outh occupied the centre stage Saturday as once again, tens of thousands of British Columbians poured over Vancouver’s Burrard Street bridge in a massive call for an end to the nuclear arms race. Teenagers and adolescents seemed everywhere in the April 25 Walk for Peace, in which an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 mainly Lower Mainland residents heeded the call of the organizing alliance, End the Arms Race (EAR) and marched the five-kilometre route from Kitsilano to Sunset Beach park, passing through Vancouver’s downtown core. Youth was the theme on the stage at the rally at Sunset Beach, with a moving presentation by the four members of Students Against Global Extermination (SAGE) constituting the highlight of a program that emphasized young people’s participation in the disarmament movement. Their representation was complemented with a rap music number by four Grade 7 students from North Vancouver’s Blue Ridge elementary school — Sean McKenzie, Austin Gangur, Mike Danielson and Robert Norris — and a large number of children flanking End the Arms Race vice-president Jean McCutcheon during her address. In the march a group of students heading a large “Kids for Peace” banner exploded in excitement when a camera turned their way. This was also the year of the peace voter pledge campaign. Individuals emerged briefly from the street-wide “river of humanity” to fill out and drop ballots into boxes at polling booths set up along the route of the march. The ballots pledged the participant to vote only for public office candidates who promised to work for disarmament. And the Walk for Peace in 1987 reaffirmed Vancouver as the peace capital of Canada, and disarmament as the sentiment that rules the world’s peoples at this time, drawing crowds comparable with those of earlier years and enjoying the continued support of city council, and school and parks boards — despite the fact that all of these are now dominated by right-wing civic forces. Sunny skies and warm temperatures greeted the marchers from trade unions, church groups, community organizations and peace assemblies as they moved among a sea of banners through the city streets. The only phenomenon to mar the event was the appearance in Vancouver harbor — repeating last year’s controversial visit — of four United States nuclear-capable warships. End the Arms Race extended an invitation to the crews of the vessels to participate in the peace walk. A emotional audience of thousands spread out over the hillside and flat ground of Sunset Beach park repeatedly applauded and gave a standing ovation to the four members of SAGE, Montreal high school students who have taken a year from their studies to speak to their peers about their power to change the course of the world. Seth Klein told the audience that, in visiting some 300 schools across Canada, “we've been fortunate enough to see thousands of youth find out they can do something.” SAGE member Desiree McGraw compared the struggle to convince youth to fight for peace to the anti-slavery fight in the U.S. 150 years ago, when “only a handful of blacks and whites got together. ““Now we look back and see that those who said slavery was a part of human nature were naive,” she said. “Don’t let your fear overpower you, let it empower you,” McGraw advised the young people in the crowd. “Unless we get our politicians to speak out on the arms race, there will be no unemployment, taxes or deficit to talk about,” asserted Max Faille. He reminded the audience that in only a few years he and thousands of other teenagers would be voting. SAGE speaker Alison Carpenter won cheers when she said, ““We need to stand up and make (peace) the election ie, just like New Zealand.” Thousands of voices repeated the words of a special pledge Carpenter recited, vowing to “make the survival of our planet the number one priority in the next election. We pledge to vote only for those politicians who will work actively towards nuclear disarmament. “We pledge to empower our peers, our youth, so they believe that they really can make a difference. We pledge to make leaders of the world love their children more than they hate their enemies,” thousands vowed, closing the pledge with a prolonged, standing ovation. Mayor Gordon Campbell acknowledged the Vancouver tradition of large peace marches, saying, “ We’ve played a leadership role and we will in the future.” VANCOUVER PEACE, 1987 school children (centre photo) release balloons bearing peace messages at city hall in first annual School Balloon Initiative. At the Walk for Peace on Saturday (right, from- top): members of Students Against Global Extermination move audience at Sunset Beach park with passionate pleas to get involved in disarmament; marchers take the peace voter pledge; trade union con- tingents move through Burrard Street bridge span; children, who marched in unprecedented numbers in Vancouver and around B.C. on April 25, display their con- tribution to the peace walk. - 14 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 29, 1987