The march was well attended, with an estimated 450 people partaking. The crowd marched around downtown with banners, signs, bucket drums, and a few blowhorns chanting slogans such as "money for schools and education not for war and occuption" and "whose streets?. our streets." The anarchist block was dressed in black with masked faces to symbolize the hundreds of thousands of unnamed victims of this Iraqi occupation who at one point, broke out into a spontaneous jam dance session in front of the police cars who were forcing the march into one lane. The US LAW peacekeepers were a little nervous by the Anarchist response to the police and were asking them to stay in the designated area, to which they complied- some of the time.

Also on the march were Joe, Chris and Oren from the Catholic Worker House, who put together a street theatre. Two of them were dressed in military gear while the other was dressed in an orange jumpsuit housed in a little cage. The cage was on wheels and was pushed along by the two soldiers with the rest of the marchers. At one point, the guards let the prisoner out and pretended to beat him up. It was one of those visuals you wanted to turn away from because it depicts the reality of what some people of middle eastern descent are going through right now and it is unimaginable how they indure.

After the march was a rally at Cleveland City Hall where a number of people briefly spoke and Anne Feeney, the invited musician, played a couple of folk songs.

Saturday evening was a speaking event that was open to the public. Among those who spoke were Samir Adin, President of the Iraqi Freedom Congress, and John Wilhelm, President of Unite Here!. The Keynote Speakers on Saturday night were US. Representative Dennis Kucinich and global activist Cindy Sheehan. Representative Kucinich spoke on the emotional drain the war has on people all over the world, how the Bush Administration has no intention of changing its policies on Iraq, how he has been a maverick in Congress to hold the Democrats accountable for taking a tougher stand against the war, and how the American people need to push Congress in the Spring of 2007 to deny the President any more funds for the Iraq war because that is the only way the people will have their say in this matter. He is hopeful in the direction society is going and would like to see people inspired to higher groiund, to lift themselves up to a higher state of consciousness and lift up others. He believes peace is enevitable and our higher destiny as people is to experince human unity.

Cindy Sheehan, whose military son was killed in Iraq a couple of years ago, made headlines when she went to Crawford, Texas, camped out down the road from the Bush ranch, and demanded to talk to George Bush about the just cause for which her son and many others have died. Ever since she took a stand she has not backed down. She has become a spokesperson for military families, for the anti-war movement, and has been busy building alliances and making peace with people all over the world who are experiencing the brute force of the US military and the devestation it brings. She brought up many good points and statements that are worth pondering. She talked about how union workers on the average get better pay and benefits than US soldiers on active duty. She brought up the sad truth that when it comes to war and peace, Democrats and Republicans are one in the same. She said we should not call what is happening in Iraq a "war" but an "occupation" because that's what it is. She talked about the connection between the Free Trade Agreement, large multinational corporations in other countries around the world, and the war in Iraq because they are all connected. She called George Bush a psychopathic murderer who has proven himself very irresponsible in handling US taxpayer dollars. Yet, despite all his lies, deceit, and arrogant orders to use force in most situations, Congress still grants him billions of dollars to do his dirty work. She does not hate whoever pulled the trigger that killed her son. She has compassion on the fighters and people in Iraq. She understands that we are an occupying force and that the Iraqi's are angry and want the US out of there. Who she has no compassion for and accuses of murdering her son is George W. Bush, who still has not taken her up on her request to speak with him about the so-called justness of this so-called war in Iraq.

In the end, she called for a stronger movement to impeach George Bush and that he and others in his administration be charged for war crimes. She would like to see a world where the US military is not one of preemtive strike but rather of defense, like a big sister, coming to the assistance of any country who legitamitely needs help. In her opinion, we need to show the world that we are against the Bush Administration and US Occupation to show our solidarity with people all over the world.

Anne Feeney ended out the night with a few songs. (Check out Audio posting for an interview with Anne.)

On Sunday morning were a number of workshops including The Cost of War in Lives, Money and Our Social Safety Net; The Economic Draft and the Military in Our Schools, Alternative Strategies to End the War and Occupation, and a workshop presented by our own Tom Nomad along with Judith LeBlanc called, Building Labor/Community Peace Coalitions, amongst many others. To end the conference was a talk by Greg Coleridge, the coordinator for the Northeast Ohio Anti War Coalition (NOAC) ,who reminded us that all major change within this country has happened because of people organizing at the grassroots level and demanding it, and that in order to get all our needs met such as withdrawl of US troops out of Iraq, better health care, more jobs, and adequate public school funding, US citizens must demand a true Democracy, a Direct Vote Democracy: a true social movement.

All throughout the two days were closed sessions of meetings and planning strategies between the different local unions and their representatives. The participants left there with a renewed vision about the purpose of unions in the anti-war movement whose first step is to recruit more participants.

To learn more about US Labor Against the War (USLAW), go to www.uslaboragainstwar.org