When I got into Washington DC late on Sunday afternoon, after the end of the
War Resisters League's 75th Anniversary Conference (which had been held near
but not in DC), there was a "Peace Fair" going on at the Wilson Center in the
heart of DC's Black community.  (That is in itself an inaccurate statement --
so much of the District is black that once you get out of the carefully
trimmed white areas you are in "the black district".)  One is struck by the
reality of Black Washington.  The poverty, the ruined stores, unpainted homes.
The Wilson Center itself, which was kind enough to host us, is in many ways a
shambles, badly in need of funds for a complete overhaul.

In the yard behind the Center there was a vigorous program of music by Black
entertainers.  While I was standing there -- the crowd wasn't massive, perhaps
a couple of hundred largely young people milling about - Dick Gregory came in,
and went up on the open air stage to give a pitch.  I ran into our Japanese
guests - Sachiko Mitsunaga (from Osaka) and a co-worker -- who had come all
the way from Japan to take part in the action. 

There was a training program that evening for those planning to take risk
arrest the next day.  This was a little chaotic -- the Center had poor
acoustics and when you have over 200 folks, inevitably a few of them on their
own wave lengths, so to speak, maintaining order is hard.  But Joanne Sheehan,
new Chair of War Resisters International, did a fine job.

The first problem was the concept of the Affinity Group, which I don't want to
go into here at any length (it is basically the idea that instead of the whole
group following a single plan, which the police can easily block, a number of
smaller groups will make their own plans and act independently), but which
really works best when done with folks who have done it this way already.  The
"339 Affinity Group" (named after 339 Lafayette Street, headquarters of War
Resisters League) was made up of veterans - Grace Paley, Ed Hedemann, Riley
Bostrom, Jerry Coffin, etc. etc.  I had originally meant to be in this group
but was scheduled to take part in a press conference at 10 a.m. and to be a
speaker at the rally and because of that conflict I didn't join that group.
The arrest went off perfectly.  The group -- over twenty folks -- blocked a
subway entrance to the Pentagon, were all arrested about 5 a.m. and released
in time to make the rally.  (So I could have, as they say, "had my arrest and
spoken too").

However the other groups had in them people less experienced, and by the time
Monday came, found themselves badly outnumbered by police.

Because of the press conference I could not be on the March - Dave Dellinger,
myself, Matt Meyer, etc., took a cab directly to the Pentagon, walked up the
steps to the area right smack in front of the building - a relatively large
grassy area which some of the Japanese might remember because that is where,
in 1976, the Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice held its
largely legal rally with only a few arrests (I just now realized that I was
arrested at that time, so when I told someone I had failed ever to be arrested
at the Pentagon that wasn't accurate).

We could see two things.  One, looked down we could see hundreds of
demonstrators with their banners moving toward the Pentagon.  Two, looking at
the Pentagon itself we could see row after row of cops.  Not hundreds, just
dozens, but others were, I assume, in waiting.  The morning traffic reports
had said that traffic might be delayed "because of protests at the Pentagon to
protest military spending" (so our political position made the traffic
reports!) 

The day, which had promised to be warm and sunny, turned damp, with occasional
rain.  There were never more than about 500 folks there (I am guessing, I did
not do a crowd count).  I had thought, before the action, that if we got
between 500 and 1000 on a Monday we would be doing well - I think we did OK.

The bad thing was that we didn't have "masses."  The good thing was that we
had a solid group of young people, most of whom had never taken part in a
demonstration before.  And the program and the crowd were both a good
racial/cultural mix.

The organizers -- great credit goes to Chris Ney and Linda Thurston, working
from WRL staff, as well as to the Washington area folks who worked on this,
John Judge and others -- had secured a police permit for a legal rally to be
held directly on the small park right in front of the main entrance to the
Pentagon.  The loudspeakers were set up so that when the speeches began, the
speakers were addressing the Pentagon, and the police on the steps.

Odetta, Jaleo, David Dellinger, Mandy Carter, myself, Daniel Ellsberg, Hala
Maksoud, Pam Africa, Allan Nairn, Dick Gregory, Luis Nieves-Falcon, Barbara
Smith, Clare Hanrahan, John Kim, Sachiko Mitsuanga, Greg Payton, and Sonya
Ostrom were the speakers.  Odetta was absolutely terrific.  There were, I
think, some substitutions and additions - I am working from an old list.

About 2 p.m., and before the rally was over, the first move toward the
Pentagon began.  The police formed an absolutely solid line.  Daniel Ellsberg
tried to mount the steps on one side, and I was trying to mount them on the
other (both of us were part of larger groups, which at first had simply locked
arms to keep the police from removing us -- we tried to break through only
when it became clear we would not be arrested).  A few did manage to climb
over the wall itself, and if not thrown back by the police, to be arrested.

The scene looked like this:

                          Main Entrance to Pentagon
STEPS WALL////////////////////////////////////////////////////WALL  STEPS
                                      park area
                                 speakers platform

Since the wall was about four feet high, it was not easy to get over it.  And
on each side of the steps -- without trying to diagram it! -- were walls or
obstacles that left no room for maneuver.

When it became clear that most of us were not going to be arrested, the direct
action melted away.  I don't think more than a total of 50 people altogether
were arrested.

The rally came to an end by about 3 p.m. and I left the scene at about 5 p.m.

