------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Aug. 19, 2004 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
ACTIVISTS PREPARE FOR WEEK OF RESISTANCE AGAINST RNC By Julie Fry New York On Aug. 30, the Bush administration and thousands of Republicans will descend on New York City for the Republican National Convention. Tens of thousands of workers and oppressed people will be there to confront them. President George W. Bush's vicious, reactionary program has prompted a massive response from all sectors of the progressive movement. Some of the events planned in response to the RNC include anti-war actions, immigrant-rights activities, a women's march, a youth convergence, a labor demonstration, and mobilizations of poor and oppressed communities. The Republicans chose to hold their convention in New York in the hope that they would benefit from stirring up racist, nationalist sentiment around the issue of Sept. 11. However, instead of being greeted by flag- waving war supporters as they had hoped, the convention delegates will be confronted by New Yorkers as well as workers and oppressed people from all over the United States who have suffered under the Bush regime. The Republicans and their wealthy supporters will be celebrating in a city where only half of African American men hold regular jobs. Homeless shelters in the city are overflowing. Oppressed communities continue to face brutal police repression. The situation in New York is representative of hundreds of cities and towns across the country that face economic devastation as well as political repression. A poll cited by the local ABC-TV affiliate on Aug. 8 noted that 83 percent of New Yorkers are opposed to the Republicans holding their convention here. Many of the forces mobilizing against the RNC support the Democratic Party as an alternative to the brutal, anti-people agenda of Bush. However, a smaller but important sector of activists recognize that Sen. John Kerry and the Democrats are part of the same imperialist apparatus responsible for the war and attacks on people's rights in the United States. Many of these activists joined thousands of others who demonstrated against the Democratic National Convention in Boston in July. WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL KICKS OFF PROTESTS The International Action Center is organizing an Iraq War Crimes Tribunal, which will take place in New York on Aug. 26, to put the Bush administration and U.S. government on trial for war crimes against the Iraqi people. The tribunal will give participants the opportunity to hear a detailed account of the U.S. government's crimes against Iraq. Eyewitnesses and experts from around the world are coming to testify about the human, economic and environmental devastation caused by the Bush administration's illegal war and by years of criminal sanctions enforced by both Republi cans and Democrats. The event will include reports from representatives of other tribunals that have taken place around the world. Repre sent atives from Haiti, Korea, the Philippines, Palestine and other countries that have been devastated by U.S. imperialist aggres sion will also be featured. There will also be testimony from U.S. soldiers who refuse to participate in the occupation, and from labor representatives explaining the war's devastating effect on workers. The tribunal will give activists who plan to participate in the rest of the anti-RNC activities a clear and thorough explanation of the Bush administration's crimes--and of the motives behind the U.S. government's longstanding aggression against the Iraqi people. Also, the tribunal will give people an opportunity to do something that no bourgeois political party would do: hold Bush and his cronies responsible for the crimes they are committing against the people of the world. Tribunal organizers have created a web site, www.peoplejudgebush.org, for information about the tribunal. In addition, the IAC has made its office in New York available as a resistance center to be used by activists during the RNC. The IAC plans to participate in and support many of the activities. POLICE LOCKDOWN IN NYC During the Democratic National Convention, Boston spent tens of millions of dollars on a militarized police force that used snipers and razor wire fences to keep demonstrators away from the convention. The New York Daily News reports that New York City likewise plans to spend $76 million on convention security. The streets around Madison Square Garden, site of the convention, will be completely locked down. Commuters are being told that train and subway service will be disrupted. Last week, the Bush administration escalated the panic over RNC security by announcing a "terror alert" for the New York City area. It was supposedly based on new information about a plot against financial companies in and near the city. The next day, though, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge admitted that most of the information on which the alert was based was three to four years old. However, this admission came too late to stop the mainstream media from trying to pump up fear over the possibility of a terrorist attack. This latest "alert" is part of a long pattern of excuses put forward by the state to justify a massive police presence and denying the right to demonstrate. Similar "terror alerts" were used to try to stop mas sive numbers of anti-war demonstrators from marching in New York on February 15, 2003. The police and media have also tried to demonize the protesters themselves. In July the New York Daily News ran a front-page story that accused anarchists of plotting against city subways. Although the story cited only anonymous postings on a web site as its source, it was picked up by all of the local news programs and national cable news stations like CNN. One of the main struggles developing out of the police repression against RNC protestors concerns the major anti-war demonstration scheduled to take place on Aug. 29, called by United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ). The group originally requested to march past the convention site and rally in Central Park. After denying permits for demonstrations to any groups for months, city officials then insisted that the Aug. 29 rally could only take place on the isolated West Side Highway. March organizers initially agreed to this; on Aug. 10, with many activists fed up with the police restrictions on their civil liberties, they announced they would demand Central Park. On Aug. 7 national ANSWER announced a Sept. 2 demonstration "in solidarity with the Palestinian people, the Haitian people, and others who are resisting U.S. occupation. The demonstration will begin with a rally at 5 p.m. at the Israeli Mission to the United Nations, at 43rd St. and Second Ave." - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
