"Big Apple To Turn Protest Capital for Republican Convention"

Agence France Presse

NEW YORK, July 1 (AFP) — "Make nice!" former mayor Ed Koch tells fellow New
Yorkers in a television promotion for the Republican Party national
convention that is to be held in this intensely Democratic city.

Never before have the Republicans chosen New York for their nominating
conclave and some detect in Koch's remark a note of desperate appeal rather
than fatherly recommendation.The city looks set to become the protest capital of the United States during
the convention at Madison Square Garden, from August 30 to September 2,
which will culminate in the nomination of President George W. Bush to seek a
second term in the White House.

Activists are expected to gather from all over the country to voice
opposition to everything from the Iraq war to a possible constitutional
amendment barring gay marriage. Few share Koch's tolerance.

"Make nice?" said Bill Dobbs, spokesman for the anti-war coalition United
for Peace and Justice (UPJ). "Why should anybody be nice to delegates for a
party that has done so much damage to international relations, to Iraq, and
robbed future generations with tax cuts?"

Party conventions are no strangers to protests, but with partisan passions
running high ahead of the November 2 election expected to go the wire, the
New York demonstrations are expected to be larger and more numerous than
ever.

Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 5-1 in New York, and
Al Gore outpolled Bush by more than 4-1 in the 2000 election.

Add to the volatile mix a city of eight million people on permanent
heightened alert of a future terrorist attack and you have a security
headache that will severely test the resources of one of the world's largest
municipal police forces.

Up to 10,000 police officers will be deployed on convention duty, joining
law enforcement agents from the FBI, Secret Service, Department of Homeland
Security and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

City authorities have announced special security measures that would include
closing down main roads in Manhattan for hours each day, and erecting a
concrete barrier around Madison Square Garden, with just one corner of the
convention site set aside for demonstrators.
People working inside the sealed-off area will be issued special permits
allowing them to get to their jobs.

Provisions for protestors have become the source of protests in their own
rights, with groups like UPJ accusing the police and Mayor Michael Bloomberg
of seeking to suppress their first amendment rights.

UPJ has planned a march past Madison Square Garden on the eve of the
convention followed by a rally in Central Park. It has said 250,000 could
take part. Police have offered a march route near the Garden and a rally in
a blocked off section off mid-Manhattan.

"We want to march freely and properly, not be trapped in a protest pit,"
said Dobbs.

The two sides have traded accusations that the other was dragging out the
process of approving protest permits, none of which have so far been issued
to any of the groups planning to picket the convention.

Bloomberg said Monday that UPJ, whose planned rally would be the largest,
was holding up permits for other organisations.
"Until they come to the table and tell us what they would like and negotiate
something that is in the city's interest and their interest, we really have
a lot of difficulty in giving out permits to other people," Bloomberg said.

The other groups run the entire spectrum of social and political activism
from environmentalists, to anti-globalism organisations and AIDS lobbyists.

Among the more unconventional protests being planned is one by "Axis of
Eve" — a protest group that focuses on women's rights. Around 100 members
plan a "group flashing" on September 1, wearing panties adorned with such
political messages as "weapons of mass seduction."

Bloomberg, who will formally open the convention, says the conclave will
generate an estimated 250 million dollars for the local economy.

The sex industry is one sector hoping to benefit from the invasion of
thousands of Republicans, with escort service agencies and strip clubs
reportedly doubling or tripling their staff to meet an expected surge in
demand.