Artists and Activists United for Peace Rally and Parade - NYC 9/2/04

Having been away from NYC over 15 years, the relative ease and pleasant-ness for visitors moving through most of Manhattan was striking. Activists in Harlem told tales of a different side of New York City much less seen by tourists and well-to-do residents, in a peaceful, permitted march and rally on the final day of the Republican National Convention.

Activists gathered at 128th St. and marched up Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. to 152nd for a rally. The gathering included national activist groups with Bay Area contingents, along with local NYC residents/activists. Socialists included the International Action Center with anti-war placards and Harlem's branch of the Freedom Socialist Party flyering and tabling a number of issues and events; FSP and other workers' organizations leafleted heavily for the October Million Worker March - I can't remember the last time flyers were taken more quickly and with such enthusiasm at a rally.

The overriding issue for local activists was police brutality in the neighborhood. "Fuck Off NYPD...sick, stupid cowards" and "Cops out of our neighborhood" were straight and to the point. "Open up the borders, shut down the RNC" highlighted a smattering of pro-immigrant groups represented. A few Mumia Abu Jamal signs were visible. For me, the "No Bush, Kerry, Nader" sign helped to offset a few too many, desperate-looking Kerry activists.

Other African American activists called for reparations and for housing, housing, housing. Harlem is gentrifying quickly as other areas keep getting more and more expensive. The problems parallel those in the Mission and Bay View/Hunter's Point (and probably all the more heavily populated cities nationwide). The streets are much cleaner than in the latter 80's, and on the South side a few more white and Asian faces are seen along with the traditional Black and Latino residents.

I spoke at length with a Freedom Socialist Party organizers and with two local African American activists about local problems. Nobody could identify any programs to build more local low-income housing or to expand marginally effective subsidy programs like Section 8 housing vouchers or similar set-asides for economically impoverished people with disabilities. Harlem still has many of the traditional red or brown brick run-down looking high-rise housing projects, which the government has long stopped building. The more modern smaller, mixed-used projects are probably just not being funded as Bush Administration policies continue to move funds away from cities and states and local officials chase sales tax revenues and re-election publicity while struggling to pay for schools and medical facilities.

The mood of the march reflected the beautiful clear, sunny weather. Marchers were positive and spirited, with police on the sides ushering the parade along, many cops looking more jovial than our locals have at recent permitted events. Local activists were much more harsh on stage at the rally, assailing the policies of the Mayor Bloomberg and the deteriorating economic and social conditions resulting.

An ironic sense filled the air near the end of the march - the most volatile reaction of all by far occurred when we passed a black Fox News Network truck. Long, loud chants of "Fox News Sucks" reflected not only deep dissatisfaction with election "coverage" but the exploding media democracy and DIY independent media movements that will eventually break the existing monopolies that manufacture "public opinion".