The Republicans vs. Anybody But Bush

Page Four

by Jo Freeman

 The ABB Convention

Although there was speculation beforehand that street action in New York 2004 would be the sequel to Chicago 1968, both police and protestors have grown too sophisticated for that to happen. Protest, even civil disobedience, has become ritualized and routinized. Police are too well trained to act out their animosity in front of cameras. Police policy is to contain protestors with artificial barriers and overwhelming force, but the NYPD will sometimes stop traffic for unpermitted marches, or unpermitted routes, rather than create a confrontation. New York City mobilized its 37,000 police for the two conventions, even as its Mayor said that peaceful political activists were welcome. Only in numbers did New York 2004 top Chicago 1968, where street battles and police riots led to 589 arrests. While the 1,821 New York arrests were three times higher, violence was minimal and injuries were few.

Preparations for the ABB convention were almost as extensive as those for the Republicans, but less centralized. Police negotiated permits with numerous groups for marches, vigils and other legal actions all over the City, not just in the official protest zone on Eighth Avenue, one block below MSG. Virtually all groups that sought permits, got them. Trainings for direct action and civil disobedience were held at several churches. The National Lawyer's Guild and the New York Civil Liberties Union held workshops on what to do if arrested and distributed a pocket publication on What To Do if You're Stopped By the Police: RNC edition. They also trained legal observers and video witnesses to record the actions of the police.

There were numerous ABB centers. St. Marks Episcopal Church in the East Village was "a space for general health services and chemical weapons decontamination" where one could also find food and housing. A.N.S.W.E.R.'s Resistance Center was in the West Village. The Independent Media Center published a People's Guide to the Republican National Convention along with a map and legend to where things were expected to happen. The NYCLU opened a legal advice storefront near the MSG. Books not Bombs had several convergence centers where youth could make banners and puppets, speak out, or just hang out.

The massive march past Madison Square Garden on Sunday was the largest NYC has seen in twenty-two years. The several hundred thousand people who came to show their dismay at the Bush agenda didn't stay for most of the other events, but they made their point. Organized by the umbrella group United for Peace and Justice from a commercial loft on W. 38 St., participants took advantage of the opportunity to protest everything they didn't like. There was probably at least one banner for every war and every non-European country that has felt the presence of US troops in the last fifty years.

The NYPD agreed with United for Peace and Justice that the best place for a rally after the big march was Central Park, but both were overruled by the City administration. Because the courts would not order the City to let protestors use Central Park and UfPJ rejected the proffered space along a stretch of roadway on the west side, there was a small rally in Union Square before the march, but nothing afterwards. The march came off with few disruptions and few arrests; even the counterprotestors were mostly unmolested.

Union Square, 20 blocks from MSG, was protest central all week, as it has been for over a century of NYC history. Every day there were different displays, mostly objecting to the war on Iraq. To illustrate the human costs of war the American Friends Service Committee exhibited 978 pairs of combat boots, representing each American soldier killed since the Iraq invasion, along with a scattering of civilian shoes for the ten to fifteen thousand Iraqis who also died. A distraught father sat in front of them with a photo of his dead Marine Corps son. Vets for Peace and Military Families Speak Out also vigiled on the Square. The Iraq Memorial Wall, created by two women from New Jersey, listed the Iraqi Civilian Casualties whose names could be determined.

There were marches every day for a week. On Friday, almost 300 people (175 adults, 102 babies and children) organized by Mothers Opposed to Bush (MOB) marched across the pedestrian walkway in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge. On Saturday 20,000 pro-choice protestors, their way cleared by a line of female cops, crossed the Bridge to a rally on Broadway next to City Hall Park (permanently closed for security). On Monday, Still We Rise led a couple thousand people concerned with issues of the desperate and dispossessed (HIV/AIDS, homelessness) from Union Square to the official protest zone, while March for Our Lives came from the United Nations. Labor rallied on Wednesday and artists paraded in Harlem on Thursday.

Tuesday was anarchists day, as the A31 coalition sent small groups all over the City to tie up traffic by committing civil disobedience. That evening they converged on Herald Square, two blocks from MSG, where they blocked traffic and taunted police.

The police, who usually try to avoid political arrests for the simple reason that it costs so much to process someone through the system, rounded them up rapidly and sent roughly 1200 persons, not all of them protestors, to stew on buses before being dumped in a former bus terminal being used as a holding cell. When 470 were kept in custody more than the 24 hours the New York Court of Appeals allows for processing, a state judge ordered them released and said he might find the City $1000 for each person still held after the deadline.

