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Report by Bill Cook
Report by ASA Bob
Report by R. J. Del Vecchio

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Mission: Cindy Sheehan, Shut Up and Go Home
April 21, 2007 Greensboro, N.C.

Why Was This Mission Necessary?

Report by R. J. Del Vecchio

Rockin’N’Rollin with Cindy & Friends

On April 21st, there was a well-publicized antiwar rally in Greensboro, NC, with Peace Mom Cindy Sheehan as the guest of honor. Since the counterdemonstration in DC on March 17th had brought a lot of e-mails in from people serving in Iraq and Afghanistan about how much it meant to them to see someone standing up for them, the Gathering Of Eagles ad hoc organization went on a more lasting footing. Their purpose is to use people’s freedom of speech (the same freedom the antiwar people have and use) to let everyone know that the antiwar movement is not some massive, unopposed, unstoppable tidal wave representing all of America.

The Greensboro Police Department was highly sensitized to the idea of any violence occurring between the GOE people and the antiwar crowd, so they erected a widespread set of barriers over the entire large city block that holds the plaza where the rally was to be held. The counterdemonstration was limited to a sidewalk area across the street from the entrance to the plaza, and since the plaza center was downhill from that entrance, the actual distance from the plaza stage to the barriers in front of the GOE group was well over 100 yards.

This reporter covered the March 17th activities in DC and moved freely between the two groups then, but that was clearly not going to be permitted in Greensboro, so a choice had to be made. I found a nice tie-dyed T-shirt to wear and put on jewelry I never use, dark sunglasses, and hung cameras and a recorder off my neck and shoulders. Nothing that would mark me in any way as being other than one more guy taking pictures and recording notes, so I could go to the rally and just fit in, doing a normal reporter’s job with no hint of political views.

I got there early, walked the ground, checked out the state setup, camera angles, etc., chatted with a few of the dozens of police officers already there, noticed two were in street clothes, to go undercover. Spent some time reading, and when the setup of the usual literature tables selling assorted types of counterculture books, pamphlets, and bumper stickers began, checked them out and had some casual conversation with a nice middle-aged lady at one of them.

Just a few the of available books at one stand were:
The Communist Manifesto (a true classic)
Democracy- Can’t We Do Better?
Conquer the World? The International Proletariat Must And Will


Several other tables were there, from an assortment of Socialist and Labor organizations. There were also two men walking around with large Palestinian flags, wearing the PLO scarf.
  
About 11:15 or so, a woman came up to me as I took a picture of the stage with its banners, etc, and asked me if I knew that at noon I’d have to leave the area. I asked her why in hell she’d say that, and she told me that since The World Can’t Wait (WCW) had the permit for the rally, anyone not part of that group had to leave. And that I’d have to go join my friends at the counterprotest across the street, and she
was directing me to do so, since she was an undercover cop. What made her suspect I was with the GOE group I still don’t know, but I then proceeded to tell her it was a public event, none of the websites that invited people to come had specified membership in any organization, and I was not there as part of any activity other than listening to the speakers and photographing the event.

A series of discussions then took place, but at the end the policewoman seemed to realize that I was not there to make any trouble, but also that I knew something about the rights to attend a public function and was willing to take the discussion up to her superiors. So she decided it would be OK for me to just stay and take pictures.

Finally the event kicked off with the arrival of the parade that had come through downtown. Complete with a small marching band of what appeared to be high school kids with lots of drums and a drum major, baton and all. The approximately 100-150 people in the parade joined the 100 or so already in the plaza, and things started. In the next half-hour or so some more people showed up, so the final number of people there, including presenters, musicians, booksellers, etc, was in the neighborhood of 300.

The honcho of the affair was a young guy from WCW, who started off with statements about the Iraq War being illegal, immoral, and really fascism in action. He then went to the traditional calls for applause and led a chant by the crowd of “People Rise Up, Bush Step Down”. That was followed by the claim that the crowd was part of the great majority of Americans who want to pull out of Iraq and want Bush out of office.

He explained that WCW had been started in 2005, with its only purpose being to force impeachment of both George Bush and Dick Cheney (whether simultaneously or in
  

Large Palestinian flags visible, also “New Orleans” reference
 rapid succession was not quite clear). Then came the call for people to rise as in the 1960s, to shut down campuses, war factories, block intersections, and commit other acts of civil disobedience to force Congress into action to start impeachment proceedings and stop the war.
[Some minor points about impeachment should be mentioned- it’s a very difficult and contentious procedure to go through, even if real evidence of culpable wrongdoing is apparent. Consider the many months of discussion before the hearings on Bill Clinton were called, and the months it took once they started. Leaders of the Democratic Party would of course be more than happy to call for impeachment if they thought it was remotely feasible; but they know that both the time required and the lack of any evidence of deliberate wrongdoing by the President or the VP make it foolish to even try. However, none of that has any significance to the WCW.]

