Citizens protest closed debate

A protester confronts riot police at the entrance of
Wake Forest University.

By Eamon Martin

Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Oct. 11— As presidential candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush enjoyed an exclusive, televised debate deep within the fortified citadel of Wake Forest University, about 850 demonstrators rallied outside of the campus. Paradoxically, the protesters were high-spirited but entirely peaceful for people who came to express their collective outrage at a democracy they say has been hijacked by corporate finance. After a rally and a two and a half mile march to the University gates, demonstrators were confronted by hundreds of gas masked state troopers armed to the teeth in riot gear. Five people were arrested though there were no altercations between protesters and police.

“Let Ralph debate or I don’t eat.” That was Steve Ham of Port Townsend, Washington. Ham, who appeared noticeably gaunt but no less determined, has been literally following the debates from city to city. He has been fasting in protest of the Commission on Presidential Debates’ (CPD) pointed exclusion of candidate Ralph Nader from the campaign events.

“I’ve been fasting since September 30th. I haven’t had anything to eat and intend to fast right on through until the 17th (of November) unless the CPD capitulates and lets Nader into the debates.”

Unknown to many American voters, the Commission is a private, corporate entity, jointly sponsored by the Republican and Democratic national parties and corporate contributors such as Anheuser-Busch and US Airways. The debates are considered to be the most widely accessible and followed events during the presidential campaigns. Last week, an estimated 55 million viewers tuned into the first round held in Boston. Yet, in 1988, the League of Women Voters, aghast at the two parties’ attempts to manipulate the American public by monopolizing the debates, withdrew their sponsorship of the debates “because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. It has become clear to us that the candidates’ organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and answers to tough questions. The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.”

However, the CPD wasn’t the only institution trying to control what the American people saw and heard today. Weeks previously, Wake Forest University put into place seemingly every possible inconvenience it could as a disincentive to demonstrate. On private property, apparently the first amendment is solely for sale.

Those interested in demonstrating were informed that they must be affiliated with a group that would need to pay a fee for a permit. Group participants would then be required to wear bracelets identifying the group with which they were affiliated and not allowed to mingle with other groups or stray from the designated demonstration area. The area –a so-called “protest pit”—was a small, fenced-in animal pen, located far away from the debate site. Further, if Wake Forest officials disagreed with any message on demonstrators’ signs, the school reserved the right to promptly eject the offending person(s) from the campus.

With the exception of a gaggle of Libertarian party members and Hare Krishnas who found this patronizing, self-abasement agreeable, the hundreds who thronged into Winston-Salem had no intention of honoring these free speech constrictions. The University’s actions only seemed to reinforce the activists’ convictions.

At a panel discussion before the rally and march, Workers World Party candidate for president, Monica Moorehead commented, “The US will spend close to $200 million dollars on opposition parties in Yugoslavia with the purpose of recolonizing Yugoslavia and the Balkans. But it won’t allow any opposition party in this country. The US is praising anti-Milosevic protests, but when it comes to demonstrations in Philadelphia, Seattle, DC, and Prague –against the forces of globalization— we are beaten, arrested, and we are vilified.”

Bolstered by a cavalcade of giant Art and Revolution puppets that had traveled from the Boston debate protests, the demonstration was a bold flurry of color and statements of both naked condemnation and good humor. At one point, a spokesperson for the Black Bloc claimed that the affinity group would renounce property destruction and meet the corporate-sponsored candidates on their own turf, and challenged Bush/Gore to a golf tournament.

Undaunted by police threats to respond “aggressively to acts of civil disobedience,” the procession confronted the small army of riot police by marching right up to the police line, sitting down, then demonstrating “what democracy looks like.” Before those gathered politely dispersed, protesters broke up into small groups to discuss what measures citizens could take to restore democracy in the US. After a little while, a representative from each group spoke to the crowd to share their conclusions.

Despite a terrifying state arsenal of tear gas, pepper spray, and an exotic array of high-tech, rubber bullet guns at the ready to prevent non-students/ticket holders from entering the campus, protesters seemed to have a good time. Having traveled from throughout North Carolina and beyond, many present expressed their extreme satisfaction with what they considered to be an impressive and diverse turnout for what is normally considered to be a quiet corner of the country for political dissent.

Native Americans protest Columbus Day

Denver, Colorado, Oct. 8— All sides claimed victory Saturday in Denver’s first Columbus Day parade since 1991, even though 147 protesters were arrested for blocking the parade path for about an hour and tensions were palpable the rest of the route.

“We did what we said we were going to do,” protest leader Glenn Morris said. “We stopped the parade with nonviolent protest.”


Russell Means (foreground left) marches with AIM supporters.

After he was arrested and released, American Indian Movement (AIM) national leader Russell Means vowed that next year the “wall of racism” in Denver will be defeated.

Both the Indians and the Italians said they would start planning for next year’s Columbus Day, which might see a parade for each group.

Some Native Americans came from as far as California, Oklahoma and South Dakota to protest.

Through the noise of a pounding drum and dozens of Indians chanting in unison, Manager of Safety Ari Zavaras opened the barricade and allowed the American Indian leaders to enter the parade route. Pungent smoke wafted from burning sage and incense.

Police officers came between the Italian parade and Native American protest groups along 15th Street, and the parade was delayed as American Indian women and men, along with blacks, Hispanics and whites, refused to let marchers pass.

Police officers approached the blockade, led by Means and other AIM members, and asked the protesters to give way. Instead, about 75 women sat in the street.

Source: Denver Post