The April 25 demonstrations
Washington and San Francisco were a powerful refutation of the image of the
"post-1960" age that the publicists of the right have been trying to build up for a decade. Even the estimate of
75,000 given by the International Her-
8 ald Tribune is massive enough. But estimates by supporters of the demonstration ran up to 150,000. At the height of the anti-Vietnam war movement few demonstrations were bigger than that.
International Viewpoint • May 18, 1987
In the first place, the demonstrations included a large contingent of unionized workers, far greater than the anti-war demonstrations of the 1960s. Reporters for The Militant - the newspaper retlects the point of view of the Socialist Workers' Party, an organization in fraternal solidarity with the Fourth International - estimated that union contingents represented about 20 per cent of the Washington demonstration.
William Winpisinger, president of the International Association of Machinists, marched with his union's contin-
Several thousand workers joined with the contingent from the New York City Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees Local 1199. The largest contingent, according to The Militant, was from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). In New York City alone, District 37 of AFSCME had chartered 70 buses for the demonstration.
"Look at all the unionists!"
"As the cheering, banner-waving hospital workers strode by, they had an impact on other marchers," The Militant wrote. " 'Look at all the unionists, said one man."
There were 19 union presidents among the endorsers of the action. The trade unionists backed the mobilization and came out on April 25 despite a letter from AFL-CIO president Lane Kirkland and local AFL-CIO bodies ordering them not to endorse the Washington and San Francisco actions. This letter was also backed up by a red-baiting campaign tional Education Association; American Postal Workers' Union; Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers; Farm Labor Organizing Committee; and Hotel and Restaurant Workers, " The Militant wrote.
Moreover, the "youthfulness of the was striking." A great many were highschool and university students. A lot of them were affected by the Contragate revelations. The Militant quoted one highschool student from a town in Maine as saying, "We came here because so much has been covered up, with all the lies we've been told about Central America. This march could be the beginning of a new consciounsess in this country."
In San Francisco also the crowd was youthful. "The overwhelming of the young crowd were highschool and college students, many attending their first demonstration," The Militant wrote. It estimated the West Coast demonstration at 75,000. Twenty-two buses arrived from Los Angeles, one chartered by the United Auto Workers and another by the United Electrical Workers, the latter carrying many Salvadoran UE members. Buses came from as far as Portland and Seattle, and students arrived from Santa Barbara, San Diego and many other cities
"A ten-car train brought marchers from San Jose, stopping to pick up International Association of Machinists contingents from the Lockheed and Westinghouse plants in Sunnyvale, and airport workers in Burlingame."
The largest contingent of unionists came from the Service Employees' International Union. There were also, among others, contingents from the Machinists; the Longshoremen's Union; Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers; Amalgamated Clothing and Textile
AFSCME; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; Musicians; American Federation of Government Employees; and United Electri-
The young people who were at these rallies, many for the first time, seemed to echo the sentiment of the tens of thousands of West European youth who have demonstrated in the last year that the 1960s were OK, but the end of the
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