"Dispatch from New York: Whose Streets?"

Sarah Ferguson, Mother Jones

There's a popular revolt afoot in New York City. Despite
Mayor Bloomberg's refusal, backed by a state judge to
allow protesters to show their strength in numbers in
New York's most hospitable venue-Central Park- the
demonstrations confronting George Bush and the
Republicans are shaping up to be the biggest
manifestation of popular dissent in the history of party
conventions.New York is now the sounding board for all the pent-up
frustration against Bush that was stifled in Boston and
repressed in John Kerry's softball campaign. The antiwar
and social justice crowd is crashing the GOP's ball-
bringing with them a whole host of gays, workers,
immigrants, veterans, and Democrats still seething over
the election fiasco in Florida. And while many New
Yorkers have fled to escape heightened terror alerts,
rerouted trains and a security gridlock all too
reminiscent of the lockdown following 9-11, for a
surprising number of people, the coming week will be all
about street protests.

Indeed, many say Bloomberg's clampdown on the park has
only inspired them to protest more. At least 200,000
people are expected to march through midtown Manhattan
this Sunday, and perhaps tens of thousands more will be
taking part in protests and events throughout the week.

'It's not just a snowball, it's an avalanche,' says
William Etundi, a web technician and rave promoter who
helped launch CounterConvention.org to serve as an
online portal to the myriad expressions -- from
memorials and die-ins, to flash mobs and guerilla
theater -- that folks have come up with to register
their dissent.

"We've injected ourselves into their sound bite," says
Max Uhlenbeck, a recent college grad who helped organize
a three-day conference called 'Life After Capitalism' in
hopes of extending the Bush critique. 'The line in the
media is not going to be whether Lynn Cheney did a good
job introducing her husband. It's gonna be the RNC and
the battle on the streets."

Just how that battle will come across is a matter of hot
debate. Sixties veterans like Todd Gitlin and Norman
Mailer, and contemporary liberals like Eric Alterman,
warned of a potential reprise of Chicago in 1968, should
rowdy demonstrations devolve into violent clashes with
police-a scenario that some believe is exactly what Karl
Rove and company intended when they chose to New York in
the first place.

More militant activists dismiss this as just more
liberal hand wringing from an older generation out of
touch with the energy of the streets. 'I think it's
really bad analysis to compare ?68 to what's happening
in 2004,' says Jamie Moran, a 30-year-old anarchist who
helped launch RNCNotWelcome.org to provide protesters
with tools for direct action. 'In Chicago, people were
protesting the Democratic Party because LBJ was carpet-
bombing Vietnam. This time we're protesting George Bush
and the Republicans who brought us to war, and the
crowds are gonna be way more huge and diverse than the
10,000 or so hippies who got their asses beat in 1968."

"What is our alternative," says Moran. "To just sit back
and watch this thing happen? As a New Yorker, I find it
offensive as hell that they would come here to try and
capitalize off 9-11, and there are a lot of other people
who feel that way, too.'

Protesters are a fixture at political conventions, of
course. But what's unusual about New York is just how
homegrown the opposition is. A recent poll of this city
of 8 million found 11 percent of New Yorkers plan to
protest in some manner, and a full 81 percent approve of
the convention protests. Yet more striking, 68 percent
approve of non-violent civil disobedience. That's far
different from the attitudes that prevailed in 1968,
when the Democratic Party itself was riven by internal
divisions.

And even more moderate voices than Moran's say the GOP's
decision to delay Bush's nomination to just nine days
before the anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade
Center amounts to something of a provocation.

'It's like they're trying to hijack our pain,' says Mike
de Seve. The 41-year-old Brooklyn Heights resident is
neither a scary anarchist nor a member of any leftwing
group. In fact, he's best known for being the animation
director for Beavis and Butthead, and has directed
features for Disney. But he's now feverishly at work
trying to build 1000 flag-draped coffins to call
attention to the US soldiers who have died in Iraq
(currently 968).

'We want to give the media something real to shoot,"
says De Seve. "The Bush Administration has classified
all images of the incoming dead -- they're not allowed
to be seen. So we want to really put it out there: What
are the real costs of war?'

