08.09.2004

What democracy looks like?

Martin Schreader reports from the recent mass demonstrations against the Republican convention in New York

'Unprecedented’ is a word that has found itself on the tongues of most Americans over the last four years.

In conversations about the theft of the 2000 election, the restriction of democratic rights after the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 (to say nothing of the attacks themselves), the invasion and occupation of Iraq, or a myriad of other topics, the word inevitably finds its way into them ... somewhere.
The recently held Republican national convention is no exception. Indeed, last week can rightly be listed as one of the more ‘unprecedented’ periods of the last four years. Without a question, the presence of nearly half a million demonstrators in the streets of Manhattan to protest such an event is unprecedented. Never before, in the history of mass protests outside a convention of one of the two major political parties, have so many gathered to denounce it.

The number of protesters even overwhelmed the organisers of the main demonstration, United for Peace and Justice (the more liberal and pro-Democratic Party of the two main anti-war coalitions). Perhaps one of the reasons they felt so overwhelmed was because of the large number of participants who were there supporting one of the many ‘third party’ presidential tickets: the independent populist bid of Ralph Nader and Pedro Camejo; the socialist campaign of Walt Brown and Mary-Alice Herbert; the libertarian ticket of David Badnarik and Richard Campagna; etc. Certainly, the fact that UFPJ organisers, who are firm supporters of Democratic candidate John Kerry, could not muster even a weak contingent for their candidate, in an election year, is unprecedented.

The Republican convention itself was also unprecedented - a thoroughly stage-managed affair, controlled down to the finest nuance. It was the perfect merger of state, media and corporate power. The use of ‘New York’ imagery, complete with a semi-parody of the opening credits of the Saturday night live comedy show, and video montages of battle scenes from the Iraq war, set to the anthems of the main branches of the US military, was enough to make even the most shameless salesman blush.
The highlight for some was the appearance of outgoing Democratic senator Zell Miller, who heads the unofficial ‘Democrats for Bush’ group. Miller, one of the last reactionary Dixiecrats serving in Washington, gave a performance that was more self-aggrandisement than political critique - long on demagoguery and short on facts.

OK, so not everything was unprecedented. But, if there is one thing that takes the prize for being the most unprecedented, it was the response of the state to the demonstrations. Over 30,000 police were mobilised for the week of protests around the convention. At certain times, armoured riot cops outnumbered the unarmed, peaceful protesters.

This mobilisation was preceded by the dispatch of hundreds of New York police officers to all parts of the country, with the mission of conducting surveillance on suspected ‘anarchists’. In addition, NYPD officers have been operating undercover for two years as members of leftwing activist groups.

Bolstering the ranks of the state’s armed forces were units of the New York National Guard and mercenaries from the private Vance International and Securitas (formerly Pinkerton) security firms. Both of these private armies are infamous for their brutality and history of union-busting.

Thus it should come as no surprise that more than 2,000 protesters were arrested during the convention. While the police and their hired guns were relatively calm during the ‘official’ march of over half a million, they overwhelmed and brutally suppressed many of the ‘illegal’ demonstrations that took place after.

At an event organised by the pacifist War Resisters League, attended by several leading members of the Socialist Party USA and held at the site where the World Trade Center once stood, the police began arresting people before the demonstration even started.

Similar instances of ‘pre-emptive’ arrests were reported throughout the week by confused and angry protesters. Most of those detained were taken to an abandoned warehouse along the Hudson River, which was last used to service buses. Hundreds of detainees were held here, forced to sit in puddles of oil and stagnant water, without access to food, water, washroom facilities or legal counsel.

This detention facility quickly gained an apt nickname: ‘Guantánamo on the Hudson’. This became all the more fitting after it was discovered the NYPD used the plans for the Guantánamo ‘Camp Delta’ facility, where the US is holding hundreds of ‘unlawful combatants’ from Afghanistan and Iraq, as a model. Only after protesters turned their attention to this facility, rallying thousands and catching the attention of the local media, were the police ordered by a judge to release their detainees.

Throughout the demonstrations, the chant of ‘This is what democracy looks like’ could be heard echoing off the tall buildings of mid-town Manhattan. And, in a sense, they are more correct than they know. The erosion of democratic rights and civil liberties since 2001 has been steady and pervasive, and has happened with the aid and support of both major parties.

The fact that the NYPD could erect a ‘war on terror’ concentration camp for detaining political protesters, could fill it with people held on the basis of ‘pre-emptive’ arrests, and could do all of this without so much as a word of protest from the Democrats or the major media is ... well, unprecedented.

So, yes, this is what ‘democracy’ looks like - American ‘democracy’, that is. Or, at least, what’s left of it.