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Wednesday August 23, 2000

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The New Generation

Headline Photo

By Eric Swedlund

Arizona Daily Wildcat

Revival of student activism brings a new component to the

LOS ANGELES-It was a clash between grandeur and chaos.

Inside the Staples Center were delegates in suits and gowns, their attention fixed on political pageantry and the extravagant stage. Outside, behind hordes of Los Angeles police officers in riot gear and a14-foot-tall double chain link fence, gathered an odd assembly of 10,000 protesters.

Environmentalists, Greens, anarchists, Zapatistas, Seattle vets, queers, vegans, Christians, Earth First!, MECHA, Shadow Conventioneers, teachers' unions, the media, and - last Monday - lots of Rage Against the Machine fans assembled together behind the fences to take their stands against the Democratic Party. There were the young and the old, the pierced, the tattooed and the surprisingly normal looking, representing a curious variety of causes.

Underneath the smog of industrial and vehicular pollution and bordered by the towers of corporate America, the demonstrators rallied around one central cry, "Human Need, Not Corporate Greed!"

Student activists from colleges and universities across the nation converged with demonstrators, rallying around causes that spanned local and global levels.

"The big reason that brought me here is the corruption in the two-party system, the extent to which corporations with campaign contributions can guide America's future," said UA neuroscience graduate student Arne Ekstrom, one of about 10 UA students who went to Los Angeles for the demonstrations.

"I think there are a lot of issues in mainstream politics that don't make it into the mainstream media sufficiently. It takes thousands of people demonstrating to get that into the public's mind and to get the media to talk about it more," Ekstrom said. "That to me is really the important thing - revealing a lot of the problems with our system today."

Many agree that Los Angeles is the fourth in a string of large-scale protests - including November WTO meeting in Seattle, April's World Bank and IMF protests in Washington D.C. and the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia - that signify the revival of student activism to a level similar to the civil rights and anti-Vietnam movements of the 1960s.

"It validates a lot of the concerns that activists have when you see other people echoing what we've been saying for a while," Ekstrom said.

On the Rise

UA geography and women's studies sophomore Koren Manning, who also went to protest in Los Angeles, said she has seen a rise in student activism during the past year or so.

"Students are finally seeing that there is possibility for change," she said. "Our future doesn't have to be controlled by corporations."

At the University of Arizona, the rise in student activism left its mark when Students Against Sweatshops members rooted themselves in the lobby of UA President Peter Likins' office for 10 days last April, and walked away with a resolution that effectively changed the way the university deals with companies that manufacture UA apparel.

"Likins himself said that if it weren't for us bringing it to his attention, it really wouldn't have gone anywhere and that's what activism really does," Ekstrom said. "It pushes the front forward on what is just."

But more than the sit-in and earlier protests, Ekstrom said meetings and discussions with the administration led to the resolution.

"I always think the best way to do things is one-on-one if you can. All our progress with Likins came from sitting down with him and presenting our cause. Then he really started to see the logic of what we were talking about," he said. "I really believe in constructive engagement at some point. I do think that's been a real problem. The Democratic Party is just so gigantic, and in my opinion corrupt, that it is different than Peter Likins. It's not clear to me where there is an in-road for change."

Manning said she thinks that although there may be no direct communication with the politicians, the convention was nonetheless "an important time for people to make their voices heard."

Ekstrom agreed that people need to make their voices heard, but he added that the issues should be the primary focus.

"I see an activist's job bringing to light causes that people either generally don't hear a lot about, don't want to hear about, or are just generally not something covered by the mainstream media," Ekstrom said.

For Manning, as well as most of the other activists, the topic is simple.

"The Democratic Party is controlled by corporate interests," she said. "The corporations are buying access to our politicians."

She added that for both parties, "funding comes from the same corporations, they have the same stances. We're living in a one-party system. The corporations and the government are complicit. They're trying to squash democracy."

Ekstrom cited the growing gap between the rich and the poor in America as one of the most harmful results of corporate money's control of U.S. politics.

"It amazes me that there is so much money in the Democratic Party and somehow none of this money can trickle down to apartments five minutes from the Convention Center, where people are really living in Third World conditions," he said. "America is at an incredibly high level of wealth and there's no reason we can't push to improve our society."

Many activists agree that improving democracy in America can't come from just small changes.

