Not long after its 4pm rallying time, the Poor People's March had overflowed the barricaded space set up by the cops, and people kept streaming in. The march, organized by the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, convened outside the United Nations headquarters and began with a number of speakers, who couldn't be heard by most of those in attendance. Protestors on the periphery of the march passed the time teasing the police, who were present in great numbers and soon began clearing the sidewalk around the plaza. Another line of disassembled wooden barricades was lying on the ground, under the feet of the protestors; the police politely asked the crowd, "Help us get these out of your way," and when the people parted, the barricades went up. Shortly thereafter, cops moved the wall a few feet farther out, giving us more room, and we joked: "Ah, now we're free." A few protestors began a chant to address the irony that the police were protecting the system that had them working without a labor contract, but the march "peacekeepers" quickly shut them up, receiving much criticism in the process from protestors in the area. Shortly thereafter, a march organizer on the stage intoned a nonviolence pledge; the march participants were expected to repeat it, and about half did. The organizer set an important tone by reminding marchers that there were disabled people and immigrants in the crowd who faced far worse consequences if the police got violent, though rather than asking marchers to respect the risk level chosen by the more vulnerable people in the march, it was decided by the organizers that "We will practice nonviolence." There was more than a little discontent expressed by march participants spanning all the demographics present that the enforcement of pacifism was heavy-handed, and served state interests. The march started off heading east and soon picked up a compelling vibrancy and energy, greater than Sunday's more massive protests. The 5,000 person-strong march contained a diverse mix of people. Most, but certainly not all were young, and among them were anarchists, socialists, Naderites, and even a few John Kerry supporters. Most people came unaffiliated, but there were visible contingents of Radical Cheerleaders, Code Pink, Anarchist People of Color, and Still We Rise. Compared to most other events throughout the week and at other mass mobilizations, there were a large number of people of color, though the majority were white people, many college students, ostensibly participating as allies. The march headed south for on 2nd Avenue to 23rd St., turned west, and then came north again on 8th Avenue, to approach the Convention center from the south. Energy was high and exuberant chants filled the air, one forming a strange polyrhythmic cadence with the next. People on the sidewalks and in windows cheered, and the march grew as some bystanders joined in. There was some disagreement between protestors in some instances when chants against Bush were expanded to include Kerry, and Nader, and "the whole fucking system" as one woman phrased it, throwing her head back in an expressive howl. In general, more liberal slogans were shouted by those with the megaphones, repeated by the crowd, tolerated by the more radical. At least once a demonstrator preferring a more radical anti-poverty expression (I believe it was "1,2,3,4, Kill the Rich and Arm the Poor") was shushed by those around him. In another instance, a marcher was handing out copies of a flyer (thousands of copies of the same flyer had been handed out the previous day) warning that violence would play into the wishes of the GOP, and that protestors advocating confrontation were likely police provocateurs. Another protestor confronted the man with the flyers and confronted him for spreading paranoia and endangering the legitimately militant by alienating them from potential support by other marchers. (It might be wondered whether the numerous marchers sporting Che Guevarra on their clothing believed Guevarra, as an advocator of violence, to be a provocateur playing into the hands of the Cuban state). Given that most media coverage has focused exclusively on the politics of the march organizers, it would do well to point out that a number of march participants were frustrated with passivity and felt that even "mindless violence" would hurt the Republicans by blemishing the spectacle of their coronation and suggesting to the public that George Bush's very presence incites riots, no matter how senseless and misguided. But despite their personal feelings, all the protestors respected the wishes of march organizers and kept confrontation to a minimum, though it would be dishonest to suggest that everyone in the march spoke with a unified voice. Well before the march had begun heading north towards the convention center, an aggressive police presence began advancing up both sides of the march. Soon, police began targeted friskings of activists they singled out for unknown reasons. It wasn't long until they pushed a protestor up against a wall and took out the handcuffs, either because he was wearing a mask or refused a search, according to various sources. Much of the crowd in that area surged around the three arresting officers, chanting angrily and pressing close with the hope of intimidating police into retreating. But no one engaged in physical resistance so the cops pushed through the crowd in a panick and moved towards the closest police