ANSWER Coalition anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan
Source: Susan Forrest, Indymedia Los Angeles

Today I went to the antiwar protests, over in Hollywood, to check out the scene. Compared to other antiwar rallies, this was small. It might have been put together hastily – I did not learn about it until yesterday. Still, ANSWER tends to attract many more people than this and they did have Cindy Sheehan as their headliner.

Without prejudice, I estimated there were only about 650 people at this one – I’ve been to the last three and this was the smallest of all. The ANSWER procession was led by a big billowing Venezuelan flag, followed by a Palestinian one, so you wouldn’t at first glance think this actually was a protest about the Iraq War. There were plenty of anti-Bush signs, too, which seemed to run through all groups as an energizer, but on the whole, there wasn’t all that much focus on Iraq. This protest was mainly about other places – Palestine and Venezuela.

I was amazed to hear speaker after speaker praise Hugo Chavez. I think the appeal of it is that he’s come out so strong against Bush – the common theme was hating Bush. I am starting to think the antiwar crowd is getting downright bored of the endless Iraq War and they are opening up to the novelty and excitement of Chavismo.

This was the first antiwar rally where Hugo Chavez figured so prominently. Yes, I saw Bolivarian circles there. People wore their regalia from their recent Sandalista trips to Venezuela. There definitely was that fashion-show quality at the rally, show how many exotic places you have been to in your attire. Meanwhile, one old guy gave me a free bottle of Citgo Venezuelan motor oil, pulling it out of a big paper bag. He urged me to buy Citgo and I assured him I would treasure the motor oil.

Sweating in his suit as the mercury hit 100 degrees, former Pasadena Mayor William Paparian praised Hugo Chavez and his “devil” speech.
Source: Susan Forrest, Indymedia Los Angeles

Still, I looked up and was startled to see Cindy Sheehan, who later made a speech, and several Hollywood types – actually more than there were last time, but again, all very minor celebrities – people with bit parts on shows like Dharma & Greg denouncing the war and George Bush. There was one guy in fact who did a really high-grade show-business quality imitation of Bush on the stage, and I was really impressed with how well he managed to imitate Bush. I learned he wasn’t on the script by a disdainful ANSWER organizer but I could not help but notice that unlike the other speakers, he really had the audience mesmerized.

ANSWER’s crowd was pretty small
Source: Susan Forrest, Indymedia Los Angeles

It was broiling hot and people were getting sunburned very rapidly. They all gathered to one shadowed spot near the truck where it was cooler, but also easy to count them. There were some ‘gold star mothers’ among the protestors, but few young people of draft age. I heard one saying to a pal that the young were so attracted to the military life, it was really hard for a good mom to stop them – she had a 16-year old at home and just really hoped she could dissuade him from joining the Marines like her 19-year old did. But she unwittingly was giving mixed message – the fanny pack she was carrying bore the bright red USMC logo, so I don’t know what she was thinking would dissuade her kid. Antiwar military moms were a small group – I only saw three; Code Pink was there – again, in very small numbers, only about three, too; some Korean activists were there, some Filipino Moro guerrilla supporters were there, a scrum of Hare Krishnas were there, dancing away, the Greens were a presence – there were about eight of them there; Palestinian scarves were in abundance and about two or three young women looked Arabic among them; I didn’t see any punk rockers or goths like I did last time. There was a young woman who went topless and painted her nipples like rainbows – and since she was saggy she wasn’t exactly photogenic. There were plenty of old people and 60s backwashers, too – two showed up in Vietnamese rice-farmer conical hats, no doubt fresh from a trip to Vietnam they’d taken to relive the good old days.

There were some Mexicans too, scattered around, but unlike past rallies, they didn’t show up to put some real muscle into the spirit of the rally. In the last three antiwar rallies I went to, huge streams of Mexicans demanding immigrant rights ensured that at least 2000 people were in attendence. Today, they weren’t there at all, although there was a nice Aztec dancer contingent at the end of the rally.

It goes way beyond Blaming Bush
Source: Susan Forrest, Indymedia Los Angeles

Mostly, it was just the hardcore left of the activist world. The mood was light and friendly through and a couple of the leftwing guys flirted with me. It began with a march at 12 noon and ended at CNN headquarters on Sunset Boulevard.

The speakers kept speeches and events mercifully short and I got the feeling everyone just wanted to get the heck out of there, both speakers and people. The crowd thinned out significantly by 2:45 and by 4:00, the whole event had been cleaned up and cleared out.

CNN certainly didn’t bother to cover this – and from ANSWER’s point of view, maybe that was a good thing – they could have reported how small and shrunken these antiwar rallies were getting. With the Democrats supposedly poised to take control of the House in November, I really wonder why there is so little interest in Iraq protest rallies now. Even the protestors, focused on Hugo Chavez as they were, seemed bored of the Iraq issue.

Here is one account of the rally, which I think overcounted the attendees, in this article here.