Venice Peace Marches Become Historic
By Jim
Smith
It’s Sunday afternoon.
Usually I’d be out marching for peace on the ocean front with friends and
neighbors. Unfortunately, the Venice Peace Movement’s weekly march and
rally died a peaceful death at age 94 (weeks) in August. The marches had started
dwindling in recent weeks as Iraq and peace issues faded in importance to many.
Finally, everyone decided to give the marches a rest - at least until
Bush’s next war.
It had been an eventful 94 weeks. We
started marching the Sunday after the bombing of Afghanistan began. Most of us
thought two wrongs don’t make a right. The terrorist attacks on the World
Trade Center and Pentagon were horrible, but no justification for bombing
innocent women, men and children in
Afghanistan.
That first march was
dramatic. We didn’t know if we’d be beaten up before we got a block.
The whole country seemed to be in a patriotic (emphasis on riot) frenzy. Did
that apply in Venice, too? Just in case, Grace brought her boom box and played
Imagine by John Lennon as we marched (it had been banned by some radio stations
because of the war hysteria).
Imagine
there's no countries,
It isn't hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...
We started down the walk from Rose and
ran into what we hadn’t expected - cheers. It seems that the war hysteria
was really a media hysteria, as least as far as Venice was concerned. It was so
much fun (and felt meaningful) that we decided to do it all over again the next
Sunday.
One thing led to another, and
soon we had the march and the rally rolling like clockwork - only a half hour
later. Venice time, we told newcomers. We got a banner that said “Venice
Peace Movement,” and we were set. The Venice Peace and Freedom Party
helped with turnout and expenses. We asked other organizations and parties to
co-sponsor, but nobody responded. For a few months after we started our
community marches, everyone else seemed too busy organizing sporadic Southern
California-wide marches that attracted thousands of
people.
While our lil’ Venice march
never attracted thousands, it did let us influence millions, thanks to the
crowds on the Boardwalk and the constant video taping by camera crews from as
far away as Norway and Japan. Not only Venetians, but most tourists seemed to
respond to our music, War, what is it good for? by Edwin Starr; Ain’t
gonna study war no more, by Dr. Loco; and Lennon’s Imagine and Give Peace
a Chance, to name a few of the tunes that floated down the Walk every
Sunday.
We kept saying at our rallies
that people had to “Act Global, Think Local.” To the many
non-Venetians who came to join us, we said, welcome, now go and start a weekly
peace event in your neighborhood. Before long, there were four or five people
who did just that. Then the numbers mushroomed. At the height of the anti-Iraq
war movement, there were more than a hundred weekly marches, vigils and
demonstrations around SoCal. And it all started right here in
Venice!
Like the post office, we were
out there every Sunday. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays
these peace couriers from the completion of their march and rally. We
didn’t run into any snow, but a few driving rain storms, a lot of wind and
some really hot days (but not as hot as in Iraq, we reminded
ourselves).
The rallies were really
memorable. The usually began, “Welcome to Venice, the once and future city
of peace. There are more peace signs in Venice, per capita, than any other city
in the country!” Daring to be democratic, we had open-mic rallies where
anyone could sign up and speak for up to five minutes. Those few pro-war people
who could string a sentence together were allowed their say. Many of our regular
marchers started out being to shy to speak but became pretty-good
“stump” speakers before it was over.
Many years ago, Pershing Square, in downtown
L.A., was known for its free-speechers who would entertain and educate people
about socialism, prohibition or current events. For 94 weeks, Venice revived
that spirit with our open-mic rallys at Windward and Ocean Front Walk. As we
told people, we took the Bill of Rights out for a walk every
Sunday!
(There’s an excellent
article on the Sunday marches - too long to reproduce here - by Bronwyn Mauldin.
It’s on the internet:
<www.freevenice.org/VPM-Communique.html>.
Posted: Mon - September 1, 2003 at 04:11 PM