column. Other police then charged the knot of spectators and began attacking protestors with no provocation. They knocked people to the ground and tackled one man who had been chased well into the crowd, either for wearing a mask or attempting to obstruct the first arrest. Most of the marchers surged around the police, their chants soon evolving from "Shame! Shame!" to "Pigs Fuck Off!" and even "Off the Pigs!" The crowd was growing extremely angry in response to the police brutality, and manifesting even greater verbal resistance and intimidation tactics, though again everyone refrained from actual self-defense. March organizers and peacekeepers urged the crowd to ignore the arrests and stick to the march route. Multiple times, police snatched someone out of the crowd, and then attacked anyone who opposed them, even though opposition was confined to chanting. And every time, the march organizers urged the marchers to look the other way, to keep up, to abandon those being arrested. By all appearances, no attempts were made to slow down the front of the march so that protestors could support those being arrested, even though at the opening rally the organizers had pretended to show a great concern for protecting immigrants, disabled people, and other "vulnerable" people from being arrested. Instead, peacekeepers and police could be heard shouting identical instructions to the crowd ("move along") and many of the marchers were growing increasingly frustrated. When the march got to 8th Avenue and 29th St., those of us in the middle of the march looked back and suddenly realized we were at the end of the march. The entire back third of the march had been cut off and penned in by police, and the march organizers either did not notice or decided not to support them, not to communicate the fact of an impending danger to those of us who now had our backs exposed to a police assault. Acting autonomously, regular protestors spread the information and got the march to tighten up and face to the rear. Within a minute, a line of cops silhoutted by the flashing of emergency vehicles began advancing on us from a block to the south, where they had penned in the others. Without warning, more cops charged in from both sides of 29th St. Protest organizers had told us that the cops would try to pick a fight, and that's exactly what the cops had been trying to do. The organizers told us that we should not fight back, and we didn't. They said that if we didn't let ourselves be provoked we would be safe, that in nonviolence we would be strong. They were wrong. The cops attacked us anyway. Plainclothes cops on motorcycles ran into the crowd, injuring several people. They were wearing shirts over their badges, and uniformed cops backed them up, shoving the crowd out of the intersection, though there were too many people to disperse, and we were shoved, pressed, run over, and even trampled. One cop, arrogantly confident that he could assault us as confidently as if we were sheep, drove his motorcycle far into the crowd, away from the support of other police, but at least one person had had enough of letting them attack us, and the cop was knocked off his bike. With charge after charge into the crowd, the police cleared the intersection, making more arrests, and they blocked us in, between 29th and 30th St. Protest lawyers documented cases of assault and recorded injuries, medics tended to the hurt, and people stood around confused, angry, figuring out what to do. A march organizer got on a bullhorn and yelled at the people near the barricade, who had just been violently assaulted, that they were provoking the police. Dozens of marchers swarmed around the organizer, telling him the attack had been unprovoked, crying, yelling, screaming at him. Peacekeepers drew everyone they could away from the barricades and into the middle of the block, defusing the situation and aiding the police enclosure. Word circulated that the cops had announced we could leave in small groups--vulnerable to targeted arrest--but that they would clear us out and could charge us at anytime, despite the march organizers bending over backwards to "de-escalate" the situation. The police still held all the real power, and we had made it easy for them to use it. Some marchers began sitting down, toying with the idea of civil disobedience should the police move in. Others wanted to stay in the streets for Tuesday, when they might get more support from people who know the meaning of solidarity. So they tried to look obedient and passed out of the narrow gap in the barricades left open by police. Two blocks north and west of the protest pen, a group of about twenty march organizers and peacekeepers were calmly sitting in the grass, discussing amongst themselves or chatting idly with a group of police lieutenants. Meanwhile, the marchers they had led waited around for possible assault or arrest, some not even knowing how to get past the barricades and police lines. A nonviolent protest, a concern for the vulnerable, an idea of solidarity, a trusted leadership. Everywhere, in a subversive way, revolutionaries slipping off into the pregnant night were learning. It had been a defeat, but the kind that illuminates the path to victory, to freedom. Dark helicopters thrashed the sky overhead. Steeled cops leaned on every corner. Complacent shoppers flocked through midtown. But in the evening air was a learning, a hope, a knowledge of a future battle that we might fight to win.