Demi-Demonstration in Boston?

By Michael Blanding, The Nation. Posted July 8, 2004.

During the 2000 election, many activists saw little difference between Democrats and Republicans. This year, however, giving Dubya the boot has become the overriding concern, and the slogan "The Evil of Two Lessers" has been replaced by "Anybody But Bush." That leaves progressives with a question: whether to demonstrate at the Democratic National Convention in Boston July 26-29 or to give the Dems a pass and concentrate on the Republican National Convention in New York August 30-September 1.

While protesters for the latter have united behind the banner of "RNC Not Welcome," a coalition of progressives in Boston became bogged down this winter in soul-searching discussions about their message. "Although the Democrats turn our stomachs in a lot of ways, we also didn't want to derail the 'Dump Bush' agenda," says Cynthia Peters, an organizer with United for Justice With Peace. The coalition eventually decided on a middle road between protesting and not protesting by organizing "People's Parties" in four Boston neighborhoods to coincide with the DNC's opening parties for delegates on Sunday, July 25. These, in turn, will cap a three-day Boston Social Forum, which will include more than 400 workshops, seminars, films, performances and exhibits on issues like global justice, immigrants' rights and feminism.

With events like these, organizers hope to provide a positive alternative to both the Democratic platform and the kind of confrontational mobilizations that have led to violence and arrests in the past. The neighborhood parties will also reach out to delegates with the "Fund the Dream" campaign, a national petition calling for the re-allocation of $100 billion from the Defense Department to social programs. Organizers hope the campaign will help forge a bond between sometimes-disparate middle-class antiwar activists and inner-city community organizers that will last beyond the election. They are encouraging activists in other cities to use the energy they might have spent in coming to Boston to throw People's Parties to strengthen their own communities, and they have challenged protesters coming to the DNC to plug into local concerns.

One group that has listened is the Kucinich campaign, which originally planned a mass rally on Boston Common but changed plans in favor of a series of teach-ins and street actions on civil rights, economic justice, the Iraq war and healthcare in neighborhood locations during the week of the convention. These will culminate in a Progressive Convention on Thursday, July 29, at which the campaign and its allies will ratify a progressive platform that will form the basis of a nonprofit political group to continue its work no matter who wins the election. The campaign plans to bring its issues inside on July 29, with a demonstration on the convention floor a half-hour before Kerry's coronation, in which sixty or so delegates will hold signs reading Democrats for Justice and End the Occupation.

Michael Blanding (www.michaelblanding.com), a senior writer at Boston magazine, is at work on a book about the history of protest in New England.

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