The Ruckus - October 27, 2010

In this edition of The Ruckus, Quotidian Dissent’s round-up of interesting and exciting protests around the world, we bring you street riots, frogs legs, and protest votes.

• In Ecuador, anti-government protests over planned wage cuts spiralled out of control, resulting in five deaths.  The protesters attacked President Rafael Correa and kept him holed up in a hospital, in what he called an attempted Coup.  In France, weeks of strikes, protests, and occasional street violence against austerity measures (like raising the retirement age from 60 to 62) are losing steam, while marches against austerity measures in Romania are just heating up.
• The voting booths in Nevada are home to a unique form of protest.  The ballot includes the option to vote for “None of These Candidates,” giving voters an option to officially register their disaffection with the listed candidate.  Beyond mere symbolism, the ballot quirk may play into the re-election strategy of embattled Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. 
• In a case that blurs the line between protesting and stalking, a crazed anti-gay activist (who happens to be an Assistant Attorney General in Michigan) ran a multi-faceted one-man campaign against the University of Michigan’s student body president, who happens to be gay.
• Responding to the international outcry and sharp diplomatic rebukes, Iran dropped the stoning death sentence against Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a woman convicted of adultery.  State officials said she could still be sentenced for the alleged murder of her husband.
• A group of eighth graders outside the District of Columbia gathered outside the Rio Grande Cafe restaurant in defense of frogs.  The chain, which serves up frog legs, is helping the United States approach France and Belgium as the top eaters of the amphibians.  The kids are part of an amphibian conservation group called Save The Frogs.

Stay tuned Quotidian Dissent’s coverage of the Stewart/Colbert rallies, the story of a 12-year protester, and watch for our article this week in the Christian Science Monitor!

Remembering to Never Forget Darfur

The pile of dead teenagers strewn on the grass of Lafayette Park flummoxed the South Korean tourist group who had come to photograph the White House.  The corpses lay alongside black paper tombstones inscribed in chalk: “200,000 - 400,000 have DIED since 2003”; “3,600 people die per day”; “22% of people do not have access to clean WATER”; “Let’s save Darfur NOW!  Stop the Silence.”

The teenagers in the “Die-In” are members of the Maryland chapter of Young Judaea, a Zionist youth movement that espouses social action and peer leadership.  “We are reminding people that Darfur is still happening,” says 16-year old Frances Lasday, the high school student from North Potomac Maryland who thought up the protest. 

But why is a Zionist movement concerned about Darfur to begin with?  “When it happened to us in the Holocaust, we said never again, so we’re trying to promote that message that we won’t stand by and watch another people go through that same thing,” says Ilan Simanin, 17.  Indeed, the Jewish community has been heavily involved in Darfur activism from early on; about a third of the Save Darfur Coalition’s directors are Jewish.  But the Young Judaeans are concerned that people have habituated to the genocide.  “A lot of people forget about it sometimes because it’s been going on for seven years and nothing’s happened,” says Lasday.  As such, vows to “Never Forget” are themselves in danger of being forgotten.  People must be reminded to “Never Forget” again and again. 

Like Dream University, the group that protested for immigration reform by holding “teach-ins” with immigrant youth this past July, the Young Judaeans begin their protest with a lesson.  But whereas the adult Dream University coordinators ran the lessons for their students, the Young Judaea staff simply step back and allow the teens to teach one another. 

Sitting in a circle, they discuss the history of the conflict, circulate political cartoons about Darfur, and discuss political and moral dilemmas.  Should Israel, for example, be responsible for taking in refugees from Darfur?  Some think that, given the Holocaust, it has a moral responsibility.  Others interject that there are practical difficulties to opening their borders.  How can the United States help?  Should it pressure China, which has more economic influence on Sudan?  How?

Armed with the facts, the young activists go about making their tombstones.  “Can we die already?” they chide one other.  Finally, they sprawl out on the lawn with their tombstones and wait.  They feel a little silly as the tourists start to stare, but take comfort that their peers in New York City, Chicago, and San Diego are carrying out the same protest.  Lasday and her friends originated the idea over the summer at a leadership program at Young Judaea’s summer camp, Tel Yehuda, and decided to coordinate it nationally.

“We just want to put in our two cents and show the world that we want to make a difference,” says Rachel Goldberger, 16.  Given the leadership skills, training, and opportunities their movement infuses into them, there is little doubt that someday, they will.

