Witnessing against torture and war, October 27th + SDS event in Chapel Hill

Below is my writeup on the Aero protest October 27th, which should be in the next issue of Alliance!, which I'm told is coming out this month. 

 

I was in the area of the recruitment center on E. Franklin in Chapel Hill where SDS' anti-recruitment march was to end this afternoon. When I went by at 4:30, when the event was supposed to be over, I saw probably probably more than 20 and fewer than 50 Gathering of Eagles types (probably the same) standing on the side of the road.  They seemed to have fewer (!) of their 'trademark' ~4' by 2 1/2' flags than in Smithfield. In the parking lot I saw a police officer, and now that I think about it, the police should have told the GOE to step back from the road, as they periodically tell the regular peace vigil down Franklin.  The GOE was gone before 5:30 as I went by again.  I am surprised the GOE came here (I assume they aren't strong in the Triangle, because this is the first time I have seen them here), and it shows dedication, but I wonder if they were asked to come, or if they were driven to come because it was counter-recruitment.  I went by late, so I can't say at this point what the student and community groups did, but their demonstration was scheduled to happen despite the rain earlier in the day.   

 

Witnessing against torture and war in NC, October 27^th

North Carolina Stop Torture Now (www.ncstoptorturenow.net) organized a "Peace Rally and Walk of Remembrance" against war, rendition, and torture in Smithfield (a town southeast of the state capital, Raleigh), the home of alleged "torture taxi" Aero Contractors, and near several other military and rendition-related sites. It may have been the largest ever anti-torture demonstration in the USA. The demonstration was part of the October 27th national day of action against the Iraq War, called by United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ). See www.oct27.org for more information about the events in Boston, Chicago, Jonesborough, Tennessee, LA, New Orleans, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Seattle.  There were many co-sponsors, mainly from North Carolina, but including the Georgia Peace Coalition. Alliance Marxist-Leninist also sponsored. 

The schedule was for people to gather at 12:30 in front of the Smithfield Herald office, march 1-2 along the sidewalk to the rally site in a small park beside the rain-swollen Neuse River and a main road, Business Highway 70/Market Street, and meet again from 3 to 5 to "witness" at Aero's hangar at the Johnston County Airport, a few miles away going west on 70 towards Raleigh.  I heard that the march started late, at about 1:15.  I was planning to arrive in time to at least see it, but I got there at the start of the rally instead. 

There were a few counter-protesters with large flags at the first intersection as I came in to downtown Smithfield, and I slipped by a large group across the street from the rally.  They were making some catcalls, but they were relatively quiet despite their numbers. They left early, possibly half way through the rally, and gathered to protect Aero from "vandalism."  Apparently someone was using an air boat to try to drown out and soak the rally, and the police were trying to stop it, but that must have been before I arrived. The roads were blocked off, but the police didn't mind me parking closer to the rally, and there was not a large police presence.  The counter-protest was apparently organized by the Gathering of Eagles (GOE) and the Rolling Thunder bikers. It probably included locals, but unlike them, I did not see or hear a lot of support for the counterdemonstration. I heard there was even a counter-counter-protester at the march and Aero, who was not with STN. I said hello to some people who might have been counterprotesters as I was going to the rally. STN asked participants not to argue with the counter-protesters, and that is mostly what happened. The protests probably helped some businesses. 

I was told by an STN organizer that for some reason the police wanted the addresses of the tablers, so they could run background checks.  Intimidation is the only explanation that comes to my mind, unless it was a kneejerk reaction. The lawn was the only town property the tablers alone could have damaged.  I thought the rally had several hundred to around 1000 people, but I think STN informally numbers the crowd at "nearly 350." They tried to get contact information from everyone, hopefully not for the authorities. 

There seemed to be 50 or fewer counter-protesters, and five or fewer police at the site.  I mainly remember the counter-protesters making childish insults, but they were more polite than those in Fayetteville (see past articles about that annual NC protest marking the start of the Iraq War in March), although I assume that many of the same people were there too.  The GOE preceded the march with a sign saying "Warning - troop hating, anti-patriot, commie traitors - they are on the march," which was meant as a generic insult in a place where even reactionary former senator Jessie Helms [and former senator and presidential candidate John Edwards] has been called a communist sympathizer. I heard that a woman put her hands on a counter-protester's face, in a gesture for calm, but was accused of slapping him.  I don't know if she was arrested. Many demonstrator pictures are online at www.stalberg.net/smithfield_oct272007.   

