RNC Hijacks NYC
Pittsburghers travel to the
Republican National Convention and share their personal accounts of resistance
Women Say No To WarThe city of New York was on high pink alert the weekend of the Republican National Convention, August 27-29. Codepink members from over 90 chapters nationwide flocked to New York to participate in one of the largest protests in New York’s history. Organizers, United for Peace and Justice, estimated the crowd at 400,000. Setting up temporary offices along with United for Peace and Justice, Codepink founders Gael Murphy, Medea Benjamin, Andrea Buffa and other staff members worked relentlessly to organize events for members throughout the weekend. |
 Crowd shot at UFPJ march. Reports cited approx. 400,000 protesters. (Photo from NYC Indymedia) |
The week prior to the opening of the RNC, Andrea Buffa and three other Codepink members were arrested and spent the night in jail for attempting to unfurl a forty foot banner reading, “You Say Welcome, We Say Where - 8/29 Central Park?” exposing the infringement of civil rights of peaceful protesters.
On Friday, Codepink held a Peaceful Police Press Conference and Rights Training along with a presentation hosted by talk show host Laura Flanders entitled, “Military Families Speak Out.”
Saturday morning at 9am, Codepink’s main headquarters at 122 W 27th were ablaze with activity. Every room in their offices was occupied with busy groups making signs and posters, organizing Codepink literature and constructing banners for the march. On Saturday afternoon, a block of Codepink women and men along with 15,000 others headed for the Brooklyn Bridge to take part in The March for Women’s Lives.
Saturday evening at the historic Riverside Church, Codepink presented “Women Against War,” a night of music and inspiration. The program included “We Got Issues,” a group of anti-war poets and songwriters, “Democracy Now” host Amy Goodman, Hip Hop Poet Aya Deleon, singer Pamela Means with spoken word artist Alix Olson, and the impeccable playwright Eve Ensler. Pink badges of courage were given to those who have stood up in the face of opposition and bravely spoken out with voices of conscience and integrity. Leslie Cagan, National Coordinator of the anti-war coalition UFPJ, was among those receiving an award.
The highlight of the weekend came Sunday morning. Codepink had a feisty pink block of members marching between a huge satin slip reading “Pink Slip Bush,” and their signature pink banner reading, “Women for Peace.” Hundreds of women marched in pink slips with slogans expressing their opposition to the Bush agenda and war in Iraq written on them. Chants from the Codepink block resounded above the crowd, pink peace doves and signs cut into the shape of slips were held high.
I was so proud to march in solidarity with women who have so much drive, courage, commitment and endless energy devoted to the vision that another world is possible.
No longer able to ignore the mass numbers, Bush will think twice about referring to dissidents as mere “focus groups.” On August 29, the streets of New York belonged to the people, and our pink voices were heard and will continue to be heard as long as the US sustains this brutal war and ugly occupation, as long as the threat of losing our basic rights exists, as long as environmental protection laws continue to be weakened or cut by the Bush administration, as long as our leaders do not represent our beliefs and values to the best of their ability. For these and so many more reasons Codepink says, “Pink Slip Bush!”
- Francine Porter, Codepink. For a full report back of all Codepink actions during the National Republican Convention log onto www.codepink4peace.org
POG cluster finds community and resistance in NYC
September 1st, 2004, I’m back in Pittsburgh. I spent the previous four days in New York City protesting the Republican Nation Convention (RNC).
During the protests I participated in a cluster organized by POG (Pittsburgh Organizing Group). Our merry band was 37 people who got together to protest. Most said they were taking part in the cluster out of a sense that a larger group would be safer from police violence and/or increase our chances to initiate and take part in disruptive direct actions to interfere with the smooth functioning of the RNC.
People go to protests for many reasons, but at the most basic I believe it’s because they are not satisfied with the way things are and they refuse to accept that this is the way things must be. Each person has a different idea of what it will take to change the wrongs of the world. In NY, I was willing to take actions that risked arrest or being beaten, and I was willing to participate in tangible acts of disruption.
There were more than 120 events scheduled to take place during the convergence and our cluster took part in a variety of activities. On Friday, I watched over five thousand bicyclists reclaim the streets in the largest critical mass bike ride New York has ever seen. 250 were arrested as cyclists shut down Manhattan in a powerful protest against the RNC and the negative effects of oil dependence. On Saturday we visited the anarchist-feminist run bookstore Blue Stockings and the ABC No Rio squat. We told stories, shared yummy Indian food, stayed up late into the night, and explored local neighborhoods.
On Sunday we took part in the massive United for Peace and Justice march, later estimated by organizers as numbering more than half a million people. It was an awe-inspiring testament to the fact that there is a movement of millions of people in this country working towards similar progressive goals. The single problem we encountered in the march occurred when, out of the blue and without cause, the police grabbed a person of color off the sidewalk and drove his face into the concrete. Two members of our group witnessed this and ran towards the metal barricades lining the street, frantically worked to pull them apart as they were quickly joined by a couple of onlookers. The barriers broke and sent one person skidding backwards on his water bottle while another person tossed the section he separated towards the officer. Although they successfully dismantled the barrier, a dozen officers managed to reach the scene before anyone could free the person being arrested.
