Calling International Action Center, a liberal organization! Jeesh! Call Ramsey Clark, sounds libelous!
Michael Pugliese
April 8, 2000, New York Times
Demonstrators of Old Spread Their Message in a New Era of Protest By JUAN FORERO These days, when New York's streets beckon and protesters gather, Joel Meyers arrives with a 9-foot-wide crimson banner demanding freedom for a death-row inmate who killed a Philadelphia police officer. Bill Davis, 57, an avowed Communist, appears to circulate the party's newspaper, The People's Weekly World. And then there's Gary Phaneuf, 44, who at 6 feet 6 inches towers over fellow protesters and attends demonstrations with one thought in mind. "We're out here to make socialist revolution," said Mr. Phaneuf, a disciple of Trotsky who was arrested on assault charges at one recent demonstration. Fervent about their causes and determined to make their point whenever and wherever they can, these protesters and others from a divergent cross section of the city's radical organizations have long trudged out to demonstrate on myriad issues, more often than not in the face of lagging passions and dwindling interest. But now, with the city in the midst of a series of loud, large protests against police brutality, they are hitting the streets again, re-energized. "They have their finger in the wind, and they know what's happening on the activist front," said Jeff Goodwin, a sociology professor at New York University who studies the city's social movements. "They know where the big demo is going to be. They show up with their newspapers, try to sell it and get their point across." The radicals -- many of them white men in their 40's and 50's who cut their teeth in the heyday of protests, the 1960's -- remain a distinct minority among the young black and Hispanic New Yorkers protesting over the acquittal of four officers who fatally shot Amadou Diallo and subsequent shootings in which undercover officers killed unarmed black men, Malcolm Ferguson and Patrick M. Dorismond. But the protests, which are attracting hundreds of passionate young people outraged about police tactics and looking for solutions, have provided a forum for radicals to draw a link between police brutality and what they see as the failings of American society. And for some, the hope is that the demonstrations will amount to something more. "We're always looking for one issue that can spark something, that can sustain on ongoing movement," said Scott Scheffer, 45, a bookkeeper and member of the International Action Center, a liberal organization founded by former Attorney General Ramsey Clark. "It could be that this is the thing that does it. It's exhilarating to see so many people out there. That's the fun part for me. People are angry and they're emotional and they want to do something." At a rally on Wednesday in Union Square Park organized and attended mostly by college and high school students, Mr. Davis worked the crowds, passing out the Communist Party's paper. "People's Weekly World," he announced, a bundle of papers under his arm. "Pages 4 and 14. Giuliani is out of control. That's about police attack at the Dorismond funeral." Mr. Davis, a member of the Communist Party for 29 years, has a snow-white beard and red suspenders that put him in sharp contrast to the youthful crowd, who listened as hip-hop artists and fiery poets railed against the police. But many took his newspaper, thanking him and making small talk that left him beaming. "I know you don't get a lot of discussion when you're handing out the paper," he said. "But some of the people look at the paper and come back and call up and then you have discussions. This is really to attract their attention." Whether the effort is having lasting effect, though, is another story. "These folks are part of the landscape; I don't see them as a significant part of the landscape," said Gregory Tewksbury, a professor at the New School for Social Research, who is working on a book about education and social movements. "I think that for a lot of people they tend to sort of not make a lot of sense and, hence, not make a lot of impact." Richie Perez, a founder and one of the leaders of People's Justice 2000, the grass-roots group that has organized Manhattan protests that attracted hundreds after the Diallo verdict, said that some of the older radicals had seemed out of place at some of the demonstrations. At a Bronx rally, he said, two radicals shouted about the evils of capitalism. "At that moment, Wall Street and capitalism were far from what people were thinking of," said Mr. Perez, 55, a former member of the Young Lords, a militant Puerto Rican group of the 1960's. "They were outsiders in this community, and they didn't understand this and respect the sentiments of the people." The visibility of the veteran protesters has also brought hostile words from City Hall. After demonstrators and the police clashed in Brooklyn at the funeral of Mr. Dorismond, the Haitian-American security guard shot in a tussle with a plainclothes officer, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said "demagogues" with "political and divisive purposes" in mind had touched off a melee in which 23 police officers were hurt and 25 arrests were made. The police said a variety of traditional leftist groups, as well as some newer grass-roots organizations, had instigated the violence. One of those arrested was Mr. Phaneuf, who was captured on a police video hovering over an officer who had been pummeled to the ground, according to a law enforcement official who viewed the tape. Though he denied hitting the officer, Mr. Phaneuf has remained strident. In an interview, he said that taking chances was a part of protesting. "Maybe you'll get arrested and maybe you'll get beat up and maybe you'll get killed, but it goes with the territory." Many of the older radicals scoff at the mayor's accusations, saying that they disavow violence and that the police are at fault. "The mayor has been seeing reds all over for several months now," Mr. Davis said. Mr. Davis said he hoped to link the problem of police brutality to economics, and to suggest that socialism could end inequality and racism in America. "We want to bring that idea to the people that this oppression by the police is related to the economics of the country," he said. Dr. Goodwin said such views did not mean that the old-time leftists were not sincere about the latest cause, fighting police brutality. "I think it would be wrong to see them as simply as parasites or opportunists who don't care a whit for the particular issues that are being protested," he said. "They are serious people. I don't think it's incompatible to say that they are truly opposed to police brutality and they also have ulterior motives." Robert Lederman, 49, a street artist who has protested for years against Mayor Giuliani's policies, often arrives with dozens of placards caricaturing the mayor as Hitler, complete with the Fuhrer's mustache. Ron Painter, coordinator of the Workers Committee for Self-Defense, comes armed with a newsletter, "Fighting Words," which calls for mass labor disruptions. And Mr. Meyers, 56, the demonstrator with the crimson banner, is steadfast in his belief that Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther, is unjustly on Pennsylvania's death row. The veteran protesters are an eclectic mix. Hillel Cohen, 50, of the well-organized International Action Center is a researcher at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Another, Bill Doares, 45, of the Workers World Party, is a copy editor for a magazine. Greg Dunkel, 59, who calls himself a "Marxist radical" interested in Haitian issues, is a data processor. What sets them apart is that free time is spent in meetings with like-minded radicals, perhaps not plotting the overthrow of the country but still looking to shake things up. They devour newspapers and political tracts and keep an ear tuned to stations like WBAI, which has a large black audience and adheres to leftist political causes. "I really do feel that that my mission in life is what I do after work," said Mr. Scheffer, who said he came to New York in 1987 because it was a hotbed of activism. Mr. Davis, a father and homeowner from Queens, said he had time to spare since retiring as a social worker. He spends it at Communist Party headquarters on 23rd Street or at protests, he said. "It's a lot more fun than spending 50 hours a week selling aluminum siding," he said. "And when my wife says I'm spending too much time doing this, I give her a list of all the bad habits I don't have. I don't gamble. I don't drink to excess. I don't run around with other women."