The following are reports of actions at the various BART stations on March 19, 2009, the 6th Unhappy Birthday of the War and Occupation of Iraq. The reports were submitted by participants at each station.
We got quite a lot of good media coverage.
-
Sandra Schwartz: “We met the first television crews, KTVU – Channel 2 and ABC 7, at 6 am at Glen Part BART. We set up 19 pairs of boots representing the casualties from the Bay Area who could have been passengers on BART. We also set up the Cost of War banners one on each of the four corners of Diamond and Bosworth The press conference went really well with Rachel Avila Normandy – son has TBI, was injured while stop lossed in Iraq, Jordan Towers-IVAW activist, deployed to Iraq, Marilyn Saner – MFSO – son injured by an IED, deployed three times to Iraq – currently residential with PTSD at Palo Alto Veterans Hospital, Wilson Riles – who brought home the need to redefine security, Father Will Scott – Grace Cathedral – need for redemption and healing justice, Siri Margerin – UFPJ steering committee, and Salam Talib – Iraqi engineer, translator, and refugee. Press conference was attended by Channels 2, 4, 7, and 9 as well as KALW and People’s Weekly World. All of the reporters did extensive interviews with the speakers.” [See more under Glen Park below]
-
From Dolores Priem, “Iraq Moratorium Campaign: TV coverage was okay and Ch 4 really focused on the IVAW event for about an hour Live. Steve Leed’s statement on KPFA Evening News was really GREAT and got our message out simply and clearly.
The article in the Chronicle was mainly about IVAW.
Here is one I was sent by Judy Liteky from The Mercury News.
-
Anonymous: “It really seems to work to get arrested at the noon hour, and on Market Street. The Chronicle and San Jose Mercury had their stories online before 4 pm. The TV that evening was also very good, on both Channel 5 and 7.”
The BART Stations:
12th Street, Oakland: Susan Runyan reported, “12th St. BART. …at turned out to be a great place. We were at the entrance, in front of City Hall. So there were many people leaving work from the City, Federal and State buildings, as well as other businesses near by. We were able to give away all 200 brochures. I “sold” many pieces by letting people know there was a card to Obama. I think having something simple and practical to do was effective.”
16th Street, SF: Michael Regan reported, “We were extremely pleased with our action on the 19th. Our intention was to show the links between the wars against people of color in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the wars at home against people of color like militarized ICE raids and police brutality. We handed out hundreds of pieces of literature including Siri’s beautiful pamphlet, “Know your rights” immigration raid information, and literature on anarchist philosophy. We began at 3:30 with a series of street theater displays about families raided by ICE or immigrants recruited into the military. We wrapped up around 7:30 with a film showing projected in the plaza. The actions were organized by an ad-hoc coalition made up of ARCO, UA in the Bay, Food not Bombs, and Cop and Migra Busters. We also had some media there and whole
lot of police.” Heard you had a lot of young people, too, Michael. Great!
19th Street, Oakland: Cara Bautista reported that “Peace Action West had 3 people at the 19th street BART station from 10-11AM. We didn’t keep a tally of brochures distributed, but traffic wasn’t too heavy so less than 100? We also handed out slips with a sample script and phone number for people to call their member of Congress and ask them not to support leaving residual forces in Iraq.”
24th Street, SF: Codepinker Nancy Keiler passed out 100 flyers by herself in about 30 minutes.
Balboa: Sabina Perez reports, It was great to see the collective effort of the women from Women for Genuine Security, WILPF, and GABnet stage in a peaceful protest and in outreaching to the ethnically diverse and working class neighborhood near the Balboa Station. Together we were able to assemble all the material, display the great message boards, and hand out 400 flyers with little sightings of them on the ground. We did not carry out the vigil, since the wind made it impossible to light the candles, however, we generated a bit of interest from the passerbys with our signs. Kathy Lipscomb reported that “Betty Traynor of WILPF worked with 5 other women from Women for Genuine Security at the Balboa station from 4pm-6-pm, and said it went well.”
