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Planned protests fizzle

BY KRISTEN LOMBARDI

MONDAY, JULY 26, 2004 -- Chasing down the protesters can be a difficult thing. Projected crowds often don’t materialize. Schedules change without notice. And planned actions get scratched because of unforeseen obstacles.

At least that’s what I discovered while wandering the streets in search of a protest on Monday. I’d assumed there would be a bevy of demonstrations to choose from -- indeed, according to the events list put out by the Bla(A)ck Tea Society, the anarchist group itself was set to rally against "police brutality, prison abuses, and the Patriot Act" on the Boston Common beginning at 10 a.m. By 2 p.m., the anarchists were slated to march from the Common to the Fleet Center, where they would stir up the DNC delegates by rallying some more. Yet when I arrived at the scene around 1 p.m., there were no protests to be found. Only an empty stage assembled on an empty lawn.

So I walked up Tremont Street to Government Center, supposedly the starting point of a "Dump the Democrats" march. It was just before the 2 p.m. kick-off time, yet only a handful of protesters congregated in front of the Boston City Hall. A few of them held up a white banner bearing the words DUMP THE DEMOCRATS while colleagues picked through a pile of ready-made signs -- NO MORE LESSER-EVIL POLITICS and BREAK THE TWO-PARTY MONOPOLY.

Needless to say, it didn’t take long to realize that the event was not going according to plan. Originally, the protesters, many of them members of the USA Socialist Party, had intended to march from Government Center to Post Office Square to Downtown Crossing and back to City Hall again. Matt Andrews, a 23-year-old Lexington resident and member of the Young People’s Socialist League, had gotten the idea to organize the march in order to, in his words, "call attention to the alternatives to the Democratic Party." A month ago, he went through the painstakingly bureaucratic process of applying for a permit with Boston Police. He made sure to note how the march required a portable amplifier. He even had the brainwave to seek the legal guidance of the National Lawyer’s Guild.

But despite his efforts, the police managed to throw Andrews for a last-minute loop. Just before the big July 26 event, a Boston police officer approached Andrews and informed him that he could not march with a portable amplifier, as he had believed. The news brought an end to the march, although Andrews and friends tried to make the best of it with a makeshift rally on the plaza.

"It feels futile to try to march," explains Jason Reynolds, also 23, who has known Andrews since grade school and who came as a show of support. "We can scream but without a sound system, who’s going to listen?"


Issue Date: July 26, 2004
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