San Francisco- March 20 - Marking the one year anniversary of the Amerikan invasion and occupation of Iraq, tens of thousands of people protested on the streets of San Francisco. This rally was the largest since the immediate aftermath of the invasion. Momentum in the anti-war movement waned in the many months since the militant outrage of the people that shut down the streets of San Francisco the day after the invasion of Iraq a year ago. But this large rally showed that many people are still paying attention and are still speaking out against Amerikan imperialism.

RAIL comrades joined the pre-rally march in San Francisco's Mission district. Groups representing oppressed nations were there with strong leadership from Filipinos for Global Justice Not War Coalition (FilsGlobe) and Students for Justice In Palestine (SJP), and many of the attendees were youth. Hundreds of people gathered, forming the "strength in unity" contingent. Speakers condemned Amerikan imperialism but also emphasized education as a human right. The march was led by SJP, which carried a lifesize wall reading, "Stop U$ Aid to Israel's Apartheid Wall," as well as a tank and many flags. The pre-rally march ended in a park in the Mission district where, after an hour of speeches, the crowd marched through the city to the Civic Center. Once there, people walked among the many tables of political literature and listened to more speakers. Around 2pm about a thousand people left in another march, which was soon targetted by police who rioted, beating protestors and innocent bystanders. An estimated 80 people were arrested, with at least one person beaten bloody and one broken arm reported. (1) There was a curious absence of police during the unpermitted march in the morning.

This protest brought out many more people with homemade signs than previous ANSWER-led demonstrations which were dominated by signs created by the organizers. The creativity of the protesters reflected carefully thought out political positions on the war, a good sign that people are still paying attention a year after the invasion of Iraq. Signs that MIM liked included "Preemptive war is invasion," "Terrorists out of the white house," and the many signs carried by the large contingent focused on the struggle of the Palestinian people. This included a lifesize wall carried by protesters which read "Israel's wall must fall." A number of signs focused on "Bush's lies" implying that because of his lies people are dying. But, as MIM has been pointing out for years, Amerikan imperialism has been killing people and invading countries since its inception, and the lies, like the president himself, are incidental to the system of militarism which requires this plunder.

MIM and RAIL brought a contingent to the protest with our own improved banners and signs. We distributed close to 1000 copies of MIM Notes, gathered many signatures on our petition to shut down the Security Housing Units in California prisons, and we accomplished our goal of setting ourselves apart from the multitude of sectarian and single issue groups at the rally. With so many self-labeled "communist" and "socialist" organizations distributing newspapers, it is hard for people to know what is worth their time to read. MIM wants to get our newspaper in peoples hands but we also want to give them a reason to read it after the rally, stop and talk to us, buy our theory magazines, and think about getting involved in anti-imperialist organizing. At this rally we displayed some RAIL anti-election posters on large poster board next to our literature table (available at the RAIL page on MIM's website). Some RAIL comrades also turned one of these posters into t-shirts to wear at the protest. The posters got a lot of attention, along with our anti-imperialist and MIM banners.

We met a number of people who were surprised to learn we didn't think it worth their time to vote in imperialist elections for president. One of the posters we displayed reads: "Yahoo, it's another Amerikan elekshun, Wherein the planet's premiere parasites pick the current presidential face of imperial terror and global plunder. Or simply put, the enemy chooses a leader." This sums up our position on the elections well. While older people in the crowd wearing Howard Dean or Dennis Kucinich or even John Kerry t-shirts or buttons were generally not friendly to our message, many younger people were impressed with our anti-elections message.

This contrasted to the theme of several speakers at the rally. One early speaker, Leilani Dowell, is running for Congress in a district that includes most of San Francisco, on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket, backed by the Trotskyist Workers World Party. Dowell ended her speech with the cry "We will win"! Although she was not referring directly to her campaign for congress, she was talking about the struggle in this country. MIM finds electoral campaigns run by self-proclaimed socialist organizations to be misleading the people. We need to be honest that we can not win in the Amerikan imperialist system elections at this point in history. Telling people that it matters when they go vote for a candidate who will definitely lose is what MIM calls defeatism. We tell people they should not waste their time standing in line at the polls, and that their time is better spent organizing.

Another speaker at the rally, Dolores Huerta, famous for her organizing of migrant workers, proclaimed to the crowd that "the most important day of your life is election day." This once again misleads people to think they can effect change by going to the polls once a year (or once every 4 years) to pick the imperialists who will lead the plunder of the world. Even San Francisco couldn't elect a Green Party mayor (not even an anti-imperialist candidate) to run its domestic affairs. So we can't fool ourselves into thinking that the majority of Amerikans would vote for a candidate that opposes imperialism.

This is the second message that MIM put out to people taking our newspaper and stopping at our literature table. When asked what we are about, we explained that MIM is different from other organizations at the rally because we are honest about where the wealth in this country comes from. We know that people in this country enjoy a high standard of living with the super profits extracted from people outside of U.$. borders. And that is why a majority of Amerikans support the war and really do support their elected leaders: imperialism is in their material interests. Many people who had never encountered MIM before were impressed with this analysis and agreed that we should call on Amerikans to oppose the imperialism because it is in the interests of all of humanity to stop our movement towards global destruction. On the other hand a Trotskyist organizer invited us to support the Safeway workers in an effort to be "non-sectarian", to which a RAIL comrade responded by pointing to our poster which reads, "Imperialism: The majority of the world's people can't live with it, you can't live without it." That is our analysis of amerikans as a whole. Sectarianism means serving your organization rather than the interests of your cause or in our case the people. Refusing to fight for more super-profits for amerikans is committing ourselves to the struggles of the oppressed, not sectarianism.

Speakers at the rally demonstrated the need for this MIM analysis including Woody Harrelson, a famous actor who read a poem he had written for the rally. His poem questioned why people would support fascism, and why it worked in Germany. This is an important question for activists to think about, but Harrelson gave the answer so many Amerikan activists like to give: miseducation. He concluded that Amerika has Clear Channel (the media conglomerate) and so that's why the people are fooled into supporting wars and even fascism. MIM disagrees. It is true that the mainstream media in this country works hard to build support for imperialism, serving as a mouthpiece for the government. But Amerikans are not just fooled into complacency and support for their government. Amerikans have a strong material interest in imperialism as the Amerikan government has shared the profits of plunder with its citizens to buy their allegiance.

Clear Channel may bring us speeches by warmongers in the white house justifying their actions, but it also brings us images of the people dying in countries around the world as the Amerikan military invades. And with access to the internet and alternative media sources, Amerikans do have the opportunity to read between the lines in the mainstream press. But the majority chose to turn their heads away from anti-imperialist news and accept what the government tells them. Not because they are stupid but because they want to continue to live the Amerikan life.

The parallel to Germany that Harrelson raised is appropriate. After World War I Germany was deprived of all its colonies, and the wealth it was bringing home from colonial plunder was cut off. The German people were thrust into poverty. And it was not hard for Hitler to convince these people they deserved their former wealth, at the expense of colonial peoples around the world. National chauvinism finds fertile ground among Amerikan workers when they feel their wealth threatened, just as it did among Germany workers. This is why we have to be honest with Amerikans about where the profits are coming from.