Torch Songs: A report from the groundEd Note: I was on my way from a press conference at the federal building at around 1:30 today when I saw the anti-Torch demonstrators, at least a couple hundred of them, surge out of Civic Center Plaza, across the street, and up the steps of City Hall. It was a pretty dramatic moment, with all their brightly colored flags whipping in the stiff wind and their chants echoing against the marble facade.
I stuck around for a few minutes, flanking a phalanx of bored media types and a line of motorcycle cops contendedly contemplating the overtime they were racking up, to see if anything else went down. I listened to more chanting and and watched more flag waving until a cameraman from one of the networks leaned over and said, "Maybe something will happen when Richard Gere speaks later."
Guardian Intern Emma Lierley had a lot more stamina than I did. She followed the proceedings all day and filed the following report. - JB Powell
With the Beijing Olympic torch set to be received Wednesday, pro-Tibetan protestors ran their own torch through the streets of San Francisco Tuesday. The rally was held in multiple locations, including the UN Plaza, the steps of City Hall, and the section of Geary Street that boarders the Chinese Consulate. Hundreds of participants loudly denounced the “genocide torch” and called for a free Tibet.
The protest began Tuesday morning in the UN Plaza, as Tibetan flags snapped in the wind and a group of monks from the Gyuto Vajrayana Center in San Jose chanted a blessing over the crowd. The Buddhist monk Thupten Donyo, manager of the Gyuto Vajrayana Center, was very excited about the day’s events, and told the Guardian that never before had Tibet been given such a chance to speak to the world.
“We lost our country fifty years ago,” he said, “and we are struggling to keep our culture alive.”
After an hour of ceremony and speeches from various pro-Tibetan speakers, the monks and 1988 US Olympic Team member Charles Altekruse carried the Tibetan Freedom Torch, flanked by a framed picture of the Dalai Lama, to the steps of City Hall.
From there, the protest progressed around the corner and up Van Ness Avenue, blocking all northbound lanes of traffic as the march stretched over three city blocks. Turning on Geary, the procession made its way to the Chinese Consulate at the intersection of Laguna and Geary, where San Francisco Police protected the building, and some ten police officers watched from neighboring roofs. There, the non-violent protestors sat in the street, sang the Tibetan national anthem, yelled various slogans at the non-responsive Chinese Consulate, and listened to several more speakers. A small plane circled over-head, trailing a banner that read “Stop Cultural Genocide in Tibet.” After an hour in front of the Chinese consulate, the Tibetan Freedom Torch parade marched back to the UN Plaza for continued ceremony.
A well-received Supervisor Chris Daly, one of the morning’s speakers and a vocal advocate of the Tibetan movement for the past several weeks, told us that Tibetan freedom and self-determination was an important issue for everyone to be a part of.
“Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere,” he said.
-- Emma Lierley
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