Room for a View

Shadowing the Shadow Convention
by Josh Robinson

After a fiery rebirth at the end of last year in Seattle where 60,000 environmentalists, laborers, farmers and students united in anti-World Trade Organization (WTO) protests, the new US-based progressive movement came of age in Los Angeles during the Democratic National Convention this August. Calling for a more equitable distribution of wealth and power based on a philosophy directed to the needs of the common person rather than corporate profits, the message of the movement against global corporatism can no longer be described as “muddled”.
Thanks to savvy coverage by a newly emerging alternative to mass media calling itself the Independent Media Center (IMC—see sidebar) and to the even more recent invention of the Shadow Convention, the various messages expressed by demonstrators taking to the streets across the nation found a direct and cogent avenue of expression through dozens of world-class speakers and panelists.
The Shadow Convention is the brainchild of Ariana Huffington, ex-wife of former California senatorial candidate Michael Huffington and co-host of Comedy Central’s 1996 convention coverage. Held concurrently with the major parties’ masodont conventions, the Shadow Conventions have given the rising progressive movement the star power it has so far lacked. Attracting celebrities from the worlds of show business, progressive punditry, and both the Democratic and Republican parties, to speak and offer alternative policies concerning an ever-growing, not-so-silent American majority, the Shadow Conventions in Philadelphia and LA embodied a freedom of exchange and expression missing from the scripted conventions.
Passionately explaining her reason for staging the conventions, Huffington said, “while the DNC will be holding a quote/unquote ‘Soul Train Late Night’ party at Paramount Studios—we will be trying to recapture the soul of our democracy here at Patriotic Hall.” “The most significant difference,” she continued, “between what we’re doing here and what they’re doing there is that the other convention is about a focus-group-tested fantasy —and this convention is about reality.”
With one third of the cost of each Shadow Convention covered by multibillionaire financier George Soros, the growing progressive movement’s previous lack of funding temporarily faded. While his damaging of foreign economies through hugely profitable currency speculation may give some globalization reformers pause, Soros’ dedication to ending the war on drugs in the US and abroad cannot be questioned. The influx of money from Soros and other sources gave the Shadow Conventions ample resources to present the movement’s populist, anti-corporate message to a wide audience.
LA’s Shadow Convention was staged within sight of the Democratic convention in the appropriately named Patriotic Hall, which also housed the offices of the IMC, as well as the live broadcasting studio of the National Radio Project. Left open to the public and hordes of reporters, just as Shadow Convention meetings in Philadelphia had been, the hall’s 500-seat auditorium was full throughout most of the sessions. In addition, hundreds of people watched live video feeds of the Shadow proceedings on large-screen TVs placed in the lobby and basement. At times, as many as 1,500 visitors, participants, and journalists filled the bottom two floors of the building. Dozens more worked around-the-clock in the 6th floor offices of the IMC sending out audio, visual and written news briefs to audiences across the country.
By Sunday, Aug. 13, the day before the Democrats began what Sen. Russ Feingold (co-author of the filibustered McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill), speaking to the Shadow audience, likened to a “corporate trade show for the delegates,” the alternative convention and complementary street demonstrations were already underway. Feingold, who wasted no time underscoring the controversial nature of the discussions to be held, concluded the first paragraph of his speech by saying, “I do believe in full public financing of all elections in the United States of America, and that’s where we have to go.”  His call for such drastic reform indirectly led to the postponement by almost eight hours of his second Shadow address three days later, as he was subsequently swamped with requests for interviews and further comment from mainstream media outlets.
Feingold had even harsher words for what he witnessed at the major parties’ conventions, saying “[both are] examples and symbols of a broader problem. We have devolved from a representative democracy to a corporate democracy in this country. This is not a system of ‘one person-one vote,’ or ‘one delegate-one vote,’ but a system of ‘one million dollars-one million votes.’ It is a system of legalized bribery and legalized extortion.” Not pulling any punches, Feingold added, “these [major party] conventions are playing host to what may well be the worst display of fund-raising and corruption in the political history of our nation.”
Sunday’s speeches by Feingold, Huffington, and others served merely to convene the meeting and introduce each day’s topic. In addition to Soros’ pet issue—the failure of the war on drugs—the topics discussed were the growing income gap and the urgent need for campaign finance reform. Speaker after speaker related the issues to one underlying problem—the undue power of corporations and their money in the American political system. The same has also been cited by street demonstrators over the past year as the root cause of their multifaceted grievances.
