Activists step up plans for inaugural protest
By Elijah
Crane
Activists ushered in the New Year by stepping up plans for
the Jan. 20 protest in Washington at George W. Bush's
inauguration.
With a new trial for death-row political prisoner Mumia
Abu-Jamal and an end to the racist death penalty topping the
list of demands, the International Action Center initiated a
call for the upcoming demonstration long before the Nov. 7
election.
Since the election crisis, the burning issue for many of
those planning to participate in the Jan. 20 demonstration is
anger over the election fraud. Poor and oppressed people who
will be most affected by the decisions and acts of George W.
Bush were also the most affected by disenfranchisement in the
electoral process. And that is why people will be traveling
by the busloads, vanloads and carloads to Washington on Jan.
20 to raise their voices on Inauguration Day.
The inauguration protest will also demand an immediate end
to Plan Colombia. Other issues to be raised include defending
the Palestinian people from U.S.-backed Israeli attack and
occupation, lifting the U.S-UN sanctions against Iraq,
demanding the U.S. Navy out of Vieques, Puerto Rico, and
more.
The West Coast IAC is also organizing a protest in San
Francisco on Jan. 20. The demands are the same, and
demonstrators are expected to come from all over the region
to participate.
Media coverage
On Dec. 21, Brian Becker, co-director of the International
Action Center and a lead organizer of the Jan. 20
mobilization, was interviewed by Bernard Shaw on CNN. The
Rev. Walter Fauntroy also appeared on the show to talk about
plans for demonstrating on Jan. 20.
"We're going to assemble at the scene of the crime, the
Supreme Court," the Rev. Fauntroy said of plans for a "shadow
inauguration."
Becker told Shaw, "... We will have thousands of people
coming to Washington on January 20th to demonstrate against
the death penalty, which George Bush is a fervent supporter
of, and George Bush, as you know, has on his watch executed
more people than any of the governors of the states
combined.
"We'll also be demanding a new trial for the famed
broadcast journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal and thirdly our
demonstration will focus on what we believe was the racist
disenfranchisement of mainly African- American and Haitian
voters in the state of Florida, which we considered to be a
conspiracy by the Republican Party to disenfranchise Black
people--a tradition in the South that has been revealed not
to have been from the ages past but lives on today."
Becker went on to say, "This demonstration is more than a
single event. A movement started last year in Seattle; it was
a movement for social justice. It was mainly young people and
it went to Washington, D.C. for protests against the IMF and
then to the conventions of the Republican and the Democratic
Party.
"Now, that movement is taking its next step. It's not only
protesting globalization, it's protesting the war against
poor and working people here and around the world. It's got a
special focus on racism, which is alive and well in the
United States. So we believe this will be, on January 20th,
not the beginning of the Bush period of racist reaction, but
the period of a new civil rights movement which this
demonstration on January 20th will signify."
When Shaw asked if protests would be peaceful Becker
responded, "Well, ... have the media ask the police, 'will
there be violence?' because it's the police who have the guns
and the clubs and the tear gas and who have acted lawlessly
in the past demon strations in the past year. For our part,
our demonstration will be legal and orderly and disciplined
and loud, but we insist that our First Amendments rights be
upheld."
Protest groups hold
news conference
Earlier in the day on Dec. 21, Becker joined with
representatives of the Justice Action Movement, Independent
Progressive Political Network, the National Organization for
Women and others for a news conference in Washington. The
event was aired on C-Span.
At that news conference, Becker said that the IAC was
there to send a message to Police Chief Charles Ramsey and
all of the other police officials in the city of Washington
and the federal government that "this demonstration will not
be marginalized. It will not be put off into some protest pit
far away. It will not be made invisible because of police
policy. We will not be intimidated by ... police spying and
surveillance."
Becker then explained that protesters have a
constitutional right to demonstrate and will not stand for
another act of preventive detention like the one that took
place in Washington during the April 2000 protests against
the International Monetary Fund.
He also said, "In spite of this level of intensified
repression by the police ... thousands will make it clear to
the whole world that Pennsylvania Avenue on January 20th is
not the private property of those who believe in the death
penalty, of those who support an electoral process dominated
by banks and corporations."
Update on organizing efforts
A statement issued by the IAC on Dec. 30 asserts that "the
best, and only, answer for our new movement is to mobilize
larger and larger numbers from the population who reject
racism, voter disenfranchisement, capitalist globalization,
the U.S. war machine, sexism, homophobia and the wanton
disregard of the environment.
"The corporate elite has the money and police power behind
them. But our movement speaks for the tens of millions of
working people, of oppressed people--of the
disenfranchised--who have no stake in the current
system."
The statement also notes that 40 organizing centers around
the U.S. are mobilizing for Jan. 20 in Washington. Organizers
have already distributed more than 50,000 leaflets for the
Jan. 20 demonstration. Another 50,000 will be passed out over
the next few weeks.
Another key tool in organizing for Jan. 20 has been the
Internet. Through the IAC Web site and the Mumia2000.org
site, organizers are able to connect with centers in their
area, download leaflets for local distribution and find out
the latest news.
A "J20action" list serve at www.egroups. com currently
involves nearly 350 people from around the U.S. and Canada
who are planning to participate in the demonstration. Both
the East and West Coast centers are utilizing the list
serve.
On Jan. 9 at 6:30 p.m., the IAC will hold a regional
mobilizers' meeting at the UNITE! Local 169 hall located at
33 W. 14th St. For more information call (212) 633-6646.
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