RNC 2004 Mobilization

The 2004 RNC was arguably the largest convergence of its kind ever. No summary could do justice to the hundreds of creative actions that took place, large and small, from banner drops to street theater to flash mobs to civil disobedience. Here are a few highlights.

 THURSDAY A26

8am        Operation Sybl Banner Drop.  Four activists unfurl a 2400 square foot banner on top of the Plaza Hotel. Four arrests.

12pm      ACT-UP Naked. Activists wearing nothing but the words "Stop AIDS" and "Drop the Debt" stenciled on their bodies block traffic at 33rd St. & 8th Ave. 12 arrests.

1pm        Chinatown Justice Project rally and march. Over 100 people gather in Confucious Park, Chinatown to protest the Bush administration's wars at home and abroad.

6pm        DNC2RNC Arrival. Without a permit, 1,500 marchers and 200 bikers storm down Broadway from Central Park to Union Square. At Times Square, the DNC2RNC bloc leads a colorful Zapatista-style street theater action using illegal masks and sticks. 

FRIDAY A27

7pm        Critical Mass Bike Ride. 5,000 bikers ride a meandering course through Manhattan. Police use orange day-glow netting to snag critical massers and make 264 arrests.

SATURDAY A28

9am        Books Not Bombs Youth Convergence. Several hundred turn out for a day-long exchange of skills, ideas, tactics and beats at St. Mark’s Church, 10th St. & 2nd Ave.

12pm      New York March And Rally For Women’s Lives. 10,000 rally at Cadman Plaza then march across Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall.

3pm        Industrial Workers of the World Starbucks rally. 200 gather in front of Starbucks at 36th & Madison to protest union-busting at Starbucks. Police arrest two organizers..

5:30pm    RING OUT Ground Zero. Activists ring 3,000+ bells at Gound Zero accompanied by TimesUP bike bell riders.

SUNDAY A29

10am       Women's Peace Rally and March. CodePink, NOW, WILPF and others lead a brief rally and march at Madison Square Park before joining the UFPJ march.

11am       The World Says No to the Bush Agenda. 500,000 take part in United for Peace and Justice's march up 7th Avenue. Police make numerous arrests along the march route.

4pm         Mouse Bloc. 800 activists swarm Times Square to heckle RNC delegates as they attended Broadway shows on the City's dime. About 150 are arrested.

4pm        Reclaim the Park. As Reverend Billy performs marriages, the Rude Mechanical Orchestra plays tunes and the Clown Bloc scares people, 10,000 picnic and party on the Great Lawn in Central Park despite the city's refusal to permit a rally to UFPJ.

MONDAY A30

11am        March On New York: Still We Rise. Poor people and NYC CBOs lead 5,000 under the Still We Rise banner from Union Square to rally on at 8th Ave. & 31st St.

4pm        March For Our Lives: Stop The War At Home. After a rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, the Kensington Welfare Rights Union leads 5,000 on an unpermitted march down 1st Ave. and across 23rd St. Multiple arrests.

TUESDAY A31 – By day's end, 1,000 are arrested.

8am        Party Liberation Front. A dozen activists block an intersection on Wall Street., effectively disrupting early morning traffic to the stock exchange. Arrests.

8am        Halliburton Protest Wearing pig-noses, activists hassle Texas Republican Party delegates at a Halliburton breakfast at the Hilton Hotel at 6th Ave. & W. 54th St.

12pm      Stop the Detentions and Homeland Repression. The Philly Cluster and Save Our Civil Liberties lead 1,000 on an unpermitted march to Federal Plaza, downtown. Following a hooded bloc street theater action there is a brief rally. One arrest.

3pm        War Resistors League/SOAW vigil and march. After gathering at Church and Cortlandt, 800 begin a procession towards MSG. Two blocks later, 200 are penned in behind plastic fencing and arrested.

4pm        Fox News “Shut-Up-A-Thon.” 200 slam Fox on 6th Ave.  Arrests.

4pm        Billionaires for Bush at Grand Central get their shoes shined.

