A turnout of thousands and a positive—almost celebratorial energy—bolstered protesters and bystanders alike today during the march from Columbus Circle and, later, Central Park South, during a bright but chilly afternoon. As they looked on, crowds lifted props as disparate as a giant penis (which advertised the WEF’s big screw); George W. Bush puppets; talking heads of state with oil-soaked lips ("Got oil?"); and countless signs: "The Planet Before Profit", "WEF Go Home", "I Will No Be Made Into a Modern-Day Slave", or "Bad Capitalist, No Martini". The long-winding route tested protester’s expectations and police confidence. Each new turn stretched the crowd further, while police sliced the protest line in two early on--on the east side of 59th St. and 5th Avenue. Protesters denounced the move, and a scuffle ensued: tear gas and arrests were reported. Police chose to reopen the street, and the protesters moved forward, triumphantly. East on 59th St., then south on 3rd Avenue before moving west again to Park Avenue and the Waldorf-Astoria. By 4:30 p.m., a cold dusk was setting on Park Avenue as protesters were corralled into pens starting one block south of the Waldorf. Billy Bragg took the microphone and sang a penned tune of global injustice to the crowd, and drumming groups inspired dancing. On the other side of the barricades, lines of police fronted a deeper, more staggered police line that hugged Park Avenue office buildings. "I’m thinking 10,000 protesters and all the cops have reported so far are some scratched windows," said one protester. "That’s not bad." "The turnout is fantastic," said William Starr, a New York City resident and protester. "It’s really encouraging. I’ve been to many marches." A veteran protester since the sixties, Starr and his wife, Susan Strane, noted the multi-dimensional nature of the protesters’ concerns. "Globalization is a fact, but what matters is who controls it and who profits. We have to be careful that certain countries don’t dominate everything, that the smaller countries aren’t vacuumed in for our own use. And some of these countries are getting drawn into this new movement and starting to push back on us. It’s encouraging." And a unifying theme for most of the groups, noted Starr, is their solidarity with underprivileged countries. "In the sixties there was solidarity with the Vietnamese, and this continues that mindset." The collision of disparate activist issues that has marked global justice rallies in the past two years has drawn criticism from mainstream media critics who say the din of voices has diluted each group’s concerns. But Strane argued against this claim. "The big guys who think they’re in charge have the most to fear from a multi-issue movement," she said. "We need public protests to say we are sick of supporting billionaires and the wars and the Pentagon and the oil companies, these corrupt companies, and we want an entirely new, non-violent world," said John Dear, a Jesuit priest involved with religious organizations for peace and justice. Dear worked full-time with families of World Trade Center victims. "I find today very hopeful, because we’re all here. There are all kinds of people here: people talking about justice, talking about our planet, about civil rights, labor rights, anti-war--from students to older people, people of all races, all different countries. This is great. We need lots more of it. And the more non-violent we can be, the better the moral strength we have."