No Walk in the Park
Press Action
Sunday, February 04, 2007
http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/protest02042007/
The antiwar demonstration in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 27 was a highly orchestrated affair.
The event began with speeches on a stage adjacent to the National Museum of the American Indian, a building that sanitizes the European settlers’ extermination of Native Americans. Along with Hollywood actors, family members of U.S. military personnel and professional activists, some members of Congress agreed to take the stage.
One of the politicians, Lynn Woolsey of California, spoke about how the people in attendance should urge their elected representatives to support House bill HR 508, a.k.a. the Bring Our Troops Home and Iraq Sovereignty Restoration Act. In these dire times, the suggestions offered by Woolsey were not only futile but highly offensive. Woolsey and the rest of her congressional “antiwar” contingent need to use their positions of power in the imperial capital to do whatever it takes to restrain the madness perpetrated by the U.S. government in Iraq, Afghanistan and the rest of the world. But, no, on this beautiful Saturday in the middle of winter, it was the same, tired sloganeering from Woolsey and her ilk at the United for Peace & Justice-organized event.
Another member of Congress from California—the useless Maxine Waters—let the crowd know that she’s not afraid of George Bush or Dick Cheney and that neocon Condoleezza Rice doesn’t represent her. Many in the crowd roared with approval. But her speech was nothing more than mindless sound bites. Either Waters is a liar and is truly afraid of Bush, Cheney and the federal police apparatus or she’s not the least bit interested in using her position of power to help put an end to these monumental crimes committed by the U.S. government against the Iraqi people.
Instead, all that Waters and other “antiwar” member of Congress do is occasionally voice their opposition to the war on Iraq and then go about conducting other business in the imperial capital. The U.S. government, headlined by its imperial actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, is leading the plundering of the planet. Through its unbridled economic and military policies, all species, not just humans, are threatened by the U.S. juggernaut. And all that these so-called friends of the antiwar movement offer us is suggestions to petition our elected leaders to vote for a particular bill or platitudes about the evil George W. Bush.
Waters, indeed, is afraid that she would become another victim of extraordinary rendition or hauled off to Guantanamo Bay if she decided to use her position of power to truly resist the U.S. government. But I don’t think Waters and her cohorts really want to see radical change in the way the U.S. government operates. They enjoy the luxury of being the token “dissidents” in the imperial capital and being able to go home without fear of getting hounded by government agents. Using their positions of power to offer true resistance to the U.S. government’s slaughter in Iraq and its crimes at home would be to risk their privileged way of life.
Before the foolishness on stage had ended, some members of the crowd started marching toward the Capitol along the route approved by the Metropolitan Police Department and the Capitol Police. The avenue was barricaded on both sides. The marchers, were being herded by the police through a long corral.
On the CounterPunch Web site, JoAnn Wypijewski provided an apt description of the protest march: “The police had arranged for the march to go into a kind of U turn alongside the Capitol, which was insane, inasmuch as it would have meant protesters facing protesters, shouting at each other.”
Along the march route, there was the token group of right-wingers loudly announcing their support for actions of the U.S. imperial army.
For most of the day, I searched in vain for the anarchist contingent. The black bloc tends to be the only group at these types of events who, for the lack of a better phrase, “keep it real.” I don’t want my “reality” defined by the police with badges or peace cops who demand we stay within the prescribed protest zone.
The anarchist contingent apparently made their way to the Capitol’s steps and spray-painted some slogans that got some right-wingers bent out of shape. I wasn’t there to witness these acts, but some right-wingers have wondered why the Capitol Police didn’t stop the anarchists from taking over the Capitol steps.
I did finally catch up with the anarchists after the last marchers had made their way past the north side of the Capitol. About 150 or so anarchists were headed west, marching in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue. This was obviously not a permitted part of the United for Peace & Justice march. Once they arrived at the Navy Memorial at Pennsylvania Avenue and Eighth Street, a cry of exhilaration came from some members of the contingent. I think some were fondly remembering what had occurred at this site in January 2001 during Bush’s first inauguration. Anarchists took over a portion of the Navy Memorial site on that cold day, brazenly pulled down an American flag from the flag pole, burned it and hoisted an anarchist flag in its place.
A couple plains-clothes cops got into skirmishes with anarchists during the 2001 inauguration action at the Navy Memorial. A couple people were hauled off to jail, but most of the anarchist contingent completed the symbolic changing-of-the-flag event without arrest.
Although they were closely monitored by cops on bikes, motorcycles and in vehicles, the anarchists were allowed to march in the middle of downtown streets during the Jan. 27 event without a permit. It was obvious that the police had been ordered to stand down and let the black bloc march through downtown streets, weaving through cars, as long as they did not commit any property damage. There was the occasional backfiring of police motorcycles, which in previous years would have signaled that the police were preparing to surround the anarchists and make arrests. But this year, the police obviously were told to let the anarchists get their ya-ya’s out.
The Last Puritan describes the scene this way:
"As we made our way past the main demonstration the cops caught on to our fringe march, and after we crossed over the Navy memorial they began to follow behind us in vehicles. Naturally, the bloc wasn’t going to have any of that, so people began leaving cones and other miscellaneous material in the street to delay their pursuit. Actually, it was more apparent as we marched that the cops were just going to let us do our thing, until they had a reason to intervene."
I didn’t stick with the anarchists during the entire march through Washington, but apparently they eventually found their way to an Armed Forces Recruiting Station where a window was broken by one of the anarchists or a police agent provocateur.
In the future, it would be refreshing if a larger contingent of the “official” march would break off from the permitted route. Wypijewski writes: “Had there been waves of thousands coming up those steps [at the Capitol], it would have been hard for the men in blue to do much. It’s not as if, in practical terms, ‘taking’ the Capitol steps would have been any more meaningful on that lovely winter afternoon than marching in a well-behaved box, but it would have been symbolically potent.”
It will remain business as usual in the imperial capital and across this land as long as people refuse to break free of the official marches and free speech zones. Creating peace for all species on this planet will involve significant risk—much greater risk than what’s at stake during a Saturday afternoon march in Washington.