Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 12:26:14 -0600 (CST)
From: "Harry M. Cleaver" <hmcleave-AT-eco.utexas.edu>
Subject: AUT: "A sad day" for Bush [repost from PANW] (fwd)



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 10:25:32 -0600
From: Lou Paulsen <wwchi-AT-enteract.com>
Reply-To: marxism-AT-lists.panix.com
To: marxism-AT-lists.panix.com
Subject: "A sad day" for Bush [repost from PANW]

[reposted by me - Lou Paulsen]
===============================================================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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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