'The whole world is watching'
A youth's perspective on the RNC protests
By Stephanie Nichols
New York
Young people converged on New York City for the Week of
Resistance to the Republican National Convention, bringing with
them a wide spectrum of political ideologies. For many it was
their first time in the struggle on the streets.
It started slowly at the Books Not Bombs Convergence on Aug.
28. Youths had come to politically shop around as well as to
share their ideas. They were coming together with a unifying
force to demonstrate during the week ahead.
On Aug. 29 half a million people showed up to protest the
occupation of Iraq, the "Bush agenda" and beyond. Youth
contingents that marched together demonstrated the most unity
of all within the march. A Books Not Bombs contingent,
immigrant solidarity and youth of color contingents, the Young
Communist League, and the contingent from FIST--Fight
Imperialism--Stand Together--were among them.
One group arched across 18th Street to Seventh Avenue
chanting, "We're all in this together," "Free Palestine" and
"Globalize the Intifada." Those identifying themselves as
communists marched alongside avowed anarchists. They marched
past Madison Square Garden, site of the convention, with few
problems. Police arrested a few youths at random and charged
them with stealing other marchers' placards.
Monday, Aug. 30, the first day of the convention, started
with a youthful bang. A memorable chant from the Still We Rise
Coalition's march that afternoon was, "They say death row, we
say hell no!" Large numbers of young people, particularly
youths of color, marched to show their anger at the system and
its affects on immigrants and low-income people.
ACT-UP, which held some of the most militant demonstrations
during the week, was there, raising awareness about AIDS and
the health-care crisis.
Later the mostly youthful March for Our Lives led by the
Poor People's Eco no mic Human Rights Campaign attempted to
march from the United Nations to Madison Square Garden without
a permit. The Rude Mechanical Orchestra played back-up music
during the march, providing songs in several different
languages.
Hour by hour the youth were becoming more unified, with more
solidarity and class-consciousness. Some were shouting, "1, 2,
3, 4, we declare a class war, 5, 6, 7, 8, organize to smash the
state."
Some pro-John Kerry people made an appearance and got yelled
at by marchers.
At apparently random points during the march, the police
closed in, assaulted marchers and arrested a few people at a
time. Finally, when the marchers reached 28th Street, cops
closed in and started to beat up and arrest more marchers.
Half of the march stopped when a crowd of young people
huddled around the cops, screaming, "The people united will
never be defeated," "Whose streets? Our streets!" and "No
justice, no peace, get those pigs off the street."
The front of the march continued on while the end was backed
up. Cops had managed to set up barricades at 28th Street, where
the march split in half. As a result, at 29th Street, the
police erected more barricades and trapped people in a cage
from 28th to 29th Streets. The rest of the marchers had to flee
in either direction. People started shouting, "We are peaceful
people, practicing nonviolence."
That day's events not only raised class-consciousness among
the youths who came to protest, but it raised their awareness
of the role of the police when they came down on a march
against poverty.
Young people organized Tuesday's A31 Day of Non-Violent
Direct Action and Civil Disobedience. These youths paid for
their consciousness with thousands of unjustifiable arrests.
But the arrests failed to stop youths from continuing to
protest throughout the week. If anything, it appeared to make
young people stronger, more unified and more aware.
On the final day of protests, Sept. 2, a march through
Harlem proved to be a truly diverse and politically solid
group, made up, again, of mostly youths.
A multinational group called SIANTU, whose members headed up
chants at a demonstration against Coca-Cola the night before,
provided chants in several languages, including, "People of
color say no to war. We're fired up and can't take it no more,"
"One, we are the people. Two, a little bit louder. Three, we
want housing for the homeless," and "No one is illegal. Open up
the borders and shut the RNC."
Youths who came into the streets for the first time learned
some great lessons about the nature of the capitalist
system--not just the policies of one administration, but the
policies put into place by an exploitative system. Youths who
had been at demonstrations before learned new lessons on the
streets in a week of constant and diverse protest and
solidarity.
The writer is an activist and organizer with
FIST.
Reprinted from the Sept. 16, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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