Black/Latino coalition holds anti-violence, anti-war march

Yawu Miller

Saturday’s anti-war protest that marched from Dudley Street to the Boston Common was one of hundreds that were held across the country last week to commemorate the March 18 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

But the march — which kicked off with local poet Askia Toure giving a Yoruba-style homage to the ancestors — was not business as usual for the Boston-area peace movement. Saturday’s protest was the first anti-Iraq war demonstration in Boston organized and led by people of color.

Combining calls for an end to the local gun violence plaguing the city with a call for an end to the war, speakers like anti-violence activist Tina Chery said the issues are linked.

“We cannot accept killing in the name of peace,” said Chery, who heads the Louis D. Brown Peace Initiative.

Chery noted that children in Boston, who are increasingly witnessing acts of gun violence, are facing the same post-traumatic stress issues as soldiers returning from Iraq.

Similarly, Calvin Belfon, one of the Somerville Five group of youths who were beaten by Medford Police last year, said his experience did not exist in isolation.

“It’s happening all over the world,” he said. “It’s becoming an epidemic.”

In addition to the increased violence, demonstrators said the Iraq war has contributed to funding cuts for programs aimed at the poor.

“Because of the war, a lot of resources have been taken away from our community,” said Gwen Johnson, a member of the Greater Boston Workers Alliance.

In all, about 3,000 demonstrators participated in the march, organizers say. Demonstrators rallied at the corner of Blue Hill Avenue and Dudley Street before marching to the State House. A contingent of marchers staged a brief sit-in in front of a military recruitment center on Tremont Street before police were called to the scene.

March organizer Tony Van Der Meer said the march was a success.

“We put a lot of effort into gaining the support of the community,” he said. “The neighborhoods we went through saw it. People enthusiastically supported our efforts. We want to build mass consciousness in our community. I think it went well from that perspective.

High school students and veteran black and Latino peace activists led the march, while white activists — many from outlying towns and suburbs — brought up the rear.

“It’s working-class people of color leading this,” Toure said. “I hate to say it, but it’s unusual.”

The organizers distributed flyers and knocked on doors last weekend to promote the march. They also reached out to working-class white activists and union organizers to promote the march, as well as the mainstream peace movement groups.

Toure said the march demonstrated a new consciousness in the city.

“It’s a reflection of the growing consciousness of the people of color and working-class people in Boston. It gets down to ‘those who are oppressed must strike the first blow,’” he said, paraphrasing Frederick Douglass.