Anti-Bush demo kicks off in NY
2004-08-29 18:57
New York - From Hollywood stars to professors and young punkers, Americans of all stripes vented their rage at President George W Bush on Sunday at a demonstration on the eve of the Republican national convention.
Thousands of protesters, led by filmmaker Michael Moore, activist Jesse Jackson and other personalities, assembled for a march past Madison Square Garden where Bush will be nominated for a second term this week.
The United for Peace and Justice group which sponsored the event said it still expected about 250 000 people from all over the country to protest the war in Iraq and other Bush administration policies.
"We are expecting a very large crowd to say no to the Bush agenda," said the group's spokesperson Bill Dobbs.
But other estimates put the expected turnout at less than 100 000.
The protesters gathered 1.6km south of the convention site, and were to make a loop around it after being refused permission for a mass rally further north in Central Park.
Moore, clad in a red baseball cap and shorts, mixed a message of welcome for Republicans visiting this Democratic bastion with harsh words for Bush, who is fighting for re-election against Democrat John Kerry in November.
The director, whose anti-Bush touchstone for many Democrats, reminded the crowd that the Republican was elected in 2000 without winning the overall popular vote.
"The majority of the country never voted for the Bush administration and it's time to have our country back in our hands," he said.
As for the 5 000 Republican delegates here, Moore said: "We want to welcome them here because we know they feel a little depressed, because the end is near for them."
T-shirts and baseball caps mixed with funky black leather and fashionable yuppie dress in the demonstration, which bore much of the feel, diversity and language of the 1960s.
The old inverted Y peace symbol was omnipresent and along with balloons, placards and buttons promoting a variety of causes.
"Bush gave us Iraq-tile dysfunction," read one sign. A T-shirt proclaimed: "Stop Bitching, Start a Revolution."
- SAPA