 |
PPRC
Peace Rally and March
Event: PPRC Rally and March for Peace
Date: Monday, March 24th, 2003
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Place: Pioneer Courthouse Square
The Portland Peaceful Response Coalition will hold
a peace rally and march starting at Pioneer Courthouse
Square on Monday, March 24th, at 5:00 p.m.. �This will
be a peaceful and legal peace rally and march,� said
Will Seaman, a PPRC volunteer. �We are planning a safe,
open and peaceful gathering which will confront the
horrors of this criminal war, a rally and march that
will confront the terror that our government is inflicting
upon the people of Iraq, and we intend this action not
to become a confrontation with the police.� Legal observers
have been contacted to participate and to document conduct
at the event. Organizers said the Monday rally and march
would adopt the format of the PPRC Friday rallies that
have been held every week at Pioneer Courthouse Square
since late-October 2001.
"We all recognize the legitimacy and we respect the urgent
call for many other forms of dissent from Bush�s war of
terror, including the courageous acts of non-violent civil
disobedience that we have seen carried out here in Portland,
in San Francisco, and in many other cities here in the
US and around the world," said Mikel Clayhold, another
PPRC volunteer. "But Monday�s rally is intended for all
people, for families and for the many diverse communities
who are against this war but for very good reasons need
to be assured that the action will be safe and legal."
"We are horrified by the conduct of this war and we grieve
for the hundreds who have been injured and for the unknown
numbers who�ve been killed," said Chris Roehm, another
PPRC volunteer. "We are inspired by the massive peace
rallies and marches that have taken place in Manhattan
and Chicago, in London and Madrid, and we know that we
must keep up the pressure to stop this war." Local organizers
cited reports from hospitals in Baghdad documenting injuries
to civilians caused by US cruise missile attacks. "This
tiny girl, five-year-old Doha Suheil, has shrapnel in
her legs and spine, blasted into her by a cruise missile
that came down near her home in the Baghdad suburb of
Radwaniyeh," said Seaman. "We must cry out against these
crimes of the Bush Administration, and we must make our
protests so loud that they can be heard around the world."
Organizers stressed that a large part of the responsibility
for avoiding conflict rests with the behavior of the police
assigned to the event. "We will be doing everything we
can keep this event peaceful, legal and safe," said Seaman,
"but we are very concerned with the escalation of the
use of force by police, an escalation that includes arrests
without warnings and very rough treatment of peace marchers
engaged in actions that would otherwise have resulted
in warnings or citations." Local organizers were particularly
appalled by statements by City Councilmen Jim Francesconi
and Dan Saltzman calling for more actions by police against
protestors.1 "These kinds of statements encourage police
violence against peaceful protestors," said Seaman. "Our
intentions for Monday evening�s event are clear, to have
a peaceful and safe rally and march like the over seventy
PPRC Friday rallies and marches that we�ve organized in
the past fifteen months, and we hope that the police will
conduct themselves in a way that reduces rather than contributes
to tensions."
Organizers said that they hope the Monday rally and march
will provide all local anti-war activists with the opportunity
to meet and discuss events and actions that are being
planned for the coming week and beyond. "There will be
many other kinds of actions against the war in the next
few days," said Seaman, "and our hope is that the Monday
rally will be both a powerful protest against the war,
but will also be a setting in which people will meet,
renew ties and build alliances for the challenges that
lay ahead for the peace movement."
The Monday, 5:00 p.m. rally will include speakers from
the alliance of organizations that have organized several
of the large-scale peace marches in the past six months.
After speakers, the marchers will make their way through
downtown streets to Chapman Square, across from the Justice
Center, at S.W. 3rd and Main Streets. There will be additional
speakers at Chapman Square and then the marchers will
return to Pioneer Courthouse Square. The PPRC plans to
apply for a permit for the march in order to allow marchers
to use the streets.
1. �Protests Test Police, Crowds � OFFICERS: The mayor
offers praise, but others call the response too soft�,
Oregonian, Saturday, March 22, 2003, pp. C1, C3.
Back to PPRC-news home
|