De Seve is not alone in his newfound fervor. Beyond the
pro-choice march across the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday,
the mass march organized by United for Peace and Justice
on Sunday, the large protests called by immigrant
rights, AIDS and antipoverty campaigners on Monday, the
big union rally on Wednesday, and a black-led march in
Harlem on Thursday, there are dozens of independent
initiatives in the works by ordinary citizens who say
they are outraged at the thought of a Bush coronation
here.

Across Brooklyn, people are draping their rooftops with
giant banners that read, NO MORE YEARS, FIRE THE LIAR,
and even REPUBLICANS FOR KERRY in hopes of sending a
message to GOP delegates flying into New York. 'We want
them to know that we live in the city most at threat of
terrorist attack, and we feel that Bush has failed us
and failed America, 'says Genevieve Christy, a 57-year-
old management consultant who's said the project is
'spreading like wildfire,' with 84 brownstones already
covered, and more on a waiting list.

On Saturday, thousands are expected to ring Ground Zero
with a choreographed dirge of bells in remembrance of
the victims of 9-11. 'We want to honor those who died
and let freedom ring,' says Christian Herold, a 47-year-
old adjunct professor who said he came up with the idea
as a way to counter Republican efforts to use the 9-11
attacks as a drumbeat for the war on terror. He and his
collaborators are also distributing thousands of bells
for people to 'ring out' the Republicans every night of
the convention at 7:30 pm.

Much of the creative ferment on the streets reflects the
lengths people are going to express themselves without
being herded into protest pens, like those used during
the massive antiwar rally here on February 15, 2003.

There are calls to shout 'No!' during Bush's acceptance
speech, to drown him out by banging pots and pans, or
light candles in silent opposition. Cabbies Against Bush
are asking fellow hacks to keep their headlights on
throughout the convention to 'shine a light' on the
Bush's 'war policies.' (Taking a cue from Michael Moore,
the group is also offering free trips to the airport to
Fox News host Bill O'Reilly and any GOP delegates who
volunteer to go fight in Iraq.)

Others are arming themselves with humor. Perfecting
their line of class warfare, Billionaires for Bush have
plans to set up their own 'fee speech zones,' and to
perpetrate random acts of ballroom dancing as they send
up Dubya and his corporate backers. They'll also be
taunting their fellow activists, like the hundreds who
are expected to engage in a giant unemployment line on
Wednesday stretching from Wall Street to midtown. 'This
administration is so desperate, they're throwing out
terror alerts to keep us quiet,' says Victoria Olsen,
aka Billionaire Fonda Sterling. 'It's inspired protest
groups to be more mindful and disarming in different
ways. It's a lot more playful. People are willing to
embrace different strategies and be more creative, more
experimental and adaptable.'

The city's refusal to grant a permits for the big
Central Park rally and other events has only galvanized
the direct action crowd, who are now threatening to turn
the whole city into a 'free speech zone,' with schemes
to use cellphone text-messaging and pirate radio
broadcasts to orchestrate a 'be-in' in Central Park and
other creative swarms. Thousands of bicyclists are
expected to take to the streets on Friday for a Critical
Mass ride through town-defying police threats to arrest
them--and there's a call for a 'Mouse bloc' to disrupt
Republican delegates sampling the Disneyfied fare on
Broadway with mouse costumes and marching bands.

Contrary to some tabloid claims, activists say they have
no plans to try and block access to the GOP convention.
'The police are already doing that, and we don't have
the firepower, period,' notes Eric Lauren, a member of
the A31 Action Coalition. Instead, the group has called
for a day of decentralized "nonviolent civil
disobedience and direct actions" on Tuesday, August 31,
targeting corporate fetes for delegates as well as the
headquarters of 'war-profiteers' like the Carlyle Group
and Hummer of Manhattan, followed by a mass convergence
to 'reclaim the streets' outside Madison Square Garden
with sound systems, marching bands and free food-
presuming police let them get that far.

'We want to show that democracy begins where the
barricades end and to protest the fact that a huge chunk
of Manhattan is being turned over to the Republicans for
a big corporate cocktail party,' says Laursen.

But stage-managing the message won't be easy given the
autonomous, anything-goes ethos of leftwing organizing
these days. For instance, while members of RNCNotWelcome
and the A31 Action Coalition say they're not advocating
or engaging in property destruction, they're not willing
to criticize those who do. Nevertheless, organizers say
word's gone out that it's in everyone's interests to
tone things down-including advisories to young rebels to
ditch the black hoodies and face masks and sport khaki
instead.

