As racists, sexists gather in Bohemian Grove
1,000 slam ruling class romp
By Brenda
Sandburg & Bill Hackwell
San Francisco
The resort town of Monte Rio, Calif., doubled in size on
July 14 as 1,000 demonstrators from all over the state
converged to protest the annual all-male gathering of the
U.S. elite at Bohemian Grove. Bohemian Grove is a luxurious
campsite along the Russian River 75 miles north of San
Francisco.
It is no small irony that amid this pristine patch of
remaining redwood trees, these rich fat cats come to gorge
themselves and discuss strategy for a wide range of ruling
class abuses, including environmental degradation.
This two-week retreat is reserved for 2,500 members and
guests of San Francisco's Bohemian Club--an exclusive group
of men, 99 percent white and all connected to the ruling
class. Every Republican president since Herbert Hoover, as
well as quite a few Democrats, have been members.
Year after year, executives from major military
contractors, oil companies, banks, utilities and the national
media come to "network" at this midsummer encampment. In
1942, Bohemian Grove attendees planned the Manhattan Project
to create the atomic bomb, later dropped on the Japanese
cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
For the past 20 years there have been protests exposing
what can only be described as a secret society of the ruling
class. But this year the event drew the largest demonstration
ever.
New layer of protesters
Protesters came from more than 34 cities across the state,
representing a wide diversity of the growing movement against
the Bush agenda. While many had been to Bohemian Grove
before, a whole new group of youths from the anti-death
penalty and anti-globalization movement showed up this year.
Some had been in the street battles of Seattle and Quebec and
regularly protest against the racist death penalty and to
save Mumia Abu-Jamal. For others it was their first
demonstration.
The march to the main entrance of Bohemian Grove was led
by a strong contingent of Latino activists from Sonoma
County. Numerous people came from towns and cities throughout
the county, including Cazadero, Cloverdale, Cotati, Graton,
Guerneville, Occidental, Penngrove, Petaluma, Rohnert Park,
Santa Rosa, Sebas topol, Sonoma, Windsor and Yount ville.
Others came from Mendocino County, Santa Cruz, San Jose, San
Diego and Orange County. The International Action Center
organized two buses from San Francisco and another from Los
Angeles.
Each year the Bohemian Grove gathering is opened by a
ceremony entitled the "cremation of care." In this
reactionary ritual, Bohemians dressed in red robes stand at
the base of a 40-foot owl statue and burn an effigy of "Dull
Care"--a figure representing the supposed "heavy burden of
responsibility" that the exploiting ruling class carries on
its shoulders.
In this year's demonstration protesters brought a statue
of the Virgin of Guada lupe, a symbol of Mexican national
identity especially strong among the Chicano community in the
U.S., to signify the "resurrection of care."
All out for D.C. demonstrations
Many speakers at the rally called for people to organize
for a massive turnout in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 28
through Oct. 4 to protest meetings of the International
Monetary Fund and World Bank.
"Today's demonstration is part of a whole wave of protest
that kicked off in Seattle in November 1999, when tens of
thousands demonstrated against capitalist globalization,"
said Gloria La Riva of Workers World Party. "Now they plan to
send out an army of 20,000 police to stop us from protesting
in D.C. because they don't want to be forced to shut down a
meeting at their own headquarters."
Barbara Lubin, executive director of the Middle East
Children's Alliance, expressed support for unemployed field
workers walking a picket line against the Robert Mondavi
Winery. She noted that agriculture in Sonoma County used to
be varied but now caters solely to the multi-million-dollar
wine industry.
Henry Clark, director of the West County Toxics Coalition,
said Bush and his gangster friends are "planning more nuclear
radiation, more drilling, more toxic pollution and more
refineries in my community." But, he said, "people have a
different vision of the world, where there are jobs, justice
and peace."
The rally was co-chaired by long-time Sonoma County
activist Mary Moore of the Bohemian Grove Network and Richard
Becker of the International Action Center. The two groups
organized the demonstration, which coincided with the
212th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille
and the start of the French Revolution.
"The great revolution of France began with masses of
people storming a prison and tearing it down," Becker said.
"The regime of the very rich believed that no one had a
chance against their vast armies."
Likewise, he said, "the U.S. government assumes it has
such power that it can never be overthrown. But they are like
every other empire that has ever existed and no empire lasts
forever."
Other speakers at the rally included Luis Talamantez of
California Prison Focus; Miguel Gavilan Molina, host of the
KPFA radio show "La Onda Bajita"; Russ Redner of the
International Treaty Council; Cora Lee Simmons of Round
Valley Indians for Justice; Peter Phillips, director of
Project Censored at Sonoma State University; Joe Delaplaine
of the Stonewall Initiative for Equal Rights in Los
Angeles/Orange County; Ramon Acevedo of the Committee for a
New Colombia; and John Parker of the Los Angeles Coalition to
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal.
After the rally, demonstrators crossed the Monte Rio
Bridge and marched through the redwoods to the front gate of
Bohemian Grove, where they met with a line of California
highway patrol backed up by gun-toting cops.
They held a lively picket line, chanting, "Kissinger,
Bush, you can't hide. We charge you with genocide," and
"Racist, sexist, anti-gay, BoHo boys go away."
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS
:: SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page