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Five hundred thousand marched through the streets of New York City to protest the Republican National Convention. The march was organized by United for Peace and Justice
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Dynamic recently spoke with Bob Libal, an activist with the Not With Our Money campaign in Austin, Texas. On Tuesday, August 31, Bob was protesting the Republican National Convention in New York City when he was arrested and detained for several days.
Dynamic: 'Fess up, Bob: You must have done something terrible to be arrested by New Yorkís finest!'
BL: Well... actually we didn't do anything wrong. People were being swept off the streets by NYPD to let buses of Republican delegates through. There was a spontaneous sit-in in the middle of the road, and that's where I got arrested. And many people just got swept up off the sidewalks.
The next two days are a bit of a blur. We were taken to Pier 57, an abandoned bus depot.
Early in the morning they moved all the men, five or six hundred of us, into a big cage. We were tired and filthy and feeling rambunctious. People started standing up and clapping in a rhythm. Jose started leading a chant: 'this is what Guantanamo looks like!' 5 or 600 people were defying orders to be quiet. That was an inspiring moment.
We were detained longer than the legal limit, and it was a combination of the police being inefficient and the city having a political motivation to keep us in for a long time - until after Bush's speech on Thursday. The arrests were definitely 'pre-emptive.'
Once the court order came in that the city had to start letting people out, it took no more than a couple hours to get our fingerprints taken, get a lawyer and get arraigned.
Dynamic: You're an anti-prison activist. Any political lessons from this experience?
BL: It made me realize how the power dynamic of police and prisoner and even the physical landscape of jail affects the way you feel about yourself. The cages, the barbed wire, all that has a really powerful effect.
It does seem that, like most of the protests, the pre-emptive arrests have been largely overlooked by the mainstream media outside of New York City.
Before that week I was much more interested in the movement-building side of protesting the RNC, than how to get Bush out. But when I saw the Friday morning paper talking about the uptick in Bush's ratings, it definitely solidified in me really wanting to kick Bush out! It's a clear goal now.
I don't want all of those people being in jail for that long to have been in vain. I want it to have accomplished something.
There was a kid in my cell who was just swept off the street after buying a piece of pizza. And by the end of it he was talking about wanting to go down after he got out and continue the protests.
Dynamic: Any positive experiences this week?
BL: Yeah! This week was about protesting, but it was also about events like the Books Not Bombs Youth Convergence. The Convergence was great - young people were building a long-term strategy for winning what we want in the world while tearing down the Republican agenda.
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