===== Pan-African News Wire, Weekly Dispatch I, Sunday 21 January 2001 ================================================================ Bush Inauguration Is Marked By Large Demonstrations Opposition groups protest illegitimate rule by right wing govt. By Abayomi Azikiwe, Pan-African News Wire, Editor WASHINGTON, DC, 20 Jan. (PANW)--Tens of thousands of anti-Bush protestors descended on the nation's capital on Saturday to express their opposition to what many characterized as an appointed regime by the US Supreme Court. People who opposed Bush dominated the area around Freedom Plaza located in the vicinity of Pennsylvania avenue and 14th Street NW, in downtown Washington. Activists who represented a myraid of political movements including the campaign to free Mumia Abu-Jamal, the independence of Puerto Rico, women's rights groups, anarchists youth collectives, socialists, gay and lesbian right organizations, environmentalists and civil rights advocates and many other political tendencies, began to pour into the Freedom Plaza area before ten o'clock saturday morning. Although permits had been granted to the demonstration's organizers, the US Secret Service had thousands of agents in the streets surrounding the Plaza preventing the protestors from entering the grounds facing Pennsylvania avenue, the route where George W. Bush was scheduled to drive pass later on that afternoon. At 10:30am, Brian Becker of the International Action Center, which had made the request for the permit to hold the demonstrations months ago, took the microphone and said that "ninety minutes ago we were supposed to have gotten into the Plaza." The IAC and its supporters waged a legal fight to open up large sections of the parade route to demonstrators who were opposed to the handling of the national elections in November and the Supreme Court refusal to allow all of the votes in Florida to be counted and tabulated. A standoff developed between the Secret Service and thousands of demonstrators who began to gather at the Freedom Plaza entrance located on the corner of Pennsylvania and 14th Street NW. Almost simultaneously a group of several hundred anarchist youth representing the Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Black Blocs were seen marching down Pennsylvania avenue towards 14th. They were shouting "no justice, no peace, free mumia, [expletive] the police." Confrontations arose later in another section of downtown as police arrested and beat several youthful protestors, while others took to the streets and burned American flags. It was reported that at least nine people were arrested in these clashes between demonstrators and the police. "This is precisely why we were in US District Court yesterday" said an IAC organizer, who spoke through a loudspeaker to the crowd that was growing rapidly. "We said the checkpoints were not neutral," he continued. "They are not about security for the president, they are basically a way to get rid of the free speech rights of demonstrators and we will never surrender, we will never surrender these rights," he declared to the cheers of the crowd. "Whose streets, our streets," the crowd began to chant as the Secret Service officials continued to delay the entry of the activists into the Freedom Plaza area. Soon the Secret Service agents began to a allow a trickle of people into the area after they examined the contents of any bags held by those entering the Plaza. During this time someone picked up the microphone and began to speak out against the refusal of the Secret Service to allow people into the Plaza area immediately without a search. "The clock is ticking but we are not going to leave said Larry Holmes, an IAC organizer." Holmes continued by stating that "we can't stress enough how important, how absolutely crucial to our objective here today, which is to demonstrate that the people are against the illegitimate, racist, reactionary ruler for the rich being inaugurated for anything. Anti-Bush forces began to overshadow event By 11:00 am on Saturday, there was a feeling that most of the people in route to Pennsylvania avenue were anti-Bush. As soon as the crowds gathered outside the entrance to Freedom Plaza had begun to move more swiftly through the Secret Service checkpoints, signs and banners were hoisted which represented a broad cross-section of political groups in the United States. Banners and signs flew above the crowd which said: "Bush=Racism; "Hail to the Thief"; "Free Mumia Abu-Jamal"; Justice for Jamil Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown); "End Police Brutality"; "John Ashcroft is a sexist-racist pig"; "Free Florida's Black Voters"; etc. This demonstration was described as the largest anti-inaugural protests since the beginning of the second term of Richard Nixon in 1973. Once the initial group of over 5,000 protestors entered the Freedom Plaza area, speakers began to address a host of political concerns in several places throughout the area. Some spoke about the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the plight of political prisoners in the US, others addressed the need for the total abolition of the what they called "the racist death penalty" in the country, while some made statements about the eroding rights of free speech and the corporate domination of the media. Despite the massive show of force by over 7,000 police, secret service agents, national guardsmen and other military personnel, the crowds grew larger and more vocal in their opposition to the Bush administration. Soon another march of 12,000 people began to descend into the area of Freedom Plaza from 14th Street NW from Dupont Circle. This delegation of demonstrators were organized by the Justice Action Movement (JAM) and it consisted of a majority of anti-establishment youth ranging from socialists to women's rights activists, advocates of greater voting rights for national minorities and the poor, those calling for a national moratorium on the death penalty and dozens of other groups. It was then announced by the organizers of the Freedom Plaza rally that outgoing President