Harris, DNC to face thousands of protesters ready to push their demands

Thousands of protesters take to the streets as the Democratic National Convention convenes in downtown Chicago. (Photo by Ross Williams / Georgia Recorder)

CHICAGO – Visitors to Chicago this weekend were greeted with bright blue banners and smiling Democrats decked out in lanyards and wielding clipboards, welcoming them to the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

But other welcome committees throughout the city bore different accouterments – Palestinian flags, keffiyeh scarves and signs castigating President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris under the monikers “Genocide Joe” and “Killer Kamala.”

Protesters, who were out in force as the convention got underway, made demands that include restoring abortion rights across the country, protections for LGBTQ+ Americans, and most of all, an end to arms shipments to Israel. The death toll from Israel’s campaign in Gaza has surpassed 40,000 since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Demonstrators like Tighe Barry of Washington DC largely said they are not satisfied with empathy and want action instead.

“Young people are sick and tired of endless wars,” he said. “Young people have been told for three different election cycles that it’s going to be better for the young people. ‘We’re going to make it better for you. We’re going to fix this.’ And they’re not fixing anything for the young people, and the young people are going to come out.”

“Voting for a Democratic Party, voting for Kamala Harris without her assurance that she will end the Israeli assault on the people of Gaza means we lose our soul,” Barry added.

Andy Thayer, an organizer with Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws, which put together Sunday’s protest, said he believes Democrats’ commitment to reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights is not as deep as they would like to portray, and one of the demonstrators’ goals is to remind the elected officials in town for the convention who they work for.

“The Democrats have said for the last half century that they’re in favor of abortion rights, and yet they voted for the Hyde Amendment year after year after year, including Sen. Biden. They have allowed our rights to be whittled away. The only time and reason they got interested in defending abortion was when they saw it as a vote getter, as they saw it as a path to their power. They are far more interested in their power than they are in our rights,” he said.

On Monday, a mass of protesters left Union Park and marched to another small park near the United Center and chanted slogans like “We know what this meeting’s for, genocide and war.”

Shortly before 6 p.m. local time, demonstrators breached a portion of anti-scale fencing along the Democratic National Convention’s outer perimeter near the United Center, according to the DNC Public Safety Joint Information Center.

“Law enforcement personnel were immediately on-scene and contained the situation,” the center said in a statement. “At no point was the inner perimeter breached, and there was no threat to any protectees.”

The Chicago Police Department remained on-scene and is working to clear the area.

Protests over Palestine surged across college campuses in the spring, often coming with heavy police responses, but things have cooled down over the summer as students returned home. Harris’ elevation to the top of the ticket further tamped down protests, as many were hopeful she was less ideologically committed to Israel than Biden, but the party remains fractured over the conflict, said political science professor David McLennan of Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“It’s a tightrope she has to walk,” McLennan said. “And I think you’ve started to see her speak out more forcefully against the Israel policy. Currently, she’s wanting a ceasefire. She’s pushed that a little bit more loudly than Joe Biden has been doing, but I think the convention will be a real test because we know there’ll be a lot of protests at the convention. Many of them are going to be pro-Palestinian groups. And so how she manages that, I think, will be really important going into the fall campaign. In previous speeches in the past couple of weeks, she’s kind of shut off hecklers and people who are saying things during her remarks. And so how she manages to express support for Palestine and Palestinians, and also doesn’t give up on Israel, it’s going to be a real challenge for her going forward.”

Rallies are scheduled across the week, with activists predicting tens of thousands of demonstrators in attendance. Hoping to stave off fears of a repeat of the unrest surrounding 1968’s convention, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Police have issued statements promising to protect the First Amendment rights of all protesters but bear zero tolerance for violence.

Violence during the convention or on college campuses around the country would not benefit Harris, said Emory University political science professor Andra Gillespie.

“I think there are questions strategically about optics and whether or not you can reinforce certain narratives that Donald Trump is trying to deploy against Kamala Harris, about how Democrats support lawlessness and Trump will keep people safe,” she said.

Trump has sought to paint Harris as soft on crime, especially as related to 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests.

“There’s no indication at all that she is deviating from Democratic Party orthodoxy on support for a two-state solution in Israel and Palestine,” Gillespie added. “And so that may not be everything that some activists want, but I think it becomes a question of whether or not activists can live with solutions that they may view as incomplete.”

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