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New
York Says No By Ben Terrall
Before the convention began, New York’s tabloids, the Post and the Daily News, smeared anarchists and their fellow travelers in a series of hysterical headlines rivaling the cold war excesses of Senator Joseph McCarthy (News front-page banners: “Anarchy Threat to City,” July 12; “Anarchy Inc.,” Aug. 26). These echoes of 1950s witch-hunts were possible largely because few in the United States recall that the last time violent anarchists were a threat to anything other than an occasional Starbucks window—not exactly a reason for a full-spectrum crackdown by the National Security State—was about 100 years ago. Among the more ludicrous stories in the Daily News was one on “Anarchists Hot for Mayhem,” which included a list of “potentially violent groups identified by the [New York City Police Department].” Among the list of allegedly fearsome syndicates was the International Solidarity Movement, which the Daily News conceded “deploys foreign volunteers as buffers, placing them between Israeli troops and Palestinian civilians during military occupations.” The blurb went on to note, “a member of the group died while trying to stop an Israeli Army bulldozer,” implying to any sentient reader that the real terror force is the Israeli Defense Forces, not the ISM. RNC Week in New York included more than 130 demonstrations, ranging from a “Shut-upathon” aimed at FOX News to the final Manhattan stretch of a 256-mile march from the Democratic National Convention in Boston. The more adventurous protesters had listings of hundreds of Republican parties and schmooze-fests at which to confront Bush-backers in person. By week’s end, the NYPD had arrested a total of 1,821 demonstrators, journalists and passers-by. Key to sweeping up such numbers, starting with hundreds of Critical Mass bike riders two days before the big march, was orange plastic netting used to corral and detain both protesters and hapless pedestrians. On “A31,” the day of direct actions that included the largest proportion of anarchist-identified dissidents, police arrests were especially “pre-emptive.” The largest mass arrest of the day occurred near Ground Zero (see sidebar), where avowed nonviolent activists affiliated with the War Resisters League were netted when, after negotiating with police, they began walking two abreast toward Madison Square Garden. War Resisters League national treasurer John M. Miller decided to leave the start of the march to get WRL “End War” tags to distribute later. He didn’t make it off the block, winding up with many friends and acquaintances in the holding pen on Pier 57 off Manhattan’s West Side. Miller was detained for more than 30 hours. Some protesters were held for twice as long, in a holding area with a floor covered in oil and an unresolved asbestos problem, before being moved downtown. Still, Miller told me, “to call the piers ‘Guantanamo on the Hudson’ is offensive, since it implies that an area where mostly middle-class protesters were being held in less than ideal but hardly torturous conditions is equivalent to the horrors suffered by Arabs and others post-9/11 on Guantanamo. It isn’t.”
Miller notes that though the secret service and police crackdown on dissidents reflects badly on Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Republican Party’s respect for civil liberties, “It shouldn’t be the main story. I think there’s always a danger during these big protests that the story becomes what happens with those temporarily incarcerated, rather than the policies we are out in the streets protesting. I want to see an end to U.S. policies that rely on the slaughter of thousands in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East, Haiti and elsewhere, and that should be our focus. While demanding respect for everyone’s right to dissent, including our own, our focus needs to stay on challenging these violent policies.” Repeated provocations by plainclothes NYPD detectives on new Vespa scooters (who numerous eyewitnesses saw drive directly into protesters) did not spark the havoc that seemed to be their goal. On the night of George W’s coronation, I witnessed Republican thugs chanting “four more years” as they entered a protest pen near Madison Square Garden alongside a phalanx of New York’s finest. The cops glowered at protesters but made not the slightest attempt to dampen the provocateurs, who were unable to start a riot, though I and a score of others did feel compelled to yell back “four more months!” Not all police were hostile to demonstrators. One cop near George W’s firehouse photo-op in Queens expressed his loathing for W by telling a member of the Bay Area guerrilla theater troupe the Ronald Reagan Home for the Criminally Insane, “I think he’s a dick too.” (Ironically, the NYPD also used harassment to advance their own cause in mid-August, as they paid an enraged one a.m. house visit to Mayor Bloomberg to demand a fair contract.) One of the positive activist developments during the RNC hatefest was improved communications for dissidents in the street via text messaging on cell phones (see Jeremy Scahill’s excellent piece, “Indymedia and the Text Message Jihad,” at www. counterpunch.org/scahill09092004.html). This allowed word to get out quickly to mobilize protesters (with messages like, “Big-wig Republicans enjoying New York without being confronted by realities of war on Iraq”) and to help them avoid broken skulls (“Nasty-looking riot cops on the way, peaceniks scatter!”). The Indymedia editorial process was also improved, by allowing a vetting process via multiple confirmations of items submitted. Dissident journalist Juan Gonzalez, the one progressive columnist on New York’s not-very-progressive-Daily News, pointed out on Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now! that mainstream press colleagues used Indymedia throughout the week of protests, telling him it was a better source than mainstream wire services. (It should be noted, however, that mainstream media coverage improved substantially once the RNC and the actions were under way) While outside of Madison Square Garden thousands expressed their contempt for the GOP, ceremonies inside were infiltrated almost every day. Numerous individuals and groups, including Act-Up and Code Pink, were amazed at how easily they got in and interrupted the proceedings. June Brashares of Code Pink, who got into Madison Square Garden by dressing sharply and talking smoothly (as she is quick to concede, the fact that she’s white also helped), was handed a