When the march
concluded we headed for Times Square to take part in “Chaos on Broadway,” a
series of protests at theatre shows being specially arranged for RNC delegates.
Our cluster decided to head for the “Fiddler on the Roof” show, which
Pennsylvania’s delegates were attending. Times square was a scene of confusion;
there were small groups of people standing around, but no organized protests in
sight. Everyone, police included seemed to be waiting for something, to
happen. After a short discussion we decided we could make something happen. We
made a break for “Fiddler,” only to see 8 cops heading towards us. “Back, get
back, you can’t be here, stay back” they shouted. We stopped and hesitated,
unsure of what to do. I asked why we couldn’t walk that way; an aggressive
officer replied we had to get moving. When I asked why he told me to “come over
here” – behind the police line so he could explain it. I refused his generous
offer. He came to where I was and told me he was “going to explain it, real
slooooow, so that even I could understand it,” “protesters weren’t allowed to
stand on the sidewalk because this would block other pedestrians.” So we’re
fine as long as we’re walking? “Umm, yes”. Thanks, end of conversation. I
walked away form my special “talking to” and headed towards the show letting
others know we were supposedly fine as long as we don’t stop. Our chanting got
louder and reverberated off the walls of the buildings-
“What’s the reaction? Direct Action! What’s the solution? People’s Revolution!”
“Disease and starvation will not be solved by corporations, it’s bullshit, get
off it, the enemy is profit”
“Move Bush, git out the way, git out the way Bush, git out the way”
We marched this way and that, zigzagging across the sidewalks of the Times Square area. As we marched the number of protesters joining behind us, and the cops closing in around us, grew until I looked back into nothing but a sea of chanting bodies. Onward we went, up one-way streets we correctly guessed the police would not follow and back again. At the first moment we truly seemed unsure of where to go I looked up to see hundreds of protesters heading our way. “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re fabulous, don’t fuck with us,” rang out from a queer contingent descending on Broadway to hold a kiss-in in front of RNC delegates. Our groups merged. More theatres and delegates, corporate photographers and video cameras caught our every move, more cops, the pace quickened, and just as mass arrest seemed imminent, our cluster left to call it a night. The police had brought sufficient reinforcements to begin arresting people; if you stopped walking they arrested you for blocking pedestrians from walking, if you kept moving they arrested you for blocking pedestrians from walking. Not much of a choice. We witnessed the police using orange netting to corral and wrap up fellow human beings for arrest. Watching ten people lined up against a wall across the street, surrounded by dozens of police and barricades, it struck me just how far the state is willing to go to stop us. Even when standing in a silent group as small as 5, we were told to move on or be arrested. NYC Indymedia later reported that hundreds were arrested on Broadway; some for verbally confronting the GOP’ers and many for simply walking down the sidewalk away from any convention-related event.
My affinity group wasn’t able to stay for the marches on Monday and Tuesday because our driver had to be home for work. As the time to leave approached, I watched the clouds darken and the chance for some long hoped for rains brighten. With mixed feelings we left NYC. There were still Pittsburghers there, resisting. I don’t know what fate awaits my friends, but my thoughts are with them.
Sometimes there is silence because there’s too much to say rather than too little. In the car ride home there were times when I felt like words could never capture the feelings I needed them to encompass. When you spend a lot of personal time with people, especially at tense protests, you often don’t have time to process your experiences until it’s all over. It’s then that you discover, realize, and comprehend the significance of the touching things you never saw or knew before about those around you. For me there are many things I will hold dear from this trip. The kindness of those who let eleven people they didn’t know sleep in their apartment. The sheer courage and determination of a high school student often dismissed because of his age and radical beliefs that risked arrest to try to help someone in need. The gentle spirit and kindness of a friend with “wolverine hair” who drove four people in his car both ways to NYC. The humble and caring way people gave of their time and their resources. How they spoke and listened when it was hardest, and almost always looked after the other members of the group, each and every day in numerous ways.
Maybe even more than the actions themselves I will remember this sense of community, solidarity, and mutual aid that I experienced with my cluster. I believe we were able to build and nurture a bit of our collective alternative vision of society while still attempting to smash the current one, and that’s more than I’ve felt like I achieved at many protests in the past.
Lasting change will not come through one act, event, weapon, political party or platform; it will come through the combination of a million manifestations of our absolute and unrelenting commitment to turn our dreams of a more just society into reality. I don’t know the exact formula it will take to stop the systems of power that are killing and oppressing humanity, but NYC showed me that there are hundreds of thousands of people trying, and often succeeding, to answer exactly that question.
