A protest of around 40 people rallied at the LA Federal Building downtown on Sunday evening to protest the war, criticizing US imperialism, and calling for a stop to the bombings.

The event was kicked off with photo-ops and sound bites for the surprisingly large number of mainstream media present. (Though, I didn't see any footage later, on the 11 o clock news.) This was followed by an energetic, long performance by the Cuatehmoc Aztec dancers, who featured some killer drumming, and dancing, of course.

Chanting ensued, and for a little while, it sounded "weird" to me. After a little while, I figured out that there were seven beats to the chant. One drummer also figured this out, and contributed beats, and a little syncopation. Though it was a little odd, maybe uncomfortable, at first, people seemed to find a groove, and all was good. It was refreshing to get away from the 4/4 rhythm that dominates demonstrations; the People can handle changes in time signatures!

One person commented to me that this demo was less about the "peace" than anti-imperialism; this was probably due to the fact that most of the participants were anti-imperialist people of color.

The organizers called for another demo at 5pm on Monday.

I forgot to add: the groups that organized this were BAYAN and People's Coalition Against War.

...meanwhile, in other parts of the city, people of "non-color" gathered strictly for "peace." completely unaware of the connections between imperialism and the current military/terrorist situation, they were relieved to find that all of their uninformed peace chants were in the easy-to-follow vanilla meter of 4 beats per measure--though they were somewhat confused by the presence of anti-imperialist people of color who also called for peace.

The "whitebread" organizers of the demonstrations in Westwood include folks like Don White of CISPES and Theresa and Blase Bonpane of the Office of the Americas. All three did enough organizing work against US imperialism in Central America during the 1980s to last most activists a lifetime. Perhaps it would be a good idea to know something about the people you callously attack. Skin color can be so misleading.

p.s. So, like *waltzes* are subversive?

Did we actually do better in San Diego? I counted about 170 people at our event downtown in front of Horton Plaza. Maybe we have a broader-based coalition that includes Arab-Americans and other people of color, but the event I heard contained speeches representing various points of view, including attacks on the U.S.'s own terrorist activities and support of unjust and repressive regimes in the Middle East (the oil states as well as Israel). And we were able to do a single event that concentrated a wide variety of concerned people in one place.

ummm...keep forgetting: sarcasm doesn't always translate, even when it's the best tool with which to address subtle subtext.

was (sarcastically) questioning subtext of original post--with the context in mind that you explicitly outlined, paul.

Yeesh... Okay, I'll fess up to some racism. I noticed a difference. I suppose I could have noted all the similarities, but then, people might think that it was exactly like the prior protests. I'm sure that, then, some people would have assumed that it was *all* white people singing folk songs. (Not to say there's anything wrong with white people and folk songs. I'm sure I'll be singing "I'm Not Marching Anymore" if they raise the draft age. It's the image that the peace movement is white, and it's usually whites who get on the TV news and LA Times to talk about "peace". The subtext there is that you need to be affluent and middle class to be "civilized" enough to take a pacifist position in America.)

I have nothing but respect for CISPES and Office of the Americas, so, no insult was intended there.

It was not my intention to lay into the whites with a big dis. If I wanted to do that, I could go post these little anecdotes to a website where minorities have a "safe space" to attack whites, and it needn't have been a subtext.

But then, all the white people would not have been able to learn that there was a demo downtown :-)

Watch whitey's video of the event.

http://la.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=11499

that's cool johnk.

my beef is not so much with perceived racism per se, nor am i defending this "space" against an "attack" on whites; my issue is with what appears to be a reverse-elitist position based, in this case, on race.

"my demo is better/more hip/more 'of the people'/more legit/more rhythmically complex than thouest," etc.

most of the piece is basically observation, and that's cool. but then the assertion that the demo was "less about 'peace' than anti-imperialism...probably due to the fact that most of the participants were anti-imperialist people of color" seems to go beyond observation into an opinion that i felt begged some obvious questioning regarding underlying assumptions/ideas.

i try never to attack people--you seem to be a decent righteous dude especially undeserving of any attack--but i do challenge ideas people espouse/propogate that i disagree or see some possible problem with.

& for the record: my background is far from affluent, and far from mainstream "white" america. like most, the relationships between my culture and ethnicity and physical appearance are complex and not easily cleaved into dichotomous constructs.