-Niv Elis

Rally? What Rally?

Context is everything. 

Normally, tens of thousands of citizens gathering in the nation’s capital would be considered a victorious display of strength.  But in the wake of the recent Glenn Beck Rally and Tea Parties in Washington, the union-organized One Nation Working Together rally seemed woefully under-attended.  Intended to demonstrate that the American left is still alive and kicking, the rally instead landed with a muffled thud on the national mall.

Whereas Beck attracted throngs of people impassioned by fiery rhetoric, big names, and audacious theatricality, One Nation’s response seemed merely a blip.  The mall’s spacious lawns displayed their full greenery, having recovered from some serious Tea Party treading just weeks before.   DC residents confronted with activists en route to the Lincoln Memorial quizzically muttered, “Rally?  What Rally?” 

The unions’ inability to produce the hype or headlines already surrounding the forthcoming Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert rallies uncomfortably belied the event.  Were the obvious comparison points absent, and had the organizers not been such powerful national groups, the thousands of assembled marchers would have been impressive.

“I’m not a very big proponent of ordinary marches like this, so I’m just gonna put that right out there,” says Nadine Bloch, who works for the Washington Peace Center.  Instead, Bloch believes in using creative forms of resistance, cultural work, and direct action.  Towering over her, a 12-foot paper mache “Goddess of Peace and Liberation” demonstrates her views.  Covered with slogans such as “Fund Jobs, Not War” and “Build Schools, Not Bombs,” the Goddess is the creation of a consortium of social justice movements called The Peace Table.  “Marches are important for bringing communities together, showing strength to each other, perhaps sending a message to the White House, if you get really lucky.  So we’re here just to add color and creative expression.”

Close by, dressed in a snazzy suit and smoking a pretzel cigar, Harold Gotbucks III of the Buffalo Billionaires flashes a winning smile.  “The Billionaires decided we need to come down here and counteract these proletarian working people, running around and causing trouble,” he explains.  “They should just shut up and stop complaining!”  The satirical character is in reality Eric Gallion, a part-time engineer who bussed down with his local unions (shunning his private jet).  Gallion believes that humor adds an additional dimension to political debate, a notion that, once again, will come to the fore in the Stewart/Colbert rally.  “I think it makes it more fun and at the same time more real to people.  It’s too easy to just kind of blank out the people with signs.”

As with all large political events, the One Nation rally attracted a variety of like-minded groups hoping to capitalize on the event.  Exemplifying the plethora of causes, four women strolled through the crowd covered in bumper stickers collected from the myriad organizers.  “We just went to everybody, just meeting everybody and hearing their causes.”  The women, who traveled 14-hours by bus from Georgia, came to support the International Longshoreman’s Association/Local 1414 union, whose office is across the way from their restaurant Mama T’s.

For all its good causes, the One Nation rally may have ultimately been counter-productive for the unions.  Given the context, they may have inadvertently proved that they are no longer the backbone of the left. 

-Niv Elis

A Mad Tea Party

When is a Tea Party not a Tea Party?  When is a political event not a political event?

“I haven’t the slightest idea,” the Mad Hatter would reply.  

The Hatter of this event, of course, would be Glenn Beck, the Fox News rhetorician who has built his career on controversy.  On Saturday, August 28th, he descended upon the Nation’s capital with an estimated 87,000 of his supporters in tow, spearheading an event called “The Rally to Restore Honor.”  

Despite claiming to be an apolitical event and lacking official affiliation with any Tea Party movements, the rally was unmistakably targeted at mobilizing and energizing Tea Party constituencies politically.

On the one hand, many facets of the rally were as expected.  The crowd was a mostly-white, largely rural population, representing the finest of Sarah Palin’s “Real America.”  But surprises abounded around every corner as well, adding an unexpected madness to the Tea Party.

Most striking about the rally participants was the marked difference between their reputation and their demeanor.  The rally felt more like a giant Fourth of July picnic, complete with lawn chairs and wistful Americana, than a gathering storm of political revolution.

