Crowds gathered outside Hamilton City Hall yesterday for an anti-racism rally organised in the wake of the beating of Rui Medeiros.

More than 100 people looked on as politicians and community leaders lined up to condemn the vicious Front Street attack.

One speaker said it was time to ?declare war on racism?.

Organiser Jonathan Starling said he would have preferred a larger turnout yesterday lunchtime. But he said that because organisation for the demonstration only started at the beginning of the week the attendance was better than he had realistically expected.

Lynne Winfield, of recently revived anti-racism organisation CURB, told the crowd ? including Mr. Medeiros? father, Manuel ? that if last week?s violence outside Docksiders acted as a catalyst to boost the fight against racism ?it would be a wonderful outcome to a tragic act?.

Witnesses have said that racist insults were thrown at Bermudian Portugal fan Mr. Medeiros during the attack by four black Bermudians, which happened after a World Cup football match.

The CURB representative continued: ?Racism is among us. We are not a healthy society. It?s up to us to heal ourselves. We need to declare war on racism ? and white people need to be very, very involved in this fight.?

Government Minister Dale Butler called for unity and said that a ?genuine and sincere? dialogue on all aspects of race was needed in the community to prevent the kind of violence seen in the case of Mr. Medeiros happening again.

He said that everybody, not just anti-racism groups and blacks, needed to talk about race relations.

?I mean all of us have to face the facts if we are serious and not just paying lip-service or grandstanding at events like this.?

He asked whether people would stand by when Filipino residents were being criticised for being part of the Island?s community. ?Are we going to speak up for all cultures?? he added.

Opposition Leader Wayne Furbert told the crowd that greater public debate, a process of healing and a massive campaign of empowerment may be needed. But he stated: ?I believe that race in itself if of little significance.

?It is only when racial attributes bestow access to power and wealth that they take on real meaning. If we want to throw off the legacy of racism then we have to give all Bermudians the opportunity to acquire wealth, status and power.?

He added: ?From Front Street to Court Street, we must build a Bermuda of one people of many races.?

At one stage the one-hour rally briefly descended into chaos when former Government Senator Calvin Smith appeared to question whether an attack on a black person would have generated the same response in the media as that seen after what happened to Mr. Medeiros.

Amid booing from some sections of the crowd, event organiser Mr. Starling was forced to step in and call for calm after Mr. Smith seemed to pick out one heckler and say: ?I will talk about what I want to talk about and can go to hell!?

That protestor, Valerie Martins, later said Mr. Smith?s response was ?degrading?.

Mrs. Martins, a Bermudian of Portuguese descent, added: ?We are here for a unifying purpose. It?s not about one specific situation, or one incident being more important than another.

?It does not matter if you are black, white, purple or green ? you are disrespecting a human being. It does not matter who the victim is ? it?s a racial and violent issue that we are here about.?

Referring to the attack on Mr. Medeiros, she said she was ?appalled? that a Portuguese flag was burnt and an entire culture was shown disrespect. Now people were getting together, she said, and were saying: ?This needs to stop.?

Mr. Smith, who later told the crowd that the great disparity in wealth in Bermuda had to be addressed, later said that he got annoyed because he was trying to make a speech and some people were not listening to him.

He said that acts of violence against blacks happened regularly ? and did not lead to City Hall demonstrations.

Earlier in the meeting, a man who did not give his name said he was not in any way defending the attack on Mr. Medeiros, but he pointed to problems many black Bermudians were having getting jobs.

He said that schoolchildren needed to be told about the contributions all ethnic groups had made to Bermuda?s history, but called on a curb on blue collar immigration to help Bermudians find work.

What happened outside Docksiders last Wednesday was just the ?tip of the iceberg?, the crowd heard, unless urgent social issues were addressed.

He said anger should be directed at Government and employers ? not workers.

People attending the rally yesterday also spoke out against racism. Aziza Ahad, age 21, said: ?I just think that Bermudians need to be a lot more tolerant of other people because if you think about it, no-one is from here, we all have ancestors from somewhere else.?

Senior Muriel Archer said: ?Bermuda is made up of so many different nationalities ? so we have to learn to live together.?

Neilson DeGraff said: ?As far as burning somebody?s flag, that is disgraceful ? you shouldn?t do that. When Bermuda eventually becomes Independent, we wouldn?t want anyone to do that to our flag. It?s just been fans gone a little too crazy, but it just says racism still exists from all angles.?

Before the meeting, organiser Mr. Starling said he did not want the demonstration to just focus on the relationship between black Bermudians and the Portuguese community.

?It?s about racism as a whole,? he stated. Yesterday he said the meeting was a first step towards constructive dialogue.