Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

MASSIVE Anti-War Rally in Westwood, CA Right Now
10/06/02 | Me

Posted on 10/06/2002 4:17:17 PM PDT by andrew

At approximately 3:15 I drove through Westwood, though diverted by closed streets and a huge police presence, I was able to see the makings of the largest Anti-War protest and march I have ever seen in person. I was able to see the march's origins, about a mile plus away from the Federal Building near Federal and Wilshire (ironically near the U.S. Army Reserve and large Veterans Administration facilities.)

What looked like thousands, and possibly tens of thousands, were marching towards the Federal building, site of many a protest in the past -- notable an anti-Impeachment rally featuring Barbra Streisand.

I could see the usual suspects on my drive-by: old hippies, professor types, westside lefties, anarchists looking types, certain folks pretty overt about their Marxist leanings, etc. But it could have been worse. I even yelled, "Loser" to one lady sitting with a sign on the NW corner of Sepulveda and Wilshire. (I give myself a zero for wit, but they really have me pissed off.)

I was unable to find anything in the media on this even, and even a Google newsgroup search didn't even show an announcement of this event, so I am somewhat flummoxed as to how this came to be.

I am walking there right now, and will come back to this thread later to report.


TOPICS: Activism/Chapters; Breaking News; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: antiwar; iraq; peaceniks
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121-126 next last
To: Brad's Gramma; andrew
Oh I was just including you in order to support your comments (no need to apologize) ! Keep up the great effort!
81 posted on 10/06/2002 8:36:03 PM PDT by bonesmccoy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: RLK
"I care. It's just beginning to build up. It's why we lost the Viet Nam War. That war was lost here, not in Viet Nam."

5?

82 posted on 10/06/2002 8:41:39 PM PDT by VaBthang4
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: RLK
"I don't know how old you are, but I'm in my 60s and have seen this before. I know how it starts, and I know how it progresses, and I know how it has ended in the past."

Relax.

I am nowhere near as old as you and I know that when folks start blabbering about the sixties and Vietnam as some sort of spectre for today...that means that victory is right around the corner.

83 posted on 10/06/2002 8:46:41 PM PDT by VaBthang4
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies]

To: Mr_Magoo
Info on this "Richard Aoki" courtesy of google.com... this "cat" is kooky.

He thinks he's some kind of asian Malcolm X...
what a fruit... sort of like a lemon amongst the bananas.

LOL



2nd generation Japanese American Richard Aoki was born in an American Concentration camp called the WWII Japanese internment camps. He grew up in a different American Concentration camp called the Oakland ghetto. Richard prowled the streets a lot with a guy named Huey P. Newton. Politicized by all the revolutionary currents of the 60s, Richard Aoki, Huey Newton, and another friend, Bobby Seale founded the Black Panthers in 1966[iii]. The Panthers fought for black empowerment and community control instead of being exploited by the rich politicians. To combat the rampant police brutality, the Panthers followed the police around with shotguns and video cameras which lessened police beatings and murders. To battle empty stomachs, the Panthers set up a Breakfast for Children program. To liberate the black community from corrupt, racist, and elitist economic and political systems, the Panthers organized a mass movement militarily and ideologically for revolution. By 1968, the nationwide Panthers were 3,000-5,000 revolutionaries deep and were close to merging with a Chicago gang called Black P. Stone Nation that had 5,000 members of its own[iv]. In the end, however, the FBI and its infamous COINTELPRO terrorist operations prevented the merger, infiltrated the Panthers, assassinated some 38 of them, and promoted internal problems that ultimately led to the Panthers’ demise[v]. Richard was one of six field marshals in the history of the Panthers, spending much of his time at UC Berkeley to try and start parallel Asian organizations. "That I was a field marshal is one of the biggest secrets of the last 50 years," says our Yellow Panther.[vi]






Richard Aoki walks up the stairs at the historic Café Med in Berkeley. He is wearing a blue leather jacket. He shakes my hand revolutionary-style, and starts telling stories. The
62-year-old Aoki — field marshal for the Black Panther Party, Third World Liberation Front leader, professor — still has eyes that burn bright from the fires of activism.

Only 4 years old when World War II broke out, Aoki and his family were interned in the Topaz, Utah internment camp. Four years later Aoki moved to West Oakland, where he grew up immersed in African American culture. After high school, Aoki spent eight years in the U.S. Army before coming back to Oakland to attend school. After spending some time at Merrit College, Aoki transferred to U.C. Berkeley and landed right in the middle of two of the biggest social movements of the 20th century.