The much vaunted anger that supposedly fueled Tea Party activists had either been checked at the door, ebbed, or was not their primary driver to begin with.  A pair of participants from North Carolina (who refused to give their names) insisted that their motivation was “not anger,” but rather “love for our country.”  Karen Freeman, a 26-year old activist from Philadelphia (and one of the few African Americans in the crowd) insisted that the media, which gets a better story from highlighting the angriest and most offensive people, was to blame for such misconceptions.  “You’ll always have those hateful people in there.  Just like any group.  You’ll always have the bad egg to spoil the batch.”  But Freeman, who has traveled with the Tea Party from California to the District selling merchandise, believed that “the policy itself is good.” 

However, the inflammatory rhetoric of Mr. Beck and other Tea Party pundits and politicians was not so easily brushed aside by all.  Among the crowd, armed with her trusty signs, stood Lori Thomas, the teacher from Rochester who spent July Schooling the White House on education.  This time, she came to urge people in both the Glenn Beck rally and the Al Sharpton “Reclaim The Dream” counter-rally across the way to converse constructively.  “We have in this country one of the greatest constitutions in the world and that constitution guarantees us freedom of speech, and we have to respect that in one another.  Everyone has the right to come out and say how they feel.  But not in hate,” said Thomas, eliciting approving nods from nearby ralliers. 

Interestingly, Thomas found herself in agreement with some of the Tea Party’s principles as well.  “The message of the Tea Party is a good one.  We do have to change our government, we have to find people of integrity to lead our nation.  We can’t keep going status quo.  But you don’t put people in who are just as bad as the people who are in.”  

Finally, the political diversity of the rallying hoards was, within conservative limits, fairly broad.  Throughout the crowd, political organizations of remarkably different stripes sought an audience.  Members of DCVote, a group advocating full voting rights for residents of the District of Columbia, attempted to capitalize on the Tea Party imagery.  Their slogan, “No Taxation Without Representation,” is borrowed from the original Boston Tea Party, and drew mixed responses from the passersby, eliciting everything from smiling approval to contempt.  Another organization, called GOOOH (pronounced “go”), sought to gather support for a new political system, free of special interests.  An ultra-conservative group claiming to defend “Tradition, Family, and Property” distributed pamphlets outlining 10 reasons to reject socialism.  A libertarian from New Jersey lamented the struggle for the Tea Party’s soul, represented by the socially conservative Sarah Palin and the traditional “small government”  views of Ron Paul.  “We’re not republican, we’re not democrats, we’re constitutionalists.  That’s all we care about,” affirmed Michaelina and Guy Miconi, Italian immigrants who moved to New Jersey in the 1950’s.

While people clearly took issue with President Obama and his policies, few pointed to him or his administration as the cause of the “lost honor” the rally claimed to restore.  “It started during Bush, maybe even before that, some of Clinton,” the anonymous North Carolinians said of the country’s downward trajectory.  The Miconi couple saw the problems extending even further back.  “We have veered off incrementally from the Roosevelt Era,” said Michaelina.  “We’re trying to restore our country back to what it was: constitutional government, fiscal responsibility, and we the people rule.”

Appropriately, this Mad Tea party recalls another scene from Alice in Wonderland.  Standing at a crossroads, Alice asks the Cheshire Cat for directions, but admits she is not sure where she wants to arrive.  “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” replies the Cat. 

Given that the movement is based upon vague and lofty principals that do not easily translate into one particular policy or another, the attendant political diversity makes sense.  But the only clear thing about which path the Tea Party will end up choosing is that it will lead Rightward.

(Special Thanks to Thomas Sanchez for the first and fourth photos)

-Niv Elis

Protest v. Protest: Battling Over Gay Marriage

It is a dreary Sunday on Capitol Hill.  The anti-gay National Organization for Marriage (NOM) pointedly sets up their rally by the nation’s legislature, turning its back to the high court just across the road.  The courts have not been kind to their cause of late, overturning the ban on gay marriage in California just days before. 

Although the rain had let up an hour earlier, the organizers are agitated.  After 22 other stops in 19 states on its “Summer for Marriage Tour,” NOM knows that the chances of pro-LGBT groups staging a counter-protest are fairly high; they have done it at every other stop.

“Everyone has a first amendment right to stand up.” NOM President Brian Brown remarks pensively.  “As long as they don’t try to interfere with our rally they’re fine.”  According to Brown, counter-protesters in previous rallies stormed the podium, asked protesters “if it’s OK to raise your kids as little bigots,” and attempted to drown out their speeches with a bullhorn.  “Behavior that’s not civil at all.”

