EXCEPT FOR ENDING SLAVERY, FASCISM, AND COMMUNISM, WAR HAS NEVER SOLVED ANYTHING ...
MSNBC.com
Partisan Protesters
A slick, young, conservative group prepares for an ideological rumble at the Republican convention
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Michael Hastings
Newsweek
Updated: 8:19 p.m. ET Aug. 13, 2004
Aug. 13 - Among the 250,000 expected to head to New York City to demonstrate at the Republican National Convention, a small army of about 200 people plans to march alongside them—but on the other side of political spectrum. Calling themselves Protest Warriors, they are an ardently conservative group made up of recent college graduates, high-school students and right-wing ideologues who hope to “counterprogram” the message of the largely left-wing crowd. According to its Web site, the organization’s goal is to “help arm the liberty-loving Silent Majority with ammo--ammo that strikes at the intellectual solar plexus of the Left.” The protests scheduled for the weekend before the RNC begins on Aug. 30 provides one opportunity--a "mission" the group is calling Operation Liberty Rising. “We’re going to be out there in the trenches,” says Kfir Alfia, 30, cofounder of the organization ProtestWarrior.com.
The methods of the right-wing protesters mirror those of their left-wing opponents. The Warriors organize rallies, street theater and marches. They carry video cameras to record their own version of events to bypass mainstream media outlets. And, of course, the members hold plenty of signs and slogans, which read like editorial cartoons from the National Review: PROTECT ISLAMIC PROPERTY RIGHTS AGAINST WESTERN IMPERIALISM declares a sign over a picture of a Muslim woman in a burqa with a leash around her neck tied to a pole. EXCEPT FOR ENDING SLAVERY, FASCISM, AND COMMUNISM, WAR HAS NEVER SOLVED ANYTHING, says another. The most provocative, perhaps, is a picture of a Palestinian woman with a T shirt on her burqa saying MY SON SUICIDE-BOMBED A BUS FULL OF ISRAELIS AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT; the small print underneath reads AND $25,000 FROM SADDAM. Alfia, who designed network chips for a Silicon Valley start-up before devoting himself full time to the group at its Austin, Texas, headquarters, founded it in March 2003 with his childhood friend Alan Lipton. According to Alfia, the organization is funded by merchandise sales from the Web site, the occasional $50 donation and out of “our own pocket.” So far, there are about 7,200 Protest Warriors across the United States. They've pulled off close to 80 missions to date, including Operation Bias Check (they snuck signs behind Matt Lauer’s head during NBC’s "Today" show that said: DON’T BELIEVE THE LIBERAL MEDIA) and Operation Eagle Strike, where the protesters crashed an antiwar demonstration hosted by the radical group ANSWER. This month, the Warriors are gearing up to greet the left on the streets of New York. NEWSWEEK’s Michael Hastings spoke to Alfia to get the battle plan for the Big Apple.
NEWSWEEK : What are your plans for New York? Are you going to be out with the other protesters on the West Side Highway?
Kfir Alfia: We’re going to do our standard march infiltration. We’re not there to drown their ideas out, or prevent them from expressing their message. We want them to express their message. The louder they express it, the more their agenda is going to be discounted. We are there to provide a countermessage, and to document their reaction to a different point of view. We do have other plans, but we’re keeping them close to our vests.
Why’s that?
There’s a large anarchist contingency in New York. They’ve been following everything that we’re doing. This week, the anarchists found out where we’re going to have our headquarters in the city--I always expected at least one person from their side infiltrating our organization. But now they are planning on doing something to us and threatening certain things on their Web sites that have me … I’ m not really scared. But they have very subversive tactics.
Have you been sent any threatening e-mail?
We get threats all the time. The other day, I got an e-mail from someone claiming they were part of the Communist Underground Movement. They said they were sending a squad over to my apartment to take care of me. I take these threats with a grain of salt, but you never know what these people are capable of.
You say you’re co-opting tactics that are traditionally associated with the left and putting your own conservative twist. Have the two ideas meshed?
This is unchartered territory for conservative ideology to be packaged in such a way. I think the punch we pack with our style is very powerful. That's why we've attracted a lot of college students and high-school students who are hungry for an outlet to do exactly this. They look like the type of person you would find at the antiwar protests, but that doesn’t mean they share the same ideology. Part of the appeal of the left up until now has been, "Look, forget ideology, we’re cool. We’re here to have fun." That really struck a chord with a younger generation. I think that's changing, and I think we’re part of evidence.
Why do you think Protest Warrior struck a chord with young conservatives?
In the past conservative groups have had a stereotype, maybe even well deserved, of being an older crowd, not very imaginative and creative. Here you have a group of recent college graduates. We have a pretty good sense of humor. We’re taking their style and applying it to our ideology. I think we’re doing even a better job than they are. You’ve seen our Web site, it’s pretty slick.
Your signs and slogans are very provocative.
They’re meant to provoke intellectually. We’re not saying, “Hey idiot, love it or leave it.” We’re there to challenge them on a level that up until now they haven’t been used to being challenged on--that is, on a moral level. The left feels that they have some kind of monopoly [on morality]. The signs take that assumption, expose what their message really means and throws it right back in their face. I think that’s where the provocation comes from.
Any new tactics you can share that you have planned for New York?
We’re going to be involved in some street theater. Everyone knows the left does have a monopoly on this. We’re going to have a group called Communists for Kerry. They’re Protest Warriors who will dress up as their favorite communist leaders. We have one guy who’s a spitting image of Lenin. He’s a dead ringer. We have another who’s growing out a beard to dress up like Che Guevara. And they’re going to be walking around with their own banner, telling people why they should vote for Kerry, and why the American communist movement supports Kerry. We have some other ideas that we’re developing, but that gives you a little taste.
I live in New York. I don’t have any scientific data on hand to back this up, but a lot of people here hate Bush. There are going to be a lot angry people in the protests. Some may be looking for a spark to set them off. Are you worried that you could be that spark?
I’m always worried that something could happen. But we’re going to be videotaping every second. If they want to try something, they’ll be doing it to the detriment of their entire movement. But it’s a standing order to all Protest Warriors never to get engaged in physical contact. We’re not out there to start a fight. We’re there for a rumble, but an ideological rumble.
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