“No blood for oil.”

“Regime change begins at home.”

“George Bush, we know you. Your father was a killer too.”

These chants and several others marked the protest on the steps of the Wisconsin Capitol Saturday as people from across the state, the nation and the world protested U.S. military action in Iraq.

Three buses filled with students and Madison citizens traveled to Washington Friday, where they joined protestors from as far away as San Francisco.

Locally, the protest was funded by The Madison Area Peace Coalition, with national support from Act Now to Stop War and End Racism.

Solidarity, a Madison Socialist group, also passed around literature which described war on Iraq as “A war of conquest, a war of oil control and prices, a war to dominate the entire Middle East.”

The document went on to say, “Such wars benefit transnational corporate interests, not working people.”

In general, the speakers at the rally spoke about the current movement by the Bush administration against the Iraqi government and stressed the need to connect as a social coalition in the anti-war effort. The crowd got in on the action too, as most of the speeches were interrupted by chanting, jokes and even songs.

Mohammed Ahbed, a Palestinian student, was one of several speakers during the two-hour demonstration. “You guys dissent,” he said, “This is the most American of qualities.”

Ahbed also explained the right of Iraqi people to dissent.

“Iraqi people have a right to self-determination. It’s up to the Iraqi people to get rid of Saddam Hussein,” he said. “Americans need to realize that their creator is not the property of one regime.”

Madison-area activist Allen Ruff used a historical analysis to prove the same point.

“If a government doesn’t listen,” he shouted as he paced back and forth in front of the crowd, “It’s the right of the people to get rid of it”

Ruff, who throughout his speech referred to President Bush as a butcher and alluded to former president Jimmy Carter as being history’s greatest monster, urged the crowd, “Shake this entire country by any means necessary.”

“We need to build a new movement. Get connected,” Ruff went on. “Stop them from doing their dirty business as usual.”

Jonathon Grossman, a professor at UW-Eau Claire, criticized the war on terror and questioned parents in the audience about the draft status of their children. Using as examples his students and his own children as well as spectators, Grossman spoke of a dire need to discourage future military drafts and buildups.

“We don’t want a future of one war every year for our kids,” he said.

The large audience was overwhelmingly in agreement with the speakers and in many ways they were nearly as entertaining. When a speaker tried to broadcast a protestor in Washington over a garbled cell-phone line, one audience member yelled, “It must be Sprint.”

Many also carried pictures of the president with the word THINK stamped across his forehead. A dog wore a t-shirt with the words “Danes for peace” scrawled on it.

When Ruff questioned why people think Hussein is building weapons of mass destruction, one person yelled out, “Dan Rather.”

Yet perhaps the most significant part of the rally came as Vietnam veteran Will Williams led the crowd in an impromptu performance of the song “Power To the People” accompanied by clapping hands, bongo drums and even a trumpet.

As the crowd swayed back and forth, with some spectators in tears, Williams stated, “I’m on a battlefield again today, with you.

“Vietnam was a mistake. I tell you now, Iraq is a mistake. We did not learn from history.”