By Jennifer Hudson
Daily Bruin Contributor
About 60 students and community members gathered in Kinsey Hall
Thursday to discuss ideas from socialism to ending economic
sanctions against Iraq, all culminating in a call for uprising,
education and protest at the Democratic National Convention in
August.
“This is going to be an opportunity to put our ideas on
the map,” said Fernando Gapasin, professor and program
coordinator at the UCLA Center for Labor Research and
Education.
Several UCLA groups including the Environmental Coalition,
Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlán, Conciencia Libre,
the Muslim Students Association and the African Student Union
sponsored a teach-in last week on the protests planned for August
14-17 around the Staples Center, the site of the convention.
In a list of reasons for getting involved in the protests at the
DNC, Lilia Garcia, an organizer for the Direct Action Network in
Los Angeles, listed a lack of health insurance for Californians,
underfunded education, and the recent LAPD Rampart division
scandal, among others.
Several groups are already planning their protests, including
the Direct Action Network, also called Rise Up, and D2KLA.
Activists at the teach-in also expressed hope that L.A. labor
unions, workers and people of color will join in the movement along
with activist groups.
Gapasin leads a local labor union of childcare workers that
plans to come out in full force in August. He said his union had
been removed from the AFL-CIO in the past for refusing to denounce
and expunge its communist members. He added protesting the DNC is
worth the risk of exclusion from AFL-CIO if it becomes a
question.
Joan Sekler, a representative of the Independent Media Center,
invited participants of the teach-in to “join the media
revolution” and volunteer their services in print journalism,
radio, film and the internet in order to cover the protests.
The Independent Media Center covered the protests at the World
Trade Organization meetings in Seattle last fall and the
Washington, D.C. protests against the International Monetary Fund
and World Bank in April.
But protesters aren’t alone in planning for the event. The
LAPD has been working with the FBI, Secret Service, and other law
enforcement agencies for months in order to prepare for the
expected protests.
“We do not anticipate any problems here. However, we
clearly will be prepared for whatever develops,” LAPD
Commander. David Kalish told the Associated Press.
There is some concern that protests could actually disrupt the
convention, either shutting it down or impeding or the ability of
delegates to reach the Staples Center.
“I hope they will not be disruptive and believe that the
city of L.A. will be prepared to deal with the protests,”
said Andrew Lachman, a Gore delegate from Los Angeles.
Regarding the potential influence that protests could have on
the convention, Lachman said, “I don’t think the
protests are effective because at this point no one knows what they
are protesting for.”
Garcia of the Direct Action Network said there will be different
events every day outside the convention, addressing several
different grievances. The D2KLA Web site mentions poverty,
homophobia and militarism, as well as the more general ideas of
“global, social, economic, racial and environmental
justice” as reasons for their protests.
“Our general goal would be to work along with the
community members to create a long-lasting, stronger, more vibrant
movement,” said Garcia in reference to the Direct Action
Network’s involvement in the protests.
Gapasin emphasized his vision of people working together in
creating a system that could replace capitalism and electoral
politics.
“We are looking for a more representative form of
government,” said Garcia, mirroring Gapasin’s
sentiment.