floor pass that got her to within 50 feet of W. Brashares briefly interrupted Bush’s speech, standing on a chair waving a banner reading “Bush Lies, People Die.” An eyewitness who was knocked aside by the subsequent ruckus wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle, “[W]ithin seconds, she was overcome by half a dozen burly security men who wrestled her into the crowd.” Though Brashares was in her stocking feet at that point, a delegate is pressing assault charges, claiming that she kicked him and cut his leg. (About a minute after Brashares was removed by security, Jodie Evans of Code Pink exposed a pink slip with “Bring the Troops Home” written on it, again creating a commotion that caused Bush to fumble.) Brashares told me she thinks an important lesson from her experience is that the ruling elites are not a monolith, and that the intimidation used to suppress free speech is “often a smokescreen—activists need to keep their eyes open for opportunities and be creative. We were not planning way in advance to go inside, the opportunity arose and we took it. It’s so important to let people who see the tightly controlled TV coverage know that there are many people that don’t agree with this war on the world. That I was also able to provide a shot in the arm to other activists makes me even more glad I went inside with my message.” At press time (the last week of October) the Democratic Party, often resembling a coterie of aristocrats plopped into the midst of a firefight who insist on sticking to Robert’s Rules of Order, continues to quibble about details of the Republican agenda while agreeing in principle with its broader assumptions. As the Democrats cast themselves as War Mongers Lite, it’s clear that opposition to the current U.S. wars on the world (and on the social gains of the previous century) will need to continue to be driven by engaged grassroots movements. Complementing various groups calling for resistance to Republican attempts to re-steal the Presidency, United for Peace and Justice, the main organizer of the big August 29 march, has wisely put out an appeal for antiwar protests shortly after the election no matter who emerges victorious. As historian Howard Zinn recently wrote in The Progressive, “If John Kerry cannot offer an alternative to war, then it is the responsibility of citizens, with every possible resource they can muster, to present such an alternative to the American public.” In order to present that alternative effectively, many questions need to be considered, including whether the peace movement is at a point where “direct action” has become fetishized, with over-emphasis on activism involving mass arrests burning more people out than it pulls in. It’s also worth considering if too much emphasis is put on expensive media campaigns, which often drain a disproportionate share of progressive resources. As long-time peace and environmental activist Andrew Lichterman writes in an essay all antiwar activists should read (www.al.marginalnotes.org/docs/Thinktanks.html), “[A] growing number of influential organizations on the left-liberal end of the U.S. political spectrum are arguing that we should emulate the methods that the Right has used to gain control over most electoral venues in this country. It is suggested that even more money should be put into developing high powered ‘progressive’ think tanks, and into the more concentrated and ‘effective’ advertising and public relations campaigns. Activities of this kind should not be mistaken for organizing, and the belief that they can be used to advance any genuinely progressive and democratic program ignores the profound differences between progressive goals and those of the funders and institutions of [the] Right. A social movement can’t be built with an ad campaign.” If antiwar activism is to reach beyond traditional constituencies, it needs to employ both new and innovative and tried and true ways to build numbers and to advance peace and justice work. Support for the serious organizing already being done by many groups (including the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Veterans For Peace, not to mention the essential work Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting does in challenging the corporate media’s pro-war propaganda) will have to be part of any serious campaigning to counter the U.S. war machine. Direct action and media campaigns are two important tools the movement can use, but shouldn’t be the only ones. If the antiwar movement is to compete with FOX news and the bipartisan pro-war consensus of the Democratic and Republican parties, it also has a lot of less glamorous day-to-day organizing to slog through. Cheri Honkala, founder of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union and National Coordinator for the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, which led a rousing, thousands-strong unpermitted march on August 30 from the United Nations to within several blocks of Madison Square Garden, told me that by the end of anti-RNC week her organization “accomplished all of our goals. Poor people from around the country talked to media from around the world, generating thousands of articles.” But in looking forward, she added, “Regardless of who wins on November 3, there will still be poverty, hunger and homelessness in the United States, and the work of the [Poor People’s Campaign] will be continuing. We were happy to participate in the large anti-war march, and we’ll be excited when all those people who took part in that march understand that one of the root causes of war is poverty. When we make those links then we’ll have a powerful social movement in this country.” Ben Terrall is a writer and activist who lives in San Francisco. |
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he
Republican National Convention protests of August 29-September 2 marked
another watershed moment for dissent in the United States. As was widely
reported throughout the world, somewhere between 200,000 and half a million
people marched in opposition to the Bush agenda on Sunday, August 29,
sending a resounding message that endless color-coordinated terrorist
scares are not enough to stem popular disgust with Bush Corp’s destruction
of Iraq and low-intensity warfare on the U.S. middle class and poor. Throughout
the four days of the convention, marches, civil disobedience, speakouts
and other manifestations of opposition to the Republican war machine focused
on the shortcomings of the ruling elites sponsoring George the Younger’s
coronation inside Madison Square Garden.
