RNC Update 6 A Great Beginning!!

RNC Update 6 A Great Beginning!!
By Starhawk

Today the DNC to RNC march arrived in New York, after walking 258 miles from
the Democratic National Convention in Boston to here. They had planned for
people to meet them at Columbus Circle, and I arrived after a pleasant
afternoon in the Bronx at the community garden the Green Bloc is supporting.

Hundreds of people were gathered on the grass at the entrance to Central
Park, under a column with a golden Goddess statue on top who was rising
nobly up from three galloping horses. And it was like a wonderful family
reunion. I was seeing friends from the march and friends from back home and
from other actions. There were masses of media and quite a lot of police
but the police were not hassling people and the march negotiated with them
for a lane of the street all the way down to Union Square. It took a good
two hours before we set off, with a contingent of the march wearing red
bandanas to represent a Zapatista insurgency. Wearing masks is illegal in
New York, and many of us had feared the cops would just arrest them, but
they had carefully framed it as a street theater piece and the police let
them alone. Behind them the Bay Area Cluster had yellow flags and birds on
sticks and suns, and we followed behind with drummers and a mass of at least
five hundred people, maybe more. The police lined the street, escorting us
but not bothering anyone, even occasionally smiling and joking with people.

It felt really, really great, to set off and march through the city with
such spirit. Everyone felt joyful‹celebrating the great accomplishment of
the marchers to have come so far, and the ease with which the police had
ceded us space. We were chanting ³We love New York: We just hate Bush!²
and the Zapatista insurgency led the way. All along the route, people were
watching and smiling and giving us the thumbs up sign. New York is such a
dramatic backdrop, with the skyscrapers looming above us and, as dusk fell,
all the lights of Broadway coming on. We marched by the theaters, urging
people to forget their tickets and come join us. Broadway is glamorous
again, reclaimed from the era of tacky sex shows, and we were our own moving
theater piece. At one moment, across the street I saw three African
American women dressed up for a night on the town. We were supposed to be
silent at that point, so we were¹t chanting but they began chanting ³No
justice, no peace!² and dancing between the parked cars and we couldn¹t
resist their urging to take up the chant. People came out and joined us.
At one point, I was walking beside a Latina mother and her three children,
at another, a woman with flowing hair and a son with braces who were
speaking Arabic and quite joyfully amused at the radical cheerleader with
the beard and short red skirt. When we passed 38th St., the whole staff of
United for Peace and Justice had come down to the corner to wave flags and
cheer us on.

The march ended in Union Square, and everyone dispersed peacefully. Many of
us went back to St. Mark¹s to hang out and eat food cooked by Seeds of
Peace.

It was the first sally, and it went so well and so easily that hopefully it
will dispel some of the fear. To be honest, had anyone on the march asked
my opinion, I would have told them I thought it was a bad idea. But no one
did, and so I kept my mouth shut because it wasn¹t my action or my
decision‹even though I did a lot of private soul searching about whether or
not I should voice my concerns. But I would have been wrong, anyway‹it
turned out to be a wonderful event, and in spite of the ongoing propaganda
wars about anarchists and terrorists, the masks didn¹t seem to scare anyone.
And it makes me realize how much the fear had crept into me, in spite of all
the advice I¹ve been putting out about not being afraid, and how powerful it
is when someone just stands forth in spite of all the fear and does
something beautiful and brave.

The New York Daily News has a full front page scare article today, a giant
headline ³Anarchy Inc.², and another whole spread of scare stories and
outright lies. Nevertheless, all the actual people we encounter seem
delighted we are here. The busdriver late last night wouldn¹t let me pay.
Tonight Lisa and I went into a store, admitted we were protestors and the
shopkeeper brought out his pack with anti-Bush buttons on it and wouldn¹t
let me pay for my candy.

And I think back to a meeting last spring, where Cory and Adam brought the
idea of the march to some of us in the Bay Area, asking for feedback and
support. And now they¹ve done it, a huge feat of organizing and endurance.
At the end, at Union Square, all the marcher grabbed each other in a big
group hug, just so, so happy. I begin to have a sense that something
wonderful could happen here!

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