Antiwar protest draws 300 to Common

Looking to revive a protest movement blunted by the results of last month's presidential election, about 300 Boston-area college students turned out yesterday for an antiwar rally and march, where they vowed to build larger protests of US policy in Iraq.

Gathered at the bandstand at Boston Common, students bundled in jackets and sweaters chanted "end the occupation, troops out now" and "drop Bush, not bombs" while hoisting handmade signs with messages including "Peace Takes Courage Too." Organized by the new umbrella group Boston Student Mobilization to End the War, a coalition of students from 14 local colleges and high schools, the afternoon rally ended with a speech by retired Boston University historian Howard Zinn and was followed by a march to Copley Square.

"Look around you," University of Massachusetts at Boston student Matt Stuart told the crowd on the Common. "Right here, right now, is the spark that could eventually end this war."

Yesterday's protest was the first major antiwar demonstration in Boston since the Democratic National Convention in July, when war opponents marched and rallied daily. After the convention, some students said yesterday, activists focused on the presidential election, in hopes of defeating President George W. Bush. After the disappointing student turnout in the Nov. 2 election, and Bush's reelection, disappointed student leaders said they briefly lost momentum.

"After the election, there was a tendency for people to throw their hands up and say 'what do we do now?' and kind of give up," said Natalia Cooper, 23, a UMass-Boston senior. "When the coalition started planning this event, I wanted to get involved because I didn't want the antiwar movement to die."

The citywide coalition began last month when students from the Harvard Social Forum began reaching out to other university organizations that opposed the war in Iraq, including those at the University of Massachusetts, Boston University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern, Tufts, Mount Holyoke, and Brandeis.

In speeches and interviews yesterday, students said US troops should leave Iraq to prevent more Americans and Iraqis from being killed in the conflict, and to end ongoing damage to the country and the quality of life there.

Zinn, who drew the day's loudest cheers, recalled Vietnam protests in Boston that started with the size of yesterday's gathering and grew to "100 times this size." He urged students not to give up trying to "rouse" the American people.

"We want a different kind of country," said Zinn. "We want to be respected around the world, not feared around the world."

Police reported no arrests yesterday, but the day's events ended with minor conflict between students and police. After the march ended at Copley Square, a smaller group of about 50 students kept marching, blocking traffic as they moved up Newbury Street to Massachusetts Avenue and down Boylston Street. On Boylston, as police tried to break up the march, one officer drove his motorcycle through a group of students holding a banner, and another officer swatted at a woman holding the banner as he tried to pull it away from her.

On the Common, some protesters beat drums; dozens carried signs: "100,000 Dead Iraqi Civilians," read one. Others urged "Victory to the Iraqi Resistance." A short distance from the rally, Bill Wilkins of Haverhill, a 58-year-old Vietnam veteran, staged a counterprotest with four other men holding American flags and a sign: "It is the Soldier, not the Demonstrator, Who Gives You the Right to Protest," it read. "Support Our Troops."

"These people, for no good reason, are trying to drag us out of the country before we've done nation-building," he said.

Several speakers at the rally voiced support for US troops. Nathan Aldrich, a UMass-Boston student with two brothers in the National Guard and headed for Iraq, addressed the crowd on the Common as a member of the group Military Families Speak Out.

"It's a pain in my gut when I go to bed at night," he said in an interview. "It's really sad and difficult, talking to my 4-year-old nephew. He knows his dad's gonna be gone for a long time, and for what?"