"The Republicans are in town this week.
Don't worry; they will only be here until we are capable of self rule."
--David Letterman
Here’s the basic of what I covered as a street librarian for Radical Reference at the protests against the Republican National Convention:
Fri., 8/27 Critical Mass, where fellow Rad Reffie Matthew got arrested. I’m not sure if I would have been popped, too, if I hadn’t had to leave early to meet Chuck at Sophie’s, or if Matthew wouldn’t have spent the night in an unspeakably foul cell at Pier 57 because I would have held him back with my lame bike riding.
Sat., 8/28 Emily & I taught a class on fact checking and resource evaluation at the IMC Convergence space. Only two people showed up. Last time I teach a class for activists at 10am on a Saturday.
We had a street reference orientation at noon at ABC No Rio. This is when we figured out that Matthew had been arrested. Maggie called central booking, and they had him.
I went down to 100 Centre Street to do jail support, hoping to be there when Matthew was released. No luck.
Sun., 8/29 Met up with the library workers of Librarians Against Bush and Radical Reference at the library—you know, the one with the lions—at 9am. Got annoyed with one really irritating woman from NYPL but other than that had a grand time. We took a group picture. We’ll see if Library Journal or American Libraries runs it! (AL did. September issue, page 14. The Progressive ran a photo of us, too.) At 10 we made our way to 22nd Street and entered the big march rallying point to be with the labor contingent. Didn’t see too many union folk where we were, but Pink Bloque and Code Pink were there and quite boisterous. Chris from LAB and I spoke with an Air America reporter, who was a bit of a dip.
I got sick of the march around 1:30, and headed up to Central Park with a few others. We had an overpriced snack on the Upper East Side and then made our way to the Great Lawn, which was being guarded by a buttload of NY’s Finest intimidators. Things were pretty mellow up there, but I was still antsy. The park was so peaceful that it seemed imperative to get down to the theater district to witness/take part in the promised "Chaos on Broadway" of the Mouse Bloc. We answered a few questions, saw some netted protesters locked in a pen in front of the Milford Plaza, and witnessed scary looking cops in riot gear and other “undercover” officers on a phalanx of motor scooters.
Mon., 8/30 The Still We Rise coalition march, which was a smaller, more militant (less Kerry supporters!) version of the day before. This group meant business. They were really well organized and kept up their chants and energy admirably.
This segued to the Poor People’s March from the U.N. to MSG—also a more hardcore experience than the UFPJ march on Sunday with a larger and more intense police presence. Because I was with a certain self-described scaredy cat, I stayed outside the march, keeping an eye on Radical Reference/Radical Cheerleader Cherie, so I could help her if she got arrested. She didn’t. After she split, I stayed parallel to my houseguests, who also managed to elude arrest, even when Elly, at the front of the march, reached the showdown at 29th and 8th where the cops did their best to create chaos. They were SUCH ASSHOLES.
Tues., 8/31 A31, day of non-violent civil disobedience. The Police got the civil disobedience part okay, but not so much the non-violence.
I was really beat in the a.m. and so after brunch with Max, Elly, and Cathy, I caught up on e-mail for a while. I went to the Fox News Shut-up-a-thon and then to Herald Square to hang around in a protest pen for an enchanting hour or so. I fled after nearly getting trampled when a demonstrator behind me pushed over the barricade. He may be the guy who busted in on Chris Mathews of MSNBC.
I headed down to the Bowery Poetry Club to see Chuck who was appearing on a panel moderated by Laura Flanders on libraries and the USA PATRIOT Act. He did a good job, but Flanders kept citing the wrong section of the Act, and she also didn’t give attribution when she read Jessamyn’s signs. That didn’t stop me from giving Flanders a flyer in the hopes she’d have Radical Reference on her Air America show!
Wed., 9/1 Here’s what I wrote in my Rad Ref blog about our protest at the New York Historical Society:
“This afternoon from about 11:30 to 12:30 six members of Radical Reference and two sympathizers rallied at the NY Historical Society where Laura Bush was lunching. Laura was entering via the loading dock, so we focused our attention at the Society's back entrance at 76th and Central Park West. Secret Service and NYPD blocked access to the street--so no one could get a shot at the Resident's wife, but we managed to find a spot where we could be heard, if not seen. We shouted "Money for books and education, not for war and occupation!" and "Stand up, fight back against the USA PATRIOT Act!" there for about half an hour. Plenty of passersby and tourist buses witnessed our protest and many were sympathetic. Our signs criticized the PATRIOT Act and also identified us as librarians against Bush. Lia also had her kick ass 3D Info/Books Not Bombs sign.
“The police looked intimidating but left us alone. A bunch of them seemed to have brought their bowling balls. (What's really in those round black bags???) I think it was Torie who noticed one secret service person in an unmarked car flip us off. Librarians get no respect!
“After we wore ourselves out there we went to the front entrance of the building where party guests were entering and exiting. We met two other protesters there. We hung out at that spot for a bit and were seen and heard by the pearls and suits set.
“Stay tuned to infoshop.org for a full report from ChuckO. We'll get pictures posted somewhere, too, as soon as we can.”
After that I was still fucking sick of it all and decided to go see what was up at the IMC instead of hitting more demos. I hung around with Rebecca from Paper Tiger and other folks for several hours and then went up to the March on the Media with her and her friends. The March was more rally (speeches!) than march, but I was forced to stay there through the whole thing because people kept asking me involved research questions that meant I had to wait for James and Shinjoung to call me back with the answers.
When I got home, my place was mine again. As much as I was glad to have Max & Elly stay with me, I was happy to have the place to myself again. I slept a good 10 hours that night in my own bed. My floor really isn’t that bad, but the bed is okay, too!
Thurs., 9/2 I did some jail support, stopped by the IMC again and caught up with e-mail at home.
Susan and I hit the vigil at Union Square and also rode up as close as we could get to MSG. They had those charming Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRAD) at the former. Who knows about MSG because we couldn’t get very close? It was fine riding bikes on the car free streets, though.
Demonstrators at the RNC outnumbered delegates by some outrageous ratio, and I’m not talking about the half million that were at the big United for Peace demo. I’m talking about the thousands of outside agitators that came into town to tell the Republicans to fuck off. The mobilization by individual groups and also by organizations like the No-RNC Clearinghouse and the A31 Spokes Council and web resources like http://www.counterconvention.org/, http://nyc.indymedia.org/, http://www.rncguide.com/, and http://www.rncnotwelcome.org/ was fantastic. I'm proud to have been part of it, and I know I would have regretted it if I hadn't been.
From the Lower East Side Librarian Winter Solstice Shout Out 2004 p.25-28.
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