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Iraq Antiwar forces to rally today in the bay area
The peaceful protests that have dotted the area will continue, but some say they could switch to civil disobedience.
By MIKE BRASSFIELD, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 20, 2003
Now that the bombing has started, peace protesters plan to assemble at a few spots around the Tampa Bay area today to express their outrage at a war they consider to be deeply wrong.
They'll chant and they'll pray and they'll wave the same antiwar signs they've been waving for months. But a few are considering eventually shifting to a more aggressive strategy -- acts of civil disobedience such as blocking the entrances to federal buildings.
Now that marching and chanting has failed to prevent an invasion of Iraq, some antiwar groups elsewhere in the country are embarking on a campaign of nonviolent sit-ins and social disruptions at government offices.
Tampa Bay area peace activists say they have no immediate plans to take such action, but they're not ruling it out in the future.
"We're not hostile to the idea of civil disobedience," said Omali Yeshitela, a leader in an antiwar group that held a recent rally outside MacDill Air Force Base. "That's not asking very much of us. When you consider that some 3,000 bombs are being dropped on Baghdad alone, and the number of people being killed, it makes acts of civil disobedience here seem to be really small."
For now, local protesters say they will stick to what they have been doing: non-confrontational peace rallies. This morning, beginning at 7 a.m., they will protest on Gandy Beach at the Pinellas County end of the Gandy Bridge. They'll also rally outside St. Petersburg's City Hall at 5:30 p.m.
In Tampa, they will protest at noon outside the downtown Federal Building where they have been demonstrating every Friday. University of South Florida students will protest at 9 a.m. near the main entrance to USF's Tampa campus.
In some big cities, more radical protesters have begun turning to civil disobedience. They call it "direct action."
On Wednesday, dozens were arrested after sitting down on the street in front of the White House and blocking entrances to government buildings in Boston and Detroit. In San Francisco, activists were planning to block some intersections, federal offices and corporate headquarters this morning.
Protesters in the Tampa Bay area and nationwide are divided about whether this is a good idea.
"It seems like there's a groundswell for civil disobedience," said Jay Springer of St. Petersburg, who has participated in numerous local peace rallies. "I'll do it. I'll strap myself down."
But local organizers say there has been little discussion of civil disobedience here.
"Most people that I've been in contact with don't like to have knee-jerk reactions," said Chris Ernesto, 39, who started the weekly antiwar demonstrations outside BayWalk in downtown St. Petersburg. "We prefer to take a little time to allow the enormity of this situation to sink in."
Civil disobedience is a big step; it typically involves getting arrested, which costs protesters money, time and dignity.
"It's not for everybody," said Linda Hubner, 52, a Quaker who has been organizing vigils. "But I feel it's necessary. At this point, it's the only action we can take that will make an impression."
That's the essence of the debate in America's antiwar movement: What kind of impression do they want to make?
"The people who don't want to do civil disobedience are saying, 'We need to get our message across in a way that isn't going to alienate the American mainstream,"' said Ann Florini, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.
"Others say that when you have a cause this important, sometimes the only way you get adequate attention to it is to disrupt things."
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