Officially, a counter-protest in support of gay marriage called “The Big Commit” is planned for Freedom Plaza, on the other side of town.  That event has a larger, more cheerful crowd, complete with rainbow snow cones and musical performances.  Alexandra Andrea Beninda, a transgender woman and political activist who moved from Virginia to DC to enjoy its stronger LGBT rights sees the rally as a sign of progress in their battle.  “Today is a celebration of where we’ve come locally, and to make a statement with our numbers to that group down the street.”

Beninda, who is bisexual, has a particularly unique perspective on marriage equality. Before she transitioned legally and physically from being a male, she was only allowed to marry a woman.  Now, as a female, she is only allowed to marry a man.  “You should be able to find the one person you love and want to marry and you shouldn’t have somebody telling you that.”

In a message to participants, “The Big Commit” organizers urged restraint.  “Every time NOM gets what they deem an ‘angry’ response from justifiably angry counter-protesters, they use that to incite fear and spread lies, which in turn nets them an average of $100,000 from their supporters.”  But that didn’t stop a handful of activists from various organizations showing up at the NOM rally, some to simply to show opposition, others geared for a confrontation.

On the sidelines of the NOM podium, LGBT allies begin lining up with signs reading “NO More hate” and “How dare they try to end this beauty?”  Some more light-hearted activists brandish signs with humorous, mocking slogans like “God Hates Bags” and the ever versatile “I Have a Sign!”

Among them are Megan Miller, 19, and Rob Ciano, 22, who drove down from New Jersey just to protest the NOM.  “You have to stand up and say what you think is right and what you think is wrong,” said Ciano.

NOM’s turnout is somewhat dissapointing.  Buses are delayed, some supporters seem to be on the wrong side of the Capitol, and one of the speakers is missing.  But with about 100 activists waiting, the show must go on.  Brown opens with a warning of counter-protests to come, urging his audience to “meet any form of hatred here with love,” and eliciting a collective eye roll from the counter-protesters. 

Things remain calm, even as the next speaker, the vehemently anti-gay Bishop Harry Jackson of Washington’s Hope Christian Church, begins his speech by calling for a round of applause “for Jesus.”

Then it begins. 

Marching past the Capitol, equipped with signs, T-shirts, and the dreaded bullhorn, self-declared Queer activists spread out behind a large yellow banner reading “Equality Delayed, Equality Denied, We are Dying.”  Over the loud-speaker comes the planned disruption.  “We would like to take a few moments to honor our dead, LGBT Americans who were murdered by people who were influenced by groups like the National Organization for Marriage and use homophobia to justify killing us.”  The Queer activists’ signs depict the victims of hate crimes, who had been murdered for their sexual orientation or gender identity. 

Because the counter-protesters had arranged a permit for the other side of the lawn, not the road by the NOM protest, the police quickly usher them along.  In order to avoid arrest, they are forced to keep the whole party moving as they read their admonitions, slowly making their way beyond the anti-marriage rally.  “NOM’s words keep our families from being equal to straight families under the law.  But more tragically, let us never forget, NOM’s words lead to murder!” they cry from increasingly farther away.

Several NOM protesters go over and engage with them, sparking yelling matches between people armed only with words and video cameras.  Others set up camp next to the more innocuous counter-protesters, as if to diffuse their influence by blending them into the crowd.  Most of them remain unmoved by the display. 

Two Virginia women, Anne Bowden and Darci Nelson, say they came to protest because in their view, the gay marriage debate is part of the greater issue of “the natural order.”  Ms. Nelson believes that legalizing gay marriage would simply encourage a habit of sin, high levels of which can undermine the strength of any nation.  “Just look at the Roman Empire, or Sodom and Gomorrah!”  People should not construct laws simply to justify their lusts or sexual choices, she says. 

As the confrontations die down, Dan Kaufman, a longtime gay rights activist who moved to DC to participate in more protests, stands patiently on the sidelines.  He holds a lengthy sign, part of which reads “Your morals, sexuality, child-rearing abilities, upbringing, and faith are none of my business, and mine are none of yours.” 

Yet even Kaufman believes that nobody on either side of the debate is likely to be convinced by the others.  Such events, he dryly observes, “are rally calls for people who already know what they want to do.”

-Niv Elis