SAN FRANCISCO - Marchers cheered for affirmative action, women's reproductive freedom and gay rights yesterday while protesting ''ultra-right wing'' politicians.

''An extremist ultra-right wing has taken control of one of the two major centrist political parties. They are racist, they are sexist, they are homophobic,'' Gloria Steinem told the crowd at the ''Fight the Right'' rally sponsored by the National Organi zation for Women.

Under sunny skies and a background of reggae music, marchers - including actor Danny Glover and the Rev. Jesse Jackson - protested racism, violence against women and what they called a war on women in poverty.

About 15,000 people attended the NOW rally. The 30-year-old group has 250,000 members.

The event also was intended to bring together groups that organizers said should work in tandem. More than 600 organizations representing women, Asians, blacks, Latinos and labor took part.

The California chapter of the NAACP refused to back the march or ally with NOW, the San Francisco Examiner reported.

That was partly because hard feelings remain after Tammy Bruce, who leads the Los Angeles chapter of NOW, complained that race issues obscured the issue of domestic violence in the O.J. Simpson murder trial. Bruce was later reprimanded by NOW president Pa tricia Ireland.

The day began with an interfaith worship service near the rally site.

''We want to make it clear that the so-called religious right has no business speaking for America's moral center,'' said Catherine Linesch of Berkeley's Graduate Theological Union.