Party crasher, continued

text and photos by Ben Geman

Activists say that moving from protesting WTO policy to protesting, say, prison reform flows naturally from their criticism of global corporate influence. Indeed, activists now use the phrase "structural adjustment" -- the term describing the budget cuts and trade liberalization that the IMF and World Bank require of governments in exchange for loans -- to describe domestic policy. "We were talking about structural adjustment in the Third World without realizing how much happens in low-income communities and communities of color in the United States," says Han Shan, of the Ruckus Society. If there's a unifying theme to the protests planned for the conventions, it's this: the same agenda that places free trade above human rights and the environment in developing nations is pushing an American domestic policy that limits wages, privatizes prisons, and lets big money influence elections.

The shadows knows If the raucous protests expected to take place outside the national snoozefests -- er, political nominating conventions -- aren't enough to catch the public's attention, then maybe something else will. Political columnist and policy bon vivant Arianna Huffington is working with activists such as Public Campaign's Ellen Miller and the Reverend Jim Wallis, an anti-poverty advocate, to convene "shadow conventions" in Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Held alongside the actual conventions, they'll address issues largely ignored by the major parties. These issues will include campaign-finance reform, the failed drug war, and the glaring inequality between rich and poor. The array of guests -- some appearing at one convention and some at both -- includes Warren Beatty, Al Franken, John McCain, Jonathan Kozol, and the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Organizers say they'll merge serious policy discussions with fun, two things that will be absent from the official conventions going on nearby. "Basically, they have drained politics out of the conventions and all that is left is an elaborate floor show and coronation in both places, yet political reporters are expected to turn up and cover it," Huffington says. "Major issues like the failed drug war, the corruption of money in politics -- like the growing inequalities in the middle of our prosperity -- are going to remain unaddressed unless we hold these shadow conventions and make sure they are." The shadow conventions, dubbed "A Citizen's Intervention in American Politics," will feature daytime forums and debates. Entertainers and other speakers will follow, as will footage of the real conventions that will be dissected and parodied. Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Lindesmith Center, a New York City-based foundation that advocates for a more public-health-oriented approach to dealing with drug abuse through "harm reduction," notes that people with family members serving lengthy terms for nonviolent drug offenses will be on hand. "There will be people there with family members who have died of AIDS, much of which could have been prevented by needle exchanges and other public-health measures," he says. Politically Incorrect's Bill Maher is also on the roster. The Shadow Conventions Web site (www.shadowconventions.com) promises that "one theme we will emphasize throughout the evenings is the effectiveness of satire and parody as a tool of public advocacy." The satirical group Billionaires for Bush or Gore, created by Boston-based United for a Fair Economy, will host "hospitality suites" where people can eat and schmooze. Huffington, a onetime conservative who is sounding more progressive of late, may be keeping company with Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader, who she says will attend both events. (Nader's campaign could not confirm this Tuesday.) But despite the traditionally progressive themes and a rather progressive guest list, Huffington denies that the issues being raised are the exclusive domain of the left. "Just take the war on drugs," she says. "There is a very broad coalition against the drug war that includes Bill Buckley and Milton Friedman. And there are many on the left who are still passionate drug warriors." Still, it must mean something that she has brought on Mike Dolan of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, one of the lead organizers of last year's protests against the World Trade Organization, to help plan the events. Maybe this, to steal a phrase that will surely surface in the expected colorful street protests, is what democracy looks like. "We hope that this will galvanize people to take action and basically stop choosing the lesser of two evils," says Huffington, "and demand some radical change in our political system." -- Ben Geman

But the new voices heard at last Saturday's activists' training in Philadelphia were also asking tough questions -- of the movement. Terry Washington, 23, of the group Next Movement, says the mobilization against corporate globalization has made some mistakes along the way, such as focusing too much on the Web to organize and exchange information. "A lot of people say how great the Internet is, but a lot of people don't have Internet access, especially people of color," Washington says.

Another issue, notes Prescod, is that minority activists aren't always on the same playing field as their white counterparts when it comes to facing off with police. " `Driving while black' is a problem, much less standing in a picket line while black," she says.

The bottom line, however, at least as it was shown last weekend, is that the protest plans are being driven by issues. "The US political system no longer runs from left to right. It runs from top to bottom," says Beka Economopoulos, of the Rainforest Action Network. "People at the bottom realize they are not within shouting distance of the folks at the top. No matter what reason activists are outside the DNC or the RNC, there's a common belief that democracy is broken. It's been sold, and big business has bought it."

There's no reason my parents should have to take out a second mortgage for me to go to school," says Nermin Abdelwahab, a 20-year-old Hunter College student dressed in jeans and a Zapatista T-shirt emblazoned with masked armed rebels. Abdelwahab is practicing sound bites in front of a camera during a media training session for protesters organized by the Ruckus Society. The goal is to teach activists to present clever, concise answers to what is hoped will be a media crush at the convention protests. Earlier, Abdelwahab had declared: "We're out here to protest for social and economic justice that does not exist in the two-party system."

The training was proof that these activists are serious about getting their message out, at the convention demonstrations and elsewhere. But at the same time, they showed just how hard it is to pin down exactly what this movement is about, even as its message takes shape. Or, rather, its messages. Trainees discussed everything from AIDS to the influence of money on elections.

This multitude of voices, issues, and concerns shouldn't be mistaken for disorganization. It's a deliberate strategy that reveals the Seattle-bred movement's postmodern roots. There's no coherent structure, and communication takes place largely through the Web. There are tactical allegiances and networks but no overarching structures or detailed ideologies. This lateral structure was on display in the Seattle and DC protests -- and dissected nicely in a recent Nation piece by Naomi Klein. In Seattle and DC, activists organized themselves into autonomous "affinity groups" of up to couple of dozen people, which worked together to coordinate the mass actions. The loose organization allowed dozens of groups with varying ideologies and causes to fight a common enemy. For example, although everyone assembled in DC agreed that the IMF and World Bank can be destructive, the autonomous structure allowed them to protest together without consensus on what, exactly, should be done to change the rules of global trade.

But as the conventions loom, activists are asking whether this loose structure can carry the movement beyond the Philadelphia and Los Angeles protests or wherever the next big mobilization might be (probably the September meetings of the World Bank and IMF in Prague). "I don't know where this is going," says Evan Henshaw-Plath, who helped set up the Seattle Independent Media Center Web site, which features articles, photos, and other records of the WTO protests from a viewpoint very different than that of the much-maligned "corporate media." "What came out of Seattle was a particular style of organizing that proved very powerful. How do we continue to build and grow off of that and develop more direction and move forward without just event-chasing? That was and continues to be an effective way of capturing the popular consciousness of the moment, but I don't think anyone is sure what the next step would be. There is a lot of uncertainty there."

"We don't want to just have a series of big demonstrations and events. That will just fizzle out," adds long-time activist Mike Morrill of Unity 2000, which is organizing a rally in Philadelphia on July 30. "We don't want people just to be adding to their T-shirt collection." Instead, he and others say the protests must be followed by continued advocacy for deep policy changes, both at big demonstrations and in the activists' individual communities.

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Ben Geman can be reached at bgeman[a]phx.com.