The second, and most controversial day of the Shadow Convention focused on the drug war. In addition to Ethan Nadelman of the anti-drug war Lindesmith Center, which convened the Shadows along with Soros and the campaign finance reform advocacy group Common Cause among others, speakers included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, US Representatives Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Charlie Rangel (D-NY), comedian and talk show host Bill Maher, and spiritual leader Ram Dass.
The most interesting speaker of the day was Johnson, who as a Republican stood out in Democrat-laden LA. Even within the nonpartisan confines of Patriotic Hall, he was one of few members of the GOP in attendance. Having drawn wide-ranging criticism for his outspoken advocacy of legalizing marijuana and decriminalizing other drugs, Johnson reiterated this agenda to shadow conventioneers. “We need to legalize marijuana and we need to adopt strategies with regard to these other drugs that will reduce the harm that these other drugs produce.”
Implying that such a policy would have many positive secondary effects, Johnson continued, “We need to have a bottom line drug strategy and [the] bottom line drug strategy in New Mexico in the two and a half years that I have left [says] let’s reduce crime done in the name of illegal drugs. Let’s reduce overdose...disease...Hepatitis C, AIDS. Let’s have a common sense approach to what is happening in this country.”
While all speakers focused on the failures of US drug policy, many other issues such as the America’s world-leading incarceration rate, public education funding, and US involvement in Colombia’s civil war were addressed in reference to the war on drugs. Many speakers blamed corporate influence on politicians for their reluctance to reform drug laws. It was pointed out that big donors such as the tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceutical industries stand to lose large sums of money if penalties against other drugs are loosened.
Also cited was the $1.3 billion the US has earmarked for ostensibly anti-drug interdiction in Colombia. Representative Waters was particularly blunt on this point and called for the resignation of Clinton Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey. “He needs to stop pushing policies that send our tax dollars to Columbia [to support] these right wing dictator-types.” It was stated that much of these funds are earmarked for the purchase of equipment manufactured by the defense industry, which, according to statistics provided by Common Cause, donated a total of $2.3 million dollars in soft money to the Democratic and Republican parties last year alone. Lockheed Martin Corp. was cited as having donated at least $100,000 to each, and it also gave $100,000 to both the Democratic and Republican committees planning their respective conventions.
The openness of the Shadow Convention stood in stark contrast to the heavy security surrounding the Democratic convention down the street. A now infamous 14-foot high fence atop more than 70 tons of cement barricades separated the “secure zone” around the Democrat’s venue from the rest of LA. One KPFK radio DJ continually referred to the area outside the fence as the “free zone” during the station’s live broadcasts of the alternative convention. Entry to the secure zone for those with proper credentials was limited to a handful of points around the perimeter. Speakers and protestors alike compared the appearance of the corporate-named convention center to that of a “concentration camp.”
More than 3,000 police, earning an estimated $7.5 million in overtime pay, stood guard inside the secure area, as well as presented a strong presence across downtown L.A. Generally not interfering with protester actions, the LAPD was poised to use rubber bullets, baton, and pepper spray if deemed necessary. Over the course of the week several clashes occurred, some resulting in minor injuries, and approximately 190 arrests, some on felony charges, were made.
Except for the events surrounding a suspected bomb thought to be hidden away in an IMC member’s van on Monday, the Shadow Convention itself was spared police intervention. During the bomb scare, the hall was ordered evacuated, canceling a satellite TV broadcast by the IMC and forcing a Shadow panel to reconvene on a van in the street outside. After the audience had moved into the street, 100 riot police were dispatched to the area, “to protect,” Huffington told her audience, “the citizens of Los Angeles from Gore Vidal,” who was participating in the panel.
By the end of the week, virtually none of the afore-feared property destruction manifested. Contributing to this was the fact that many businesses closest to the protests, particularly those in the jewelry district, closed for the week at the urging of the police. Even those businesses far from the planned protest locations that seemed like obvious targets for anti-globalization activists took precautions. These included a McDonald’s several blocks from Patriotic Hall that boarded up its windows despite remaining open for most of the week. After the convention analysts commented that the influx of cash resulting from the Democratic event would likely amount to far less than the predicted $132 million.
For a movement that, by its nature, is under funded and unattractive to many traditional media outlets, the new progressives have managed to get their point across quite well to all those who chose to seek it out. It is fitting that so near Hollywood, the star power and fund-raising clout of Huffington and her strange cadre of movie stars, pundits, politicians and rich activists are what have finally underpinned the reality of this movement. With political theater of the scale, if not the grandeur, of that put on by the two major parties, combined with the moral force of the citizenry in the streets and the media power of an experienced and fully equipped news outlet, this movement seems poised to raise the profile of a debate which until now has been below many voters’ radar.