Keeping hopes for peace alight at weekly protest on Eighth Ave.

Volume One, Issue 15, January 5 - 11, 2007

Chelsea Now photo by Jefferson Siegel

Chelsea Neighbors United Against the War line Eighth Ave. at their Tuesday night protest.

By Jefferson Siegel

Just after Thanksgiving, the U.S.’s involvement in the Iraq War surpassed its involvement in World War II in terms of length. The new year brings the war’s duration to three years and 10 months, hardly the cakewalk the administration promised before the invasion in 2003.

Just after 3 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, another tragic milestone was reached with news of the 3,000th U.S. death in the war. More Americans have now died in Iraq than in the World Trade Center attack.

Protests against the war have ebbed and swelled around such milestones. Demonstrations manifested on the first, second and third anniversaries of the war; marchers took to the streets when the deaths of 1,000, then 2,000, then 2,500 soldiers were announced.

As the minutes of 2006 ticked away, peace groups marked this tragic new number by announcing a series of nationwide vigils. One Chelsea group, though, didn’t need to alert locals of its plans, because members of Chelsea Neighbors United Against the War have been on the streets every Tuesday night since mid-2005.

“At this point, with the billions upon billions that have been spent on the war, enough is enough,” declared Chuck Zlatkin, a co-founder of the group. Members of Chelsea Neighbors United gather every Tuesday at 6 p.m. on the corner of 24th St. and Eighth Ave. Like the motto on the General Post Office several blocks north, neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night keeps these dedicated peace activists from their mission. Some pass out leaflets, some spread a banner across a parking lane on Eighth Ave. while others sit in wheelchairs and engage passersby in debate.

Last Tuesday night, over three dozen people lined Eighth Ave., holding candles and signs. Anna Lebowitz, 86, a tiny dynamo of a woman, whisked from sidewalk to subway entrance to crosswalk, pushing fliers into any nearby hands while waving a small flashlight.

“We support our troops, end the war!” she said to anyone within earshot. “Please help us honor our dead in Iraq,” implored Lebowitz, who served in the Army Nurse Corps in World War II, and has lived in Penn South for 15 years.

“Do you know how many Americans have been wounded?” she kept asking. It was a rhetorical query, as her tone implied only one answer would suffice: too many.

Zlatkin took a measured tone in assessing the human and financial costs of the war.

“Three thousand troops is too much of a price to pay,” he said, accusing bipartisan politicans of complicity in enabling the war. “It’s a sad truth, but it is the truth, that our elected officials of both political parties have done nothing to end the war. All they do is vote for funding for the war.”

Zlatkin decried the profit motive driving the conflict.

“Young people are paying with their lives,” he said, “while corporations like Halliburton, Raytheon and Bechtel, they don’t do the war for cost, they don’t sacrifice, they don’t do it for a minimal profit — they do it for huge profits while young people pay with their lives.”

Chelsea Neighbors United germinated during the week of the 2004 Republican National Convention when a massive police presence occupied the streets in front of their homes near Madison Square Garden. Many felt compelled to find a common voice for their frustration over the war and government policies.

Though a fledgling organization, the group mobilized over 100 people on the second anniversary of the war in March 2005 for a candlelight march through the neighborhood. At that time, the death count of U.S. troops stood at 1,518. By that summer, the Tuesday night “stand-up” was firmly established and, as Zlatkin points out, they haven’t missed a week since.

State Senator Tom Duane and Assemblymember Richard Gottfried have each attended a Tuesday night gathering. Last month, Congressmember Jerrold Nadler attended. Zlatkin had been a vocal critic of Nadler’s vote for war funding.

“It doesn’t make sense, in a democracy,” Zlatkin proposed, “where the overwhelming majority of people are opposed to the war, how come our elected officials are still voting to fund it?” Nadler would explain to members that he was voting for funding for the troops but against establishment of a permanent base in Iraq.

Carla Nordstrom has lived in Chelsea for 14 years and teaches American history in the Bronx. An officer of the Chelsea Reform Democratic Club, Nordstrom has participated in demonstrations against the Vietnam War and in support of civil rights. Last Tuesday she stood quietly near the subway exit holding a candle emblazoned with a peace symbol.

“It’s important that people pay attention to what’s going on in Iraq,” she said. “I think the ‘stand-up’ is a wonderful thing, but I wish we didn’t have to do it. To have a weekly reminder of what’s wrong with the war — there are all these issues going on in Iraq and we’re just not paying attention to them.

“Here we’re on this little corner every Tuesday night and I think a lot of people in this community are used to seeing us and I think it helps remind them of that [the war],” she added.

“We were very concerned about the appropriations,” she continued. “It’s my understanding that there is enough money from the last $70 billion appropriation to bring the troops home. The only reason you would appropriate more money is to stay there longer,” she noted.

Nordstrom recalled that in the group’s early days, passersby didn’t pay much attention. But, as the war dragged on and Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq, set up a peace encampment outside Bush’s summer home in Texas, more locals voiced support.

“As time goes on and people get more and more discouraged by the situation, I think the response we get is very positive and very supportive,” Nordstrom added.

By Thursday, 3,005 American troops had died in Iraq. Some estimates place the number of Iraqis killed at over 600,000. More than 1 million Iraqis have been displaced. War costs tally upwards of half a trillion dollars. There is talk of reinstating the draft.

“It’s like a combination of outrage and sadness,” Zlatkin concluded, adding, “It’s like it’s up to us to end the war. It’s also frustrating to realize that we haven’t been able to stop the killing...yet.”

There is another large protest planned in Washington, D.C., on Sat., Jan. 27, to show incoming members of Congress the growing outrage with the war. Chelsea Neighbors United has chartered its own bus to Washington. Anyone wishing to join the same-day round trip can purchase a $35 ticket at next Tuesday night’s stand-up or by contacting Roberto Rodriguez at 917-270-2065. The bus will leave Saturday morning, Jan. 27, at 5:30 a.m. from 26th St. and Eighth Ave.