Activists Plan to Disrupt GOP Convention

[Khephra]

NEW YORK -- Activists plan to hold sit-ins at delegate hotels, take over city intersections, block doors to major corporate offices, confront GOP bigwigs and infiltrate events when Republicans come to town for their political convention.

They say the aim is not to cause harm or even stop the convention from proceeding inside Madison Square Garden from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2. They will use what they call creative mischief to call attention to their disgust with the Bush administration.

"It sends that message loud and clear, that people feel so strongly that they are willing to put their freedom and their bodies on the line," said Cindy Rosin, an activist involved with the effort.

While some protest groups have tangled with city officials over permits for marches and rallies, others have been planning acts of nonviolent civil disobedience for months.

snip.......

The Manhattan district attorney has said he foresees 1,000 arrests per day throughout the four-day convention -- three times the normal daily arrest volume -- and these unpermitted protesters are likely to make up the majority.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-convention-protests,0,4635234.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[Flint-oid]

1. Flag Covered Coffins

If Bush won't allow the sight of real flag-drapped coffins, I hope the protestors do some sort of demonstration with coffins and flags. That would get good media coverage, and put out the right message.

[VoteDemocratic2004]

72. Can we make coffins out of cardboard?

They would be light weight and easy to carry and we could make a statement that way.

Good idea!

[jjmalonejr]

2. This is going to be a real HIT with swing voters

Swing voters just LOVE disruptive activists.

[SoFlaJet]

5. I know what you're sayin and all, but........

F-them man.It's they who have caused all this anger with THEIR Nazi-like tactics.They were sayin on Hardball or some other talking head show about the '68 dem convention in Chicago and how Nixon killed Humphrey and the correlation between the two

[The Stranger]

9. But the price of silence . . .

. . . is where we are now.

[schultzee]

11. More of the undecideds seem to not like bush

[Mighty Undecided]

15. let's spare the delicate swing voters feelings...You all go home now!

And pound your chest and yell at terra - swingers sure love that!
WQho knows, if we do a good imitation of W, they may press the wrong button! :eyes:

[yardwork]

19. I'm on the "wish they wouldn't do it" side

Protests are great, but disruptions tend to tick people off. In other words, I hope there are thousands of people with banners and signs, but I hope they don't block traffic or entrances or otherwise inconvenience ordinary people.

Sure, the ordinary people should be willing to give up their convenience for the cause, but the fact is it will still irritate them, and that won't help get swing voters for Kerry.

Our primary goal right now is to get BushCo out of the White House.

After that everybody can go back to disrupting and inconveniencing anybody they want.

Just my opinion.

[wickerwoman]

48. In NYC, there are no ordinary people.

I was at the last pre-Iraq war protest with a million New Yorkers and no one looked that pissed off about it.

That city is going to shut down during the convention. Everyone knows it. Those that aren't going to join are going to stay at home, watch FOX and sulk.

[nodehopper]

52. yup :)

[IndianaGreen]

38. Swing voters are blind, deaf, and dumb to the horrors of Bush

and the crimes that America, under Republican and Democratic Administrations, has committed in our name.

[Piperay]

39. EXACTLY

what I was thinking, this will play into the repukes hands so well it almost makes me wonder if they aren't going to pay people to do this for them. :argh:

[davhill]

49. Desperate RNC ploy

I bet some of these "activists" are, like Nader, GOP funded.

[nodehopper]

50. WHAT are you talking about?

thousands of activists are preparing creative non-violent protests in a city where BushCo is hated. None of them are funded, all of us are volunteering our time and energy and skills. Like Nader would fund ANYONE.
And for the record, I hate Nader.

[davhill]

58. Activists will give Bush the election

Republicans are hoping desperately for a large chaotic demonstration that will make them appear to be the the forces of calm and reason. I would not be surprised if the are providing covert support to the demonstrators just as they have been providing not so covert support to Nader. That's how dictatorships stay in power. Please don't help them.

