THE WORLD CAN'T WAIT RALLY (Part 3), SAN FRANCISCO, NOVEMBER 2, 2005
( Part 1;
Part 2 )
Now that Cindy Sheehan was done eradicating whatever was left of her credibility, it was time to unfurl the Che banners and march!
The RCP handlers herded everyone off on a raucous roundtrip through downtown.
A clique of post-punk/post-feminist protest cuties paused to put the finishing touches on their outfits. Looking at those mysterious eyes, one has to wonder: maybe the Islamic veil isn't such a bad fashion concept after all.
Some people, on the other hand, still need a few pointers on how to make a protest mask that doesn't look like a prop from a slasher flick.
The logo of the Revolutionary Communist Party was on prominent display. (The "PCR" part is their acronym in Spanish -- got to be multicultural, doncha know.)
Annotation for the confused: "You" = Bush and his supporters; "that piece of shit flag" = the United States flag; "They" = the 9/11 attackers; "We" = America; " 'em " = downtrodden peoples of the world. Got it?
I spotted several people in the crowd looking at copies of Revolution, the RCP newspaper.
But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow...
Soon we arrived at the offices of the San Francisco Chronicle. The police guarding the entrance ran to investigate a diversionary ruckus, so that someone who was standing right behind me could...
...throw a Molotov cocktail at the building.
The police were either very unimpressed, or stunned -- it was hard to tell which.
Luckily, it had bounced off the building and landed on the sidewalk, where there was nothing flammable to catch fire.
After a short time, the flames were extinguished.
Chronicle staffers heard the commotion but couldn't get a good view out the window.
However, their rooftop security cameras caught the flames on film, so they featured stills from the video in their coverage of the march. The burn mark above the entrance is where the Molotov cocktail struck the building before landing on the sidewalk.
After that incident, the police took no further chances: rows upon rows of them lined both sides of the march to prevent any more misbehavior.
Many of the marchers really and truly were hoping that a revolution would start right then and there. But no one quite knew how to kick-start it. Hmmm...the Molotov cocktail trick didn't work. Now what?
An enthusiatic die-in also failed to topple the Bush regime, to everyone's bewilderment.
Ah, maybe this guy has come up with a workable plan.
Well, revolution or no revolution, the march must go on.
People pulled their masks up, ready for action. But there were just too many cops.
Frustrated that the march was nearing its end with no eruption of violence, a group of youngsters sat down in the middle of the street and refused to budge until they were arrested. The police were more than happy to oblige. (As the linked article notes, they also arrested someone who was most likely the Molotov cocktail-thrower.)
And so we come to the end of a long revolutionary day. Farewell, comrade.
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Coverage of World Can't Wait events on other sites:
New York
Seattle
More Seattle
Photos of the SF arrests
World Can't Wait's own coverage of rallies in several cities
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UPDATE: Several sites are reporting that the Los Angeles Unified School District excused students from class and brought them to the WCW rally in Los Angeles as a school-sponsored field trip.
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