‘Not welcome in our city’: protesters march on Republican convention

As the Republican national convention kicked off in Milwaukee on Monday, about a thousand people led a spirited demonstration against Donald Trump and his party on the streets outside.

The March on the RNC gathered in a park a couple of blocks from the Fiserv Forum, where Trump was formally nominated at the Republican candidate for president.

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Armed with pro-Palestine flags, anti-Trump posters and even a ventriloquist’s puppet of Trump, the coalition of progressive groups marched through downtown Milwaukee, stopping traffic and chanting ‘Free Palestine’ as they walked.

The group had begun proceedings with a rally at Red Arrow park, where Omar Flores, co-chair of the Coalition to March on the RNC, was among the speakers.

“Today is about telling the Republicans that they’re not welcome in our city, they’re not welcome anywhere and anywhere they show up, we’re going to show the opposition to their ideas,” Flores told the Guardian.

Flores, who led a similar march on the Democratic national convention when it was in Milwaukee in 2020, said, the demonstration could achieve real results.

“It means we’re able to get some of the issues that we’ve been wanting to get national attention to the forefront of everything that was being discussed. At the DNC, we had a dozen families that had lost loved ones to police crimes, and were able to get their names out there, and be able to get them the help that they needed,” he said.

On a sweltering day in Milwaukee, many attendees sheltered from the sun under trees and overhangs as speakers discussed US aid to Palestine, access to abortion, and the importance of unions.

“Basically the entire platform of the Republicans this year is they want to increase border restrictions, they want to deport immigrants, they are attacking LGBTQ rights, and they stand with Israel, and we don’t stand for any of that. So that’s why we’re marching today,” said Emily Chu, a 22-year-old student who had traveled by bus from Minneapolis.

Sasmit Rahman, who traveled to Milwaukee with Chu, said:

“The Republicans know that their policies aren’t popular with people. You can visibly see that: they’ve been walking back their public anti-abortion sentiments because they know that it’s not popular. It doesn’t change the fact that they’re still going to put it in place, but like, they’re scared of how the people are going to react when they put unpopular policies in place.”

A small police presence followed the marchers as they walked about a mile through the city, with police boats stationed in the Milwaukee River. Despite the hope that the rally can draw attention to some of the Republican party’s most objectionable policies, some among the crowd were resigned to a Trump win in November.

There was little talk at the march of the assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. But when asked, some felt that the shooting, in which one rally attendee was killed and two more injured, could have sealed victory for Trump.

“I feel like it’s inevitable at this moment,” said Neville, who ask that his last name not be used.

“As we saw in the debates, Biden is declining, he’s deteriorating. He’s saying incoherent things, you know, he clearly didn’t stand a chance in the debates – not to say that Trump was great in the debates; he wasn’t – but then mixed with what happened in the last couple of days [with the assassination attempt on Trump], it just seems as if we already know what’s gonna happen.”