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With signs in their hands, buttons on their bags and plenty of sunscreen smeared all over their exposed areas, Berkeley residents turned out en masse Saturday in San Francisco for a protest march marking the one-year anniversary of the United States invasion of Iraq. The protest was also organized to voice continued opposition to the U.S. occupation of that country. 

“We’re here so that people don’t forget, we’re here to remind people that money is still going to fund the war and people are dying while cuts to services are taking place here,” said Chandra Hauptman, a Berkeley resident. “What kind of peace have we brought?” 

On a bright and warm first day of spring, Hauptman was among an estimated 50,000 people who walked from Dolores Park in the Mission District to the Civic Center. Filling the streets as they went, protesters carried signs, sang and danced along the way. Eventually they gathered on the lawn in front of City Hall as part of the largest anti-war demonstration here in the Bay since the height of the Iraqi invasion last year. 

Coordinated demonstrations were held in 250 cities across the United States. Millions of other demonstrators participated around the world.  

While the war in Iraq was the dominant theme, other issues also made their way onto signs and into chants, including the recent U.S.-supported coup in Haiti, the upcoming presidential election, the occupation of Palestine, and gay marriage.  

At the Civic Center, a variety of speakers—including political activists, actor Woody Harrelson, and a number of elected officials—addressed the crowd . 

According to Andrea Buffa, the Peace Campaign coordinator for Global Exchange, marching on the Iraq invasion’s anniversary was meant to send a message to global leaders about continued world-wide opposition to the war. Global Exchange was one of the organizations that helped organize Saturday’s event, 

“A world-wide protest makes you feel like you can make a difference. Getting on the streets helps people not feel so isolated,” Buffa said. 

Laura Venturi, 13, who attends Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, marched with her mother and put it bluntly about George Bush, by far the favorite political target during the march. “The only reason he is president is to piss people off,” she said. 

Wearing a mask and sign around her neck that read, “It’s time to unmask this bloody war,” Venturi was one of many who used the march to creatively express her opposition. 

“[The war] doesn’t make sense,” she said. “He said there were weapons of mass destruction, and there weren’t. I just don’t like him.” 

“One year later we have to keep showing the public that we’re here. We have to put it in the public face,” said Melodie Venturi, Laura’s mother. “[The Iraqi occupation] has become a hidden war. It’s not in our daily lives, but it’s something that I think about every day.”