March 29, 2003

Turning Point?

It is my suspicion that when taken together, last evening's Portland Peaceful Response Coalition rally and march and this afternooon's Army of None rally and march represent a turning point in local antiwar activism.

While the radical bloc will continue resisting based upon its own principles, it would appear that those who are interested in broadening the movement, and in not giving the City even the slighest excuse to crack down inappropriately, are reasserting their influence.

This was my hunch last night for the PPRC march, which carried with it (literally) the relevant permit from the City. But after today's non-permitted march by the Army of None, I am fairly well convinced that something new and necssary may now be underway.

Coordinators at both events called upon participants to rise above and beyond any petty disputes with the Portland Police Bureau along the way. Coordinators at both events worked to broaden the appeal of such events. And both events featured a marked change in both rhetoric and tactic.

Last night's PPRC march -- or rather the first leg of it, from Pioneer Courthouse Square to Terry Schrunk Plaza (and the Portland Peace Encampment) -- presented itself as a funeral procession, led by pallbearers carrying coffins intended to represent the war dead of all sides, with the No War Drum Corps rattling off a somber marching percussion.

Unfortunately, this rather critical shift in how the antiwar forces were portraying their cause was utterly ignored by press coverage of the event. Apparently, local media are either congenitally incapable of noticing such subtleties or they really and truly don't give a rat's ass about paying them the attention they deserve.

Better to just wait until you have arrest numbers to report, one supposes.

Either way, the entire City loses by "virtue" of such piss-poor reporting on the part of the local press (parenthetically, the same press who is freely allowed to attend City news conferences.)

In the end, after a laying out of the coffins in Schrunk Plaza, and a short series of speeches, the marchers returned to the streets, the Drum Corps kicked it up into festive march mode, and everyone returned to Pioneer Courthouse Square in a peaceful celebration meant (intentionally or not) to literally "demonstrate peace."

In some ways, this afternoon's rally and march by the Army of None was completely different. Except that it all the most critical ways, it was much the same.

Gathering at mid-day at Pioneer Courthouse Square, the crowd was warmed up for marching by the coordinators, dressed in fatigues, offering up some relevant readings. "These are the times that try men's souls" and the like.

The crowd was diverse, especially across the lines of age. Parents brought their children.

Before starting out on the non-permitted, sidewalk-only march to the South Park Blocks, they set out the essential rules for such a thing: Stick to the sidewalks, obey the traffic signals, and don't make a big deal about the cops along the way.

In the absence of any reports the contrary over the course of the afternoon, the march to the South Park Blocks went entirely without controversy. Once there, it was all about the breadth of the movement, and all about the open megaphone.

One of the Army of None coordinators specifically took a moment to "give a shout-out" to the radical bloc, explaining that while not everyone wants to do what they do (and in fact, as he pointed out, they don't need to because the radical bloc is doing it for them), they need support because they are "part of the movement" just as (he said) "the Pope is part of our movement."

The goal of the Army of None (which, it was pointed out, was anyone and everyone who was there, wanted to be, or would be next time, etc.) is to be the reasonable middleground which helps unite the extremes.

During the open megaphone, one speaker quoted Benjamin Franklin: "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." But he added himself, "Arm yourself with the facts. Arm yourself with reason."

Which pretty much sums up what appears to be the operating principle of the Army of None.

And I also should say that I particularly liked the use of the "Don't Tread on Me" flag and the use of a fife, intentionally conjuring up the spirit of the American Revolution.

It's also worth noting that although they were flying the American flag upside down (the sign for distress), they were methodical in their treatment of the flag respectfully, including a call for a moment of silence as they properly lowered and tri-folded the flag before pulling the crowd together for the march to the Portland Peace Encampment.

More very deliberate and very important decisions that will go unnoticed and unreported by the local media. But not, of course, here.

It's interesting that the Portland Peace Encampment -- which, by the way, one of its residents says has been credited by CNN as starting a peace camp movement which has now spread to 12 other cities, from nearby Salem to distant Chicago -- is becoming something of a march destination. Interesting, but not surprising, since such visits serve not just as moral support, but as a way to call for contributions (food, blankets, umbrellas, and the like) to the continued existence of the camp.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Because the single most defining moment of the entire Army of None march occurred on the way to the camp, on Main Street, at the corner at SW 4th Avenue.

It was there that the march was heading for an unintended run-in with five pro-war protestors who were lined up across the sidewalk.

As the march approached, the counter-protestors stood their ground. Police officers lined up on the street. People with cameras jostled for position. And a handful of marchers took up positions to direct their compatriots through, with steady calls of, "Do not engage, keep moving!"

Words were exchanged between the two camps, sometimes heatedly. Officers stood close. March "monitors" kept directing traffic past the pro-war quintet. Seemingly endless minutes ticked by. Then, suddenly, the last of the marchers passed their obstacle and continued across SW 4th. And even the infamous (to readers of Portland Indymedia) Officer Rowley turned to the woman who stayed to the end in order to tell people not to engage and said to her, "Good job."

And the marching Army of None proceeded into Terry Schrunk Park. And the assembled Army of None celebrated one of the purest demonstrations of "peaceful protest" seen yet in Portland since the war began. And the Army of None gave its support to the Portland Peace Encampment.

And the Army of None prepared the crowd to return to Pioneer Courthouse Square in one week and do it all again.

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