[nodehopper]

61. people like you say things like that

whenever there is grassroots mass action--yet it gets things changed. In Venezuela, in Bolivia, in India, even in the US.
The Republicans are going to portray the protesters however they want anyway, at least in the corporate media. As someone involved in organizing for the RNC protests, I can assure you that they are most definitely NOT providing support to the protesters, unless by "support:" you mean typical lame attempts to plant infiltrators in various organizations. The dictatorship stays in power because people keep their mouths shut.

You used the word chaotic: that is incorrect. Chaos implies disorder and the kind of anarchist "bogeyman" the corporate press has been profilerating lies about in conservative publications. The same publications that just lied about this latest terror alert. The protests that are being planned are extremely well-organized by experienced professional people; the protests are non-violent, and very creative in nature, things like street theater, performance pieces, satire, grassroots ways of exposing the GOP hypocrisy in a city that is pissed at them. A lot of activism (mostly what I'm directly involved with ) focuses on ensuring wide independent media coverage. The hundreds of groups that are coming together to make this happen are extremely well-organized and chaos is the last thing they want. well-organized, truly grassroots mass action is one way how change can be brought about. The media concentrates on portraying protesters as disruptive and violent and on a selective portrayal of handpicked people pissed off about this, but doesn't mention all the people who are moved, or impressed by what's being portrayed, who are curious to talk to the activists, who take the leaflets and ask questions about them, who either learn new stuff, or hear things they kind of feel articulated by thousands of others, that is empowering, and that is what gets dictators out of power. I am not some crazy idealist, I don't want a revolution, I am a registered democrat who will be voting for Kerry, and on this I speak from experience, rather than from presuppositions and fear.

[IndianaGreen]

62. Every act of violence, like in Seattle, was provoked by the authorities

Too bad that you are unhappy that the activists that will congregate in NYC are refusing to behave like the compliant sheep that we have seen around these parts for far too long.

[gardenista]

82. You can count on it! The RNC loves the black blockers! eom

[nodehopper]

51. well, in NYC the public mood is such

that activists are expressing public opinion, rather than contradicting it.

Everyone always gets a negative picture of "disruptions" b/c of how corporate media portrays them, and the clips they play of pissed-off people they find and plant, of course you will never see uninformed or underinformed people who are touched or educated by the inventive, creative and informative forms that the protests take, like satire, street theater, art, etc.

[Francine Frensky]

57. There ARE NO SWING VOTERS THIS YEAR!!!!!

Can't you see what is going on?????

Karl Rove understands what YOU DON"T. The repubs will bash the HE$#@ out of Kerry at their convention and the polls WILL ONLY CHANGE IN THEIR FAVOR because THERE ARE NO SWING VOTERS this year.

[Voltaire99]

76. Ah, yes. Swing voters. Let's be GOP-lite so they'll like us.

You go first. Wait: I see you already have.

[MallRat]

3. Total number of protestors arrested in Boston: 3.

That number will definitely be higher in New York.

The Democratic rapid response team had better be ready when the Republicans try to paint the protestors as "liberals who hate America and who vote for John Kerry."

Just be aware, folks. Politically speaking, violent demonstrations in NYC could give the GOP a fresh talking point. We need to be ready to counter the inevitable spin.

-MR

[Trajan]

4. 3 arrests in Boston ...

FOUR THOUSAND in NYC ....

Nader will claim that the parties are the same, Tom Ridge will declare the protestors are terrorists, and CNN will declare George Bush is the greatest leader who ever walked the earth (that is: If his lordly feet ever actually touch the ground) ...

[NMDemDist2]

44. which they don't. If you'll notice he always has ramps built

where ever he speaks across the grass or whatever. It cost us thousands when he did the D-Day speech in France.

even when he did the "wetlands" speech, he was on a wooden walkway

I never understood this, does he have platforms built so he can "clear brush" in Crawford?

[Seabiscuit]

73. The platforms all over W's dude ranch in Crawford

were built so if some scary looking horse strays onto his property he can hop up out of harm's way and cower in fear.

[NMDemDist2]

80. he's afraid of horses AND dirt

what a limpwad

[piece sine]

6. A viewer and news-rating bonaza

Although in spirit, I'm pumped for protests in NYC, the clear and unavoidable downside is that 1000+ persons arrests every day will have millons of additional TV viewers glued to the tube, where Arnold and Rudy will draw sharp distinctions between their concern for the nation and the "rabble" outside. The more protesters break ther law -- and threaten security on Manhattan streets, the more the GOP will crow about protecting the silent majority.

Better to stick with "permitted" public gatherings in massive numbers that show we can vocally disagree without threatening public security, ESPECIALLY in edgy, "orange-zone" Manhattan.

Disrupting Time Square (on nationwide TV) is a swell way to lose a close election.

[David__77]

7. Didn't work for the Democrats in '68!

We must be prepared to spin things to our advantage. Old Daley and the Democrats' "law and order" did nothing to save Hubert Humphrey.

[coalition_unwilling]

8. Massive sit-ins called for

While I won't be going to NYC for the convention, my feeling is that the United for Peace and Justice\A.N.S.W.E.R. march past Madison Square Garden must engage in a mass sit-in in front of the convention, as a way of protesting the permitted rally site, miles from the convention center.

If the march attracts even 10,000 who sit in in front of the MSG, NYPD will be powerless to do anything, thereby demonstrating the power of Gandhian non-violent resistance.

[piece sine]

10. NYPD barricades

your heart is truly in a good place BUT those 10,000 non-violent marchers will have to physically overcome enormous police barricades. The NYPD is not fooling around.

Remember, the GOP convention wasn't IMPOSED upon New York...BOTH parties were invited there. Sen. Kennedy won it for Boston; the GOP went along immediately with Bloomberg's request. I mention only because the NYPD is ready, willing and able to keep trouble of any kind away from Madison Square Garden.

Sorry to be a killjoy, but violence at the GOP convention is a profoundly bad idea and those who really want to win this election need to tell it as it is.

[schultzee]

12. The police are going to use the nazi tactics that were used at the

trade agreement talks in Miami. What they are doing to free speech is obscene.

[w4rma]

16. Hey bud. The only person here talking about

violence from protesters is you. So knock it off with the smears.

[piece sine]

22. re-read the article carefully....

and out two and two together and then stop flaming those of us who want to win the election. Also, read my other posts and you'll learn that no possible electoral benefit can come from dramatic TV pictures of civil disobedience on the streets of NYC.

Nobody's smearing anything here but the NYPD are tough! Any gentle souls who think they can just squat in front of Madison Square garden are regretably going to learn otherwise. Any discord between them will be perceived as violence. Get it?

Sounds like you want every TV in America tuned to coverage the GOP convention. Yeah...let's stretch their the 3 hours of primetime into a four-day mini-series of special reports, bulletins, non-stop action.

[w4rma]

26. So sitting down peacefully is violence in your mind? You need to re-read

not me.

Any gentle souls who think they can just squat in front of Madison Square garden are regretably going to learn otherwise. Any discord between them will be perceived as violence. Get it?

[coalition_unwilling]

27. The Power of Non-Violence

While the NYPD may be "ready, willing and able to keep trouble of any kind away from Madison Square Garden", the march is permitted to go directly past Madison Square Garden. A massive non-violent sit-in by marchers as they pass MSG would fore-ground the issue of 'free speech zones' (an Orwellian absurdity, if ever there were one), as nothing else could.

I'm not advocating violence at the GOP convention, but instead its exact opposite, in the best tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

[SoCalDem]

13. AMEN...and the GOP will GAIN from it, because they can always

point to "how well behaved the DNC protestors were in Boston"..

The Dems will be painted as rif-raff with no manners or respect.
You can bet that the media will be all over it this time, showing the outlandishly dressed and behaved DEMOCRATS..

Protests against Bush have not been well covered all along, so there will be little to compare this one to.. All the massivelt attended, but civil protests have never gotten the coverage..

The media will pounce on the opportunity to make us look bad..and there will be the obligatory "flashbacks to '68", with all the parallels...

Thousands of people showing up wearing black, and standing silently would make a more vivd scene, but instead we will have only pictures of the outlandish ones on tv..:(

With the "security threat" amplifying the whole "event", the police will be bold, and it could get out of hand in a hurry..

[w4rma]

17. Note: In '68, it was the incumbant's convention protested and he lost (nt)

[SoCalDem]

18. Johnson was not running.. he declined the "invitation"

Wasn't that Tricky Dick's first?? vs McGovern?? There technically wasn't an incumbent that year :)..IIRC

[yardwork]

20. That's right. I remember it well.

Johnson said he wouldn't run because of Vietnam. Humphrey was selected as the nominee during an extremely divided convention marked by protests and Democratic in-fighting. He emerged as a weak candidate.

Nixon ran as his party's "moderate" choice compared to Goldwater, and promised the voters that he had a secret plan to get us out of Vietnam.

Of course when Nixon was elected it turned out his secret plan was to illegally bomb the hell out of surrounding countries, which escalated the war instead of ending it. Doh!

Kind of similar to Dumya's approach, come to remember...

[bobbieinok]

31. HHH lost because anti-war purists didn't vote for him

I think (as one who watched from IA after moving from grad school in CA) the effect of the protests has been more a discussion 20+ years after the fact. At the time it was clear that democrats lost because some/many anti-war democrats refused to back HHH.

Both my husband and I were anti-war, but there was no way we we not voting for HHH. The negative effects of a Nixon win were clear to anyone paying attention. (As the negative effects of a W win in 2000 were clear to anyone paying attention.)

I've read (I think it was in some DU post) that there's some evidence that if campaign had lasted 3 weeks longer, HHH would have won.

[MisterP]

47. as I recall, Humphrey went against the war a little too late,

but his numbers kept increasing.

[w4rma]

25. Tricky Dick's first vs. Vice President Humphrey, not McGovern. (nt)

[SoCalDem]

29. Of course.. I forgot about Hubert

:(..I was "busy" in 68... must have forgotten :)

[Lizzie Borden]

34. No. In '68

it was the nomination of Humphrey. The huge demonstrations were due to the refusal to seat the Eugene McCarthy delegates. There were also many anti-war protestors there. Abbie Hoffman ring any bells? I remember when the cops came into the the convention itself and some body hit Walter Cronkite on the head. And there was poor Walter saying, "I'm being beaten about the head".... It was a great convention. <no sarcasm>

[SoCalDem]

36. My memory was jogged by another poster.. Sad to say, I was 18 then

and ,like Cheney, had "other priorities".:)..)..

Hunphrey was not a very exciting candidate.. after Bobby was killed, I lost interest...I saw it happen, and later stayed at the Ambassador...saw the place it happened :cry:..and the room he stayed in :(

[yardwork]

68. I remember Dan Rather breathlessly reporting from the floor

hyping up the "hysteria and chaos." I haven't liked him ever since.

[glitch]

24. I love the idea of a totally silent protest - all in black - maybe candles

It would be awesome! Of course the networks and cable wouldn't show it, but we've got internet and dvds and lots of talented documentary directors. And the international press will be there.

[IndianaGreen]

40. The whole country is a free speech zone

not the cattle pen that some politicians are hell-bent in confining us to.

[democrat_patriot]

14. 'Cheney' the swing voters.

I know we 'need' them, but it makes me sick that we try to woo these people that can't take the time to get informed.

These are the people that cause the election to go one way or another? I disagree, it's us that do that. By working our Asscroft's off keeping them informed.

[yardwork]

21. There's nothing wrong with informing people and working to get out message

but massive demonstrations that block traffic and cause the news media to do head spins won't help our cause.

We need to stay focused. There is a time for pouring blood on nuclear power plants to get people's attention, but this is not it.

We need to get BushCo out. Then we start protesting to get what we want in.

[Emillereid]

28. Join my husband, 14 year old and me --

the idea is to get 1,000,000 people on the streets of NY.If we can do that -- it will by itself speak volumes to the muddled middle -- that all kinds of everyday folks just like them so detest the Bushits that they are willing to travel thousands of miles (3000 in our case), walk some weird march route in the August heat of New York to say loud and clear that their politics of hatred and division are un-American. I don't want to offend the swing voters sensibilities, but excuse me, the politics of silence that permits the death and destruction of thousands of fellow human beings is OFFENSIVE to me.

BTW, the 1968 convention madness hurt Humphrey because he was identified with LBJ's war policies that had given rise to all the protests, the Chicago police had totally lost control and they too were identified with democratic mayor Daley and because a lot of folks on the left refused to compromise and vote for Humphrey. As it was, as Humphrey more and more distanced himself from LBJ he began to surge in the polls -- had he had another two weeks he would have won. Remember too that Nixon was running as a weird kind of antiwar candidate -- he said he had a secret plan to get us out of Vietnam.

[coalition_unwilling]

30. Bravo! (With a historical side-note)

Bravo to you! 1 million people in the streets of NYC will speak far louder than any specific words (and, if only 20,000 of them sit down in the street outside Madison Square Garden . . .)

Remember also in '68 that Kissinger was playing both sides of the fence, working as a foreign policy advisor to Dems but also telling Thieu and his government to hold out for a better deal from a Nixon administration.

[Emillereid]

35. I never forget Kissinger -- Evil Incarnate itself. Though I

suspect that Cheney is vying for the role.

Imagine if the peoples of Vietnam, Malaysia and Central and South America could shape history instead of us -- Kissinger would not only not have received a Nobel peace prize but would have been tried and convicted of crimes against humanity years ago and be rotting away in a well deserved jail-cell.

[coalition_unwilling]

37. I'm a lapsed Buddhist

Mainly because I could never reconcile myself to the concept that the evil (a la Kissinger and his ilk) may prosper in this life, even though Buddhism holds out the principle of karma in this life and future incarnations as a way to square that circle.

I should point out that Buddhists can't really "lapse", the way Protestants and Catholics can, so it might be better to say I no longer practice, but still have a Buddhist mentality (as evidenced by my continuing belief in the power of non-violent resistance)

[NMDemDist2]

45. welcome to DU

we love peaceniks here :)

:hi:

[geek tragedy]

23. NYC needs to give the RNC a big "FUCK YOU AND GO HOME!"

Demonstrate that it was Republican officials who welcomed them here, not New Yorkers.

[CityDem]

32. It is time to stand up / sit down for freedom

Who cares if a few people are put off by a demonstration? I think we need to turn the BushCo convention into a street riot. We need to get out and show the people of America that we are fed up with the nazis in the white house. I am tired of turning the other cheek and getting kicked in the ass by someone like Asscroft. Media coverage may help our cause - it will show the average american that we won't take this crap anymore.

[coalition_unwilling]

33. Bravo We need to remember Mario Savio's words

In Berkeley during the Free Speech Movement days that (paraphrasing) sometimes you just get so sick of the machine that you have to throw yourself on its cogs to make it stop.

Again, that's not being violent, but its exact opposite--passive resistance.

[Piperay]

41. UGH

that will help to secure chimp's reSelection. The RWingers will come out in droves there is nothing they like better than to have protestors get them fired up, they get to feel all self-rightious with the 'commie, pinko. librul scum' against them. :thumbsdown:

[coalition_unwilling]

43. Note bene

The RWingers will already be coming out to the election in droves. (Why else do you think BushCo still enjoys a > 40% approval rating?)

One reason it's necessary to disrupt the Repug convention is to show the Repugs that sizable numbers of middle Americans do not share their neo-imperial plutocratic agenda. A second reason is to demonstrate to middle America and the fracturing power elite that BushCo has rendered country "ungovernable"

"No business as usual"

[nodehopper]

53. there are people who say this about every major mass action

and yet mass actions are the only thing that has ever accomplished change.

[Baltimoreboy]

42. who cares about the democratic process

I don't suppose the irony dawns on them.

[nodehopper]

54. what are you talking about?

who is the irony supposed to dawn on? The protesters? Last I checked, protesting and the 1st Amendment was a crucial part of our Democratic process.

[Baltimoreboy]

56. The 1st Amendment is great

Deliberately interfering with the convention of a political party is not. In fact, it's the same kind of tactics used by guys in brown shirts during the 1930s.

[nodehopper]

59. how is protesting=interfering?

