ON SATURDAY afternoon, as George W. Bush’s inauguration was marred by street protest in Washington D.C., a disparate crowd of Democrats, anarchists, union members, senior citizens, Greens and feminists gathered in Pioneer Square to protest what organizers called “the fall of democracy.”
Worried that the day would pass without organized protest, Vivien Lyon, a local Green activist, plastered neighborhoods in Portland with fliers headlined “Hail To The Thief.” She hoped Saturday’s event would be a “synergistic meeting of progressive minds.”
Without a specific agenda, though, the Inauguration protest served more as an excuse to come out, yell and make a sign; after that, the message and meaning of the day clouded. The hundreds that turned up seemed mainly to share a sense of frustration and to feel ripped off by the political process.
Early on, nearly two hundred copies of a booklet titled “Hail to the Thief” disappeared in a flash. Criticizing electoral fraud and encouraging involvement with local progressive organizations, the booklet was perhaps the most definite and articulate presentation from the day, incongruous in such a loose gathering. Yet there was barely one copy for every six people attending.
A megaphone on loan from ILWU Local 5 was up for grabs and passed from speaker to speaker. Protestors sounded off on a spectrum of issues from abortion to senior citizen rights. Unfortunately, the megaphone was not quite loud enough to reach the four corners of the Pioneer Square. The poor sound quality detracted from the messages speakers were desperately trying to deliver. Lloyd Marbet, last year’s Green Party candidate for Oregon’s Secretary of State, opened the litany of speeches. Holding a sign that quoted Stalin (“Those who cast the votes decide nothing; those who count the votes decide everything”), Marbet gave a ten-minute sermon about campaign and election reforms. He closed with the crowd-pleasing appeal, “Practice civil disrespect!”
With far-right cabinet appointments like those of John Ashcroft and Gale Norton looming, many progressives fear that Inauguration Day marked the beginning of the end for liberal interests and four cold years locked outside the political establishment. Even though President Bill Clinton did not carry environmental and civil rights issues far enough for many liberals, for the first time in eight years many feel as if they will be considered more foe than friend to the federal government. Worse yet, with Bush in command, it is likely that federal funding for liberal causes will slow to a trickle. The change in sentiments is demanding that liberals change their political stances and strategies.
Despite that the Bush administration was only a few hours old, protestors began addressing Bush’s threats to environmental issues, abortion laws and civil rights. Reflecting this array of diversely scattered issues, the protest wavered.
After ninety minutes, the protest spun off into a few small side gatherings. An early speaker, who had been booed when he called for people to die for the “revolution,” announced: “This protest is weak! I’m starting my own protest!” He moved to the north side of the square, pacing and shouting into a homemade megaphone, periodically drowning out the other speakers. On the east edge of Pioneer Square, a lively drum and dance circle started. Others started drifting off; after all, there was a Blazers game on television.
Dozens of similar protests were hosted around the country Saturday, making Bush’s the most-protested inauguration since Nixon’s in 1973. Lyon also indicated that Saturday’s protest is a prelude to the Million Voter March, which is planned for early May. Organizers for that event already are predicting that it will be the most massive demonstration in American history.