DISCLAIMER: Below is my own, admittedly biased account of M19 actions I attended. It represents the impressions and opinions of no one but myself. I make no claims to perfect accuracy or to infallibility. Although I engage in some criticism, I hope that it's found to be of the constructive sort. I have no desire to cast doubt on anyone's motives or competence.

I attended the antiwar actions in DC on 3/19. An account of my experience follows.

The demonstration was poorly advertised and coordinated. I began to see M19 posters probably less than two weeks before the day, and the schedule and descriptions of actions were exceedingly vague. McPherson Square was the central gathering place throughout the day, and it was promised that more information on specific actions would be provided. As far as I'm aware, this never materialized.

Departing from a sparsely-populated McPherson Square early in the morning, I went with a crowd to a rally in front of the IRS, where at least a dozen people were arrested committing civil disobedience. This action was organized by the War Resisters League, and very mixed in terms of ages of participants. It was accompanied by music from some sort of radical marching band.

Later on, a crowd of (I would say) 200-300 took to the streets for "Funk the War", an unpermitted street party/march sponsored by SDS, CAN and Student Peace Action Network; DC SDS has held two previous such actions. By far, this was the largest, youngest, and most vibrant event of the day. This means that the total combined attendance at all actions couldn't have been more than a few hundred, among them very few people of color and very few trade unionists. As for the organized Left, I noticed Wobblies and ISOers, as well as the Party for Socialism and Liberation in the guise of ANSWER, and a small Young Democratic Socialists contingent. World Can't Wait was there in full force; I can't gauge how much of that was RCP. The Washington Times (!) said 1,000 people turned out, but I honestly think even this is probably an overestimate. It should be said, though, that it was pouring rain during part of the day.

"Funk the War" lasted about 3 hours in all, during which some light damage was done to parked army car, intersections were blockaded, cops were taunted, newspaper bins were tossed about, a cop punched a protester, a large quantity of red paint found it was onto the exterior of both a recruiting station Bechtel's HQ, and some SDSers handcuffed themselves to desks and sang "Bella Ciao". The rumor -- by all appearances true -- was that, given recent lawsuits, police were ordered to arrest only those committing felonies. (I myself stayed on the sidewalk about half the time, thinking (given my previous experiences with DC police at demos) that the rumor was too good to be true.) The response of passers-by -- even those held up in traffic thanks to the action -- was overwhelmingly positive.

At one point, some Code Pink members approached, each holding up part of a bed carrying Medea Benjamin, who just lay there looking disoriented. An SDS leader angrily approached, insisting that they not step foot within bounds of the dance party. The Code Pink people then assured her that they were actually looking for another square, and promptly left.

At another point, the crowd started making its way toward the White House, and a number of participants vocally expressed a desire to go there. Suddenly, another SDS leader (or someone I took to be one) ran ahead of the crowd and started shouting that we weren't going to the White House. When others protested, he condescendingly responded with something very like, "Because the state will solve our problems, right? No, the state won't do it!" (I resisted the urge to blurt out, "How authoritarian!") This same individual insisted on bossing people around throughout the day, though in fairness, some of his other advice was quite sound.

At the recruiting station, we were confronted with a small band of a pro-war yahoos holding "we support our troops"-type signs. A protester standing next to me actually said, "Fuck your troops!", and began denouncing those who "kill for cash for college". Fortunately, this seemed to be an anomaly; the rest of us joined in a chant of, "Bring the troops home!"

There was a significant amount of Obama support in this crowd in the form of stickers, pins, T-shirts, etc. This is particularly interesting in light of what happened -- or, rather, didn't happen -- at the end of the day:

The day was supposed to conclude with a march from the Reflecting Pool to the DNC HQ. I arrived right at the scheduled time, and found... no one. That's right -- no noticeable amount of people showed up to protest the Democratic Party's support for the war. (But, again in fairness, it should be pointed out that it was late and wet, the location was out of the way, and folks were probably very tired by then.)

Concluding Thoughts:

UfPJ made a serious mistake in not trying to build a large, legal demonstration. Equally serious was the mistake made by IVAW's handlers to try to distance itself from the week's actions in hopes of drawing increased media attention. Neither organization has anything to show for it.

In both cases, there's developed an aversion to mass action pushed by NGOs and professional activists, which have a heavy and mostly deleterious influence on both. This is being justified with something called the "people power strategy" to end the war, which seems to amount to little more than an attempt to provide some superficially militant cover for increasingly conservative politics.

SDS and Veterans for Peace, I think, deserve the to be acknowledged for using their actions to make the best of this sorry situation. The upcoming National Assembly to End the War in Iraq (natassembly.org/) is looking very promising in terms of figuring out how to get out of it.