The claim was then made that there are 260,000 Americans serving in Iraq, including 20,000 mercenaries who get paid $30,000/month to be there. (No explanation of the basis for these numbers was provided. Since the payroll for the alleged mercenaries would be over six BILLION dollars yearly, how that expenditure would go unnoticed in Congress or the media is a real puzzle.)

The first speaker was David Dixon from Charlotte, NC. He spoke of the several organizations (ANSWER Coalition, Center for Peace and Justice, etc.) that are all active in antiwar and anti-Bush programs. These are all part, according to him, of the People’s Struggle against injustice, racism, Big Business, etc. The “disproportionate (military) recruiting of poor people and blacks” was given as one example of the blatant ills of our society and the manipulation of it by the rich and powerful.

There was a brief address from a member of the Grassroots Impeachment group of Chapel Hill, named John Euer.

Next came a young woman speaker from the new Students for Democratic Society, a 2007 version of the famous SDS group of the 1970s. She spoke of having 500 students march and shut down an intersection in Chapel Hill back in March, and praised the six students who took over the office of Congressman David Price. They were arrested and are now awaiting trial.

An older man named Ken McQuaid, wearing a Rolling Thunder black T-shirt and claiming to be a Vietnam veteran, then took the stage, and gave a brief speech about how happy and proud he was to see the younger generation take up the fight against another unjustified war interfering in the internal affairs of another country.
  
The following speaker was the retired head of the local Letter Carriers Union, and much more passionate in his remarks. His comments included condemnation of the Smithfield Company as holding its employees in what he said was essentially a form of slavery, denunciation of the US as the primary oppressor of the Afghan people, and castigation of the entire US government upper level as willing tools of “their corporate masters”. He went on to proclaim the “fully deliberate neglect of the black population of New Orleans” by the federal agencies after Katrina as demonstrating the racism and corruption of the government. His final statement was one of admiration for the “heroic resistance movement” of Iraq.

There was a brief break in the invective as the next speaker, an older woman named Sandy Kouric, talked about the Peace Vigil she and others have been sponsoring for years. Her motto was “Iraq For The Iraqis”.
One sample of many antigovernment posters
However, the following speaker set a new record for passionate input. He was Trace Mohammed, a member of the Nation of Islam, and follower of Louis Farrakhan. The goals of Nation of Islam were stated in a reasonable way to be simple- freedom, justice, and equality. Then the strident statements began, with a beginning claim that people should not be concerned merely with the bad things this nation does in Iraq and Afghanistan, but at least as much with all the terrible things we have done and continue to do to our own people right here.

This society has profited from 400 years of slavery, discrimination, awful abuse, and exploitation of blacks that is all around us still. This society is therefore GUILTY. (emphasis provided by the speaker)

This nation has forced 135 other nations to sign secret documents saying they will never bring any American to the World Court. For this imperialism, we are GUILTY.

The CIA is the primary importer of crack cocaine into black communities. For this form of slow genocide, we are GUILTY.

There was a bit more commentary before the speaker wound down with a congratulation to the crowd and an exhortation to be strong in the fight, but by now you have the idea of where he was coming from.

A man named Paul Dixon was introduced next, as a hero of resistance, because he had spent two years in prison in Leavenworth for refusing to deploy to Vietnam during the war. He was also recognized as a long-term activist and member of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP).

Mr. Dixon spoke of being in the military during the war years, and deciding it was just a rich man’s war with poor people like him being used as cannon fodder. This led him, when his orders came to go to Vietnam, to decide it was not his war and he would not go. And that led to court-martial and a 2-year sentence.

In dealing with today’s issues, he spoke of the government practice of “hunting immigrants along the Mexican border”, the assault on abortion rights, and the illegal war in Iraq. There was an interesting mention of him seeing Black Panthers being murdered in their beds in the streets of Chicago. He condemned both Republican and Democratic politicians, and said it was time for the people to take the power into their own hands.

Finally a group of women in Middle Eastern dress, with headscarves, were invited to speak. They were from the Islamic Center of Triad Youth Group. In a short delivery, the spokeswoman said that there were no WMD in Iraq, that the Baathists were still in charge even though Saddam is dead, and that there is daily rape and murder of Iraqis by or because of the US forces.

One or two more quick comments were made by an NC college student unhappy because the school would not allow her to hand out political pamphlets on campus (which she thought was a violation of Free Speech), and a group called the Piedmont Green Party, who repeated the theme that antiwar, anti-Bush people are the great majority in the US.

Then followed some music and dancing by people in the crowd, some singing in Arabic too, but by then I was up at the main plaza entrance where a large number of police vehicles had assembled, in anticipation of the arrival of Ms. Sheehan. This turned out to be a ploy by the police, since after 20 minutes or more of waiting, it turned out they’d brought her in by a side path and she was already onstage.
 

