Thousands Protest U.S. Support of the Contras

More than 5,000 members of church, labor and political organizations marched through downtown Los Angeles on Saturday in the largest local protest to date against U.S. military intervention in Central America.

Organizers from a coalition of nearly 100 groups said the size of the protest mirrors a growing sentiment among Americans that the United States should stay out of the affairs of Nicaragua and El Salvador. Police estimated the crowd at anywhere from 5,000 to 8,000.

Carrying hundreds of white crosses bearing the names of civilian victims of fighting in Central America, the mile-long chain of orderly protesters marched up Broadway, winding up with a three-hour rally outside Los Angeles City Hall.

James Lawson, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Southern California, told the cheering crowd that the Reagan Administration “is still trying to keep Central America as our plantation, rather than recognize the people there as people who want dignity and freedom, now.”

Among the two-dozen speakers was Vietnam War protester and singer Country Joe McDonald, who led the rally with a popular 1960s Vietnam protest song in which he inserted the names of Nicaragua and El Salvador.

Many marchers said they joined the protest because they fear that last month’s congressional approval of $100 million in military aid for Nicaragua’s rightist rebel forces, the contras, is the beginning of a much greater U.S. presence.

The march came on the heels of reported heavy combat in Nicaragua last week between the rebels and the troops loyal to Nicaragua’s leftist government, the Sandinistas.

“I’m down here to see that none of my children die in another war, like my cousin who died in Vietnam,” said Harvey Sternheim, 41, a special education teacher representing the 20,000-member United Teachers of Los Angeles.

Dorace Deigh, 72, president of the San Fernando Valley Gray Panthers, said she joined the 10-block walk because she fears another Vietnam.

“The money we’re spending on the contras would be best spent helping our own people, or helping the people of Central America develop their society, not destroy it,” she said.

Another marcher, Father Michael McFadden, 48, said he worked extensively in Central America, “and saw first-hand what those bombs and bullets can do. And I’m doing everything I can now to make that truth known.”

Protesters represented a wide spectrum, from a group of UCLA faculty members to a contingent from the All Saints Church of Pasadena. Groups who were bused in from as far away as Ventura and San Diego counties cheered loudly when they were asked to identify themselves.

Cynthia Anderson, an organizer from the Southern California Ecumenical Council’s Interfaith Task Force on Central America, said about 50 suburban and inner-city church groups from nearly every denomination participated.

“This is the first time we’ve seen the religious community come out in such numbers for Central America,” Anderson said. “It tells us that public opinion is turning against U.S. aid to those countries.”

Holding banners reading “No Vietnam War in Central America” and “Stop the Death Squads,” the crowd roared its approval for remarks by Charles Clements, a Vietnam veteran who has worked in Nicaragua as a doctor.

Clements said U.S. involvement in Nicaragua and El Salvador is so unpopular worldwide that it is causing America to lose face among its allies.

“We’re outside the community of civilized nations,” Clements said. “What kind of democracy are we building around the globe by dismembering people and communities?”

Clements and several speakers also attacked the pro-war “Rambo” mentality, which they said is being popularized in the United States by President Reagan, actor Sylvester Stallone and others.

McDonald said Stallone has promoted himself as a spokesman for Vietnam veterans, but that many veterans oppose the Rambo image.

“We say bull---- to Rambo,” McDonald said. “We vets speak for ourselves.”