350,000 march for peace in NYC?

Did up to 350,000 people really march against war on Apr. 29 in New York City? According to a 442-word Associated Press article and a single press release from the main antiwar coalition in the US, United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ), they did. There are photos and video accessible online that would seem to visually corroborate those figures, let alone that the march in fact even occurred at all. But aside from a downbeat New York Times article clocking in at an underwhelming 518 words, and another from the Village Voice of comparable length, an internet search for any reporting on the event yields little more than multiple website appearances of the flimsy aforementioned AP story, typically cut down to 275 words. Not even the traditionally front-and-center, protest-friendly Independent Media Center network had a single substantive report on the march. But if the numbers are correct, this past weekend's demonstration in New York City would make it one of the largest and most significant antiwar protests in the United States since the record-breaking rallies and marches held on Feb. 15, 2003, before the invasion of Iraq. Indeed, with the exception of the reported 500,000 people that took to the streets of Los Angeles to march for immigrants' rights two days later on May 1, Manhattan's antiwar protest would make it one of the most sizable demonstrations of any sort to occur in the US within years. UFPJ national co-chair Judith LeBlanc stands by the 350,000 figure and told AGR that "the real untold story about the march was that it was a people-powered movement" which made the impressive size possible. LeBlanc said though the mainstream media offered no coverage in the weeks leading up to the march, numerous independent, labor and community-based newspapers were able to mobilize the numbers. "There was fantastic coverage from the local TV network affiliates and a great front page story from the New York Daily News," said LeBlanc. But the UFPJ leader conceded that the print media's coverage "was a problem for democracy" and said several people have "called the New York Times to protest." The police declined to offer an estimate for the size of the march, according to the AP article. Author/blogger Tom Engelhardt of TomDispatch.com was present at the march and wrote exhaustively about his experience, extensively interviewing numerous participants: an Iraq Veteran Against the War, an aunt who lost her nephew in Iraq, an 11-year-old boy carrying a sign saying "Bring My Dad Home. Stop the War," a 78-year-old "Raging Grandmother" and quite a few others. Thousands of signs ranging from "War is terrorism with a bigger budget" to "One Nation under Surveillance" and "How Many Lives per Gallon?" to "War Is Soooooo 20th Century" were seen, Engelhardt reported. "No one in this demonstration had the illusion that the White House was paying the slightest bit of attention to them," wrote Engelhardt. "The same, by the way, might be said of the mainstream media. On the ABC and NBC prime time news this night, the reports on this huge demonstration, sandwiched between what would be billed as major stories, would zip by in quite literally a few seconds each. In each case, if you hadn't been there, it would be easy to believe from the reporting that this event had essentially never occurred." Engelhardt admits however that he had "no way of knowing" whether what he saw "was the 300,000 the organizers claimed or merely the vague 'tens of thousands' mentioned in most media reports," presumably on television. But according to UFPJ, "the streets of New York City echoed on Apr. 29 with the chants, songs and shouts of up to 350,000 people mobilized around the calls to end the war in Iraq, to say 'no' to any attack on Iran, and to support the rights and dignity of all people." "An unprecedented range of organizations, committed to varied constituencies and a wide range of priorities, came together to march," said Leslie Cagan, national coordinator of the 1,500-organization strong UFPJ which called the protest. "We all recognize that until we end this lethal war in Iraq–a war that is destroying so many lives in Iraq and here, and costing so many billions of dollars so desperately needed for rebuilding lives, cities and countries–that we cannot succeed at reclaiming our democracy." UFPJ boasted that the march featured the "largest anti-war labor contingent in US history" and a "lead contingent" including Oscar-winning actors Susan Sarandon and Mercedes Ruehl; Oscar-winning film director Jonathan Demme; writer/actor Malachy McCourt; NYC Transport Workers Union leader Roger Toussaint; Michael Berg, whose son was the first US civilian hostage killed in Iraq; Reverend Jesse Jackson; Reverend Al Sharpton; John Wilhem, president of UNITE/HERE; National Organization for Women President Kim Gandy; and Anne Wright, the first State Department diplomat to resign protesting the Iraq War, among others.