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Antiwar Rally Draws 300 to Alliant Headquarters
Published June 1, 2004 Minneapolis StarTribune
By Mike Kaszuba, Star Tribune
Marking a far different type of Memorial Day, about 300 antiwar protesters rallied outside the Edina headquarters of defense contractor Alliant Techsystems on Monday, singing songs, holding signs and waving at honking motorists.
"This is the head of the snake," Tom Bottolene, a protest organizer, told the crowd as they stood outside the corporate center. "This is where the decisions are made."
With police watching but not moving to make arrests, more than 100 demonstrators crossed onto Alliant's property and sat in front of the company's front doors. Many in the crowd cheered, though the protest was largely symbolic because the company's offices were closed for the holiday. "We'll sit there for about 10 minutes, and then we'll declare victory," Bottolene said.
Kathleen Olsen said that as she and her 8-year-old son, Joseph, came to the protest, they passed a cemetery and she explained to him that they would be observing a different Memorial Day. She played a violin on the hillside as the protesters walked single-file around the company's headquarters.
"I just think what Alliant Tech is doing is totally immoral," said Jim Steinhagen, a Korean War veteran from Minneapolis who said he served in the Marines. "I don't know that we're going to change it ... [but] if there's a demonstration against war, I'm probably there."
Many in the crowd were veteran antiwar protesters, and they talked Monday of long-ago protests and wars. "I think there's no justification for our being in Iraq," said Barbara Mishler, who then talked of having protested the policies of President Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s.
At one point, the crowd also euologized the late David Dellinger, the longtime peace activist and member of the so-called "Chicago 7" who were arrested for conspiring to incite violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago during the Vietnam War. Dellinger, 88, died a week ago.
"We did many, many things together," Marv Davidov, another veteran peace activist in the Twin Cities, said of Dellinger.
Mike Miles was one of an estimated two dozen protesters Monday who read the names of the dead from the Iraq war -- both Americans and Iraqis -- as the crowd listened silently and a bell tolled for the victims. "We've been doing peace work for a long time," said Miles, of Luck, Wis. "Several carloads of us came over today."
© copywrite 2004 Minneapolis StarTribune
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1557/4804667.html
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