Baltimore Resistence Marches Against the War
A rally and march from St. Peter Claver Church on Fremont Avenue wound its way through Baltimore today to show visible resistence to the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
1546 N. Fremont Avenue
At noon, a rally kicked off at St. Peter Claver Church with speakers who spoke against the Iraq war, poor education, and about the job situation in Baltimore.
At two p.m., about 275 people gathered across the street, according to one eyewitness. One eighteen-year-old participant said he was there to march against the Iraq war. The march snaked its way down to the Inner Harbor through low income communities and working-class neighborhoods, abd the young man noted that it brought a visible counter-message to people swamped in the jingoistic mainstream-media point-of-view.
The march first went from the church to the army recruitment center at the Mt. Claire Shopping Center. The recruitment center was open, but quickly closed its doors.
Street theater took place. Someone laid a coffin by the center's doors. The coffin was draped in an American flag. "I hold it personally against them, says one black-clad activist, Seel, about why it was important to stop by the recruitment officers in their shopping-center office at work. "Its immoral, what they do; its murder."
Eventually the march moved its way toward the Inner Harbor. Two middle-aged woman, one with a sticker on her shirt that said "Bush Lied," says the cops were active in hemming the march in. They used cars to nudge the protestors, she noted. At the same time, they blocked the MLK Intersection as the march passed.
The march entered the amphitheater section of the Inner Harbor, where people often perform, including a juggler today. However, a cop told the march that they had to vacate the Inner Harbor to a square across the street where a permit had been granted, according to a young woman from Mt. Vernon who marched. Two Pledge of Resistence Organizers concurred. The march moved across the street.
This particular Mt Vernonite was disappointed that the Inner Harbor was not marched through. She suspects the Inner Harbor's status as the private property of the Rouse Company had something to do with that. "Money for schools, not for war," was her favorite chant. "'Baltimore hates the war' is another," she said.
Overall, the march in Baltimore displayed the existence of visible resistence to the U.S. war in Iraq.