Mixed reaction to NYC peace march

The march was closely monitored by police

		By Joseph Winter BBC News Online correspondent in New York

Three weeks after the United States started to drop bombs on Afghanistan, a wide coalition of groups marched through central New York beating drums and shouting: "You say 'Bomb', we say 'No'. The racist war has got to go."

"Our grief is not a cry for war," read one banner.

You couldn't print what I think about them. I wonder how many people they know who are dead, who are buried over there

A fireman

On a bitterly cold October afternoon, they only numbered around 1,000, but espoused causes from Palestine to the US Green Party, anarchy to Yugoslavia, black civil rights to socialism.

US security forces around the world are on high alert and there were almost as many police officers as demonstrators.

Before the march even left its Times Square rallying point, a convoy of fire engines drove up and parked right next to the protesters, sounding their sirens in order to drown out the anti-war speakers.

We're going to war for oil. Afghanistan is a critical country right next to Iran and Bush wants a friendly government there

Protester Moshe Rothenberg

One fireman, with a look of absolute disgust in his eye, told BBC News Online: "You couldn't print what I think about them. I wonder how many people they know who are dead, who are buried over there."

After a few tense minutes, the firefighters left, but only after using a public address system to urge the demonstrators to go home.

Minute's silence

Some of the marchers said that they had indeed lost friends, relatives and colleagues at the World Trade Center.

They started with a minute's silence for those who died on 11 September "and also for those who have died in Palestine and as a result of US foreign policy".

David Huggins wants to sack President Bush

Moshe Rothenberg, a middle-aged member of a group called Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, said that the suicide attacks were just a pretext for the war in Afghanistan.

"We're going to war for oil. Afghanistan is a critical country right next to Iran and Bush wants a friendly government there," he said.

"The US ignores terrorism in Africa and elsewhere. Why? Because there's no oil."

Firemen turned up to protest at the anti-war march

The International Action Center which helped organise the march says that US oil companies want to build a pipeline from the oil-rich Caspian Sea to the Indian Ocean - through Afghanistan - and this is why the Bush administration is trying to topple the Taleban.

Organisers also condemned the "racist" arrest of hundreds of Muslims and Arabs in the US and elsewhere since 11 September and voiced concern that the Anti-Terrorism Act, made into law on Friday would be used to intimidate government critics such as themselves.

Response

So how should the US Government respond to the suicide attacks on New York and Washington?

"I was hoping something would be worked out through the United Nations, then he [President Bush] went on his little crusade," said David Huggins, carrying a banner declaring that he had sacked Mr Bush.

There's too much freedom here

Ghanaian street sweeper Desmond Antubam

"I'm against the US putting its nose in places where it doesn't belong," said spiky-haired high-school student Alex Cowan from Washington DC.

"That's what made people hate us, want to kill us in the first place."

As they marched through central New York to an anti-war "teach-in", some shop owners locked their doors in case the protest became violent, but it passed off without incident.

Counter-protests

Most other New Yorkers ignored them, while a few shouted either insults or the occasional word of encouragement.

A few people even turned up to mount individual "counter-protests".

John Cutter walked up and down next to the demonstrators waving a small US flag.

John Cutter staged his own "patriotic counter-protest"

"These people are fools, dreamers and anti-Americans," he said.

Looking at one of the banners, postal worker Vincent Minicagello told BBC News Online: "I believe in justice, not war, but we can't allow people to kill Americans and get away with it."

Street sweeper Desmond Antubam from Ghana could not believe his eyes as he watched the marchers troop down 8th Avenue with their police escort.

He said that he knew friends and colleagues who had died on 11 September and called the marchers "a disgrace".

"There's too much freedom here," he said.