by Devi Zinzuvadia
NARR:
If you ask the Committee on Arrangements for the Republican National Convention, things are going great with their preparations to come to the Big Apple. Rori Smith, Convention spokesperson, says the RNC anticipates 50,000 delegates and guests will stream into New York City during the convention, which will be held August 30 through September 2. Security is one of the main concerns post 9/11, especially since the convention site, Madison Square Garden, sits over Pennsylvania Station, through which more than 200,000 commuters move each day. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said last week he is trying to keep disruption to city services at a minimum.
TAPE: Mayor Bloomberg
The Secret Service has not asked us to shut down Penn Station. We've not volunteered to shut down Penn Station. We will try to take the kind of precautions that we think are necessary. We will work with the Secret Service, but we're responsible in the end for security, and I think the NYPD is certainly up to it.
NARR: (with ambient from meeting running under, fade up and down)
But it is not just the threat of terrorist groups that is on the minds of those arranging and hosting the Republican Convention. Anti-Bush activists in New York have been busy preparing for their own counter convention, complete with rallies, marches, street theater, poetry, and song.
FADE UP, MEETING NOISE... FADE DOWN
The "No RNC Clearinghouse" is an organization of dozens of grassroots activist groups devoted to expressing their anger at the current administration. At their meetings in the parish hall at St. Mark's Church in the East Village, the Clearinghouse discusses fundraising, housing for outside groups coming to the convention, and media training. Sonia Lazreg (Lazz-regg) is the convention coordinator for Billionaires for Bush, a group that satirizes the presumed wealth of actual Bush supporters by wearing fur and fancy hats at their protest rallies, such as the Million Billionaire March at the 2000 convention in Philadelphia.
TAPE: Sonia Lazreg
I see danger as what's happening if he's around for four more years.
NARR:
Cheri Honkala (Honk-eh-la) of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign says it is important for all the Clearinghouse groups to maintain their focus.
TAPE: Cheri Honkala
The only thing that poor and homeless people have in this country is our voices. And if they allow us to silenced and to be afraid, then we have already lost the fight.
NARR:
Fear is a frequent topic of discussion at Clearinghouse meetings. Many of the activists are afraid they might be under surveillance from law enforcement or Republican operatives posing as members of the media. Others note that they put their day jobs at risk by participating in their anti-convention work. This puts the Clearinghouse on more or less equal footing in the paranoia department with the RNC, where an official cited "security concerns" as the reason this reporter could not visit their offices with recording equipment. With only five months to go before the convention begins, it seems that the battle lines are drawn, and both sides are proceeding with the utmost caution. For Columbia Radio News, I'm Devi Zinzuvadia.