A large anti-war rally is planned for Washington, D.C. this coming weekend. The protest will coincide with others in San Francisco, London and Tokyo.

The march starts at 11 a.m. Saturday at Constitution Gardens, adjacent to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial near Constitution Avenue and 21st Street NW. It concludes at the White House. Speakers include Jesse L. Jackson, Al Sharpton, former attorney general Ramsey Clark and others, including singer Patti Smith.

"The aim is to get attention. Some protesters are planning to take off their shirts to protest President Bush's taking "the shirts off our backs" to pay for the war."

"Protesters believe that the Bush administration has manufactured a rush to war without sufficient cause and that the nation's foreign relations strategy is being driven by imperialistic impulses that infringe on the rights of other people. They said that a war on Iraq would hurt the Iraqi people more than it would hurt the Iraqi president."

While other rallies have been held around the country protesting the war, none have come close to matching one in London held Sept. 28 which drew 200,000 people. The organizers of the Washington march hope to match that number.

More than 250 buses will be arriving with protesters, about half from campuses around the country. One student activist said, "When you flood the streets in masses, you can't ignore the message. You have to see that people don't want this war."