Free speech and assembly on the line (continued)

WHETHER POLICE in New York and Boston engage in the anti-demonstrator tactics described by Hermes remains to be seen. In both cities, ACLU lawyers are meeting with police to establish sites for marches and rallies, but no agreements have been reached. Similar efforts failed in Philadelphia and Los Angeles in 2000.

Discussions in Boston have centered on three issues, according to John Reinstein, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts: Where people can march and assemble, apportioning space to demonstrators, and police practices. The ACLU criticizes a new permitting process for convention week protests, according to the Boston Globe, as a bureaucratic maze that will discourage free speech. The city, however, defends the procedure as necessary to coordinate protests and expedite applications.

The ACLU also objects to a designated protest area neat Haymarket Square, two blocks away from the FleetCenter. The area does not meet court requirements that protests be allowed "within sight and sound" of convention delegates. "The Convention planners," Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, told the Boston City Council in February, "appear to have given short shrift to the First Amendment."

The problem, says Reinstein, is a shortage of open space near the FleetCenter, especially since much of it has already been designated for the media, police staging, or convention busing. "We are working on an area where people can go, not where you have to go," confirms Mariellen Burns, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Convention. The "protest zone" will have a stage and a sound system, she says.

So far, 15 groups have applied for permits to demonstrate during the convention, according to Patricia Malone, director of the Mayor’s Office of Consumer Affairs and Licensing. About half seek to hold rallies in the Boston Common and the rest want to march in different parts of the city. No permits have been granted, she says. Requests must be submitted by July 10, she adds, and will be approved as they are received.

Activists expressed alarm, shortly after Boston was selected to host the convention, when Timoney visited the Hub to offer advice on security preparations. His track record in Philadelphia should disqualify him, critics said, from advising on handling protesters in Boston. Karen Grant, communications director for the host committee Boston 2004, insists, however, that the meeting was only an informal visit. "He was never hired as a consultant, and as far as I understand there are no plans to do so," Grant says, adding, "He’s not going to have any role."

With Timoney out of the picture, and a benign history of handling demonstrations, Reinstein does not expect major problems with police misconduct. "Boston has not seen the kind of interference with the right of assembly that people in New York have experienced," he says. Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner of the Green-Rainbow Party, who represents the largely black Roxbury section, agrees. "There is an attitude in the [police] department that is cooperative with demonstrations," Turner says. Although outside police agencies will certainly be involved with the convention, he adds, "I would hope that [attitude] would continue."

Turner, who is helping to organize some protests, says that although many activists support Kerry, they have no confidence in his ability to change the country’s direction "unless people stand up and demand change." He adds, "Both the Democrats and Republicans are supporting militaristic policies that make it impossible to deal with the needs of people."

Perhaps the most ambitious political action planned around the Democratic convention is the Boston Social Forum. Organized by a plethora of groups, including the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Massachusetts Jobs with Justice, Public Citizen, and several unions and peace groups, the event is modeled on the World Social Forum, an annual international gathering of activists. The group has rented the University of Massachusetts-Boston campus for the weekend before the convention, says Paul Shannon, program staff for the AFSC in New England, and hopes that 3000 to 5000 people will attend workshops on corporate globalization, American foreign policy, health-care, and other issues. Speakers, he says, will include black militant Angela Davis and former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich.

Many of the same groups also plan "alternative parties," for the Sunday night before the July 26-29 convention. At least three outdoor events, or "festivals with an edge," are planned for public parks, reports Joseph Gerson, director of programs for the AFSC in New England. The parties’ theme, says Gerson, will be cutting military spending by $100 billion to fund education, health-care, housing, and other social programs. "What is real security?" he asks. "Real security means you have medical care. Real security means you’re not going to be scared that you can’t feed your children."

The AFSC will also bring its Eyes Wide Open exhibit to Providence before the convention, and then to Boston. Designed to provoke an understanding of war’s meaning, the exhibit features 770 pairs of boots, representing America’s war dead in Iraq, and a wall listing the Iraqi war dead. Among other political activities, the Bl(A)ck Tea Society, a Boston-area group that describes itself as "an ad hoc coalition of anti-authoritarians," is planning an outdoor concert, bazaar, and unspecified "massive decentralized actions," according to its Web site (www.blackteasociety.org).

Plans for large demonstrations are vague. A New York-based anti-war coalition, United for Peace and Justice, plans a major event, though details have yet to be determined. In addition, a Washington, DC-headquartered leftist group, ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism), is advertising a march for Sunday, July 25, although it has yet to receive a permit. "The US could not have invaded Iraq without the support of the Democratic Party," explains Boston ANSWER organizer Peter Cook. "As such, the Democratic Party should be held as responsible as the Republican Party for the invasion and occupation."

Bridging the month between the two conventions, the Next Step Collective is organizing a 276-mile walk from Boston to New York, by way of Providence, Hartford, and New Haven, to promote a variety of causes, according to its Web site (www.dnc2rnc.org), including direct democracy, just and fair labor, sustainable food sources, and an end to corporate power. The Olympia, Washington, group says the march will draw attention to "the two-headed Corporate Party," and encourage people along the route to work for change in their communities.