"I ultimately think that unless you change the whole system the trickle down is just not going to suffice to make much of a difference," Ekstrom said.

Manning echoed that sentiment. "We need a large change - an entire revolution."

The Demonstration Pit

Inside the designated protest area across the street from the Staples Center, libraries of all sorts of extremist literature were passed out to anybody who would take the flyers.

Delegates, lost perhaps, looked worried and horribly out of place as they hurriedly walked past bandit-masked anarchists.

There was a wealth of signs, although some seemed slightly off the subject, like "Pokemon Must Die!" and "Ban Breast Feeding!"

On Monday night, Rage Against the Machine highlighted the protest activities with a free 40-minute concert.

Zack De La Rocha, the band's front man, gave the crowd of about 10,000 his impression of the Democratic National Convention.

"Apparently there's some other show going on across the street, but it's all sold out," he shouted. "Brothers and sisters, our democracy has been hijacked. Brothers and sisters, we are not gonna allow these streets to be taken over by Democrats or Republicans."

At the other end of downtown Los Angeles, a run down four-story building served as the Activist Convergence Center, headquarters of D2KLA. At mid-day, the building was filled with people making posters, sleeping and running all about.

Signs were tacked all over the walls, including a small one that nonchalantly called to "SHUT DOWN DISNEY, Thurs. noon."

A spokesman for the Direct Action Network, which organized many of the demonstrations and marches, said there was a remarkable student presence at the protests, and that student activism is "clearly on the rise."

He said students added a "widespread precise analysis" that bolsters protests by adding an intellectual component. As an example, he said a large number of people understand the intricacies of global finance.

Several shops in the downtown jewelry district temporarily boarded up windows and closed down for the week.

Pershing Square, the site of daily rallies throughout the convention, was situated at one end of the jewelry district.

Thousands of protesters gathered there each day, making their way through the 90 degree heat and humidity, to rally and march to the Staples Center.

At every turn, mindful of the riots that erupted in Seattle during the WTO protests, Los Angeles Police Department officers carefully watched as the protesters wound their way through the downtown streets. Their riot gear included helmets, plastic handcuffs, tear gas canisters and rubber bullets, all in plain view.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. said during a "Global Challenge" panel discussion that the officers looked "like they worked for Darth Vader," and "as a delegate that intimidates me."

Ekstrom said that although he understands the need for safety and respects the LAPD's efforts, the officers took too heavy a hand against the protesters.

"The police were unfair in corralling activists," Ekstrom said, adding that to some extent, the police "trampled on their First Amendment rights."

"It became more about activists against the police rather than getting the message out," he added. "The police were a bit too eager to make the activists look band and criminalize them. There is a fine line between the police keeping the safety and dismantling movements."

Hope for the Future

The challenge for activists lies in how to protest social and political conditions and actually deliver a message to policymakers without appearing as troublemakers.

"My hope is that by having these demonstrations outside of the Democratic Convention and showing delegates that we're really fed up that maybe one out of 100 people it would sink in and there would be dialogue within the Democratic Convention and they'd think 'why didn't this happen five years ago?' and that would do something," Ekstrom said.

With the political conventions finished, activists will no longer have the national spotlight readily available, but Ekstrom said that won't stop the movement.

"I find in general, activists are becoming more and more ingenious at figuring out ways to protest the system. The Democratic Convention is not the last by any means," he said.

While student activists might be considered radical in both message and method of delivery, that doesn't deter Ekstrom.

"People saw the civil rights activists as really radical. Women's suffrage was considered radical. When activists said we shouldn't have 13-year-old children working in coal mines, that was considered radical," Ekstrom said. x

Ekstrom said civil rights and women's liberation activists gained a lot of ground in the late 1960s.

"I am convinced that (protests during) the '60s were a really important thing, but I am critical of the counter-culture dogma of just going against the grain," Ekstrom said. "If you're going to go against the grain, you have to do it in a way where all your arguments are backed with logic and intelligence. Most of the activists I know today are really going like that. We're not here because we just want to say the police are assholes. We're here to say 'we're concerned about this way you have of acting. We've noticed this before, therefore we're concerned.'"

But for Ekstrom and the growing ranks of student activists, it goes beyond just concern.

"I see my purpose in being here to use whatever voice I have among thousands of people to bring some of these issues to light."


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