Peace Activists Take to the Streets : Opposition: Demonstrations are held around the country, including Los Angeles.

Peace activists took to the nation’s streets Monday, decrying the prospect of a Persian Gulf war in both organized demonstrations and public outbursts not seen since the Vietnam era.

A candlelight vigil at the Federal Building in Westwood sponsored by a group of families with loved ones in Operation Desert Shield attracted about 200 demonstrators.

Across the nation, many of the demonstrations were spontaneous, outracing the ability of a fledgling national anti-war movement to coordinate them. Instead, a patchwork of unconnected, grass-roots demonstrations took place in some cities, largely in response to Saturday’s congressional vote granting President Bush authorization to use force in the Middle East.

In Chicago, for example, as many as 3,000 anti-war demonstrators protested for three hours at the Federal Building plaza, blocking morning rush-hour traffic. Police said more than 130 protesters were arrested for mob action and a few for resisting arrest.

“We planned to block the doors (of the building) so they couldn’t go into work,” said Mary Ann Corley, one of protesters.

When she and other demonstrators failed to reach the doors, they marched to Dearborn and Jackson streets to sit cross-legged, linking arms and chanting: “No blood for oil!”

Karla Butler, one of the Westwood demonstrators, said that “I felt I had to do something. This is the only thing I can do.” Butler, a Sherman Oaks woman whose son, an Air Force pilot, is stationed in the gulf, added, “This is a helpless kind of feeling.”

Lisa Guerrero, 22 of Santa Monica, was there because of her boyfriend, a sergeant in a Marine reserve unit in Pasadena that shipped out in November. “He doesn’t believe in it, I don’t believe in it. He wants to come home. He asked me to do anything possible to bring him home,” she said.

The sponsors of the Westwood demonstration--the Military Family Support Network--favor a diplomatic solution to the gulf crisis.

About a half dozen of the Los Angeles demonstrators have loved ones in the Gulf. They were joined by supporters such as Vicki Darwish, who drove from Fontana with her husband and five children.

“If somebody attacked the U.S., I’d say yes (to war),” she said. “But children fighting an oil war, I’m not willing.”

Disabled Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic, who has emerged as a leader of anti-war protests in Southern California, encouraged the crowd to press its efforts. “What we’re doing tonight is an act of citizenship,” he said.

Elsewhere in California, about 500 people marched through Oakland at noon, while about 400 gathered at the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge. About 50 demonstrators marched onto the bridge from the north, briefly stopping traffic.

In a scene from 1960s-style protests, demonstrators in Minneapolis burned an American flag in a garbage bin and blocked entrances to the old Federal Building, which includes recruiting stations for the armed services. Two protesters were arrested. Police estimated the crowd at 800 to 1,000.

New York’s Roman Catholic Cardinal John J. O’Connor delivered a prayer for peace, remarking that, since talk of war in the gulf began, he has been haunted by the memory of seeing five men die in Vietnam. “War is not inevitable,” he said during Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. “Peace and honor and justice is possible. We must pray like we never prayed before, and let us pray with our deepest sincerity.”

In Washington, black-clad marchers paraded with a flag-draped coffin through downtown at noon and during the afternoon rush hour in a “symbolic death procession.” Organizer Bill Howells said the march, which will be repeated today, “is meant to serve as a stark reminder of the unavoidable consequence of war: death.”

A “march for peace” set for tonight in Atlanta is expected to be among the first of many nationally planned demonstrations. The Coalition of Conscience, an organization formed from the nonviolence and civil rights communities, has called on anti-war activists to march for peace in celebration of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.

The group, led by the Rev. Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, seized upon the irony that the U.N. Security Council’s deadline and King’s birthday coincide. The federal holiday to observe King’s birth is next Monday.

Fulwood reported from Washington and Harris from Los Angeles