A large squad of official guides provided by the Peoples' Anti-war Mobilization (PAM)--the coalition of groups that organized the event--kept marchers within the area marked off for them, and there were no confrontations with police.

Rival Rally

As the mile-long mass of demonstrators snaked its way into Vircinia in a procession that lasted about two hours, members of the Marxist Spartacus League tried to initiate a separate rally along the Potomac, about 500 yards away from the edge of the main gathering.

The Spartacists challenged marchers to "take a stand and support the leftists in El Salvador's bloody civil way."

Hundreds of marchers stopped near the Spartacists' sound truck, but almost all of them headed for the concession stands and portable toilets situated nearby.

At least five unrelated Marxist groups completed for demonstrators' attention and sold copies of their parties' newspapers throughout the rally.

Several non-Marxist groups had expressed dissatisfaction last week with what they called "the unfair domination" of the Worker's World Party (WWP) in the leadership of PAM, but no tension was apparent during the demonstration yesterday.

The WWP first suggested a May 3 anti-war march and began forming PAM in January.

A potential clash between the anti-war protesters and demonstrators supporting U.S. policies toward El Salvador was avoided by policy officials who scheduled the two rallies at different times and in different parts of the Capitol.

Others who spoke at the Pentagon between performances by several musical groups included women's rights leader and former New York Rep. Bella Abzug. Larry Holmes, head of the WWP and a ranking member of PAM. and a spokesman for El Salvador's leftist Democratic Revolutionary Front (FDR).

Yesterday's rally was "the greatest show of solidarity with the people of El Salvador." the FDR spokesman said.

Similar demonstrations were held yesterday in Denver and San Francisco for those who could not make the trip to Washington from the West Coast