Solidarity Forever — Against Bush

September 2001 — reported by Maia Cowan

"Which side are you on?"
Florence Reese — sung by Woody Guthrie

The Teamsters picnic to which Bush had been invited (by James Hoffa Jr., not by "the Teamsters") was an inside affair, in the Teamsters Joint Council 43 building near downtown Detroit. It's a semi-rundown area, characterized by vacant lots no longer used for parking for the abandoned Tiger Stadium and a big, shiny new Motor City Casino that hasn't brought other new businesses into the area.

I'd done my small part to get the word out about when and where George W. Bush would be in Detroit on Labor Day; but given that the regime was being typically secretive and there was no specific information until Friday, I wasn't sure just how many people would turn up for a Labor Day protest.

Silly me. I'd guessed that "the other" unions would be annoyed that the head of the Teamsters invited Bush to a Labor Day celebration. I was right about that. I hadn't, however, figured out that the annoyance would translate into hundreds of union members — many of them Teamsters — standing across from the Teamsters hall to tell Bush just how unwelcome he was. (I got estimates from several other participants as well as making my own count, and our consensus was 300 people. So don't let CNN or the Washington Post tell you otherwise.)

A couple of friends and I arrived about noon — two hours before Bush's scheduled arrival, to make sure we wouldn't run up against "security measures." We of course weren't allowed on the same side of the street as the union hall, but we were able to stand directly across. The police officers stationed at the street corners just nodded when we walked past. The Two Guys In Suits With Wires In Their Ears who were standing in the middle of the street never looked in our direction, but somehow we knew they were keeping us under surveillance.

I hoisted my sign, a Gore/Lieberman campaign sign altered to read

RE-ELECT
Gore/Lieberman 2000
BUSH CHEATED

(And I learned later on that the sign was featured on the local Fox News report!)

My companions hadn't brought signs, so they took charge of the flyers I'd brought: a list of headlines about Bush's lies and broken promises, emphasizing actions that hurt workers, under the heading "Honor and Integrity?"

The Teamsters picnic is a very big deal for Michigan politicians, especially this year since the candidates for next year's governor's race are already campaigning. One candidate, Attorney General Jennifer Granholm, arrived while the crowd was still small. She saw my sign, gave me a thumbs-up, and then came over. I told her I knew she couldn't refuse to be in the same room with him, but she should tell him we all know he didn't win Florida. I doubted that she would, but I was (slightly) gratified by her acknowledging us. None of the other politicians did. (I found out later that she left before Bush arrived.)

The number of protestors grew steadily. They were mostly union members who were angry about the invitation to Bush to celebrate Labor Day in Detroit. The Ironworkers were out in force, and the Communication Workers of America, and the UAW, and certainly other unions (the three I mentioned were identifiable by their t-shirts). Many had printed signs proclaiming that "BUSH IS BAD FOR" Labor, Social Security, Ergo[nomic work] Rules, etc. A few had hand-lettered signs expressing their wrath with the Teamsters, declaring "TEAMSTERS SOLD OUT" and "THIS IS DIVIDE AND CONQUER." The grassroots Resistance was in evidence, too, in slogans on t-shirts and buttons:

"THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN, ALL 5 OF THEM,"

"DON'T BLAME DUBYA...HE'S A VICTIM OF SOCIAL PROMOTION."

"I DIDN'T VOTE FOR HIS DADDY, EITHER," and

"SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST TOO STUPID TO BE PRESIDENT."

I was delighted to meet several members of the grassroots Resistance whom I previously knew only through e-mail. One woman was there with her 11-year-old and 9-year-old daughters. The older girl said she wanted to be there because "Gore was ripped off." Children know the truth — how do the media persist in denying it?

The whole event was recognized as a "photo op" for Bush. One union member said, "I'm not going to say this is a rally for Bush — it's more like propaganda." Another complained bitterly about the fact that it was Labor Day in Detroit, and Bush was using the day for "false propaganda." Still another man said, "They're trying to show him like he's friends with labor, but he's not."

The general opinion was that inviting George W. Bush to Detroit for Labor Day was like inviting Jesse Helms to Harlem for Martin Luther King Day.

The Teamsters on the "pro-Bush" side of the street were not happy about the protestors. A few of the event organizers (in appropriately red t-shirts) got into a shouting match with the union members on our side of the street. That's when I discovered that some of those union members were Teamsters themselves, who were refused admittance to the union hall because they wouldn't give their unqualified endorsement of the invitation to the Special Guest.

