Let the protests begin!

Anarchists scare LA shop owners. Big labor rallies in Santa Monica. And Billionaires for Bush (or Gore) heckle Big Money party-goers.

by Ben Geman

You can't blame them for being cautious.

As about 4000 marchers chanting "Brick by brick, wall by wall, we're gonna free Mumia Abu-Jamal" wound their way through Los Angeles's sweltering downtown Sunday afternoon, shop owners heard the drums. They heard the chants. They saw the black-clad anarchist youth. And they closed for business.

While many shopkeepers just looked on, a number of them packed it in. As the march made its way from downtown's Pershing Square to the Staples Center, metal grates came down over jewelry stores, a shoe store, a clothing shop, and others.

It proved unnecessary as this protest, and others held on the eve of the convention, unfolded peacefully. The anti-death penalty marchers held signs that ranged from simple cardboard creations that read ZAPATISTAS FOR MUMIA to more colorful and intricately designed banners in support of the Pennsylvania death row inmate. (Abu-Jamal was convicted in the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer. The case has become an international cause célèbre among death penalty opponents who contend Abu-Jamal didn't get a fair trial.)

The march ended with a rally near the Staples Center, the site of the Democratic National Convention. (Marchers were closer to the site than police and city officials wanted them. A judge ruled a few weeks ago that the security zone officials had erected around the Staples Center was too restrictive.)

Abu-Jamal's attorney Leonard Weinglass addressed the crowd as did the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who spoke against the death penalty and the country's incredible incarceration rate. "There must be mass demonstrations at every execution," Jackson told the crowd. "Whether by marching in the street, voting, or using civil disobedience, we must march until they stop the killing."

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One of the big questions surrounding the LA protests is what role, if any, will Big Labor play? The labor movement gave a lot of support to last year's protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle - which sparked a lot of talk about new coalitions between union and environmental activists ("the Teamsters and the turtles" in protest-speak). We saw it again this past spring in Washington DC in protests against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. But the expected show of force at the Republican convention fizzled. Partly because the Philly police made targeted arrests and locked people up for the week. But partly because labor didn't show up.

Big labor is with Gore. But LA protest organizers have insisted we'll see many rank-and-file union members out on the streets this week in protest of both Gore's and his vice presidential nominee Joseph Lieberman's pro-business, free trade policies. But don't bet on it. Chances are, the best outside-the-hall labor action we'll see this week has already taken place. Sunday night in Santa Monica, AFL-CIO head John Sweeney spoke out on behalf of workers at Leows Santa Monica Beach Hotel who gathered with other union activists to protest attempts by hotel management to quash a union drive. It was a good rally - Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone, who's a terrific speaker and one of the party's more progressive voices, declared: "This is the right place for me to be as a US Senator because the workers, the hotel and restaurant employees, are asking for the right to be able to bargain collectively, join a union, and earn a good wage so you can support a family. And I stand with you."

Police outfitted in riot gear watched over the rally, but, like the shop owners who closed early in LA, it wasn't necessary. And it's likely to be the last time organized labor looks so confrontational this week. In an interview after his speech, Sweeney told the Phoenix that free trade is just one of the many issues facing organized labor. "Trade is one issue as far as we are concerned," he said. "We have been very clear that we have had differences and we have expressed them strongly to the president and to members of Congress."

Still, as one labor organizer demonstrating outside the hotel put it: "It's hard to tell the difference" between Gore and Bush on many economic issues. It remains to be seen how many union members that complaint will draw onto the streets this week, but officially, the Democrats are the good guys for labor this week.

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The Democrats were definitely not the good guys to the crowd that marched from a GAP anti-sweatshop demonstration to the Santa Monica beach in more convention-eve protest action. Organized by the San Francisco-based human rights group Global Exchange, the march and "People's Beach Party" rally held afterwards featured Seattle-style puppets, street theater, and props. Example: huge walking frogs which symbolized the need to preserve LA's Ballona wetlands.

The beach party was staged as a counterpoint to a corporate-sponsored party for the "Blue Dog" conservative Congressional Democrats taking place nearby. And many from the beach party walked to a pier above the "Blue Dog" party to heckle the vans of people going in. The group Billionaires for Bush (or Gore) serenaded party-goers. "Bush-Gore, Bush-Gore, we don't care who you vote for," chanted the billionaires. "We already bought them." Mounted police kept the demonstrators clear of the entrance.

An over-arching theme of this week's demonstrations is "Human need, not corporate greed." With many progressive activists accusing the Democrats of moving away from environmental, immigrant, and worker concerns toward a more pro-business tilt, the party's "betrayal" could mean LA will be bigger than the Philly protests. To these activists, the Republicans have long been a lost cause, but the Democrats are seen as turncoats.

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