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DNC2RNC marchers promote a different path
BY STEVEN STYCOS
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Chanting "DNC to RNC, bringing real democracy," 35 demonstrators this week walked onto Providence’s Blackstone Boulevard, on their way from the Democratic National Convention in Boston to the upcoming Republican National Convention in New York City. Upset with the similarities between the two major parties, the marchers seek to convince the public that change can happen outside the traditional political structure. "If you want to make a better world, you have to start in your local community," says Noah Morris of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, an organizer of the march’s journey through Rhode Island. Thirty people met the marchers at the Pawtucket end of the boulevard, and together they sat on the grass and listened to political folk songs performed by David Rovics, including, "Who would Jesus bomb?" and a tune blasting Miami police chief John Timoney. The AFL-CIO, civil libertarians, and anti-globalization protestors have decried Timoney’s aggressive tactics against demonstrators in Florida in 2003 and in Philadelphia during the 2000 RNC (see "Liberty denied," News, January 18, 2001). After arriving Monday, August 2, marchers planned to work on Tuesday, with the Providence youth art group Broad Street Studio, before heading out the Plainfield Pike to Hartford, New Haven, and eventually New York City, in time for the Republican National Convention later this month. The Next Step Collective of Olymia, Washington, conceived the 258-mile march to counter the belief that the November elections will produce change, explains collective member Cory Fischer-Hoffman. "Change isn’t going to come by voting for a political leader," she says. "We have to organize in our communities." To prove that point, marchers joined a demonstration against the Seaboard Corporation in Brookline, Massachusettts, as they left Boston. The multi-national corporation, whose CEO, H. Harry Bresky, lives in Brookline, seized indigenous lands in northern Argentina, according to flyers distributed during the Democratic National Convention last week. In addition, DNC2RNC marchers performed street theater in Walpole, Massachusetts, to protest conditions at the state prison there. Along the way, says Gianna Rodriguez of Providence, marchers have also talked with residents of small towns about ways to improve the world. "If they only see two options and never see another possibility," says the Hampshire College student, "nothing is going to change." Another marcher, Jamie "Bork" Loughner of Washington, DC, explains, "We have to start that discussion, rather than, ‘What’s the lesser of two evils?’ " Flyers distributed by the group note that Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and President George W. Bush both support the invasion of Iraq, the USA PATRIOT Act, Plan Colombia, corporate globalization, and Israel’s "Apartheid Wall," while opposing same sex marriage. "Is this what democracy looks like?" the handout asks. Many of the same themes were voiced at The Really, Really Democratic Bazaar held by the Bl(A)ck Tea Society last week on the Boston Commons and attended by hundreds. Some at the events grudgingly admit they will vote for Kerry. Others, noting that Kerry will easily win Massachusetts (and Rhode Island), say they will vote for a third party candidate or even write in their own names. Loughner, who runs a soup kitchen and says she has occupied abandoned government buildings to turn them into homeless shelters, says she will not vote at all. "I put pressure on people who are elected," she explains, adding "I do an awful lot of political work and it’s effective. I don’t think voting is effective, so why should I try?"
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