Berkeley (downtown): “the labor sisters had a good a.m. experience getting rid of some of their pamphlets. Ann Worth reported for Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace & Justice: “Despite a failed alarm clock and missed connections, we handed out about 500 pieces of literature to people going in and out (commuters and students) … Some refused but a good cross-section of people took the literature and three came back and asked for more copies.”
Civic Center: Peter Schlange reported, “Iraq Veterans Against the War took to the streets, [blocking traffic on Market Street and] inviting …the city to join us in one second of silence for each troop who died in Iraq, which in total adds up to 1 hour and 11 minutes… And it’s not over; …soldiers are dying … right here at home …. because they witnessed or participated in unspeakable acts of inhumanity. Unable to relay their experiences to friends and family, they have begun to take their own lives in record numbers … 143 in the last year. …. I.V.A.W. has three points of unity. They are:
-
The immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces in Iraq.
-
Full and Adequate health care (including mental health) and benefits for all returning service members and veterans.
-
Reparations made to the Iraqi people for the destruction caused by the U.S.”
The police didn’t intervene for about 45 minutes, when several demonstrators were arrested for impeding traffic. IVAW was the only group that got a photo in the Chronicle.
Click here to see Lana Dandan’s many excellent photos taken at the Civic Center BART Station.
Colma and Daly City: Pacifica Peace People and Pacifica Women in Black members covered these stations and found it very worthwhile. Delia McGrath reported that “Many people welcomed the info we offered them; many were clueless about the war and seemingly disengaged. One woman said her son is serving in Iraq; one man said the “money is being well spent” on the war; several people read what we gave them and returned to ask for a couple more leaflets to give to people they knew.”
Concord: Janet Weil and Toby Blome I held a large banner “Out of Afghanistan” and two other pinkers distributed about 75 flyers, had numerous conversations with people about mailing postcard to Obama, etc.
Daly City: See Colma.
Dublin/Pleasanton: Jackie Cabasso wrote: “Western States Legal Foundation and Tri-Valley CAREs had 10 people at the Dublin/Pleasanton BART Station, about 8 miles from the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, starting at 5 pm. Apparently a Grandmothers for Peace group had been leaf-letting there from 4 – 5. We were able to hang our big beautiful “No Nukes! No Wars! banner in a prominent place, where we took a group photo. We added a half-page No Nukes! No Wars! flier to the packet. We were able to hand out all 500 packets in about an hour and a half. Some people wouldn’t take them or even look at us, but others were happy to take them and thanked us. The BART police ignored us after saying hi. We had a terrific, in-depth discussion with a BART train driver who approached us after reading the packet. His conclusion was that we were good and “very intelligent” people. One of our leaf-letters had a positive interaction with a woman whose boyfriend and other friends had been killed in Iraq.”
Ruth Maguire reported: “Grandmothers Against the War distributed the leaflets. There were two of us for the morning shift. We had no problems with Bart or with Bart riders. Neither of us experienced a single negative response and in two instances, people came back to say “I’m against the war too”. … [We had] 200 copies of the “Price of War” brochure, (p.m. shift also had 200) and they were all gone in about an hour and a half. We had a hundred of the “Price of War” brochure left and decided not to distribute them at Bart, but I took them to the March 21 march and … gave them to people obviously on their way to or from the ferry building and clearly not participating in the demo. … Again, lots of friendly “no thank yous,” but I did distribute all I had.
A separate report: “I was one of the four at Dublin in the afternoon. We ran out of our leaflets rather early. Many people said thank you or smiled and made a point of showing the leaflets they’d already received from one of us that afternoon. Several people said we were the first people at BART and said they hoped we’d be back. And, of course there was one man who told a couple of us that we were “crazy.” Many more women than men took leaflets. We saw no one trash the leaflets.”
El Cerrito Plaza and Del Norte Stations: Green Party activists were present from 4-6 pm., Sandra Decker reported. The Domocratic Renewal Club handed out hundreds of postcards, and displayed a large banner and signs.