“For me, it was a time of hot lead, cold steel and explosives,” Aoki says. “Because I found myself on the front lines by accident.”

Aoki had come back to Oakland for an education, saying that he wanted to collect the knowledge held at the University, and bring it back to the community where he thought it belonged.

Aoki was involved with the Black Panther Party from its inception, and was the only Asian American member to attain a formal leadership position.

“That I was a field marshal is one of the biggest secrets of the last 50 years,” Aoki says.

At Berkeley, Aoki became a member of the Asian American Political Alliance, a student organization that led the fight for ethnic studies. From 1968, Aoki was one of the leaders of the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF), the group who led a strike that resulted in the development of Berkeley’s ethnic studies department.

“The Third World Liberation Front strike at Berkeley was the longest — at three months — ugliest — thousands of dollars of cost to the university — and bloodiest — 168 of us arrested — in the history of the U.C. system,” Aoki says.

At the time, according to Aoki, the leadership of student activism was all or nothing, a reflection of the chaotic ’60s. “We needed fighters,” he adds, “people who would stand up for what they believed and fight physically.”

For a moment, Aoki’s jovial face darkens.

“Things I saw as a leader in the 1960s movements were traumatic, even for a war veteran,” Aoki says.

In a January 29, 1969 San Francisco Examiner photograph, Aoki is shown in his signature leather jacket and sunglasses, blocking Berkeley’s Sather Gate with a large, wooden stick in his hands. This was the first day of the strike and Aoki ended up in jail, charged with assault for putting two police officers in the hospital.

“I don’t regret it,” Aoki says. “We did what we had to do.”

What makes Aoki more than just a historical legend is his continuing activism. Not only has he been an active and vocal presence in the East Bay for the last 30 years, but he was also involved in Berkeley’s 1999 Third World Liberation Front Strike. Aoki served as both an advisor and a negotiator in the 1999 strike, which called for a more autonomous ethnic studies department.

Aoki saw a world of difference between the two strikes.

“It was a different time, a different struggle,” Aoki says. In 1969, many of the TWLF leaders were made up of ex-military men. Most were about 10 years older than the average student. Charlie Brown of the African American Students Union had served in the Coast Guard for three years, and Manuel Delgado of the Mexican American Students Union was an ex-Marine. The administration was also less willing to work with the students, resulting in three months of strife.

In 1999, a hunger strike held by seven students brought a fast victory.

“In 1969, we would have never considered a tactic like that because of its passivism,” Aoki says. “But the times were different. Had the students in 1999 done the same thing as the students in 1969, I don’t know if things would have come out.”

But Aoki still believes in radicalism. He looks to the protests such as last year’s WTO frenzy in Seattle, and even the recent uprising in Cincinnati, as necessary steps to make a difference.

“Can students alone take over state power? I think so, but it rarely happens,” Aoki says. “But they can raise a lot of hell. University students are the bellwether of society. They are the future.”
84 posted on 10/06/2002 8:47:29 PM PDT by bonesmccoy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: bonesmccoy; All
A search turns up his address...

Kissinger C Clark, (212) 571-0962, 315 Broadway, New York, NY 10007

Here's a map to his crib.

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&address=315+BROADWAY&city=NEW_YORK&state=NY&zipcode=10007

85 posted on 10/06/2002 8:55:48 PM PDT by VaBthang4
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: VaBthang4
...and an e-mail address...

Feel free to contact C. Clark Kissinger, Pro-Mumia Abu-Jamal Activist.

cck1@earthlink.net

86 posted on 10/06/2002 8:59:22 PM PDT by VaBthang4
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 85 | View Replies]

To: VaBthang4; All
Looks like we're dealing with a bunch of subversives, malcontents, and uninformed stooges.

This is beginning to remind me of the situation in 1972 with antiwar protestors harassing the Nixon Administration.

I think the tactic we need to play is obvious. Let the White House and Administration (and for that matter the Simon Campaign) take the high road. The rest of the rank and file need to focus on getting Bill Simon elected.

This national protest is well organized and the radicals involved have alot of experience in raising this kind of cain. I'm sure that the leftists in the media get sucker punched into covering this frenzy by recollections of the "anti-establishment" "counter-culture" "revolutionary" rhetoric of the militants.

I have been reviewing some of the names. It looks like there are definite ties to the Black Panthers. This is some scary stuff guys.