4pm        Man in Black Bloc.  Mostly dressed in black, some carrying cardboard guitars, 200 gather without a permit outside of Sotheby’s to protest the use of Johnny Cash as a cause for Republican celebration.

6pm        A31 orientation and meet-up. Plans to use the New York Public Library at 42nd & 5th Ave. for direct action orientation and coordination are foiled by police. Multiple arrests.

7pm        True Security cluster. 4,000 gather on sidewalks surrounding Herald Square (34th & 6th). Eventually small groups break away to occupy intersections and block delegates' buses, leading to dozens of arrests.

7pm        War Resisters League Die In. 54 are arrested at 28th and Broadway while 150 supporters look on from the sidewalks.

7pm        Bike Bloc & Youth Street Party flash mob. After folks step off from Union Square, police rush in to make 250 arrests on 16th & Irving.

10pm       Inside the Garden. One infiltrator raises his "Bush Lied. My Son Died." sign in front of Laura Bush. CodePink's Medea Benjamin unfurls a banner during Arnold's speech.

WEDNESDAY S1

8:13am    The Unemployment Line. Thousands form a symbolic unemployment line stretching three miles from Wall Street to Madison Square Garden.

10:00am  Guantanamo on the Hudson. 200 gather at Peer 57––the temporary detention center on West Side Highway & 15th St.––to protest the appalling conditions for arrestees.

1pm        ACT-UP inside the Garden. Eleven are arrested after disrupting the speech of White House Chief of Staff.

4pm        Central Labor Council Rally.  2,000 rally on 8th Ave.

3pm        Activists in Row boats protest at Central Park Boathouse, where delegates are schmoozing.

6pm        Mass Protest Panty Flash.  Over 200 Eves gathered in Battery Park to participate in Operation EXPOSE and DEPOSE, a Panty Performance Protest against the RNC.

7pm        March on the Media. 2,000 participate in a mid-town march organized by FAIR, Paper Tiger TV and others, stopping at CBS, CNN and Fox for brief rallies.

9pm        Code Red: Stop The Bush Agenda Demonstration. National Organization of Women holds a rally in Central Park's East Meadow.

9:30pm    Killer Coke protest. 300 protest Coca-Cola at the Copacabana on 34th St. & 11th Ave.

9:30pm    A judge rules that the NYPD needs to release RNC arrestees by 1pm tomorrow. Then another judge issues a stay on that order.

10pm       CodePink Inside the Garden. Two women interrupt Dick Cheney's speech.

THURSDAY S2

9am       ACT-UP (again). 200 storm Grand Central Station. 19 are arrested.

12pm      A judge finds the City of NY in contempt and levied a fine of $1,000 per person not released by earlier order, that is, by 1:00pm today.

1pm       Fountains of Blood. Fountains in Washington Square and Union Square are dyed red.

2pm       Artists & Activists United for Peace Coalition March and Rally. 1,000 join a Black-led march from the Harlem State Office Building at W. 125th St. to 151st St. where they rally against the war in Iraq and police brutality in Harlem.

5pm        ANSWER rally. 4,000 people are penned in by police barricades at 29th and 8th Ave.

8pm        Candlelight Convergence at Union Square. Thousands pack Union Square. Some hold candles, some speak out...others beat drums.

10pm       Ad-Hoc Unpermitted March. 3,000 leave Union Square and go up 8th Ave. to MSG. Eventually 16 are arrested after Bush's speech is over and the delegates are leaving.

10:30pm   CodePink inside the Garden. Two women are dragged off the convention floor during Bush's speech. 

The Banner Drop. (Photo by Jesse Wegman)	Sit down at Herald Square. (Photo from www.indybay.org)	Critical mass. (Photo from NYC indymedia)
Planned Parenthood March for Women's Lives over the Brooklyn Bridge. (Photo by Edgar Mata)	DNC2RNC Arrival March. (Photo by Edgar Mata)	Queer Kiss In at Times Square. (Photo by Peter Holderness)
A30 Still We Rise March. (Photo by Puck)