Cindy with her award plaque
 She received a very warm reception, and was in her usual high spirits at being in front of a crowd. Her face lit up dramatically as she took the microphone and gave a big hello to the crowd. The MC then took over for the presentation of an award to Cindy by the Islamic Center, for her pro-peace activities. She then launched into her speech, calling Bush and Cheney both cowards, referring to the “stolen election” of 2004, but moving on to condemn the Democratic Party for not being willing or able to force a move towards total withdrawal from Iraq as soon as they had a majority in Congress. The surprise came when she proceeded to lambaste the media for being far too easy on politicians, since it is obvious they never ask any hard questions of them.
This is especially upsetting to her, since she feels they have been very hard on her. She was asked once by a reporter just how close her relationship was to Casey, and wasn’t he a volunteer in the military and for his second tour of Iraq. Just in repeating what kind of question it was made her visibly upset, and she went on to say what an inappropriate question it was, and that whatever her relationship to her son was, it makes no difference to her being a grieving mother. (Which is of course quite true, although her sometime referrals to honoring her son’s memory by protesting can be inferred to mean he would agree with her protests. That is something other members of his unit have said they do not believe is true.)

Her following comments included statements that there are 635,000 dead Iraqis because of the war, 75% of Americans are against it, we routinely use torture or send people to Pakistan to be tortured, this administration is stealing the soul of America, and that George Bush is the greatest terrorist in the world. Furthermore, the economy has been deliberately manipulated so that poor people are forced to sign up for the military if they really want to go to college. The government spies on any and all of its citizens without warrants, they abrogate due process, and even read people’s e-mails.

She closed with demands for impeachment now, and total shutdown of all war funds, so that then Americans can take overseas vacations and not have to pretend to be Canadians. The final applause was enthusiastic, although by then a number of people had left the plaza.

Another organizer, Tim Hopkins of WCS (and also a member of RCP) took over, and pleaded with the crowd to make more donations, since it had cost $3000 to put on the rally and they were short of funds.

The very last part of the rally was about a young girl named Terri Johnson, from Greensboro, who had graduated with honors from high school and had several scholarships offered to her. However, she found they were not generous enough to cover her education appropriately, so she investigated joining the military. She said the recruiters told her she’d have ample college money if she finished her hitch, and she would never deploy to Iraq. Once she was in the service, she found that some of her college money had to come from her own pay deductions, and later, that she could in fact be sent to Iraq. Therefore she felt cheated and lied to, and decided there was no way she would stay in the military and go to Iraq under any circumstances.

She found support from family and some antiwar organizations, and explained to the crowd in detail how you can refuse to serve and use the system to get out with very little penalty of any kind. She encouraged everyone to make note of these methods and tell them to others, so that anyone who realized they should not be in the military would be able to leave easily.
  
By this time, perhaps two and a half hours from the start, the crowd had thinned to a bit more than half its maximum size. The organizers thanked everyone for coming, repeated “We ARE the majority”, asked for continued support, and declared the event over. His final words were ones of caution, that no one should look at or talk to or deal with the counterprotestors up at the main entrance, because they are nasty and probably dangerous.
Dwindling crowd
The marching band started up and a couple dozen young people were dancing away. Everyone else started to drift out to the street.

It was then I finally left, and went across the street to meet the GOE people. Their numbers had been about 100 or so, but they were down to 60-70 then. The OIC (Capt Larry Bailey) called for anyone who wished to go to lunch at a nearby barbecue place, where about 40-50 people showed up and relaxed. They had accomplished their purpose, and even had one or two news teams come to them for interviews. (I had seen no fewer than six such teams running around the rally area all afternoon.)



In the end, it was an American event, no violence (well, a little bit of name calling here and there), everyone got to exercise their rights, and whether the media report it or not, the troops will know from e-mails, blogs, and websites that they were acknowledged and defended again, and that the antiwar movement is not all there is to be seen and heard.

What is interesting (or actually, par for the course) is that the two Greensboro newspaper articles and the newsvideo of the event were both good and not so good. They were good in that they all at least provided a reasonable if lesser amount of attention on the counterdemonstrators, and recognized that the whole thing was well controlled with no violence occurring.

What they all lacked was any footage or quotes from the very substantial number of seriously radical statements made by the speakers, and any mention of the Revolutionary Communist Party as one of the event cosponsors. Apparently that kind of unsettling information is not considered newsworthy. Yet it is precisely that kind of information that the average American needs to know, rather than always being given the impression that these rallies are run by and for idealistic people who are fully committed to the basic values of democracy. One of the goals that we need to undertake is to simply tell everyone else about the extremism of the antiwar menagerie. That can be the most effective thing possible to help our troops and in fact the whole country.