"Even people with some of the most radical analysis out
there are seeing that it's not to our advantage to set
ourselves up to feed into the Republican image of itself
as the law and order party,' notes John Sellers,
director of the Oakland-based Ruckus Society, which
hosted a strategy retreat for activists in upstate New
York last month. "No one can dictate what any one group
does from on high. But people have been having really
substantive conversations on this."

Some worry that the Seattle meets Burning Man aesthetic
may go too far. However humorous, troops of Missile Dick
Chicks strutting the streets with strap-on silver
phalluses, and groups of women flashing anti-Bush
slogans on their breasts or underwear may play all too
readily into conservatives' hands. Yet for every freak
on the street, there will also be more somber and
pointed demonstrations, such as the "Bushville" set up
in a Brooklyn lot to protest the rise of homelessness
under Bush's watch, or the group of military families
and family members of the 9-11 victims who will be
marching on New York with a 1,600 pound granite memorial
to honor civilian war casualties.

Still, even peaceful actions can turn nasty depending on
how the police react. And some of the schemes floated by
anarchists aren't so innocent.This week an anonymous
group posted an website with all the delegates names and
the hotels where they are staying, along with many of
their personal email addresses and phone numbers.

The tabloids are already spinning chaos. "Anarchy Inc."
blared the frontpage of the New York Daily News on
Thursday, which reported that the NYPD was tracking 50
'hard-core extremists' who were plotting to disrupt the
convention with possibly violent acts, like hurling
Molotovs at military recruiting centers, and claimed
that a former Black Panther had been spotted training
activists in "weapons use." The slant echoed a previous
Daily News frontpager that trumpeted an erroneous report
about activists coating themselves in gunpowder to
trigger bomb-sniffing dogs in order to force a shutdown
of Penn Station. The New York Post, meanwhile, went so
far as to report that aging radicals from the Weather
Underground 'recently released from prison' were
conspiring to foul up the city by "orchestrating"
younger activists in nefarious deeds. A police training
manual advises cops to brace for possible attacks with
nail-studded potatoes, hockey pucks, and even flaming
"frisbee-like" devices.

Activists fear the police are floating these stories in
order to justify preemptive arrests. Federal authorities
are certainly doing their best to intimidate, with
reports that the FBI has been interviewing dozens of
activists. Last week the NYPD invited news crews to film
scary-looking riot police dropping from helicopters and
drilling crowd-control techniques as they put on display
two new 'long-range acoustical devices' mounted on
Humvees, which will be stationed in front of Madison
Square Garden. Originally designed for Iraq, they're
capable of emitting disabling pulses and ear-piercing
shrieks, though police say they only plan to use them to
"remind protesters where they're allowed to march and
rally." Helicopters equipped with high-powered beams are
already swooping over the city.

All this energy being invested to protest a largely
symbolic event begs the question of whether the
demonstrations have become an end unto themselves. If
people really want to oust Bush, would they not be
better served by registering hundreds of thousands to
vote against him, and then harnessing that power to
force Kerry to acknowledge the progressive, grassroots
flank that helped put him into office?

"I think these protests can go either way," says Stephen
Bronner, a political science professor at Rutgers
University. "The Republicans will try to play it as
disrespect for the president and the troops. But if
there's serious action at this convention, there's the
potential for Bush to be seen as having lost control of
the American consensus."

Whatever the risks, many New Yorkers say they're too fed
up not to vent. "The stakes are so high this time.
People are trying to come up with ways to do it so it
doesn't feel like you're just beating your head against
the wall," says Joshua Spauhn. Before Bush, the 50-year-
old software developer hadn't picked up a protest sign
since college. Now he's going to organizing meetings as
part of RingOut.org and sporting a black T-shirt that
reads 'Unauthorized Protester,' with the rejoinder on
the back: 'Permits, We Don't Need No Stinking Permits.'

Spauhn balks when asked what he hopes the masses on the
streets could accomplish. "I don't know what it will
achieve; all I know is that this is what I feel called
to do. I'm a liberal, not a radical. But there are
certain rights that we need to defend. Our Constitution
is one of them."

[Sarah Ferguson is a New York-based freelance writer.]