We should not seek to physically confront these people. However, we should insure that no damage is done to property or businesses by their activities. We also need to make sure that DOJ and Ashcroft are well-informed regarding the activities of these radicals and subversives.

This could be the first public indications of the unrest which Daniel Pipes has been conjecturing for some time. I have not worked down the list enough to identify if any particular militant islamic mosques could be involved, but I am sure that DOJ MUST be working this stuff (RIGHT????)

(crickets chirp)

I feel that this IS tied to national security. Most of the American citizens involved are clearly ill informed regarding the threat posed by Al Queda and Iraq's existing regime.

Review of the stuff on their website
http://www.notinourname.net/
comes up your standard list of leftist greens.

Anyone want to donate so they do a bigger rally in California over the next few weeks?

LOL
87 posted on 10/06/2002 9:08:39 PM PDT by bonesmccoy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 85 | View Replies]

To: fourdeuce82d
All I meant by "underground communications" was that they use things like mailing lists, web sites, etc, that nobody reads but them, instead of doing it out in the open - posting flyers, informing the media, etc - where they might (theoretically, at least) have a shot at recruiting more people to their little puppet shows. I was not implying they were engaging in pseudoconspiratorial activity.
88 posted on 10/06/2002 9:11:12 PM PDT by Timesink
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: fourdeuce82d
I think there is something subversive about it. It's got radical written all over it. And, yes, I believe they are reading me right now... you too pal. Wake the heck up...
89 posted on 10/06/2002 9:16:17 PM PDT by bonesmccoy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Auntie Mame
"You have just said that they were wasting their time."

Unless they were enjoying themselves, they were wasting their time politically.

"You are wrong."

If FreeRepublic contributed 10% of their donations to the Republican party that would do far more to advance conservatism than dozens of reactionary demonstrations.

"Perhaps you'd like to rephrase your comments in an attempt to sound less like a supercilious blowhard know-it-all prick."

Pricks hurt most when they find vulnerable spots.

Let me tell you something. Demonstrations cost money, big demonstrations cost big money. Demonstrations are a tool used by politicians to foment class division, race division and general insecurity by attempting to create the image of something that may well not exist at all.

These politicians could normally do much better using that money directly in a political campaign to run ads to win their seat and pass legislation.

But there is a problem.

The people don't like all of that legislation that is being passed. They question the real need. They might begin to get concerned that we cannot afford all of those huge budgets and begin forcibly demanding a stop whether they are Dems or Repubs.

If those budgets are cut back $B's in contracts to all manner of agencies, sub-contractors, NGO's, and corporations will be lost. The ruling elite will get hurt in the pocketbook...big time.

Thus the people must be made to believe that we are constantly on the edge of civil disorder and that the only thing keeping us safe and secure are the "necessary" social welfare programs, environmental programs, etc etc...

With lots of social protests people can be made to "understand" the need for bigger government. They can "understand" that there are major class divisions, and major race divisions, and major divisions between the haves and have-nots.

In other words, every person who takes the leftist demonstrations seriously is a falling prey to the program. You succumb to the desire of the fox. These people WANT CONFLICT. They WANT DISAGREEMENT. They WANT to be taken seriously by you. They want you to counter-protest (thats a bonus).

NOTHING has done more to damage the cause of the leftists than out and out laughter and disbelief.

Everytime a "conservative" takes them all serious and gets out there and "counter-protests" you are merely fanning their fires. You are giving them exactly what they want. You are justifying their presence, because they know they have suckered somebody into their act.

The budget allotted to these events dwarfs the entire budget Freerepublic has taken in since it's existance. We are talking $M's to stage these demonstrations. The majority of the actual marchers believe in the cause, but then they are suckers also. They are the useful idiots. Notice how young, naive and incapable of coherent thought most of them are?

Don't be mad at me. I have had years in international marketing, international politics and domestic politics.

"Follow the money" is still the best process for determining political intent.

And if all of this is "insulting", do not take it as such. Tacitus said that "The worst kind of enemies, are those who can praise." Well the worst kind of friends would also be those who would not speak the truth when to be silent would do harm.

