Activists Laying Out Plans for Philadelphia Protests

As thousands of delegates and reporters gathered Saturday in glitzy hotels for the Republican National Convention, a parallel squad of environmentalists, anarchists and other activists were finalizing their plans for a week of mass protests.

The activities began quietly--a mass bicycle ride through downtown on Friday and orderly marches for better health care and against police brutality on Saturday. But the demonstrations are expected to escalate during the week, with thousands of protesters taking to the streets to highlight problems with the status quo--emphasizing in particular a newly spiffed-up Philadelphia as an emblem of the flaws of 21st-century capitalism.

“You go down to Rittenhouse Square and there are people there with disposable incomes of $60,000,” said a 22-year-old local anarchist who goes by the name “Redneck,” referring to an upscale area in central Philadelphia. “Twenty blocks to the west of Rittenhouse Square there are people who have never seen $60,000 in their lives.”

While the Republicans may seek to invoke Betsy Ross and Benjamin Franklin as they meet this week, local activists rattle off more recent Philadelphia history--the police bombing in 1985 of the headquarters of the protest group MOVE, the death sentence handed down to convicted cop killer and radical journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal and the flight of industrial jobs out of North Philadelphia during the era of free trade.

Local activists have worked for months on a calendar of events to highlight these issues and will be joined by the hordes of roving protesters who recently disrupted global trade meetings in Seattle and Washington. Those groups, which will move to Los Angeles for the Democratic National Convention next month, are shifting their focus from global to urban issues, and Philadelphia will be a test case of that effort.

“For the first time for these protests in Philly, we’ve really tried to make it about what’s happening in Philly,” said Amadee Braxton, a local activist who is part of the organization coordinating protests.

Any national political convention draws myriad protesters, and Philadelphia will be no exception. Saturday’s activities included a march for gun control near the Liberty Bell and separate rallies for improved health care and against police brutality.

But police and city officials here and in Los Angeles have been bracing for a new breed of highly coordinated, mass protest--the kind that surfaced in Seattle last year during the World Trade Organization meetings and in Washington in April at meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. In both cases, thousands of activists attempted to shut down the organizations’ meetings by blocking streets to protest increased corporate power in the global economy.

Mindful that shutting down the Republican convention--held in a stadium far from downtown--may be impossible and counterproductive, activists have instead vowed to “disrupt” it with scattered protests during the week.

“The Republicans’ policies have been disruptive themselves of people, their communities and their environment for years,” said Jennifer Krill, a media liaison for the activists. “People are taking advantage of this to rise up and disrupt the Republicans for a change.”

The first event today is billed as an orderly rally without civil disobedience. Dubbed “Unity 2000” and sponsored by more than 200 organizations, it is intended to provide people a safe and legal venue to protest.

“We are demonstrating that progressives can work together,” said Leon Oboler, an organizer of the march, which organizers believe will be the biggest ever at a political convention.

On Monday a local anti-poverty group, the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, will lead a mass march from City Hall down Broad Street, Philadelphia’s main artery. The city has denied the group a permit because the march would interfere with buses taking delegates from hotels to the convention, but organizers have vowed to march nonetheless and risk arrest.

The group expects up to 2,000 poor and homeless people to march, to be joined by many of the thousands of other activists converging on Philadelphia. Over the weekend, the Kensington group erected a tent city in North Philadelphia to highlight economic issues and led reporters on “reality tours” of the blighted area.

“What you see around you is globalization,” said the group’s spokesman, James Pluecke, standing in the tent city. Gesturing at a nearby, empty eight-story shell, he added: “That used to be a factory. They used to make things there.”

On Tuesday, activists will protest what they have dubbed “the criminal injustice system,” with particular focus on the death penalty and the case of Abu-Jamal. And Wednesday is set aside for “high-risk direct action.” Organizers are expecting so many arrests that Thursday is set aside simply for keeping up the spirits of those in jail.

Organizers have been mum about specifics of their plans, fearful that police would spoil them. They are expected to target hotels where delegates and other officials are staying, as well as parties and fund-raisers.

The number of people who will take to the streets is unknown, though it is expected to be smaller than at the Democratic convention in Los Angeles two weeks later, because the West Coast traditionally draws more radical activism.

Three thousand protesters preregistered for housing with Philadelphia activists, with thousands more expected. They have been filtering into six sites across town during the week, spending the days in workshops on nonviolence, acupuncture and globalization.

“This is an activist’s dream,” said David Levy of New York City, as other organizers rushed about a cavernous space in central Philadelphia that houses the Independent Media Center, a sort of media collective for activists. “I expect a wonderfully joyous experience, as a political activist. Any time you get people in the streets, it’s a victory because of the large degree of apathy in the United States.”

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Times staff writer Tina Daunt contributed to this story.