December 2003
January 2004

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

Out of the Streets, Into the Voting Booth

Marty Jezer is author of Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel. He helped organize and participated in the 1968 demonstrations in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention. A version of this essay first appeared in the Brattleboro (VT) Reformer, where he writes a weekly column. He welcomes comments at mjez@sover.net.

The Democratic convention is scheduled for Boston the last week of July. The Republicans have planned theirs for New York City the first week of September. That date was selected to exploit the patriotic emotions associated with the anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Expect to see a lot of firefighters, police officers, and rescue workers fêted at the convention. Political conventions are organized as political theater, and the plot of this one is to promote a connection between the Bush administration and the 9/11 heroes.

Convention theater, as always, will include political protesters. The left is already gearing up to protest Republican policies. A mass march is planned for the convention opening. "A million people on the street, representing the diversity of New York, and the multiplicity of this nation," is how the organizers conceive it (www.counter convention.com).

In addition to the march, individual groups are planning their own protest actions for the week of the convention (see www.villagevoice.com/issues/0335/harkavy.php). The Republicans, I'm sure, are delighted. No matter how well the protests are organized, there will always be groups that confuse revolutionary bravura with political tactics. One inevitable result, planned or not, will be confrontations with authority. Protest organizers envision "an overwhelming, festive, and poignant showing with the entire world bearing witness." More likely, given the filter of the media, what the whole world will be watching will be protesters squabbling with New York's Finest. With 9/11 on everyone's mind, that is not good protest theater; for the left, in fact, it would be a political disaster. Political violence - no matter who provokes it - plays into the hands of those who advocate and benefit from political repression.

The movement to oust the Bush administration doesn't need to get people into the streets; it needs to get them to the polls. Half the eligible people in this country did not vote in the last presidential election. The majority of the non-voters were (and are) young or poor, people who are not benefiting by Bush's tax-cuts, can't find good jobs, can't afford higher education or medical care, and who do not share in the general affluence. Get these people to the polls and President Bush is history.

The voter education drive of Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964, not the street demonstrations against the Democratic Party in Chicago 1968, is the organizing model for the 2004 election. What's needed is a summertime voter education project, a massive, well-funded, door-to-door, face-to-face organizing effort with people, especially young people, going into ghettos, barrios, trailer parks, small towns, urban neighborhoods, and suburban developments to identify and register the millions of non-voters. The drive would need good literature and a media presence. It would continue beyond the summer in order to keep people focused on political issues throughout the campaign season. And it would peak on a huge Election Day get-out-the-vote effort, which would assuredly translate into a stunning defeat of Bush and his policies.

Such an effort doesn't have to come under the exclusive banner of the Democratic Party. Issue organizations, third parties and other political organizations could participate in this effort independently, promoting their own issues, but agreeing that the defeat of the Bush administration is the election's top priority.

I would suggest that the advocates of the convention protests go back to the drawing board. New York City is a Democratic City. More than street demonstrations by activists, the organizers need a program that encourages participation by those who live and work in the city.

How about fifteen minutes of protest around a different issue during lunch-hour each day? On one day people could wear facemask-respirators to protest the assault on the Clean Air Act and the administration's covering-up of the EPA report on toxic air quality in New York after September 11, 2001. Another day, people could wear a black armband to protest the war. During lunch hour, people could ring bells to celebrate freedom and protest the Patriot Act and its infringement of the Bill of Rights. There could be organized events involving education and children, unions, tax-cuts, and high unemployment; women and abortion rights; tolerance and human rights. These actions, focused on policy disagreements with the Bush administration, would invite participation by people at their workplaces and in their neighborhoods rather than confrontations by small self-selected groups of activists with the police. And instead of a protest against the Bush administration in New York City, how about a walk away from the city? Millions of New Yorkers could flee the convention for a day of political festivities in outlying areas.

Whatever the protesters plan, they should decisively distance themselves and condemn any group that seeks confrontation with the police and doesn't accept a strongly-worded nonviolent discipline. Street disorder at the Republican National Convention would play directly into the hands of the Bush administration. It's at the ballot box that Bush will be defeated. Getting out the vote and making sure that the ballots are honestly counted should be the focus of the election year's political direct action.

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