Embarcadero: Three of us gave out 250 fliers in Embarcadero both morning and evening. Almost none were dropped or stuffed into trash barrels – we checked. Delia’s remarks below re Colma applied here, too.
Fruitvale: In Oakland we plugged into the 3/19/2009 actions on BART stations by working with BAY-Peace to do an action at the Fruitvale BART. The action included spoken word, Poetry, Hip Hop, Guitar, visual art and a dramatic representation of the Oscar Grant killing in the form of tableaus.
We created an attention getter opening which went as follows: Our guitarist would riff wildly for a few seconds. At the same time 8 young people wearing why not peace black shirts and holding posterized images of militarism in Iraq and Oakland would run around doing one full circular Lap. As they were half way around the circle the characters came out from the right and acted out the shooting of Oscar Grant and froze just before the shooting in the form of a tableau.
Basically every time a major rush of commuters arrived at the Fruitvale Bart we looped our opening and then featured a 2 to 4 minute performance related to the issues of militarism at home and abroad and specifically the Iraq war and the Oscar Grant killing.
Many Commuters stopped and spectated and made positive comments as well as taking our literature. Thanks to Sandra Schwartz a photographer named Ross Cameron from the Oakland Tribune came and took some pictures which made the front page of the Oakland Tribune. Click here for more images.
Glen Park: Sandra Schwartz: “This is a great location, there are bus stops on all four corners with multiple lines as well as the BART and shuttle buses for Genentech and Google. We could leaflet people while they stood in line and as they rushed to catch a train. [See Media above for detail about 6 am TV coverage and 9 am press conference]. We were there until 10 am and passed out maybe 1200 leaflets. Many people did rush by but others took them, a few took pictures, some thanked us for being there and a few came back for more. One woman delayed going to work to stay for the press conference. We were able to make all of our talking points over and over and also make the point that for many people even when the war is over it won’t be over for many; the pain and agony will haunt many families forever.” From 4-6pm, brochures were distributed at Glen Park for the third time.
Lafayette: Click here to see the March 19 Contra Costa Times report on the Lafayette Crosses Memorial. There is also a blog called The Crosses of Lafayette.
MacArthur: Marilyn Bechtel Becchetti reported, “Our literature distribution at MacArthur went very well…Five of us circulated 450 of the defund/refund packets. It was generally well received, though I’m always distressed at the number of people who apparently aren’t willing to take any literature. I thought the press conference at glen Park was very good; I’ll send a story for our web site today.
Montgomery: The Iraq Moratorium Campaign staged a pretty big action at noon with singing and poems and the reading of the names of the dead. Fifteen to twenty lay down on Market Street to block the traffic. They were cited and released with a warning that any who blocked the street again would be held in jail until Monday morning. David Hartsough reported: “The four of us arrested a second time were held until 8pm last night in the jail and appeared this morning in court and with the help of my niece lawyer, charges have been dropped against us.” Click here for Peace Pundit’s detailed report and photos for more information.
Lana Dandan took many excellent photos at the Montgomery BART Station.
North Berkeley: Steve Kessler and Dave distributed 250 booklets, plus flyers for the 21st.
Oakland West: From 7 a.m. until we ran out of flyers about an hour and a half later five of us leafletted a largely receptive sequence of commuters going to work. Some people dropped the postcard, probably accidentally dropped out of the fold. No trouble with the station agent at all. I did not get any hostility and I don’t think Lee, Sherry, or her fellow First UU member did either. My sister held a picture of am injured child. Part of our usual vigil collection.
Pittsburg/BayPoint: Sandra Decker: “Three people from the Delta Green Party held signs at the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART station from 5-6 pm.” El Cerrito Plaza was also covered
Rockridge: Susan Shawl for Wellstone Democratic Club: “Our work at the Rockridge BART station went smoothly. Only one difficulty — the postcards kept falling out of the folded leaflets that we were given, so there was a lot of “picking up” around the BART station.”
