Billionaires for Bush (or Gore): Billionaires in the News

Sunday, July 9, 2000

CONVENTION PROTESTERS SAY CANDIDATES CAN BE -- AND HAVE BEEN -- BOUGHT

by Jon Sawyer

When Republicans and Democrats convene this summer in Philadelphia and Los Angeles to formally anoint George W. Bush and Al Gore as their nominees, the emphasis will be on the policy differences that set these men, and parties, apart.

But to the organizers hoping to overwhelm the actual convention proceedings with street protests outside, what counts most are the common (corporate) values behind Bush, Gore and the entire political establishment.

"Both the Republican and Democratic parties are bought, paid for and accountable to a small number of the corporate elite," said Margaret Prescod, a Los Angeles activist on behalf of domestic workers who came to Washington on Thursday with a loosely affiliated coalition aimed at disrupting the conventions this summer.

"Some say the problem with the political parties is that they have failed," Prescod said, "but we are not naive. They have not failed. They have succeeded in what they set out to do. They are accountable to whom they intend to represent.

"They are not accountable to us."

What remains to be seen, however, is whether protesters can put a united, coherent face on a movement that represents everything from opposition to economic globalization to homosexual rights and whose members range from union rank-and-file to fiercely partisan Democrats, practitioners of traditional nonviolent civil disobedience, and anarchists who revel in acts of violent provocation.

The record so far is mixed. The "battle of Seattle" nearly shut down the World Trade Organization's meeting last November, for example, but what most people recall is the brief but pitched confrontation between a few protesters and the Seattle police. Similar acts of isolated but dramatic violence marred the April protests in Washington against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The organizers at the joint press conference Thursday all stressed their commitment to nonviolent protests at the conventions.

The counter-festivities begin with a mass march in Philadelphia on July 30 -- one day before the Republican convention begins -- that is backed by the AFL-CIO and nearly 200 organizations.

Sponsors are billing Unity2000 as a "massive multi-issue, multi-organizational, multi-racial peaceful demonstration and rally." They also assert that the march is aimed at the misguided policies not just of Republicans but of Democrats too -- although close observers might note that the AFL-CIO has not lent its support to any similar show in LA.

In Philadelphia, homeless families will encamp in "Bushville," summoning memories of "Hooverville" camps from the Great Depression. A silent march against gun violence will conclude at the Liberty Bell and an "Executioner's Ball" will dramatize opposition to the death penalty.

In Los Angeles, opponents of free trade agreements will march near sweatshops in the city's garment district and on to the headquarters of global companies for a "tour of corporate shame." Both cities will feature "shadow conventions," alternative forums sponsored by a coalition that includes Common Cause, Public Campaign and United for a Fair Economy.

The latter organization, based in Boston, is behind one of the wittier planned protests: "Billionaires for Bush (or Gore)," spoof sponsor of a Million Billionaire March planned for each convention.

"If you're a smart businessman, like I am, you don't buy one candidate and hope for the best . . . You buy both upfront, and start celebrating now." Or so says Phil T. Rich, alleged co-chair of Billionaires for Bush (or Gore), who goes on to salute the 66 "savvy corporations," among them Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. and Microsoft, that have already given at least $50,000 to both candidates.

"Whoever wins, we win," says Millie O'Nair, the sham group's co-chair. "Both the major candidates are committed to government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations."

The host cities and parties have jointly discouraged the protests, with plans to isolate demonstrations in designated "protest parks" and massive security for the conventions themselves. The Los Angeles Police Department is planning to erect a fence 14 feet high to create a "buffer zone" around the Staples Center, for example, and in Philadelphia the Unity2000 organizers had to go to court just to win a parade permit.

"We come to the streets, even if we had to go to the courts to take possession, because they still belong to us," said John Hogan, an Illinois native and union leader who works in the law library at the University of Pennsylvania.

"The Philadelphia Police Department offered us a cage somewhere near the convention center for us to hold our protests in, but that's not good