This past Saturday, I took a bus from Brown to New York City to participate in a demonstration against the war in Iraq. I have been somewhat disappointed by the lack of focus the anti-war movement has had, and I was not too surprised when, as we traveled along, several individuals passed back various flyers related to everything but the war on Iraq. I was in the process of facetiously suggesting to Jackie Herold '07 that perhaps the protest propaganda would become increasingly divergent as the day went on, when the overhead television screens lit up.
"Oh good, maybe we'll get to see a movie," she said.
And we did. The organizers of the trip surprised us with a video broadcast of Fidel Castro, dressed in fatigues, speaking loudly to us from Cuba.
As we marched down Madison Avenue, there were numerous tables set up with books for sale from the International Socialist Organization, and almost every 50 feet we were offered a newspaper from a communist or socialist group. Then, just after I smelled someone in the crowd smoking a joint (presumably calling for the legalization of marijuana) a large group of protesters came up behind me chanting gay rights slogans. Based on the various messages disseminated thus far, it seemed that we were marching for Palestine, Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba, socialism, communism, gay rights, numerous political candidates, the freedom of Mumia Abu-Jamal and an end to racism ostensibly rampant within the anti-war movement itself.
Then I looked up to my left and saw a large banner that read "FreeKingofPop.com" and a group of people playing Michael Jackson's version of "Come Together" loudly to the cheering crowd. I suppose we protested for Michael Jackson's immediate acquittal as well.
Anti-Bush slogans were abundant on posters and often somewhat humorous. "Mr. Bush, You're Fired!", "Stop Mad Cowboy Disease" and "Bush-Satan 2004" were fairly typical. Anarchists were also present in several groups, though they were quick to assert that they were not an organization. "The Raging Grannies" stood and sang funny anti-war songs, and the "Billionaires for Bush," dressed in suits and furs, chanted slogans such as, "Buy more stuff!" and "For more wars!"
It is important to note that there were anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 demonstrators marching peacefully, many with poignant messages. One woman who carried a poster that said "Stop the 9-11 Cover Up" explained to me that she had worked on the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center and had called in sick on the day of the attacks. She believes the government knew more than it now admits and that it should have tightened security at airports, which "could have saved her 60 friends who died."
There were also counter-protestors outside the barricades. One older woman named Anna, originally from Russia, approached and spoke to me about her views.
"I want my president to go kick their fucking asses," she said, "The Muslims kill their children, they kill their wives. They don't have no (sic) conscience. (The Muslims) don't understand humanity the way we do. Most of the Muslim world, all they think about is food and fuck. They are jealous because we have Mercedes, and they have fucking donkeys."
I thanked her for her (atrocious and absurd) comments, which ran much longer than I have reported here, and left quite confident that she did not have much personal experience with the Arab world, or Islam in general.
Another counter-protester, Craig Milem, asserted that "the peace movement is the source of terrorism." Craig, a financial analyst in New York, and his counter-protest group, tried to march with the anti-war protesters, but were stopped by a wall of people chanting, "Racist! Sexist! Anti-gay!"
The anti-war protesters then moved forward and forcefully pushed Craig and his group out of the barricades, eventually with the assistance of the police. The protesters began to chant, "Whose streets? Our streets! Whose streets? Our streets!"
I said to a police officer standing near me, "It's ironic that the anti-war demonstrators are resorting to violence to remove the counter-protesters."
Dan Meyers, a New York attorney standing by, overheard me say this. He replied angrily that this was the type of distortion that was typical of the press, and demanded to know who I was writing for. When I told him I was a student at Brown, he said that he was shocked that as a member of "a supposedly progressive institution," I would report on seeing the anti-war protesters act violently.
As I got back on the bus at the end of the day, I began to wonder to what extent these types of protests are effective forms of activism. And what impact does such a diverse agenda expressed throughout the march have on the central cause?
I asked Vanessa Huang '06, a Brown student organizer of the trip, what she thought about the satellite issues that surrounded the protest, and she responded, "I wouldn't call them satellite issues."
Another one of the organizers of the trip, Providence resident Alex Gould, explained some positions of the sponsoring organization, Act Now to Stop War and End Racism: "Israel is the second leading terrorist state after the United States. The state of Israel is a racist settler state and a theocratic fascist state. Gaza is an open-air prison where Israelis shoot Palestinians at will, and the State of Israel must be abolished."
I believe protest as a form of activism does have some utility. The publicity surrounding the thousands of protesters against the war may help to decrease terrorism against civilian targets by humanizing Americans in the eyes of the Arab world, something the bombing will never do. But I suspect these protest marches have very little impact on our government's decision making.
While listening to the chant, "This is what democracy looks like!" I thought to myself that it was a rather pathetic manifestation of democracy. It is, after all, only a meaningful democratic expression if the government actually listens to the protesters. And in a circus of comedy acts and funny songs, with messages that ranged from demanding the immediate release of Saddam Hussein to the creation of a communist United States, it is no wonder the liberal left is not taken seriously.
Scott Ewing '05 isn't joking around.
