by. Rob Lyons, Monday July 15
This afternoon the Republican National Convention officially opened in Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum. Across the river at Red Arrow Park, less than half a mile distant, more than a thousand protestors from 100 organizations joined together in the “Coalition to March on the RNC,” speaking from a makeshift podium, chanting, waving flags and banners, expressing their disdain for the Republican Party and its politics, and later marching.
The park was thronged with reporters (NYT, Washington Post), as well as TV crews, photographers + cameramen: ABC, CBS, NBC, Telemundo . . . the ABC crew had its own beefy 3-person security detail, with their press credential lanyards tucked into the collars of their polo shirts. (They said they were there to protect the equipment.) Notably none of these major broadcast outlets carried a significant story about this protest, as it was later upstaged by the appearance of Donald Trump and the news of his VP pick. Also there was no violence.
The protestors were a blend of ages, genders + races; the rally had been billed as “family friendly” but there didn’t appear to be any kids in attendance.
There were scattered counterprotestors on the fringes of the park: one man with an Israeli flag sitting in a lawn chair, Uncle Sam in full red white and blue regalia on a Segue cracking “Go Brandon,” a vendor selling both pro-Biden and pro-Trump t-shirts (MAGA repurposed to “Meet A Great American”) . . . four guys with banners and a very loud megaphone decrying gay sex as sin, and inveighing against homosexual perverts and monsters . . . nearby a clutch of pro-lifers with blown up photos of dead babies . . .
The protestors were purposeful and indignant. It was hot. I sat in the shade under a tree crowded together with others. The speeches were short: pro-union, pro-choice, pro-LBGTQ, anti-imperialist . . . There were a few dozen marshalls who wore fluorescent mesh vests, and it looked like the event was pretty well organized and managed . . . lots of keffiyeh scarves and loud moral repugnance over the genocide in Gaza. There were flags: Palestinian, Cuban, rainbow, peace symbol, Land Back, upside-down US flags . . . Lots of signs: “Stop Trump and Racist Republicans” . . .
After an hour of rallying we marched, first across the bridge toward the Republicans, then down a few blocks, and then back across a second bridge and back to the park. Chants rang out throughout, and the chants from the middle of the march overlapped and meshed with those from the front and back like a Charles Ives piece:
“Liberate the Planet, Liberate the People!”
“Stand up Fight Back”
“Shut it Down”
“We got to fight back!”
“Viva Viva Palestina!”
“Power to the People. No one is illegal.”
“No Donald, No Joe, Genocide has got to go.”
“No Fascist Trump No Genocide Joe, the Whole Damn Systems Got to Go”
At one point the march parted and swept around a homeless man lying on a pad on top of a steel grate, one of the marshalls directed the flow of traffic around him, to the left and right . . .
Sadly though there was no singing . . .
Overall the mood and energy were resolute but muted. It didn’t look like anyone was seriously afraid that MAGA elements were going to attack them. (Though I read later in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that there had been a few confrontations and shouting between protestors and counterprotestors, but these were defused by skillful intervention by a special “Police Dialogue Team” unit brought in from Columbus, OH). The volume and intensity of expression seemed normal for this sort of protest, and in a way it felt almost routine. The police were civil and well-behaved. There was little or no levity, no raucus street theater, none of the warmth and openness that we all felt at the Women’s March in 2017. People didn’t seem to be laughing together, or interacting much at all except with the folks they came with.
I’ve participated in a number of protests over the years. I believe there is a root value in street protest, expressing moral indignation and outrage in this manner. Expression pushes back against suppression. There is a value in the work of organizing and networking and craft required to put these events together, it builds community. Yet today I felt oddly dissociated. The park and march were crowded with symbols and the auditory field crowded with chants, but for me they didn’t evoke the horrors they were meant to stand in for. There were cameras everywhere, row upon row of cameras, but we’d seen all this before. Maybe that explains why there were so few news stories about this event, it felt a bit too familiar.
Whether street protest is a viable way to create change, here, in the US, is an open question. It’s possible that the “uncommitted” voter campaign may have sent Joe Biden a louder and stronger message on Gaza than street actions such as this.
I talked to one cop who had been assigned to look after the area right in front of City Hall. He was pretty matter of fact, said they had the security plan pretty well figured out four years ago when the Democrats had intended to come to Milwaukee but canceled due to COVID. He said he thought that might have been the reason that the Republicans picked Milwaukee, because they had it all figured out.
Later we learned that Trump had been officially nominated as the Republican candidate for President, and that his pick for VP was JD Vance.
