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Indybay Feature

An anti-RNC Report Back from the Bay Area Radical Health Collective

by michael kozart (wphilly65 [at] yahoo.com)
this is the text of an editorial i wrote right after the anti-RNC actions...it reflects my views as a medic in those actions. i belong to the affinity group Bay Area Radical Health collective
This past month hundreds of San Francisco Bay Area residents traveled to New York City to protest the Republican National Convention, and to express alternative views to the Bush agenda. The streets of Manhattan were filled with hundreds of thousands of protestors, including members of Bay Area groups who have spent months planning for anti-RNC demonstrations. The sheer numbers of Bay Area residents in New York testifies to the continuing spirit of progressive activism in the San Francisco Bay Area during these dark years of the Bush regime.

I traveled with a group of 13 health care providers from the Bay Area. Our group, the Bay Area Radical Health Collective, has been busy providing medic support at protests throughout the Bay Area for several years In New York this past week, members of our group were arrested, beaten, and pushed back by the police as we sought to remain close to the protestors who were on the front lines of the demonstrations. We treated sprains, bruises, chipped teeth, blisters, dehydration, heat stroke, hypoglycemia, infections, psychological trauma, and fear.

We are part of a network of medical activists from all over the nation who converged in New York to provide support for the protests that raged throughout the week. The organization amongst these medic groups was tremendous. Two well stocked clinics were set up in the city, and an advanced cell phone text messaging systems was deployed to dispatch medic teams to various protest sites. The ground work for all this organization had been laid down by a groups in New York City and elsewhere who worked tirelessly to secure the spaces and equipment for our activities throughout the RNC week.

The medics were but one facet of a massive movement of activists who planned events ranging from marches to street theater. The common element running through all these events was the political messages. We informed the public about the lies perpetrated by Bush to justify an evil war that has killed tens of thousands and wreaked ecological devastation throughout the Middle East, with the only beneficiaries being the corporate leaders of the firms who have won no-bid contracts to wage war and then rebuild the infrastructure that they themselves helped to destroy. We talked about the deplorable state of public health care in the U.S., the continued lack of support for education, community libraries, after-school programs, job training, affordable housing, and elder care. We sought to raise awareness about the blatant and arrogant failure of the Bush regime to heed the warnings of global warming. We shouted about the exponential rise of people (especially people of color) in U.S. prisons—people arrested for crimes related to conditions of poverty and lack of employment. The Bush administration has bred racism, homophobia, sexism, and hatred. He has nurtured and exploited a culture of fear. These are some of the messages that the hundreds of thousands of protestors in New York sought to get across to the rest of the nation.

We in the Bay Area Radical Health Collective were in New York to help people express these messages. We added another message through our own acts of care-giving compassion. We not only treated and cared for protestors, but for anyone and everyone who asked for our care and support. We talked to the homeless, we gave bystanders water, we took the time to bring people together, and to reclaim the notion of compassion that has been so distorted and misused for political purposes by the Bush administration. The Bay Area Radical Health Collective affirms the notion that health care belongs to the people, not the corporations, not the insurance agencies, and not the pharmaceutical giants. By providing free health care, we endeavor to inspire hope for a better health system in which all who need and seek assistance will be treated, and all who seek to learn the art of healing will have an equal opportunity to become healers themselves.

But where was the press throughout the week? I had several occasions to speak with Amy Goodman from Pacifica, and to express views to IndyMedia journalists, but the “mainstream” journalists from CNN, Fox, NBC etc. were hardly ever to be seen. The few mainstream journalists with whom I spoke during the demonstrations seemed to be interested in only one topic: the degree of violence or confrontation between protestors and police. On several occasions I reminded journalists that the real story in New York was not, and was never intended to be, violent confrontation with the police. The real story was what we had to say, and what we had to demonstrate. But our messages were silenced by the corporate media. And the acts of compassion that medics from all over the country demonstrated were never revealed on the networks. In the end, the American public was treated to a pre-staged infomercial performed by the Republican delegates and produced (for television) by the corporate networks. The real story for America, however, was being played out in the streets. Democracy was in action. True compassion was up and running.

Our society has been brutalized by Bush. The earth is heating up. The machines of war are spreading. The time for change is now. Change will begin with education: people need to hear the messages that activists shout and sing, and people need to think critically for themselves once they have begun to read the literature that has been generated by activist workers, intellectuals, and journalists. People need to see that activists care deeply about people, about the earth, and about future generations. I did not witness any unprovoked violence from activists in New York City. However, I witnessed the police clubbing, pushing the protestors, capturing them in nets, and holding them for long periods in a holding facility that was filthy and full with toxic substances. But again, these stories of skirmish are merely a sideshow. The real show is what we activists have to say, and what we have to demonstrate. Corporate media may have silenced the anti-RNC demonstrations on the mainstream television networks, but word of our work is spreading through other means, and the time for a new beginning is drawing near.
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