Bush in Buffalo, N.Y.
United protest hits 'Homeland' repression
By Beverly Hiestand
Buffalo, N.Y.
President George W. Bush came to Buffalo on
April 20 to address more than 500 police and emergency
management officials. His talk, delivered at Kleinhans Music
Hall, was billed in the media as a "conversation on the USA
Patriot Act."
The voices that had to shout and chant to be heard in this
"conversation" came from more than 400 protesters forced into a
fenced-in area across the street from the concert hall. A
coalition of 20 to 25 organizations called the
demonstration.
Activists voiced their opposition to the war drive and the
Patriot Act. In addition, they demanded jobs, health care,
education, improved veterans' services and defense of the
environment.
"No blood for Cheney's oil," read one placard.
Terry Hannon, a Buffalo News worker attending the protest,
told a News reporter, "We're here to protest the endless
imperial wars for plunder, for natural resources and to expand
U.S. markets for transnational corporations."
As the Iraqi resistance mounts, and GI casualties rise, the
White House can be expected to shift attention from the war
drive in this election year. Instead, the April 20 Washington
Post reported, "the Patriot Act will be a main theme in Bush's
campaign."
It's no accident the Commander in Chief came to Buffalo. He
came to highlight the 2003 Justice Department prosecution of
six members of the Yemeni community in nearby Lackawanna, an
industrial neighborhood with a large Arab population.
"Stop the intimidation and injustice in Lackawanna, repeal
the Patriot Act!" read a giant bright orange International
Action Center banner at the April 20 protest.
Two lawyers who represented some of the Lackawanna 6
defendants asked to meet with Bush while he was in Buffalo. One
of them, James P. Harrington, said he would have told the
president to "stop selling fear to the American people" and
that the Justice Department had hyped the danger in this
case.
The request by the lawyers, however, was rebuffed.
Mohamed T. Albanna, a prominent member of the Yemeni
American community, suggested that it was not possible for Bush
to hold a real community discussion about "security" and
"democracy" when the community was not allowed to be there.
Two days after Bush's visit, African American columnist Rod
Watson asked rhetorically what the response would have been in
the Black community if people were asked what they're most
concerned about. Watson headlined his April 22 column in the
Buffalo News, "President out of touch with regular folks."
Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. That's what the people he interviewed had
uppermost in their minds. Not money for war against Iraq.
One of those he interviewed, an African American General
Motors retiree whose son is in Iraq, concluded he would have
told Bush, "Stop looking out for the rich and help the
poor."
Reprinted from the May 6, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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