Of the 1,821 persons arrested for convention activities 81 percent were charged with disorderly conduct, which is a minor offense, not a crime, in New York law. The normal procedure for such offenses is to issue a Desk Appearance Ticket ordering the person to appear at a later time for processing. The 1,480 people who were charged with "discon" will spend more time waiting in court than any likely sentence should they be convicted.

There were two other days with over 250 arrests. On Friday, 5,000 bicyclists rode through Manhattan to protest the coming of the Republicans. Between one and two hundred were arrested for blocking the streets and running red lights. Sunday was the second day, but there were few arrests at the march. Most of the 253 arrested were demonstrating at delegate welcoming parties or in front of delegate hotels that evening after the march ended.

Statistics tell something about who went to jail for what. Of the 19 percent not charged with disorderly conduct, three were juveniles, 282 were charged with misdemeanors, and 56 with felonies. The latter included those arrested for protesting inside MSG. Of the 1,735 arrestees who identified themselves, only 600 lived in New York State. Nonetheless, only a fraction of the people who came to New York for the ABB convention were arrested for anything. Most came to protest peacefully, and otherwise do their own thing.

Things to do happened all over the City. The Immigrant Solidarity Network held a "speak out on the issues" on Friday. The Green Party organized an Ecology Festival in Washington Square Park on Saturday. Historians Against War held a town hall meeting and the Yippies hosted a tea party. There were film screenings, poetry readings, concerts, and art exhibits; prayer vigils and parties; religious services and irreverent dramas; bike rides and conferences. No one could do it all, or even find it all.

Peaceful protest was the dominant theme. Altercations were largely verbal.

Protestors and counterprotestors marched in and around each other's events, or battled with their signs. Jeremiah Baldwin drove from North Carolina to preach for Jesus and Bush. He said he had a lot of verbal confrontations but no one spit on or assaulted him or did anything but argue. His only problem was with the police, who told him to keep moving or go to jail.

Communists for Kerry set up shop in Union Square on Saturday and joined the big march on Sunday. They were sufficiently subtle in their satire that most folks didn't know which side they were on (hint: it isn't Kerry's). The impersonators of Lenin, Castro and Che marched without incident under banners declaring "beat weak liberalism with strong communism."

At the end of the march they met their counterparts, Billionaires for Bush, which describes itself as a "grassroots network of corporate lobbyists, decadent heiresses, Halliburton CEOs" with over 60 chapters nationwide. The BBs did their thing at both conventions in 2000. This year they welcomed Republican delegates at theater parties on Sunday, vigiled for Corporate Welfare on Monday, "flashmobbed" on Tuesday, taunted the unemployed on Wednesday before going to their coronation ball, and rested on Thursday.

Protest Warrior wasn't subtle. Its slogan is "fighting the left, doing it right." Everyone knew which side they were on from their satirical signs. PW makes it a point to infiltrate anti-war marches wherever they happen. About 120 of them fed into the Sunday march from one of the side streets. The police broke them up into smaller groups. These marched peacefully until the "anarchist teenagers" as one long-haired protest warrior described them, began to harass them. Then the police pushed the PWs outside the metal fences that lined the route — for their own protection. Protest warriors were rewarded with guest passes to MSG events that were passed out at the NFRA hospitality suite.

Some protests were low-key, very low-key. Planned Parenthood [www.ppnyc.org] paid for advertisements on street corners near MSG. Although NYC is a pro-choice town, the pro-choice people kept to themselves and their own events. I saw exactly one woman with a pro-choice sign outside of a convention hotel. The yellow shirted Falun Gong, on the other hand, handed out their leaflets on street corners, outside and even inside of the hotels. They didn't make the media, but probably reached more people who were otherwise unfamiliar with their cause than any of the direct actions.

Overall the ABB convention was a success, despite too many unplanned arrests and some difficulties in getting released. Hundreds of thousands of people voted with their feet, traded information, learned a few things, had a good time, and left ready to vote at the polls. New York City will be cleaning up after and paying for its two conflicting conventions for months, maybe years, but the participants of both went home happy, and security personnel made a lot of overtime.

Return to Pages One, Two and Three

At Berkeley in the Sixties: Education of an Activist, 1961-1965. Jo's history and memoir of being a student at Berkeley in the early 1960's is published by Indiana University Press.

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