Real revolutionary communism was represented at our table and people took half of the Bush-Cheney impeachment pamphlets I had and also a reprint of the summer 2006 articles on Aero and NC public worker organizing.  The Grass Roots Impeachment Movement, Peace Action, CodePink, the Socialist Workers Party (not local), the Green Party, Peace 1st, Stop Torture Now, the Fayetteville Quaker House and GI Rights Hotline, and the Durham and Orange County chapters of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee.  There were several legal observers from the National Lawyers' Guild, with yellow caps. I talked to a gray SWP woman from Atlanta, who said her group was also going to a Greensboro event that afternoon. The SWP table emphasized the Cuban system, and it is a long-standing Trotskyist group.  A local couple stopped by and I talked for a while with the woman, who was an army veteran from around the first war with Iraq.  She was probably feigning ignorance in asking what my sickle-and-hammer pin stood for and whether Russia was still communist (I thought only people like Limbaugh had trouble telling the difference), while seeming to know that China is very capitalistic.  She seemed sympathetic, despite apparently being a Hillary Clinton supporter (some reactionaries insult us, thinking Clinton was/is a real communist).  This was one of Alliance's most effective tablings here, though there is much room for improvement. Alliance cosponsored 1-2 weeks before the event and was listed first in the online list of 40+ people and groups [51 are listed on NC STN's website], but not on paper. 

The Rainbow ReSisters and Hip Hop Education opened the rally, and Hip Hop Education did the lead out as well. Linda Barnes, a founder of STN and on the board of NC Peace Action, among other groups, welcomed the crowd. Jerry Surh, an NC State professor and Green Party member who was arrested at an earlier Aero protest, spoke for STN. Andrew Wimmer and Jerry King, of the Center for Theology and Social Analysis in St. Louis, and founders of the national Stop Torture Now!, were on stage. Middle and high school students Moira O'Neill and Ellen Biesack, who were arrested at Aero earlier this year, represented youth activism. I think Art Eccleston, an American Psychological Association member who is opposing the APA's policy of condoning US policies in the "War on Terror," was on stage when I arrived. Another person arrested at Aero this year, formerly a Baptist minister in Smithfield and founder of a Catholic Worker house, Scott Bass, spoke for Johnston County Christians Against Torture. Azadeh Shahshahani, an ACLU official in NC and now in Georgia, was there, as was poet and Aero civil disobedience protester Beth Brockman. Iraq Veterans Against the War was represented by Jimmy Massey.   

I got to the Aero Contractors event as it was starting.  There were lots of cars parked across the street from Aero's driveway, which is named after Charlie Day, a mechanic for flights extending the Vietnam War into Laos. There was a big NC Council of Churches sign and a prayer, followed by some remarks.  I didn't know exactly what the plan was, other than that would not be civil disobedience. The counter-protesters took the remarks before the event for mustering of courage, but surely they know about the tradition of praying before important events and setting the tone before doing anything symbolic. One said some things by bullhorn, but it was not very loud. They apparently expected us to try to enter Aero's compound and they welcomed us to touch the fence and be arrested. Supposedly the deputies told the beforehand GOE that we would be arrested if even a single picture fell inside Aero's fence. They write as if they are close to the police. They claimed to be non-violent, yet their later Web report ( www.gatheringofeaglesnc.org/smithfield_102707a.html) is militarized, calling this "the battle of October 27, 2007," where "the Home Insurgency planned attacks in multiple cities." This refers to peaceful demonstrators, and some of the counter-protestors have a military background, and killed people who really were armed, trying to liberate their countries.   Some posted comments online afterward saying they wanted to attack the protest. Hopefully it is just lying rhetoric, but they didn't scare STN. Also compare their behavior to the mission statement on their national website ( gatheringofeagles.org/our-mission-statement/ ), and you will see a difference between principles and actions. According to their website, they wanted to stop STN from even approaching Aero, but were asked not to by the Sheriff Department. 

Two counter-protesters started slowly walking from their group, at the gates of Aero, to us, maybe 150 feet away.  They talked about journalist Daniel Pearl having his head sawed off, not mentioning the connection to Pakistani intelligence, that US methods are not torture, the "jihadis" are going to get us if we leave Iraq, etc. Three more came over, while the first two were not being as disruptive as they could have been, but yelled about us indoctrinating our kids, several of whom were there.  We marched in rows of 8, at long, maybe too long, intervals, chanting "We are all one," carrying black posters with pictures of torture victims or the disappeared, from around the world, I think including John McCain, alleged al Qaida members, and others.  I did not envy the first row to go down, though the counter-protesters declared that they were non-violent. Their perception that the protesters were afraid and impossible to reason with doesn't match reality, as they should have seen by the end.  I did not relish walking up to this verbally abusive and possibly violent group at the end, but I did anyway, as did everyone else, from kids to silver haired elders.   