90 posted on 10/06/2002 9:16:53 PM PDT by Mark Felton
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 76 | View Replies]

To: piasa
"seeing the US kick the living snot out of her terrorist kinfolk"

lolololo

91 posted on 10/06/2002 9:29:51 PM PDT by hosepipe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Mr_Magoo
Excellent work, Magoo
92 posted on 10/06/2002 9:32:12 PM PDT by hosepipe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: willyone
Bush has lost control over events. Like his father he is too timid and cautious. They better wrap this up fast. This is not the US of the 1960s. As bad as the anti war movement was then this time will be much worse.

------------------------

There are important differences between today and the '60s. The leftist anti-American movement had to be built up and had to have momentum established from scratch. It now had a nearly 40 year head on it with people such as Ted Kennedy, the Clintons, that idiot from South Dakota, and others now in critical offices and positions, The other thing, the generation that opposed the leftist movement has to serious extent died off and has been replaced by weaker brainwashed generations that, if not directly lestist radicals, are severely compromised. What we have is a bomb ready to go off.

93 posted on 10/06/2002 9:32:38 PM PDT by RLK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: RLK
"What we have is a bomb ready to go off."

That's exactly what they want you to think. Relax, it's not true.

Besides socialism/communism has never arisen from some grassroot upwellings of previously down-trodden masses (or some such mixed metaphor).

Socialism always begions from the top. They find useful idiots at the bottom to perfume their acquisition of power, and to help pacify the silent majority (and keep them silent).

Follow the money. Socialism is being gently set upon our back from the top like a saddle on a skittish horse, while all our attention is drawn in other directions.

94 posted on 10/06/2002 9:41:25 PM PDT by Mark Felton
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 93 | View Replies]

To: Mark Felton
That's exactly what they want you to think. Relax, it's not true.

----------------------

Wow, do you have some surprises coming.

95 posted on 10/06/2002 9:44:06 PM PDT by RLK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 94 | View Replies]

To: Mr_Magoo
#32....;
So these are the guys that got the democrat National Committee stipend to get out the troops in this rent mob.
96 posted on 10/06/2002 9:44:11 PM PDT by hosepipe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: andrew
Yes, the Dems are recreating the '60s type compus/civil unrest to train replacements for the aging Leftist bureaucrats, professors, union leaders, social engineers, politicians (at all levels), etc, etc.
97 posted on 10/06/2002 9:48:22 PM PDT by Consort
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mark Felton
If FreeRepublic contributed 10% of their donations to the Republican party that would do far more to advance conservatism than dozens of reactionary demonstrations.

............

With lots of social protests people can be made to "understand" the need for bigger government. They can "understand" that there are major class divisions, and major race divisions, and major divisions between the haves and have-nots.

In paragraph one, you say that conservatives accomplish little when they protest. In paragraph two, you say that statists accomplish a lot when they protest.

98 posted on 10/06/2002 9:50:23 PM PDT by FreeReign
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 90 | View Replies]

To: hosepipe
Yup. I went to the web page linked in post #15 and poked around a bit. Found those names on the history page.

Then I had to take a shower to wash the slime off me.
99 posted on 10/06/2002 9:58:43 PM PDT by Mr_Magoo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 96 | View Replies]

To: RLK
If by "bomb" you mean revolution, then no I'm relaxed. If by "bomb" you mean lots of terrorism, then mmmmaybe, but probably not.

I much more fear am impending global depression caused by bad credit. Then people will get extremely upset and demand the government fix things. If we are lucky, and we will be, the government will be proven completely useless and free-enterprise will take over (ala black markets even if the socialist governments insist on running the show).

Did you know that college freshman and sophomores are some of the most conservative bunch of kids in a dozens of years?

The kids in my daughters high school out and out laugh at these ex-post-hippy lefty teachers. They are not buying into the leftist swill anymore.

The leftist media is in a downward spiral because the population just does not give much credence anymore to Dr. Spock, multiculturalism, free sex and the socialist dogma that gets spewed out. Rosie left her own magazine because they were becoming too "right" for her.

The top selling books on the NY Times are Conservative books!.

HArry Potter and Lord of the Rings are about good-vs-evil. black and white.

The top 5 FOX news show trounce ALL of MSNBC and CNN shows. During the 1980's socialist Donahue was huge and dominating, now he holds a 0.3 versus a 2.4 market share for O'Rielly.

The anti-socialists are beginning to win the culture wars. The last bastions will be the public schools and academia. But the heat is on.

The lefties will have to do something to kick up a fuss. They are up a tree and the dogs have them surrounded.

100 posted on 10/06/2002 10:00:33 PM PDT by Mark Felton
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 95 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121-126 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson