NYT: Group Planning Illegal Protests on Second Day of Convention

[kskiska]

Members of a group opposed to the Republican National Convention, many describing themselves as anarchists, said yesterday that they would carry out illegal protest activities on the convention's second day.

Organizers in the group, the A31 Action Coalition, said they were calling for a nationwide day of nonviolent civil disobedience on Aug. 31 aimed at using parts of Midtown to stage demonstrations, without permits, against the Bush administration. The organizers said they were looking to break free of government intervention to have their say; they called the process for issuing permits broken and criticized the city's practice of using metal barriers to create rally areas or march routes.

"It is here, at the end of the barricades, that we will create free-speech zones, where we can create the kind of world we want to see through music and free food and dancing and debate," said Tim Doody, an organizer, at a news conference at St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery, in the East Village. He added that that if asked to move, participants planned to sit down and refuse. "Freedom of assembly isn't so free if you have to ask the government where, when or if."

Throughout the day, organizers said, participants plan to demonstrate outside a variety of institutions, including a Bank of America finance round table planned the morning of Aug. 31 at Tavern on the Green and several corporations they see as contributing to the Bush administration's foreign policies or profiting from them. That evening, the protesters plan to converge around the convention site, Madison Square Garden, outside the official security zone. The coalition, still being formed, represents a broad array of interests, including education, welfare and opposition to the war.

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/05/nyregion/05protest.html

[Melinda]

1. I love it. :-)

Power to the people, right on. :headbang:

[nodehopper]

3. omg, your picture just made me spit out my tea, too funny!

[nodehopper]

2. misleading title

(not by you, kskiska, by the NYT).

As someone who was there today videotaping the conference, I have to say that the spokespeople for the coalition said that they were not requesting permits, and explained the historical precedents behind NON-VIOLENT civil disobedience; but making the leap from that to "illegal" is preemptie criminalization of dissent. As usual, NYT does not fail to disappoint. Fox News was there too, I can't wait to see how they will splice the soundbites.

[loyalsister]

11. No sympathy here

We made an effort to find a bullet proof candidate in my district.
It takes more work and creativity to stage events that don't have built in misleading headlines for Rove, but it's worth it.

[nodehopper]

12. what do you mean? candidate for what?

and Rove can spin a misleading headline out of anything. That's how Orwellian tactics work. Plus, this wasn't Rove. This was NYT, according to some "balanced" media source (ha!) that engaged in preemtive criminalization of dissent in their choice of language, in essence op-eding in what was supposed to be a news piece.

[kskiska]

4. There's going to be a big homeless march to the RNC, too

Down and out and on the move

Leading a feisty army of homeless people, fiery activist Cheri Honkala is about to descend on the Republican Convention.

On Aug. 30, the first day of the Republican National Convention in New York, Cheri Honkala is going to march from the United Nations to Madison Square Garden with or without a protest permit. Behind her will be homeless women and their children, men furloughed from rehab centers, public housing tenants, wheelchair-bound people without healthcare and poor people hanging on to life by their fingernails. Arrayed against them will be walls of police in riot gear, armed with the latest in high-tech crowd-control devices and ready for mass arrests. For the past two weeks, Honkala and her followers have been marching across New Jersey, and undercover police have been videotaping and photographing them. Fearing violence, Honkala has put out a call for international human rights observers to watch over her group during the RNC.

more…
http://salon.com/news/feature/2004/08/05/honkala/index.html

[KoKo]

5. I wonder if we will see any of this on the cables, or will it be

"disappeared" from the media like the massive anti-Iraq Invasion protests? The answer is NO! The media want violence and even then, they might not report anything which reflects badly on St. George's policies of impoverished America.

[nodehopper]

8. Actually, I can answer that! (UnConventional TV)

A group of us in NYC, the NoRNC Video Collective will be producting a one-hour live show every night of the RNC as an alternative to the corporate media coverage. The show will be called UnConventional TV and it will be broadcast on the Manhattan cable public access channel and it will also show on Free Speech TV which is available if you have the Dish. Perhaps it will be screened on other public access channels as well. I will post more about it closer to the convention.

[aquart]

6. Excuse me, "opposed to the Republican National Convention"???

As in, opposed to the democratic process?

There's nothing to cheer here. Nothing to feel but contempt.

They want anarchy? Like Somalia? Afghanistan? Iraq? Nice of them to bring it home. Except that New York is MY home. I hope the self-important little pricks rot in hell.

[tkmorris]

7. Guess you didn't read the article

That's just the NYT spin on the group, much like their portrayal of the planned events as "illegal". Don't believe what you read Aquart, come on, you know that.

[nodehopper]

9. the corporate media is demonizing the protesters again

how do you make the leap to Somalia? I attended the Press Conference today. The NON-VIOLENT civil disobedience this coalition calls for has nothing to do with the scewed portrayals of "crazy anarchists" that is proliferated by Fox News and the like. If you are interested, read more about it at a31.org. The War Resisters' League is nothing like out-of-control crowds in Somalia. The media and the police want to portray protesters as disorganized and chaotic, but really, they are very well organized. It's not the protesters that wreak havoc on the streets and hurt people.

[nodehopper]

10. also, they are not opposed to the RNC right to proceed

The opposition is to the policies endorsed by the GOP and the agendas they pursue, as well as their decision to use NYC as their launching platform despite the fact that they are, by and large, not welcome here except by Bloomberg and his Republican friends.

[American liberal]

14. thank you, nodehopper...

for your good work. I started another thread about Cheri Honkala, asking people to demand coverage of her march in an effort to keeping them from getting beaten up by the police.

I wish I could be there with them--and you all--to observe the Honkala's march for justice! I may just surprise myself and book a flight... :)

Keep up the good work!

Peace,
AL

[nodehopper]

15. if you do, book one early...

getting into the city right around the convention will be a bitch.

thanks for the support :)

and w/r/t concerns of police brutality, there will be teams of legal observers with videographers, the NLG and PLC are collaborating with some cool organizations...not that it will stop the police from being their usual charming represssive selves, but at least someone will be there to keep them accountable.

[Baltimoreboy]

13. Anarchists for Kerry

Yeah, that will help us in November.

[nodehopper]

16. neither will sending a message that BushCo can do whatevah

like postponing elecitons. That really won't help is in November.