WASHINGTON - Tapping into the same anger that fuels the conservative tea party movement, a coalition of progressive and civil rights groups marched Saturday on the Lincoln Memorial and pledged to support Democrats struggling to keep control of Congress.
With a month of campaigning to go and voter unhappiness over the economy high, the Democratic-leaning organizers hoped the four-hour program of speeches and entertainment energizes activists who are crucial if Democrats are to retain their majorities in the House and Senate. The national mood suggests gains for the Republicans, who are hoping to ride voter anger to gain control of the House and possibly the Senate.
Organizers said they intended the event to send a message about job creation, quality education and justice. But the largest organizations behind the rally, such as the AFL-CIO labour federation and the Service Employees International Union, tend to back Democratic candidates.
And the speakers hardly shied from criticizing Republicans.
In a fiery speech that opened the "One Nation Working Together" rally on the National Mall, MSNBC host Ed Schultz blamed Republicans for shipping jobs overseas and curtailing freedoms. He borrowed some of conservative commentator Glenn Beck's rhetoric and vowed to "take back our country."
"This is a defining moment in America. Are you American?" Schultz told the raucous crowd of thousands. "This is no time to back down. This is time to fight for America."
"We are together. This march is about the power to the people," said Schultz. "It is about the people standing up to the corporations. Are you ready to fight back?"
More than 400 organizations -- ranging from labour unions to faith, environmental and gay rights groups -- partnered for the event, which comes one month after Beck packed the same space with conservatives and tea party-style activists.
Organizers claimed they had as many participants as Beck's rally. But Saturday's crowds were less dense and didn't reach as far to the edges as they did during Beck's rally. The National Park Service stopped providing official crowd estimates in the 1990s.
Beck and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin gathered near the Lincoln Memorial on the Aug. 28 anniversary of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech to urge a vast crowd to embrace traditional values. Though also billed as nonpolitical, the rally was widely viewed as a protest against the policies of President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats.
Saturday's event drew a thousands-strong smattering of groups, from those who wore their union T-shirts and others who carried banners advocating expanding Medicare for all Americans. While the Beck rally stretched down the iconic National Mall, Saturday's event seemed smaller along the reflecting pool and other monuments.
Many said they viewed the event as a counter-protest to the Beck rally. They spoke about perceived racism they see among the tea party-style activists, even though no one who spoke at the Beck rally neared anything approaching criticism of Obama or his race.
"I hope people look at the mall because this is what America looks like," the Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights activist, said.
AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka urged participants, including his union's members, to band together.
"There is nothing, and I mean nothing, we can't do when we stand side by side, shoulder to shoulder," Trumka said. "We will stand together. And we will win together. And we won't let anyone -- and I mean anyone -- stand in our way."
That starts as soon as the crowds get back to their homes.
"Coming out of here, we've got to go home and ask our friends to vote, ask our neighbours to vote," Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a leading civil rights organization, said.
"Ever forward, never backwards," he led the crowd in a cheer.
But even participants recognized the challenge.
"There may be an enthusiasm gap, but we're not going to know until we have an election," said Ken Bork, who came from Camas, Washington state. "A lot of the noise from the extreme right-wing stuff, it's been well orchestrated by big money. But it's not as bad as they're making it out."
One Nation organizers said they began planning their event before learning about Beck's rally, and said Saturday's march is not in reaction to that.
Obama was spending the weekend at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.
