|
|
| |
GOProtesters: Guides To The Convention
|
| “The People’s Guide to the RNC”, shown above, is distributed free to protestors and others who want to prepare for the GOP Convention.
|
By ALEX PADALKA and AZI PAYBARAH
When Republicans come to New York City for their national convention later this month, they will no doubt inspire pride in each one of Queens’ 133,427 Republicans.
An enthusiastic, but somewhat less cheerful, response is also expected from the borough’s 589,719 Democrats, 5,509 Liberals, 1,638 Green, 1,499 Working Families and 160,674 non-affiliated voters. Through a patchwork of websites, newsletters, word-of-mouth recommendations and decades-old alliances, protesters seemed to have organized as many events as convention planners.
The Republican National Convention is serving as a common bullseye for numerous Queens activist organizations that have occasionally collaborated in the past.
Protesters’ Guide To Republicans
A group calling themselves Friends of William Blake just released 25,000 foldable subway map-size guides to the RNC, which includes a map of Manhattan below Central Park with 600 points of interest for delegates and protesters alike.
The People’s Guide to the RNC includes critical information for visitors such as a calendar of events, tips on transportation, list of public restrooms, cheap lodging and restaurants, and free Wi-Fi spots. Serious protesters will find addresses of RNC sponsors such as ClearChannel and Walt Disney, and “war profiteers” such as Lockheed Martin and The Carlyle Group. In case things get uncomfortable, the map has contact info for legal and medical resources.
“Bloomberg spent $7 million to welcome 50,000 delegates,” said Nadxi Mannello, one of the group’s co-directors. “The Friends of William Blake spent $6,000 to welcome 250,000 protesters.” The guide is distributed free throughout the city, including at P.S.1 Art Center and Ten63 Café in Long Island City. Another 200,000 pull-out reprints of the map are in The Indypendent’s special RNC edition, available in all five boroughs.
The guide also lists delegate hotels and RNC event venues, including a section entitled “RNC Adult Entertainment”, which prompted jokes that Republicans might end up using the guide themselves. In case there is any confusion about the guide’s intention, however, a quote by feminist poet Kathy Acker sets it straight: “Hatred made us erect.”
All the information in the guide has been publicly available before the map came out. “The map is there to engender dialogue and peaceful protest,” said Mannello. “It’s there to help people get in or out of the way.”
The idea was born in January between Paul Chan, a New York artist who holds an MFA from Bard College, and Josh Breitbart, a consulting editor for Clamor Magazine and co-founder of Rooftop Films. They were joined by Nadxi Mannello, co-editor of the book Peace Signs: Anti-War Movement Illustrated, and artist Elise Gordella. They chose the name because Blake, by illustrating his own poetry, became the father of “illuminated” texts, according to the group.
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
The March
Down a deserted hallway in Queensborough Hall last week, 82-year-old Bill Hagel ran his finger along a map of Queens, wondering if that was the best route to march across the borough.
Hagel, Vice President of Queens Network for Peace and Justice, was tapped by Long Island activists to coordinate the Queens leg of the “Return the Light to America” march. Planners have already mapped out how marchers will walk from the furthest tip of Long Island all the way to the foot of Brooklyn Bridge. Carried the whole way will be a torch, symbolic of what protesters want to see returned to America: jobs, money, American soldiers, environmental protections and other resources they say have been squandered during the Bush administration.
The Queens leg of the march begins at noon on Aug. 27 in front of Congressman Gary Ackerman’s office, 218-14 Northern Blvd., Bayside. The plan is to move marchers along Northern Boulevard to Main Street, down Sanford Avenue and to the Unisphere inside Flushing Meadows Corona Park by the late afternoon. On Saturday, the plan is to march from the parking lot at Shea Stadium, down Roosevelt Avenue, all the way into Brooklyn’s McCarren Park by 12 noon.
For the former union organizer, the march presents a unique challenge. Long Island protest organizers “had eight weeks to work on it. They didn’t notify us until a few weeks ago. Given the short time, it’s a miracle if we get this done,” Hagel said.
To get this done, Hagel contacted various groups active in the Queens social justice scene, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Veterans for Peace, Astorians for Peace and Justice, Queens Community for Cultural Judaism, Young Koreans United of NY, Pax Christi Queens, and numerous other groups Hagel considers colleagues.
“We all know each other from different venues,” he said. “By networking, we’re able to reach out immediately, to almost 20 groups.”
Republicans’ Guide To Protesters
Looking to cash in on the tourist potential of incoming protesters, Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a tourist packet geared towards those most likely to be chanting outside the convention.
Listed online at www.nycvisit.com are numerous protests that have received permits and therefore deemed lawful gatherings by police and city officials. Also on the site are restaurants, stores and hotels participating in a discount program for those who wear the “Peaceful Political Activists” buttons.
“It’s no fun to protest on an empty stomach,” said Bloomberg at a press conference this week. He also suggested protesters can “replace sneakers worn out during a long day of marching,” noting that tourists’ dollars add roughly $24 billion to the city’s coffers.
But the gesture is insulting for some protesters.
“It is preposterous he’s giving out buttons while we don’t have a rally site,” said Tamara Rosenblum, a member of United for Peace and Justice. The group has sought a protest permit to gather its members in Central Park. City officials instead have tried to steer them to Flushing Meadows Corona Park, citing anticipated damage to the newly refurbished Great Lawn. When United for Peace and Justice rejected any non-Manhattan site, city and NYPD officials proposed a closed strip of the West Side Highway, an idea protest organizers have also rejected.
When asked about saving money as a “peaceful political activist,” Rosenblum said she’s unlikely to participate in that program. “So I can eat cheap at some ridiculously expensive restaurant?” Or, as a UFPJ organizer wrote: “The city’s giving us the same dinner discounts as the republicans...how about the same seven million dollars?” |
[Feature
Archives] |
|