Bill Clinton had formally denied American Indian Movement (AIM) leader Leonard Peltier executive clemency. The crowds began to shout out in anger demanding the immediate release of Peltier who has been in federal prison for over two decades after being sentenced for the alleged murder of two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, who he claims he did not kill. Later a representative of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee would address the crowd on the latest developments in the case of the Native American leader. Official parade is denounced by anti-Bush protestors When the official parade of Republican dignitaries and supporters, including columns of military units and police convoys, began to pass the Plaza on Pennsylvania avenue, people who occupied the majority of the space inside the area, began to boo and scream at the participants. Some of the protestors chanted: "free Mumia, jail Bush, free Peltier, jail Bush." Others yelled: "Go back to Texas you racists." "All up and down Pennsylvania avenue, guess who is here?" said Larry Holmes of the IAC. "Us" the crowd responded. "They did not want us to be here on Pennsylvania avenue," Holmes later said, in reference to the protracted political and legal battle waged by the rally organizers who utilized the legal resources of the Partnership for Civil Justice. Attorneys for this agency, Carl Messineo and Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, were present as legal observers for the anti-Bush inaugural demonstrations on Saturday. They eventually addressed the crowd on the significance of the legal victory won by the organizers which allowed them to enter the Pennsylvania avenue area around Freedom Plaza, where the government sought through the Presidential Inauguration Committee (PIC) and the Secret Service to bar all protests from this venue. During the early afternoon columns of buses with darkened windows drove by Pennsylvania avenue to the boos and denunciations of the anti-Bush protestors who by this time had grown to tens of thousands of people. These people were Republican dignitaries who were enroute to the White House where a reception would be held later for Bush. The protestors denounced all sections of the parade: the military columns, the police, the Texas Rangers, the marching bands from the marines and the educational institutions in Bush's home state were met with boos and catcalls. "Go back to Texas." The protestors shouted in unison as a column of Texans walked pass in the parade wearing cowboy hats and boots, with shirts emblazened with the lone star--a historical signature for the white settlers in the formerly Mexican controlled territory now known as a US state. In other sections of Pennsylvania avenue, Bush's vehicle was hit with ice and eggs. When his limousine went past Freedom Plaza, the crowd of tens of thousands of protestors screamed "racist murderer" and " George Dubya we know you, your father was a killer too." Columns of police units and Secret Service agents lined the streets and ran alongside the presidential limousine when it passed the Plaza. Bush did not exit the vehicle until he reached a cordoned off area near the White House where only Republican guests were supposed to be allowed. However, anti-Bush protestors were able to hit his vehicle with an egg after he had exited. The role of the corporate media Media outlets in the US attempted to downplay the size and character of the protest demonstrations against the Bush inauguration. However, because of the overwhelming presence of the opposition forces, the major networks were forced to address the protest actions. They attempted to blame the damp and drizzling weather on the low turnout of Republican party supporters in Freedom Plaza and along the Pennsylvania avenue parade route. While the news commentators refused to give any real estimates of the number of demonstrators against Bush, they did tacitly acknowledge that they were far greater than pro-Bush Republicans. Later Saturday evening on the C-Span television network, a caller who supported the Republican party stated that "this was a sad day for the nation" and asked "where were the Republicans today in Washington, DC ?" In another protest action at the Supreme Court, over 10,000 activists gathered to host what they called a counter-inauguration where the national elections results in Florida were denounced as fradulent. The crowd surrounded the Court building and later took a pledge to continue the fight for universal voting rights in the United States. These actions were organized by the NAACP, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Lawyers Guild and other organizations. IAC organizers of the rally at Freedom Plaza stated that they were satisfied with the turnout and the legal right won in the courts to be present in the area along Pennsylvania avenue. Brian Becker pointed out that "this was a victory because tens of thousands of people came out to protest this illegimate government that was installed through the disenfranchisment of black voters in Florida." Organizers pledged to continue their efforts to oppose Bush's policies in the coming months and stated that they would be back to the nation's capital soon. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Editor's Note: For additional independent reports on the saturday demonstrations in DC and around the country go to: http://indymedia.org or http://www.iacenter.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ========================================================================== Pan-African News Wire articles may be broadly forwarded for non-profit research and educational purposes. ========================================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Distributed By: THE PAN-AFRICAN RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION CENTER 211 SCB BOX 47, WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY DETROIT, MI 48202-- E MAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Crashlist website: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base
