7,000 Hit the Streets for Peace in Oakland

His white hair curling in the wind, peace activist Daniel Ellsberg with a slight smile stood unnoticed below the stage, soaking up the antiwar messages.

The man who made public the Pentagon Papers thinks these Saturday demonstrations are not for naught. “They keep down civilian casualties,” he said.

While American forces entered Baghdad on Saturday, some speakers at the downtown antiwar demonstration said the true threat to national security is domestic.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) said, “The Bush doctrine will do nothing for national security.” Poverty, health care, affordable housing and public education are national security issues, she said.

The estimated 7,000 demonstrators roared their approval.

Entertainer and activist Harry Belafonte, 76, told the crowd that, while he supports the “young men and women who’ve gone to war ... our sons and daughters are being murdered to defend the vested interests of a few sick, powerful people in this country.”

Belafonte, who traveled to Oakland for the demonstration, lashed out at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), saying, “Stop playing the game, Nancy.”

Then he added, “Those of you who stand here today are the true patriots of this country.”

As Bay Area protests have become almost commonplace since troops started rolling into Iraq, Che Guevara T-Shirts have been replaced by antiwar slogans. Hawkers compete to sell their “Peace is Patriotic” pins.

Melva Yearby, 30, sold buttons in Boston last week and in Oakland on Saturday. She’s thinking about the next demonstration in Washington, D.C.

Jan Matsuno, who had her 8-year-old daughter with her, said she feels guilty that her tax dollars are going to liberate the people of Iraq, “when nobody asked to be liberated.”

Beth Wilson, 80, a retired English teacher, carried a sign that read “$ for Books in Oakland not Bombs.”

The Coalition for Peace and Justice, sponsor of the demonstration, had hoped that marching in Oakland would bring more blacks to participate. Some did, although their numbers were not overwhelming.

Wearing a T-shirt reading “War is not the answer,” Schalon Woods, 33, an African American marching for the first time, said she participated because she knew the crowd would be “more diverse.”

A Korean American, Helen Kim, 39, part of a large and noisy People of Color Contingent, said she was demonstrating because “this pattern must stop.”

President Bush must not give up on diplomacy in the Middle East or North Korea, she said.