500,000 protest at Republican convention

by Mark Ostapiak

In a massive and historic demonstration, an estimated crowd of 500,000 people filled the streets of New York City during the Republican National Convention (RNC) on Sunday, Aug. 29.

It comprised, according to the Aug. 30 New York Times, a veritable "two-mile-long river of demonstrators" protesting the Bush administration's policies of war, attacks on women's reproductive rights, job cutbacks, inaction on high health-care costs, and inadequate funding for schools, and housing.

The march was a resounding victory for free speech, following the attempts by New York City officials to weaken support for a mass rally during the RNC by imposing arbitrary restrictions and by gathering a huge police presence. The bulk of the city’s police force was assigned, along with Secret Service and other federal agents, to patrol street corners, rooftops, and subways around the RNC’s Madison Square Garden site and adjacent streets.

These intimidating and undemocratic actions by city authorities culminated when they blocked several permit submissions by United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ), which had requested Central Park as the demonstration site. City officials moved instead to grant permits for a rally on the isolated West Side Highway, miles from Madison Square Garden, but UFPJ soon decided that "the deal was off" and applied again for Central Park.

In a last-minute agreement, UFPJ was granted a legal permit for a march past Madison Square Garden that would then return to Union Square, close to the original point of assembly, where the marchers would disperse without holding a final rally.

UFPJ had predicted that a least 250,000 protesters would join the march. Despite the scorching temperatures on one of the hottest days of the summer, over twice that number came into the streets. The march took six hours to cover the route, ending in the early evening. "We won the streets of New York!" UFPJ lead organizer Leslie Cagan told the Washington Post (Aug. 30).

Demonstrators came from across the country to join New York City residents on the march. Many New Yorkers were visibly angered by what they perceived as attempts by the Republicans and the Bush administration to exploit the 9/11 attacks to influence the elections in their favor.

The heat affected some marchers, including Alfred Marder, 82, who brought 400 people from Connecticut to the march but collapsed on the sidewalk. Leaning against a building, he told the Philadelphia Inquirer (Aug. 30) that the march was still worth it. "There is a need for the American people to express their outrage."

Although quite a few marchers wore pro-Kerry buttons, pro-Democratic Party sentiment was far overshadowed by a sea of homemade signs and banners opposing the Iraq war. The strong antiwar theme was high lighted by a solemn procession of pallbearers, spread out over six blocks, who carried 600 cardboard coffins draped with homemade flags as symbols of soldiers killed in Iraq. David Portari and others who lost relatives in the 9/11 attacks marched under a banner reading, "Our grief is not a cry for war." He told reporters, "I don’t want my brother’s death used to kill people on the other side of the world."

Later in the day, a group of nearly 1000 demonstrators defied the city's decision to deny rally permits for Central Park by forming a large peace sign and spelling "no" with a chain of people on the Great Lawn.

March for women's rights

The weekend's main protest events were rung in on Saturday, Aug. 28 by a spirited march of 25,000 pro-choice/abortion-rights activists who crossed the Brooklyn Bridge “in what organizers called the largest demonstration devoted to that issue in New York in three decades," said the Aug. 29 New York Times. At its height, the crowd stretched for one-half mile along the famous span over the East River.

Once across, a rally took place at City Hall, where speakers who took the podium included actress Kathleen Turner, state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, and Gloria Feldt. Feldt is the president of the event's primary organizer, Planned Parenthood, demanding "that women should be in charge of their own destinies."

"I demand and cherish that right,'' exclaimed Sara Breman, 22, a student from Austin Texas in an Aug. 29 Associated Press release. Other abortion-rights activists waved signs reading, "I Love Pro-Choice NY." Police made few arrests at the massive Aug. 29 march, but were especially violent and provocative during several of the smaller demonstrations—harassing protesters and bystanders alike. They arrested some 1800 people, the largest mass arrest in New York City's history.

More than 550 protesters who had been detained without seeing a judge—some as long as 60 hours—were released on Sept. 2 by the State Supreme Court. Judge John Cataldo "held the city in contempt and ordered a fine of $1000 for each person still held, without setting a time frame," said the Sept. 3 New York Times.

While many people were held in city jails, hundreds were penned up in makeshift holding cells inside Pier 57 on the banks of the Hudson River. Using a cell phone, detainees inside the pier contacted "Democracy Now" radio commentator Amy Goodman to describe first hand the terrible conditions, including toxic chemicals on the pier floor, as well as inadequate food and water. They also spoke about the unprovoked and indiscriminate nature of the arrests.

A woman named Althea said, "Right now some people are experiencing toxic reaction to the environment, itching in their skin, and we’re very crowded." The Sept. 3 Washington Post corroborated these claims, stating, "Medics found numerous cases of rashes and skin infections, apparently as a result of cuts from overly tight handcuffs that were exposed to chemicals."

Underscoring the police intimidation tactics, another detainee, Emily, claimed, "I was on the sidewalk, and I was never told that I would be arrested. I was just on the sidewalk. And no one ever read me my rights. They just took us all away. They trapped us and put us all into buses. We’ve been in jail for over 13 hours right now."

Veepa Majamutar, a detainee with a similar experience, said, "They cordoned off the whole street and just arrested all of us. When I tried to explain that I was just walking by—I had a receipt from a store that I had bought something from on that street—they did not pay any attention."

Elsewhere in the city, according to the Sept. 3 Washington Post, police swept up the CEO of a puppet theater, two middle-age women who had been shopping at the Gap, and a young woman returning from her job at a New York publishing house. None were involved in illegal activity, let alone the legal demonstration itself.

Even a one-woman protest in front of a Hummer dealership was stopped when the demonstrator was cuffed and arrested for "parading without a permit," according to the Sept. 7 Newsday.com. The article also reported that more than 200 protesters who had gathered outside the main library on 42nd Street were arrested after warnings by police to not hang a banner there. "The two protesters carrying the banner obeyed the order, witnesses said, but police arrested them, sparking a series of scuffles."

Cyndy Bruce, 26, of Chicago, told Newsday reporters, "It was unbelievable, the officer said you can't hang it but you can hold it. As soon as they held it up, the officers swarmed in. They incited this violence. Not us. This was supposed to be peaceful."

Bloomberg calls protesters "terrorists"

The cool-headed billionaire New York mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, made a brash statement in the Sept. 3 New York Times, drawing a parallel between protesters and terrorists: "It is true that a handful of people have tried to destroy our city by going up and yelling at visitors here because they don't agree with their views. Think about what that says.

"This is America, New York, cradle of liberty, the city for free speech if there ever was one, and some people think that we shouldn't allow people to express themselves. That's exactly what they terrorists did, if you think about it, on 9/11. Now this is not the same kind of terrorism but there's no question that these anarchists are afraid to let people speak out." Such false allegations cannot soften the loud message against the war, for social change, and for free speech that the protesters brought to New York—especially in the massive Aug. 29 march sponsored by United for Peace and Justice. This action continued the historic antiwar mobilizations begun in 2003 on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

This article first appeared in the September 2004 issue of Socialist Action newspaper.