David,
Thanks for the report. If the numbers you heard are correct, I'm
wondering what the costs were that added up to $8-12K? You also said
something that makes it sound like a libertarian speaker was prevented
from speaking out at a previous rally. Did this happen?
Also, does anyone know whether we raised the idea of Libertarian
speakers with the ANSWER representative who came to our meeting?
Microphone time would probably be the most valuable thing we could get
out of being involved with these rallies.
Yours in liberty,
<<< Starchild >>>
I'm not sure if any of you had a chance to attend the
anti-occupation protest yesterday, so I thought I
would send out a few of my observations. Granted I
didn't get up at the crack of noon to catch the start
of the march in Dolores Park, but luckily they ran
behind schedule.
http://www.internationalanswer.org/news/update/092803s27ww.htmlOverall the march and rally was well attended, with
estimates in the 5000 range. Obviously way shy of
pre-war demos but not bad. The demographics were also
quite diverse, so I wouldn't say it was just the
radicals that showed up. Many elderly attended the
march as well as those in strollers.The biggest interest to me was certainly in the
speakers once we got to city hall. The good news is, I
think the concerns voiced at the last business meeting
in regards to off-topic speeches were either addressed
by ANSWER or unfounded. In fact, I only heard one
speaker make reference to the 'capitalist vampires'
out of all of them, and he was really speaking out
against the mercantilism surrounding Bechtel and
Halliburton in Iraq. If anything, the core message of
the rally was strong Anti-Bush, anti-imperialism and
military-industrial state. Of course some anti-Israel
rhetoric came into it as well.The kickoff speaker was actually an American Indian
who I think had the best line of the day. "We've been
fighting terrorism since 1492!". A relative hush
ensued after that one.. The only public figure to
speak was of course Tom Ammiano, dressed in his
'protest garb'. Everyone was impressed with how 'cool'
he was by his ability to say the f-word. hmmmm.
Really, the only off-topic rant was by some speaker
from an institute in San Jose who started in on the
'evils' of Prop 54. Interestingly enough, one of the
on-stage answer moderators came up to him and
whispered something in his ear during this tirade,
which I believe cut it short. I went off to buy
another tamale from the socialists at that point
anyway, so I would have something in my stomach if
things got worse.The booths and tables were expectantly overrun by
socialist-oriented groups, probably around 50%. I
could tell they were all used to this scene and they
actually reminded me of the laid back craft vendors at
North Beach fest. Not allot of energy to be sure.Actually, the mood of the protest overall was quite
subdued, compared to ones I have been to in the past.
Granted this was my first ANSWER rally, but it seemed
almost mundane- no anger..many slept on the grass.
ANSWER definitely knew to push the donation button
hard, so maybe they saw it as more of a fundraiser. I
heard different claims from them that the total bill
came to somewhere between $8000-$12K. I seriously
doubt if they raised a quarter of that though.Anyway, the whole point of this is - based on what I
saw, I think the LP could definitely cooperate with
ANSWER on the anti-war protests. I'm not sure if any
libertarian speakers were suppressed this time around,
but they definitely kept things on topic. The
democrats and greens both had tables there stocked
with absentee ballots (deadline tomorrow). This could
have been a great opportunity to show off how we're
not right-wing, but cool anti-government rebels like
them. The next big protest is October 25th so I think
it's worth looking into at least.That's about it, let me know if you have any
questions.David
By the way, before I forget - I own a nice
professional set of PA speakers, stands and amp that
could be used by the lpsf in future rallies,
campaigns, etc. I don't have a microphone at the
moment, but could provide that as well. Of course
being the selfish, capitalist that I am, I won't let
it out for free, but I can offer the lp a deeply
discounted rate of 1c.__________________________________
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