Thousands Protest U.S. Policies in Mass Rallies

As part of a day of demonstrations against the Reagan Administration in several cities, a crowd of about 4,000 marchers rallied in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, calling for a return to the protest era of the 1960s.

Similar rallies drew 26,000 in Washington and a crowd estimated at anywhere from 10,000 to 50,000 in San Francisco.

Angela Davis, a former Communist Party vice presidential candidate and one of the featured speakers at the rally on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall, said those who oppose the Administration should not believe that “the romantic aura that surrounded the struggle of the 1960s and 1970s,” when there were mass protests against the Vietnam War, means that the movement cannot be revived.

“Many believe that revolutionary militancy is irretrievable, but it can be built on a basis stronger than 15 years ago,” she said.

‘Shift in Attitude’

City Councilman Robert Farrell, buoyed by the turnout, said it reflected a new mood. “The political tradition in Los Angeles has been moderate, but this reflects a shift in political attitude in the city,” Farrell said.

“It’s one thing to say you support something. It’s another thing when you give up your day to march in a protest demonstration.”

The demonstrators gathered at Broadway and Olympic Boulevard and marched to City Hall, waving signs and chanting slogans opposing increases in U.S. nuclear weapons, U.S. military actions in Central America, apartheid in South Africa, racism in the United States and calling for cuts in the defense budget to provide more money for other government programs.

“We are a coalition of concerned people who have come together to demonstrate to the Reagan Administration that there is strong opposition to his policies,” said Tony Hall, a coordinator of the April 20 Coalition, which organized the protests.

Hall said the coalition was made up of 200 labor, religious, educational, medical and peace groups and the demonstration was timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. South Vietnam surrendered to North Vietnam on April 30, 1975, when North Vietnamese troops occupied Saigon.

“Those of us who are gathered here today and around the country are the peacemakers of the world,” said Max Inglett, 33, a paraplegic who said he was injured in Vietnam and once crossed the country in his wheelchair as a protest against war. “We are here to tell the President of the United States that we will not stand by and do nothing as he sends our boys into another Vietnam in Central America.”

Counter-Demonstration

The demonstration sparked a small counter-demonstration. Michael Lopez, 25, a minister of the Fundamentalist Baptist Tabernacle, organized a group of about 20 friends to protest “communist insurgency in Central America” by loudly chanting anti-communist slogans as the protesters went by.

“We wanted to let people know that this is un-American,” said Frank Enloe, 23, who held aloft a large American flag with a friend.

Two members of the counter-protest group, who tried to block the entrance to a park where the anti-Reagan marchers rallied, were handcuffed by police and escorted across the street. Police said both would be released without charges and there were no arrests.

26,000 in Washington

In Washington, a crowd estimated by U.S. Park Service police at 26,000 took part in protests that included a march up Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol, carrying signs that said “Stop the secret U.S. war against Nicaragua” and “Freeze and reverse the arms race.”

The Rev. Jesse Jackson knelt in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue and offered a prayer for the “oppressed” of Central America, the hungry in the United States and peace from “Bitburg to Johannesburg.” Bitburg is the site of a World War II German military cemetery Reagan is scheduled to visit next month.

In San Francisco, police estimates of the number of demonstrators ranged from 10,000 to 50,000, according to The Associated Press. Some reporters on the scene estimated the crowd at from 5,000 to 15,000.

Marching up Market Street, they wound up at the plaza in front of City Hall, where a string of speakers included U.S. Reps. Ronald V. Dellums (D-Berkeley), and Sala Burton (D-San Francisco) and Mario Savio, leader of the Free Speech Movement that began the 1960s protest era at UC Berkeley.

Dellums urged the crowd to “stop the madness of a nuclear arms race.”