As my group came up the counter demonstration, I thought they were blocking us out, but actually that was the gate.  Aero has a large, dull blue hanger (I thought it would be darker), surrounded by young pine forest on the right and towards the road, and brownish lawn to the left.  We hung our signs on the fence, stayed a while, mingled with the now quieter counter-protesters, and then left. They serenaded us with "na na nah nah na na nah nah, good bye…," the title of which I can't recall (and earlier with God Bless America). The counter-protesters had lots of flags, a few airhorns, a periodically bellowing truck, and there were 12-15 motorcycles parked nearby.  Most of their insults were childish, like offering tissue for us 'whiners' and they said the FIST (Fight Imperalism Stand Together, probably connected to the semi-Trotskyist Workers World Party) sign did not demonstrate a college education. Some other insults at the demonstration – for some reason they said we would run if a plane brought back terrorists to run free (the old RPG through the kitchen window scenario).  Before that, someone had a taunt like 'I'll let you put panties on my head, if I can saw your head off,' and so on, to say that American methods aren't torture.  I doubt they have experienced imprisonment or torture as the victims and they overlook psychological factors. I was ready for worse. 

I heard that they told the children of a woman who went down earlier that their mother was troubled, but the counter-protesters were fighting for the children's freedom, or something like that.  There were some young kids with the Eagles also. There was no swearing, and there were some actual discussions.  There was not serious trouble, but they prevented an organizer from retrieving a picture of his grandfather, who had been tortured by the Nazis.  They insulted him before he got it back with the help of a deputy. A protester who took and dropped one of the proffered tissues was accused of littering to a deputy.

There could have been fewer than 50 in our group and fewer than 30 in GOE's at the gates of Aero.  The STN contingent was almost all white, and mostly middle-aged.  There seemed to be a few south Asians, people from the Middle East, or Latinos though, but only one or very few blacks.  The counter-protesters were mostly men and middle-aged, probably all white, and I think they had few or no college-age youth.  There were only a few people in plain view from the Sheriffs Department, yet there were three big vans and lots of patrol cars, and the officers who were visible were relatively heavily armed.  All or most of the police and deputies I saw were white, though I think there is a large minority population there. I wondered if a few of the cars that went out at Charlie Day Rd. from another driveway were trying to disrupt us, but there weren't loud motorcycles during the protest, unlike at Fayetteville in the past.   

According to the NC GOE's website, they think they "stalled" us there, but I believe STN planned to start that way regardless.  They also think they "severely opposed" we "moonbats."  They seem to have missed that there was a US flag on a pole to the stage's right at the rally, if I am not mistaken, and I and possible others did have US flags on our persons.  GOE wrapped itself in the flag, as if it belonged to them.   If it will make them happy, STN might want to consider bringing more flags in the future. GOE gave a flag to protesters during the march and some complained about an Iraqi flag someone brought.  

Maybe I missed worse abuse at the march.  At least they don't glorify Bush much and some of them seemed reasonable.  The patches on the jackets of the motorcycle group looked good, but maybe I shouldn't praise those after hearing that one had something like a "Moonbat Hunting Patrol" patch.  It is admirable that the opposition veterans were willing to risk hardship and death for something greater than naked self-interest, but they still ended up fighting for oppression. Anti-war activists will not support most of what they did and are doing, but they will find support as people and fellow Americans.          

Out at the main road there were a few conversations with counter-protesters that showed that they are seemingly reasonable people, and hands were shaken.  They will be in our face, one guy said, but they won't be violent or threaten us at home, as he accused an unknown CodePink member of doing.  One said he would find eyewitnesses more compelling, which he would find if he looked.  GOE for the most part missed out on a chance to have real dialogue with the other side.  On the other hand, the few discussions I heard afterward did not seem as heated as some of the STN people seem to think, but I was a bystander.  STN is going to try to communicate with some of the Eagles. For the most part we are all working people, and should not fight amongst ourselves, and there are glimmers that they reconcile with their fellow Americans. Most of the counter-protesters stayed back at Aero.  They think the US doesn't torture, so I assume they don't feel like they were protesting for torture, which seems more shameful to me than protesting for Bush-Cheney's wars.  This was more confrontational than I am use to, and I was wondering what the deputies might do.      

Local and Statewide public opinion matters more than what the pro-torture side thinks, but there was little media coverage. The day was briefly on the local ABC television station early that evening, which I heard was the sole network TV coverage.  I'm not sure ABC even stated our purpose, but it might have. I only saw a picture of a couple counter-protesters, and they had a pre-recorded view of Aero from a different road.  I did not see any TV crews, and I assumed the few journalists I saw were from alternate media or small media. There was a video blogger with the Eagles (see katysconservativecorner.typepad.com) and Independent Voices TV and possibly others were with the protest. The Smithfield Herald ( www.theherald-nc.com/front/story/5753.html), UNC-Chapel Hill's student paper, the Daily Tar Heel, covering 15 UNC SDS members who turned out (and following the usual custom of underestimating the size of demonstrations), and a rightist column in The Selma News covered the protest, but the only other reporters were with independent media. Ignominiously, an editorial (www.theherald-nc.com/opinion/story/5757.htm ) in the pro-occupation Herald said the GOE hurt their side, by appearing to try to shout down STN. 

STN is continuing, and with the high level of its campaign up to now, it will surely force the government to stop torturing for domination, but in our names.