More than 200 protesters were arrested yesterday – including 15 for arson – bringing the total number arrested to more than 511 before the Republican National Convention had even been gaveled to order.

Organizers estimated that 400,000 participated yesterday in a march organized by United for Peace and Justice that went past the convention site at Madison Square Garden. The Associated Press quoted an unofficial police estimate of the crowd at 120,000.

At around 3 p.m., witnesses saw a group of black-clad, masked men pour an accelerant onto a float carrying a green papier-mache dragon, light the dragon on fire, and flee. The flames leapt up to eight feet while police cleared the Seventh Avenue block between 32nd and 33rd streets and the fire department put them out. The protest resumed 25 minutes later. All 15 men suspected of setting the blaze were arrested and charged with arson, and one was charged with assault of a police officer, who suffered a third-degree burn.

A survey conducted by The New York Sun of 253 protesters who took part in the United for Peace and Justice march found that 76% plan to vote for Senator Kerry in November’s presidential election.

The poll found that 59% of the protesters interviewed live in New York City, while an additional 21% reside in the tri-state area. Of those marching who were surveyed, 52% said they agreed with the statement that “America is overall a negative force in the world.” Moreover, 67% said they agreed with the statement that “Iraqi attacks on American troops occupying Iraq are legitimate resistance.”

Half of those polled answered yes when asked if the United States should cut off military aid to Israel. United for Peace and Justice provided marchers with blue-and-white signs reading, “Occupation: Wrong in Iraq, Wrong in Palestine. End U.S. Support for Israel’s Occupation.”

Of those surveyed, 62% said they opposed the American war in Afghanistan in 2001,and 58% said they agreed with the claim that “a few neoconservatives like Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle who have close ties to Israel’s Likud party manipulated America into going to war in Iraq.”

City officials and marchers alike said they thought that the event went off well, especially considering the legal battle over the use of Central Park that preceded it.

“United for Peace and Justice has acted responsibly, and so have most of the marchers,” Mayor Bloomberg said after the march yesterday.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly also said the march “went extremely well” and that the “organizers should be commended.”

Marchers interviewed by the Sun said the march provided them an opportunity to make themselves heard by the Republican Party.

“I’d like to thank President Bush,” said one marcher, Charles Bowman, a biologist from Buffalo, N.Y. “He’s a great uniter.”

Yesterday’s march is expected to be the largest protest of the week. But today there will be a march near the United Nations by the Economic Human Rights Campaign to raise awareness of the homeless. Tuesday will see the potentially most dangerous protests, by the self-avowed anarchists known as the A31 Coalition.

The group functions as a set of highly decentralized cells, so few know their plans but they have promised Tuesday will be a day of “direct action.” Its affiliated groups have sworn to protect human life, but none will disavow the destruction of “corporate owned property” as a means toward their goal of “regime change.”

The independent cells will come together at 4 p.m. Tuesday, August 31, at Union Square, and at 7 p.m. they will converge on Madison Square Garden. When stopped by police, members will collapse to the ground in a “die-in.”

Anyone walking the streets of Manhattan between Midtown and the East Village this week will likely see spontaneous acts of protest ranging from street theater to a reading of the Constitution at Cooper Union by Richard Gere and other celebrities.

Yesterday’s march was dominated by swathes of color. Lines of United for Peace and Justice marshals in yellow shirts linked arms to guide the parade up Seventh Avenue, east on 34th Street, south on Fifth Avenue and then down Broadway to Union Square. A women’s groups calling itself “Code pink:” formed a clump of pink in the middle of the march, and line of South Korean drummers clad in black with green and yellow sashes snaked through the crowd, stopping in front of the garden for an impromptu dance performance.

Tension preceded the march at Madison Square Garden and then again at the junction of Seventh Avenue and 34th Street as police waited to see if marchers would make a break for Central Park. United for Peace and Justice wanted to use the Great Lawn for a rally, and when they lost their court case, several groups vowed “See you in the park.”

But the double-row of police in riot gear proved unnecessary as the only moment was a scheduled march stop for a prayer lead by the Reverend Jesse Jackson. The march, which had filmmaker Michael Moore marching at its head alongside Rev. Jackson, made the turn without incident.

Central Park itself saw sparse activity. A day of casual protests began with a gentle game of croquet. “Billionaires for Bush,” a hundred or so activists-turned satirists with phony names like Phil T. Rich, Noah Countability, and Count de Monet, donned tuxedos and top hats, ball gowns and opera glasses, sarcastically began trumpeting support for a platform of wanton corporate looting.

By midday, smaller groups began to filter onto the Great Lawn grass and joined the smattering of bikini-clad newspaper readers to represent a rainbow the political interests: Marxists, anarchists, libertarians, social democrats, Naderites, anti-Naderites, gay and lesbian supporters.

By nightfall, the size of the crowd had grown to more than five thousand and more than a few expressed disappointment that there hadn’t been more arrests or violent clashes with police – the more arrests, the more important the message becomes to press outlets, they argued. Instead, without the presence of police to confront, many began to beat drums and blow trumpets in makeshift circles, chanting, spinning, blowing bullhorns, holding hands.