Roughly 500 women and a few men rallied in DuPont Circle, one mile from the
White House, on January 20 as the women's part of the numerous counter-inaugural protests. At the same time, several thousand people rallied a mile away in Malcolm X park. Each group held separate marches before joining for a final rally in McPherson Square, a few blocks from the security perimeter for George W. Bush's second inauguration.
Organized by CodePink , which has staged women's
marches and actions against the war in Iraq (photos), the rally also featured NOW
President Kim Gandy, the Raging Grannies, and the Keys of Resistance. The latter is a group that dresses up like
1940s secretaries and uses vintage typewriters to type letters to public
officials dictated by protestors. They mail the letters to the addressees,
believing that public officials will pay more attention to personal missives
than to the mass e-mails and postcards that often overwhelm their mail.
Although Thursday was the balmiest day in that snowy week, the "secretaries"
shivered as they typed, even with proper white gloves.
Most women protesting at the inaugural did so as part of the many other marches and demonstrations that day. The police issued dozens of permits
for various locations and activities. A.N.S.W.E.R., which organized marches against the war in
Iraq before it even started, had the best space, including bleachers at 4th
St. right on Pennsylvania Ave. from which it held a rally while the official
ceremonies were going on at the Capitol and jeered the President's car as it
passed by. ReDefeatBush held a morning rally in McPherson Square.
Billionaires for Bush auctioned off
Social Security at the FDR memorial. There were also demonstrations outside
the official inaugural balls, and many spontaneous protests.
By far the biggest protest was the rally and march organized by DAWN — D.C. Anti-War Network — down 16th St. and over to McPherson Square.
Although signs reflected a wide variety of issues, opposition to the War in Iraq predominated. As it passed Planned Parenthood's headquarters, young
women handed out condoms. CodePink reached the Square half an hour before
the big march, and had largely dispersed by the time the latter arrived.
Only the Raging Grannies were left to entertain the thousands who filled the Square.
While the Grannies were singing, a rump group of several hundred marched
down 14th Street to the security tent at Freedom Plaza. The soldiers guarding the entrance opened the gate and let them in, including most signs,
after only a perfunctory search. Once inside they gathered in the
non- reserved space on Pennsylvania to wait in the cold for three hours until Bush's car passed, when they raised their signs and chanted their opposition
to his administration. While those inside the security fence were quietly waiting, those denied admission tried to take the fence down. After being sprayed with pepper solution, they clustered on the outside of the fence to
chant and throw snowballs at the police.
Most of downtown DC closed down for January 20 even though the inauguration
has never been an official holiday. Federal and District agencies not
involved with security told their employees to just stay home. Buildings and
Metro stops were closed and buses rerouted.
The cause of this shutdown was not the protests per se, but the unprecedented security protections which cordoned off roughly 100 blocks of downtown DC. All of Pennsylvania Ave from the Capitol to the White House was circled by ten foot metal fences, punctuated by white security tents through which observers could enter to be searched one at a time. D.C. buses, police cars and Jersey barriers blocked streets even further away, allowing entry only to pedestrians and authorized vehicles. As these
barriers were being put in place the night before, traffic jams snarled the
city.
The protestors also spent weeks in preparation. Trainings, announced on the counter-inaugural web page were held
all over the city in civil disobedience, legal rights, conducting meetings,
and media relations. Dozens were designated to be marshals and legal
observers. A counter- inaugural listserve kept those on-line informed. Space
in a warehouse was rented for the week from which signs were painted,
actions organized, and participants refreshed.
Anti-Bush actions, parties, marches and exhibits went on all week, culminating in a summit by the Progressive Democrats of America. Composed largely of people who had supported Dennis
Kucinich or Howard Dean during the previous year's primaries, the PDA wants
to pull the Democratic Party to the Left. Neither Kucinich nor Dean
addressed the 500 hundred people who came to talk about how to get the
progressive message to the public. The only elected official among the
speakers was Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., (D. Ill) and the only Presidential
candidate was David Cobb, who had headed the Green Party ticket in November.
According to a show of hands most of the audience was new to electoral politics. Quite a few weren't even registered Democrats.
Jo Freeman is a political scientist and attorney. Her most recent book is At Berkeley in the Sixties: Education of an Activist (Indiana U. Press 2004). Her previous book, A Room at a Time: How Women Entered Party Politics, (Rowman and Littlefield, 2000) was reviewed by Emily Mitchell, a Senior Women Web Culture Watch critic.
Jo's next book, We Will Be Heard: Women's Struggles for Political Power in the United States, will be published by Rowman and Littlefield in March.
Other books include The Politics of Women's Liberation, winner of the 1975 American Political Science Association's prize for the Best Scholarly Book on Women and Politics; five editions of Women: A Feminist Perspective (ed.). Jo edited Social Movements of the Sixties and Seventies and (with Victoria Johnson) as well as Waves of Protest: Social Movements Since the Sixties. She has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from NYU's School of Law. Visit her website, www.jofreeman.com and email her at joreen@jofreeman.com
©Jo Freeman for SeniorWomenWeb