The Convention will be going on in Madison Square Garden. No protesters are going to be inside there. The Convention is going to procede as planned. But all the protest/actions planned are designed to show that New York does NOT welcome them. That they can't come here, enjoy the shows, eat in fancy restaurants, do a photo-op at Ground Zero and have everyone buy their hypocrisy. do you even know what kind of protests are being planned? Because if you don't, you should read up on it, there is a lot of interetsing creative stuff that people are setting up: street theater, Naming The Dead performative pieces, satirical groups like Billionaires for Bush, grassroots campaigsn designed to bring attention to the NeoCon exploitation of NYC.

[Baltimoreboy]

60. Did you read the first two paragraphs?

"Activists plan to hold sit-ins at delegate hotels, take over city intersections, block doors to major corporate offices, confront GOP bigwigs and infiltrate events when Republicans come to town for their political convention.

They say the aim is not to cause harm or even stop the convention from proceeding inside Madison Square Garden from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2. They will use what they call creative mischief to call attention to their disgust with the Bush administration."

Note: "Infiltrate events"
And: "Creative mischief."

Wrecking a political convention is the stuff Nazi dreams are made of.

[nodehopper]

63. The Convention itself will be at MSG where protesters won't have access

Creative acts of civil disobedience in the city of New York where the republican fatcats will be wined and dined is not the same as "wrecking a convention."

Passivity and keeping quiet are what Nazi dreams are made of.

Remember, "first they came for the communists..."

[Baltimoreboy]

64. Au contrair

We have seen thread after thread encouraging people to volunteer to either not show up and put an added burden on the convention or to cause trouble.

Deliberately disrupting a political even is right out of the Nazi playbook.

[nodehopper]

65. ok, obviously I am not going to change your mind on this

fortunately, since you are in Baltimore and I am in NYC it's not much of an issue. I will be on the streets protesting, and you won't be inconvenienced by it, and I will think that I am contributing to change in a positive way, and you will think that I am naive or stupid. If you really think that people who are resiting the GOP's imperialist RACIST policies are on the same page as the Nazis, we are unlikely to find any common ground.

[Baltimoreboy]

78. Good luck with legit protesting

I fully support you. It's the sneaky, underground dirty tricks stuff that reminds me of Nixon that I oppose.

[sexysenior]

46. Don't put it past the Repugs

to send their own in "activists" guise and blame us for the disruptions. So we may as well do it ourselves and get some satisfaction out of it.

[nodehopper]

55. well, there are the counter-protesers, the Protest Warriors or whatever

[goforit]

66. Hats off to all that try!!!..................

Yet it would be wiser to pick your battles.

[nodehopper]

67. we are. eom.

[Tight_rope]

69. I don't know about this...I don't think it's a good idea...n/t

[truthisfreedom]

70. you know what i like? they can't smoke inside, anywhere. imagine all

those rethugs with no place to light up.

[jeff5]

71. 1,000 "Poncho Guys" Like Abu Ghraib

Just standing everywhere, quietly. A poncho, a hood (forget the wires, the cops will claim you might have a bomb). The cameras wouldn't be able to ignore them and nobody would miss the message.

[Dancing_Dave]

81. Now this is the most interesting, inspiring and TRUTHFUL thread I ever saw

In DU's usually sadly shallow "latest breaking news" forum! Maybe we are making a little PROGRESS after all!!!:)

[Dancing_Dave]

74. This will be a major defining event for young activists involved!

And also by other young activists who will be inspired by it.

And because the Bush Regime depends so much on 9/11 related propaganda, a very negative reception in New York City will knock some credibility out from the very core it's bogus rhetoric.

[tpdecm20]

75. i bet the nypd will be out in full force the protestors wont be alowed

with in a block of the convention

[Algomas]

77. I think protest may empower others living in fear and doubt...

B esides, it is our civic responsibility to speak up in defense of our country. Look how low Kerry is flying under the radar. He has achieved little in the polls (if you believe them) with his Bu$h lite approach.
It is long past time for the Democrats to start throwing some haymakers. Maybe a good protest will jump-start them into taking a stronger stand on the dire issues we face.

[banana republican]

79. IS this the Terra alert Ridge was BSing about????

[Dancing_Dave]

83. This willl be the defining political moment of a generation....

Like Woodstock in 1969.

That's what this is REALLY all about.:)