- Alex Bradley
Critical MassCue, Bee, and myself arrived in New York City with only an hour to get to the Critical Mass. We were able to secure parking within a few blocks of our housing in Washington Heights and saddle up to make the arduous 170+ block journey to Union Square, where the Mass was assembling. We managed to find not only a bicycle for Bee at a garage sale near Clarion, PA but also a carrack and some fine noisemakers. I took this a fortuitous omen, which dispelled any misgivings I may have had about participating in the counter-convention. |
 The TMC organized a bus trip for Sunday, August 29. Local Pittsburghers wait in New Jersey before embarking on the long ride home. (Photo by Mary Ruth Aull) |
This was not
only my first Critical Mass, but my first ride on the single-speed which was
built for me at Free Ride, Pittsburgh’s bicycle recycling project, and my first
ride in NYC. We set out on Broadway and began the 8-mile ride through Friday
rush-hour traffic. The “heroes” of NYPD (Note: just because it’s on a bumper
sticker down South doesn’t make it reality) had made clear their intent to
arrest or cite participants in the Critical Mass, who failed to obey the
proverbial “rules of the road” and had distributed a handout to that effect to
those who had gathered in Union Square. At the beginning of the ride we made
efforts to obey traffic laws and signals, but soon realized that this was
unrealistic if we were to get to Union Square. Soon, we were running red lights
and cutting off taxis and city buses like natives. This was as at least as
exhilarating as running with the bulls in Pamplona if not more dangerous.
Pittsburgh traffic seems tame in comparison.
After what seemed like an eternity, we reached the Disneyland that was once Times Square. We got to 14th Street and made a right and after a few blocks, we reached a river, not Union Square. Quickly, we reversed direction, and headed towards the helicopter that hovered above Times Square, certain that we were late and had missed the ride, but within a few blocks, we heard the joyous noise and saw the blinkies, and dove in. I was overcome with a euphoria rooted in vengeance, when I observed all the idle taxis and buses, which had bullied us for 170+ blocks.
The water was fine.
Pedestrians lined the streets to cheer us on, even some of the stranded motorists honked in approval. Soon the police began stopping us in an effort to split the Mass, which numbered at least 5,000, according to hostile corporate media outlets, so we could have been 10,000 strong, but I refuse to play the numbers game. In a surreal moment at one intersection where the police had managed to stop us, a whiteshirt cheerfully and sincerely asked through a megaphone, “Is everybody having a good time?”
Cue, Bee, and I managed to stick together through the ride, which under the circumstances was no mean feat. We kept track of each other, until I strayed ahead at an intersection that was being blocked by NYPD traffic control. As I was rushing the red light, a traffic cop tried to grab me, but I avoided her and sped through. When I looked back, they had stopped us and Bee and Cue were nowhere to be found. I headed for the sidewalk and lit a cigarette and waited. After what seemed like an eternity, the ride was allowed to pass and soon I was reunited with my comrades.
Shortly thereafter, the arrests began. They were random and arbitrary, with no apparent rhyme or reason. The word soon spread that the capitalist foot soldiers had begun to deploy the now infamous orange netting to deny a safe place to end the ride, and the blinkies of several NYPD bike platoons were visible a block away to the left. We agreed that there was little to be gained by carrying on, so we dismounted, made our way for the sidewalk and headed out in search of water, looking over our shoulders to prevent being picked off. We pushed our bikes for a few blocks and began the long ride back Uptown, back to the mercy of motor vehicles.
In Harlem, a man named Dean, described at length, twice, some of the better rides NYC had to offer, including a trail that would have taken us from 181st Street all the way to Union Square. No wonder we were the only non-food delivery cyclists we had seen on our long ride.
We learned that night via NYC Indymedia that 250+ Critical Mass participants, including several from Pittsburgh had been arrested that night, their bikes filled the NYPD barricade trucks. We were glad we managed to stay together and off of Pier 57, but I imagine my second Critical Mass will probably seem rather anti-climatic.
- Vee
Tales from the Hooded Bloc
| Mass round ups and detentions. Torture and abuse. Criminalization of dissent.
Information warfare. High-tech weaponry and surveillance. Cointelpro-style
harassment. From Abu Ghraib to Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay, from the
Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to the streets of Miami, Brunswick,
Boston and New York, the Bush Administration has edged the U.S. closer towards a
violent, Orwellian police state. Last July at the Democratic National Convention, Save Our Civil Liberties (SOCL) used “hooded” actions to draw attention to the striking visual similarity between the so-called “Free Speech Zone” and Camp X-Ray (see photo). |
 Hooded Bloc. (Photo by Edward Mata) |
Then at the RNC, on Tuesday, August 31, the main day for direct action, we recycled the
hooded tactic to protest homeland repression at Federal Plaza, where the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
and the Department of Homeland Security have offices. Later in the evening,
members of the “Hooded Bloc” donned hoods and blocked a delegates bus as it
attempted to reach Madison Square Garden. (See photo).
The original plans for that day, to have a large hooded march to Herald Square
as part of the "True Security" call, were foiled when the police preemptively
arrested people gathering in the march meet-up spot at New York Public Library.
Nonetheless, hooded street theater actions of various sizes have proven to be an
effective tactic to focus attention on one simple message: under the cover of
“homeland security,” powerful and sometimes secret U.S. authorities have created
a culture of repression and incarceration that is anti-democratic and unjust.
Look for a re-appearance of the Hooded Bloc later this fall. Visit
www.saveourcivilliberties.org.
- David Meieran
For a timeline of highlighted events throughout the week, click here.