Protesters aim to make NYC miserable for delegates
By Bob Dart
Cox News Service
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
WASHINGTON Hoping to turn the Big Apple rotten for Republicans, protesters are plotting enough mischief to try to ensure that delegates won't be wearing "I Love NY" t-shirts home from their party's political convention next week.
Groups such as RNC Not Welcome, Counter Convention, Shut It Down NYC and No RNC Clearinghouse are using the internet to orchestrate a living hell for the 5,000 or so delegates and alternatives coming to New York City for the Republican National Convention.
Broadway casts are being urged to call in sick on the night that all state delegations are scheduled to go to the theater. "Shadow protesters" are being recruited to disguise themselves as clean-cut volunteers and infiltrate convention hotels and events. Penetrating the convention "bubble," these "phantom volunteers" will provide wrong directions to delegates or create havoc by not showing up for their duties at key times. Armed with the times and locations of scores of GOP events, street theater groups plan to disrupt convention-connected affairs all over Manhattan.
One protest Website even provided instructions (and a recipe for chocolate tofu meringue pie) for getting into an event and "pieing" delegates. "Choose a worthy target. Any pompous evil-doer will do for a glouping. Shave, put on a suit (without necktie), wear an American flag pin, and keep your hair short. You'll be able to go anywhere!"
"We want to make their stay here as miserable as possible," anarchist Jamie Moran, the son of a retired Queens cop, told Rolling Stone magazine.
Republican planners had hoped that holding their convention in New York City shortly before the third anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and other locations would highlight what supporters view as one of President Bush's finest hours. But anti-Bush animosity runs high in a city where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by a 5-1 margin.
And frustrated dissidents are turning to mischief and "direct actions" after traditional protest parades and demonstrators were successfully kept away from recent events such as the G-8 Summit on Sea Island, Ga., and the Democratic National Convention in Boston.
"When Bush went to London in November, 300,000 people marched in protest of his visit. That is the largest protest ever held on a weekday in the UK," said Angela Coppola of No RNC Clearinghouse. "The first lady said she didn't see a single protestor while she was in Britain."
"This is a president who admits to not reading newspapers. He is allowed to live in an artificial America where everyone agrees with him," she explained. "This is the reason we are targeting delegates. The Bush administration feels it should not have to see dissent. All of America is a free speech zone."
So organizers — if there are such beings amongst anarchists — are preparing to spread mayhem wherever delegates venture, especially away from the heavily secured convention site.
"If we are diffused throughout the city, we will have a much better advantage. After all, the real target is not Madison Square Garden, the stage of the spectacle, but the various events where deals are made –- where the lobbyists
wine, dine, and bribe Bush & Co." the group RNC Not Welcome told potential protesters.
Internet sites have provided the names and addresses of hotels where state delegations will be staying, plus the times and addresses of convention related events.
The leftist Indy Media has posted an internet list of names, hometown street addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of Republican delegates in addition to the hotels where they will be staying "during their invasion of New York City."
The Indy Media objectives: To "supply anti-RNC groups with data on the delegates to use in whatever way they see fit."
And to "Facilitate making local connections. Many of these same delegates are involved in politics and business on a town or county level."
To gather inside information on the GOP conventioneers and their activities, the protesters are wooing disgruntled employees of hotels, sympathizers on Broadway and convention party venues and anti-Republican activists in home states.
"Any source of contributed info will remain anonymous, of course," said Indy Media in seeking data on delegates.
Of course, these plans have not been welcomed by delegates and others who surf the internet.
"I am a delegate," one e-mailer responded. "The first one of you slimebags that tries anything on me will meet the business end of my Glock. I will be packing it in New York."
"Why interfere with delegates?," asked another e-mailer. "The conventions are the nuts and bolts of our political system. Are you willing to destroy democracy to 'save it'?"
The short answer may be "yes."
"We view the Republican Party as one of the most important organizations of the ruling class, selling and intellectualizing this system to all thanks in part to a compliant corporate media system," said Indy Media in an online commentary. "But do not misinterpret us. We do not view the Democratic Party as an opposition party but rather as another side of the same coin."
Among the anarchists, there is no overall organization or plan for the convention protests, said Moran of RNC Not Welcome.
"We are not ringleaders of protests nor are we telling people to go to specific delegate hotels," he explained in an e-mail. "We have published information knowing that people want it but we are not running a protest dispatch service."
Meanwhile, Shut it Down NYC is pushing a letter writing campaign asking actors in Broadway shows to call in sick on August 29th — the night the GOP delegates are scheduled to attend the theater.
Troupes of trouble-makers are planning to stage their own street theater to block entry into Republican events.
Greene Dragon — named for the Boston tavern where patriots plotted the American revolution — will re-enact Paul Revere's ride with their leader, "Jonny America," wearing Colonial attire while riding a horse and warning "The Republicans are coming!" Reverend Billy and His Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir will preach and sing against the evils of consumerism. The Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army will wear "George Bush 'Mission Accomplished' Flight Suits." The Missile Dick Chicks, a musical group claiming to be housewives from Crawford, Texas, will wear missile shaped phalluses and sing "Shop, In the Name of War."
And some protest plans are being kept secret.
"Don't be surprised if, say, you're crossing the street and a traffic light flashes 'Beat Bush' instead of 'Don't Walk'," said The Nation magazine.
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