Dairyland Sentinel, 4:15pm, June 23, 2024
The Democratic National Committee convention in Milwaukee never really came to fruition in 2020. The COVID-19 restrictions made the DNC event a mere shadow of what organizers had once hoped it would be. Four years later, Wisconsin’s largest city is set to host the Republican National Committee’s convention this July.
Not everyone, however, is excited that this massive convention will bring tens of thousands of people and tens of millions of dollars in tourism spending to the state next month. This past week, the Secret Service explained the security restrictions for the area surrounding the convention at the Fiserv Forum. Groups opposed to the Republican Convention complained that the designated protest areas were too far away from the RNC Convention site.
Nevertheless, protestors are gearing up for massive conflicts and the subsequent arrests that will follow. They’ve already announced a fundraising benefit concert to help pay for bail for those who will break the law.
To be sure, the planned protest activities will not be some spontaneous, home-grown, local, ad hoc expressions of public disdain for the Republican Party, its candidates, or platform. Thousands of individuals from across the country are busy organizing mass demonstrations to coincide with with the RNC in Milwaukee including The American Party of Labor, which bills itself as “a revolutionary working class organization in the United States.”
Joining those revolutionaries will be members of the following organizations: Code Pink, Baltimore Peace Action, Colorado Palestine Coalition, Denver-Aurora Community Action Committee, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, International League of Peoples Struggle, Legalization for All Network, Minnesota Abortion Action Committee (MNAAC), Minnesota Anti-War Committee, Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), National Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression, National Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression – Atlanta, Dallas and Tampa chapters, New Orleans Artists for Palestine, New Orleans for Community Oversight of Police (NOCOP), New Orleans Stop Helping Israel’s Port (NOSHIP), Party of Communists USA, San Jose Against War, Silicon Valley Immigration Committee, Starbucks Workers United, Tucson Anti-War Committee, Women Against Military Madness, and the Grand Valley State University chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America.
They join dozens of local, state and national organizations and activists endorsing the Coalition to March on the RNC 2024 this July. It is clear they expect conflicts and mass arrests to occur, and, as the event at the Cooperage in Milwaukee prove, fundraising efforts for their fellow “Freedom Fighters” have already begun.
