New York mobilizes for RNC & DNC protests

New York — Representatives from the New York metropolitan region met on Aug. 1 to forge plans to demonstrate at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.

The Coalition to March on the RNC (marchonthernc.com) will mobilize on Aug. 27 in Tampa, Fla. The March on Wall Street South (wallstsouth.org) will be held Sept. 2 in Charlotte, N.C., on the eve of the Democratic National Convention .

Members of New York May 1 Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights, New Jersey’s Peoples’ Organization for Progress, the International Action Center, Honduran Resistance USA, Community-Labor United for Postal Jobs & Services, the Bail Out the People Movement, Occupy 4 Jobs network, United National Antiwar Coalition and several people from the Occupy movement attended the meeting in order to organize to go to Tampa and Charlotte.

Representatives from Community-Labor United for Postal Jobs & Services vowed to go to both conventions. Though the Republicans began the campaign to privatize the post office, the Democratic administration has been complicit by not opposing it. CLUPJS is calling for caravans and contingents to “Save the Postal Service” at both protests.

Jared Hamil, who called in to the meeting from Tampa, discussed plans for the protests against the Republican National Convention. The Coalition to March on the RNC, an alliance of more than 25 activist organizations across the country and in Florida, plans to mobilize thousands of activists to march in protest against the right-wing attacks on the 99%.

The March on the RNC’s program calls for good jobs, health care, affordable education, equality and peace. They’re demanding the Republican Party end their assault on students, workers, women, immigrants and the poor.

A contingent that had just returned to New York from Charlotte reported to the meeting. Victor Toro and Teresa Gutierrez of the May 1 Coalition spoke about immigrant rights at a meeting of Black Workers for Justice in North Carolina.

Charlotte has become the Southern capital of capital. It is the headquarters of Bank of America and the eastern division of Wells Fargo. The Charlotte Chamber of Commerce boasts that the city has become a “a magnet for defense-related industries,” with local firms receiving $1 billion in defense contracts over the past three years. (charlottechamber.com). The fact that the DNC chose Charlotte signifies the Democratic Party’s allegiance to these financial institutions and the military industries that support them.

The March on Wall Street South calls for a people’s agenda for jobs, health care, education, housing, against wars and incarceration, for an end to deportations of immigrants, for environmental justice, for workers rights, for women’s and LGBTQ liberation.

The organizers of these events understand that both the Democratic and the Republican parties work in the interests of the capitalist class and that neither works for workers’ or justice or peace.

Both organizing groups have struggled for and won permitted marches and protest sites. Contact the two coalitions to find or create a nearby organizing center.