posted on August 29, 2004 09:58:59 PM new
Poll: New Yorkers Support Protests
The Guardian (UK)
August 26th, 2004
NEW YORK (AP) - Democrats, who outnumber Republicans 5-to-1 among registered voters here, want their city to welcome not only Republican convention delegates but also the protesters who plan to demonstrate against the GOP. A sizable local contingent plans to join the marchers.
Differing with their Republican-controlled city administration, 71 percent of the city's registered voters think protesters should be allowed to demonstrate in Central Park during the Republican National Convention. And 11 percent plan to go to a demonstration themselves, according to a poll released Thursday.
A state judge has rejected a bid by the group United for Peace and Justice to force the city to allow a rally in the park Sunday after a march past Madison Square Garden, the convention site. City officials have said such a rally, which could draw 250,000 people, might damage lawns in the park.
The Quinnipiac University poll found that most New Yorkers, 81 percent, approve of lawful demonstrations during the convention, and 68 percent approve of nonviolent civil disobedience. Nearly all disapprove of violent protests, according to the poll.
``The city is rolling out the red carpet for the Republican delegates, but most New Yorkers would roll out the green carpet of Central Park for the anti-Republican demonstrators,'' Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement.
``Lawful demonstrations - even nonviolent civil disobedience - are a time-honored tradition and still widely supported,'' he said. ``But 19 out of 20 New Yorkers draw the line at violence.''
Two-thirds think the convention and the protests surrounding it will cause major disruptions, but just 10 percent plan to leave during the event, the poll said. Half said they were worried about the convention being held in the city, and 31 percent said they thought a major terrorist attack during the convention is ``very likely'' or ``somewhat likely.''
As for President Bush, the star of the event, 70 percent disapproved of the job he is doing, compared with 25 percent who approved.
The poll surveyed 822 New York City registered voters between Aug. 20 and Aug. 24 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
posted on August 29, 2004 10:28:04 PM new
United For Peace and Justice.....sounds so nice....so American. We all want peace and justice.
People need to learn who these groups really are....who sponsors them....the protestors they're so supportive of....the one's who work AGAINST the best interests of America and our people.
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"This will be the first such protest not organized by the Workers World Party (WWP), an energetic Marxist-Leninist organization that openly supports Kim Jong Il's brutal dictatorship in North Korea.
Instead, it will be run by a group called United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ), whose co-chair Leslie Cagan is an enthusiastic, longtime supporter of yet another Communist despot, Fidel Castro.
Given the manner in which the major media report the contemporary "peace" movement's activities, the average American would never suspect that it is in fact a movement dominated the selfsame Communists that once marched in support of Stalin, Mao, the Vietcong, the Sandinista Marxists, and the Communist guerrillas in El Salvador; the same America-loathing radicals who, because they passionately deem America the root of all evil in the world, now support Kim and Castro.
In the eyes of such "anti-war" orators and their enthusiastic audiences, America is always the problem, regardless of the setting or the time. The media, however, do not mention such things. They show only the surface of the movement, flashing images of spirited marchers with their placards and pithy slogans that decry America's "cowboy" mentality. Citing the large numbers of such demonstrators, liberal defenders of the "peace" movement contend that it is "broadening" to include many who cannot be described as "hate-America" Leftists like Ramsey Clark or Noam Chomsky.
But in order to understand the mind of any movement, we must acquaint ourselves with its leaders, those individuals whose ideas animate the masses that follow them.
Consider the aforementioned Leslie Cagan. She is a socialist and longtime activist who, during the past thirty years, has mobilized millions of demonstrators in rallies denouncing our nation's foreign policies; its military-related spending; and its purportedly virulent racism, sexism, and homophobia. She is a die-hard, pro-Communist radical who proudly aligns her politics with those of Communist Cuba.
Yet a February 4 New York Times puff piece benignly heralded Cagan as "one of the grandes dames of the country's progressive movement," a woman whose "organizational skills are prodigious."
Predictably, there was no mention that Cagan has consistently lavished praise upon Castro's Cuba, which she considers a far better place than the United States.
Cagan candidly sides with Castro's Communist regime rather than with the United States, which she deems the world's foremost terrorist nation.
Cagan's pro-Castro rallies were supported by such socialist organizations as Casa de las Americas, the Communist Party, the Socialist Workers Party, the Venceremos Brigades, the Workers World Party, and the Young Socialists.
Cagan herself was an original founder of the Committees of Correspondence, a splinter group rooted in the Communist Party USA.
Joining the chorus of her fellow leaders in the "peace" movement, she condemns what she calls America's "daily assaults and attacks on poor and working people, on women, people of color, lesbians/gays and other sexual minorities, the disabled and so many others, [and] such foreign policy matters as . . . military actions and economic sanctions."
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Only bits and pieces....for the full story on this 'Peace' group read this link:
posted on August 29, 2004 10:47:05 PM new
OOOOOOOH look out linda, there's a communist under every bed, around every corner and they're out to take over America !!!!
Will you lay off the bold? We are perfectly capable of reading. An occasional bolded word is fine, but you go over the top. Also, it would be nice to hear an original thought from you instead of the constant cutting and pasting. Don't be so quick to believe everything you read. I'm sure much of the same stuff was said about the Civil Rights marchers.
crowfarm
Thanks for the article. The right to peaceful protest is one of our Constitutional Rights and I've a feeling that if Bush could, he'd change that as well. The end of the 1960's brought complacency and I'm glad to see that people are no longer feeling like "what is - is". We've gotten off our duffs and I suppose you can thank Bush for that at least. I guess the GOP forgot that NYC is still a Democratic city. Kind of a dumb place to hold the convention, IMO.
Cheryl
. . .if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist- I really believe he is Antichrist- I will have nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend.. . - War and Peace, Tolstoy
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Prevent Bigotry through Education.