of corporate America, with McDonald’s and Sunoco and all those other corporate signs seemingly the only visible landmarks for mile after mile, we dissenters and patriots didn’t feel miniscule in the least. We felt that we had seen the face of things to come.

“I’ve taken part in many marches,” says Evanstonian Gabe Huck of Neighbors for Peace. “What stood out this time was the variety of the people there, and yet the unity. It seemed as if every age and every ethnic group and every religion and every good cause was represented here, and yet we had all come together for this one main purpose.

“To be part of that enormous crowd, in that historic city, and then to learn that other big peace marches were taking place in other cities on that same day—that means a lot.

“What’s more, people who weren’t at the marches were still working for peace at home. If anyone ever thought that all those pro-war, pro-Bush polls really meant anything, they’ll now have to believe that a big shift has taken place.”

They’ll have to believe it, indeed.