The strong points: The Washington Post had a two column story on this the day
before the rally.  C-SPAN covered the whole thing from beginning to end, and
then re-ran it later that day.  Pacifica Radio covered the whole thing and is
offering tapes of it as a premium. (I AM TOLD THAT TODAY A WHOLE HOUR OF
SPEAKERS IS BEING BROADCAST ON THE INTERNET WITH "REAL AUDIO" AT: 
http://www.webactive.com/webactive/pacifica/demnow.html)

 So at that level it was a real public relations breakthrough.  (Linda
Thurston - and the Washington fellow - I could absolutely kick myself because
I don't have his name -- did a tremendous job on press.)  A new generation of
youth saw its first significant demonstration.  Folks came from a considerable
distance -- a bus came all the way from Seattle, 3,000 miles to the West.  My
old college friend, Maggie Phair, came with a couple of other Socialist Party
folks, from Los Angeles.  There were Quakers, Catholics, etc., from Boston to
Chicago to the South.  A real network of grass roots folks - Bruce Gagnan of
Florida was there.  Liz McAllister was there - I was amused watching her light
up a cigarette -- she is in every way but one so much tougher and stronger
than me, but my one advantage is that I was able to stop smoking.

We have now put the issue of military spending itself on the agenda, as
opposed to this budget item or that item.  Or simply limits on nuclear
weapons.  We have put the whole thing on the table.  Allan Nairn gave a
powerful presentation of the corporate link to the military, and in my own
remarks I pointed out that three socialist groups were among the endorsers --
the Socialist Party, Committees of Correspondence, and Solidarity, and
stressed the role of the corporations in directing our foreign policy.

The weaknesses.  Some would say this should be done "in house" but I think the
movement is strong enough we can put it forward here.  War Resisters League
did, indeed, conceive of the idea of the Day Without the Pentagon, starting
with last year's October 24th actions and continuing with this year's October
19th action at the Pentagon (there were supporting local actions elsewhere
which can be reported later).

However WRL did know that it cannot overturn the Pentagon or stop the military
spending and was torn between trying to build a true coalition and, because we
have not had a genuine action coalition for so long, finding it easier, given
the small staff (and to some extent a staff lacking in experience), to move
ahead on its own.  I think most of you with experience know that it is hard
enough to get agreement on a leaflet, a statement, a list of speakers, etc.,
even if you are dealing only with your own executive committee.  A true
coalition is a whole different ball game (and it is the next step, clearly).

The list of speakers reflects this - Mandy Carter, while she has her own solid
reputation as a Black and Gay/Lesbian organizer, came from (and is part of)
WRL.  I am on staff at WRL.  Greg Payton, while truly representing Black
Vietnam Vets (have you seen "Another Brother?"), is on the WRL National
Committee.  So that gives WRL three speakers out of the sixteen or so.
Missing was a representative of the trade union movement.  Missing was anyone
from the religious community.  I would say there were other omissions that a
stronger coalition might have rectified.

I am convinced WRL really wants to have this project "taken away," that it
wants to be part of a broad, serious challenge to the legitimacy of the
Pentagon.  And to do that it does have to accept the fact that while the point
of the tax resisters need to be heard, most of those in a broad movement will
not be tax resisters.  Clearly the demonstration on October 19th is a "feather
in the hat" of WRL.  Chris Ney, WRL's disarmament coordinator, is a new figure
on the disarmament scene, as is Linda Thurston (alas, she is moving on to take
another job next week)!  One of the real strengths of the October 19th action
was involvement of "other than the usual" peace folks -- reaching out in a
serious way to the Asian, Latino and African American communities.  (And this
was true not only on the 19th itself, but in the Peace Fair on the afternoon
of the 18th, held in a Black area with multi-cultural entertainers.)

The campaign for a "Day without the Pentagon" is not going away.  It generated
excitement across the country, as I know from the flood of email.  It needs to
work with, be part of, the Abolition 2000 campaign -- and of a broader,
inclusive thrust that will bring in trade unions.  I've been frank in my own
assessment of the event -- both its strength and its weakness -- and am
perhaps sticking my neck out in writing this without prior consultation with
my co-workers.  (The fact that I'm retiring from active staff of WRL at the
end of this year may give me a little leeway.)  I don't want to pull punches.
Yes, it would have been wonderful if there had been two thousand folks there,
or twenty thousand.  But 500+ on a Monday is not bad.  The links built are
real.  The message put forward included direct challenges to the corporate
structure and to the ideology of capitalism -- though this does not mean
everyone on the speaker's platform shared those challenges, my point is those
challenges were made.  There was a basic challenge to the concept of
militarism itself.  Any genuine coalition that will carry the struggle against
militarism to a successful conclusion will have to include a range of folks
from those openly pacifist, openly socialist, to those who are "openly
liberal."  I think Monday, October 19th was a good beginning.  It needs to be
more than a beginning.  Unless I'm very wrong, there will be an effort by WRL
to make sure that next time around the action, whenever and wherever, is not
seen as WRL but as "Peace Action / FOR / AFSC / Socialist Party / Black Vets /
Vietnam Veterans / Committees of Correspondence / Small Business for a Peace
Time Economy / etc.  AND WRL" action.  It would be good, next time around, to
have a Catholic Bishop on the speakers platform, or a contingent from Jews for
Racial Justice marching arm in arm, banner to banner, with an Arab American
contingent.  War Resisters League has every right to be proud of October 19th.
It needs also to learn from it, to transcend it.  Other groups in Abolition
2000 and in the peace and justice community need to see how much was possible,
and how much more would be possible if each of us took the risk of moving
toward a more direct and determined confrontation with the seat of terrorism
-- the Pentagon.

I can't close without thanking all who helped - both those who were there and
the many who sent their best wishes.

Peace,
David McReynolds