Over the weekend, the streets in front of his [Diallo's] former home were mobbed with peaceful protesters, many of whom had never been to a political event in their life. The quick mobilization in response to Diallo's death is a measure of the killing's shocking brutality. But it also points up the central role of New York's immigrants in building opposition to Giuliani. On Tuesday, more than 1,000 people showed up outside the federal courthouse in downtown Manhattan to protest Diallo's killing. People poured off the subway onto Centre Street, a steady stream from 11 a.m. until well after 2. They were almost entirely African-American or African-born, and very few of them were the usual suspects from anti-police-brutality rallies. For once, the International Socialist Organization, the Free Mumia set, the black Muslim radicals were in the minority. Instead, people in the crowd were using a different rhetoric, talking about a different kind of politics. "They're trying to pit us against Archie Bunkers, against pro-cop white bigots," one woman told me. "But we know they're not our enemy. It's the poor and the working people, and they're pitting us against one another. Little by little, the people are starting to understand." The rhetoric of class struggle may have been a little antiquated, or a lot antiquated, but the Diallo rally showed the potential for a new kind of politics. People weren't shouting the usual slogans or going through the usual motions of street protest. Even the Rev. Al Sharpton, the biggest protest hack of all, put aside his usual race rhetoric and appealed for a more universal system of justice. The absence of white protesters was noteworthy, and yet predictable. The white left in New York is moribund. Aging Upper East Side intellectuals and Vietnam War protesters never show up at protests in this town anymore, and probably never will again. The political landscape of New York has changed entirely. The white intelligentsia isn't angry about anything and has little or nothing to offer the political debate. Their dirty little not-so-secret is that they benefit from Giuliani's repressive policies. <http://www.salonmagazine.com/news/1999/01/cov_14newsa.html> Their streets are cleaner, their fear of crime dissipated, their place in the city's socio-political firmament secured. Many old radicals are comfortable now.
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Carl Remick