The Coal County Anti-Klan Coalition, composed of local citizens, organized the protest.

The state Unity Coalition had come to town to persuade people to ignore the Klan, but it failed.

The anti-Klan protesters were made up of local high school students, students from St. Francis College and the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, anti-hate group Christians, gay people, college professors, small businessmen, a punk rock contingent, International Socialist Organization members, Socialist Workers Party members, Black ministers, unemployed whites, and workers.

Some people have castigated the anti-Klan protest. A column in a local paper, the Mountaineer Herald, claimed that it was easy to condemn the KKK and blamed the civil rights movement, the women's movement, and affirmative action for causing whites to be angry. Others were cynical, claiming that people just showed up out of curiosity.

At the rally, it was pointed out that the 8.7 percent unemployment rate in Cambria County is the result of mines closing, mills shutting down, etc.

Also it was pointed out that the KKK served the interests of corporate America. Others who attended the rally have since written letters to the editor demonstrating that they were actually there to protest racism.

For many who had never protested anything, it was an educational experience and a consciousness raising experience. For all interests and purposes, it was a positive thing, despite the fact that protest organizers received more criticism than the Klan all along.

N. Brand

Loretto, Pennsylvania

St. Patrick's Day parade
On Sunday, March 15, Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness participated in Philadelphia's St. Patrick's Day parade and led the march with the contingent of the "United Irish American Societies of the Delaware Valley." This grouping, also known as the Federation, is the umbrella organization for supporters of the Irish republican movement. Martin received an enthusiastic welcome from tens of thousands of Irish Americans and supporters of the Irish freedom struggle.

The parade this year was noticeably more political than any for the last decade or so. The theme of the parade was a political slogan, in religious form, "St. Patrick Bless the United Irishmen on 1798 and 1998." The theme float featured re-enactors dressed as 18th century rebels and others dressed as IRA volunteers. An actor representing St. Patrick stood on a plywood mountain, in the center of the float and blessed the freedom fighters.

The great majority of the contingents carried banners demanding freedom for Irish political prisoners, or British withdrawal from Ireland. Teamsters Local 155 carried placards demanding that the U.S. Postal Service issue a stamp to commemorate the Irish Famine (the Great Hunger) of the 19th century.

Roy Inglee

Wilmington, Delaware

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