Yes, folks, it was another invitation-only "public" appearance. Only hand-picked loyalists allowed in. Gosh. What a surprise.

I'd been feeling smug that when we arrived, nobody tried to herd us into a "First Amendment Zone" discreetly distant from our target. I should have known better. The police informed us we'd have to move up the street, about a block away. It was only a block — Bush would still be within earshot and we'd probably even see his motorcade arrive — but it was a violation of our First Amendment Rights. Before the event, the Michigan State Police had told me the area's a public sidewalk and no one could keep us off it. I was disinclined to move.

The union members saw it the same way. They'd go a few steps and then stop and face the police, and some of them asked point-blank what the police would do if they had to arrest every one of us. The police stopped pushing when we'd gone only half a block. I think the hearts of Detroit's Finest just weren't in it; Bush got a mere 6% of the vote in Detroit, after all.

In spite of the assurances from the State Police, I had come prepared to be pushed off. As the police urged us away from the union hall, I began handing out sashes of bright orange tape printed with FIRST AMENDMENT ZONE (sent to me by the Boston grassroots Resistance group of that name). They were a major hit with the crowd. I made a point of telling people that we were lucky; most places Bush shows up, dissenters aren't allowed within several blocks to a mile of him. Many had heard about the arrests in Tampa; but quite a few people's eyes widened when I told them that when Bush did his photo op pretending to work on the Habitat for Humanity house in Waco, the nearby residents were prohibited from leaving their houses.

Being moved away from ground zero just made the crowd noisier. We chanted "BUSH GO HOME!" and "HEY HO HEY HO, BUSH AND CHENEY GOT TO GO!" and sang "Solidarity Forever" (as a slap at the Teamsters inside the hall, I think).

It was a family event for many people. The young people were particularly eager to have First Amendment Zone sashes. Several middle-sized children staked out a spot on the curb and stayed there the whole time holding up their "BUSH = RACISM" signs.

The protestors had been divided (not necessarily deliberately) into two groups, on either side of ground zero. Of course Bush's motorcade drove past the other group, not the group with which I was standing. He surely heard our crowd on the "far side," though. As soon as we saw the flashing lights and line of limousines, we burst into catcalls and boos and a general deafening racket. This was one time Back Door Bush couldn't sneak in out of sight — there wasn't a back-door route to the union hall.

It's been said that organizing liberals is like herding cats. It's true. Half the folks around me were chanting "GO HOME BUSH!" and half were chanting "BUSH GO HOME!" We just couldn't get it together so anybody outside the crowd could tell what we were saying. At least the intent, if not the words, must have been clear. We weren't mean, but we were scornful.

After the motorcade was tucked away in the hall's parking lot, most of us circled the block and joined the crowd on the "near side." It was closer to the union hall — the opposite corner, in fact. There was nothing to see except a line of bored-looking police officers on equally bored-looking horses. The Two Guys In Suits With Wires In Their Ears ambled down the street to keep us under observation (without ever looking directly at us). One of them wasn't wearing a tie, but there was no mistaking who they were. I was fascinated that a number of people pointed them out, not as the Secret Service, but as the *CIA* there to protect Bush from us dangerous elements.

Having grown hoarse and a bit limp by this time, we stood around sharing information about Bush atrocities and demonstrations at his other appearances and only sporadically yelling "JAIL TO THE THIEF" and "LESS THAN FOUR MORE YEARS," until we realized that the line of Official Vehicles that we could see inside the compound had driven around to the other side of the building.

When people wondered aloud whether Bush would leave the way he came in or whether there was another way out, one man observed, "He snuck into the White House — and he's going to sneak out of Detroit."

So we trekked back to the north side of ground zero, and a good thing, too: the motorcade did go that direction when it left. We were in position to boo directly at Bush. I was on the curb holding up my BUSH CHEATED sign as he drove past. I've convinced myself he was looking straight at it, and it will haunt his dreams.

I don't know how things went inside the union hall, but I heard people saying a lot of members who would normally be there stayed away. One of the protestors told me he was just going to stay home, but he got so angry when he heard the squatter's speech from Wisconsin that he decided to come and protest. (News reports nearly all described the event as "sparsely attended," and one report even said there were boos mixed in with the "polite applause.")

A man who came out of the hall after Bush's speech gave the crowd his opinion of the visitation: "They say we hadn't had a president in 50 years visit the union, and as far as I'm concerned we still haven't had a president visit." Everyone laughed, including the police officers on horsebacks — and the Two Guys In Suits.

I'm inclined to believe that Bush's show of "reaching out" to the unions was a big flat bust. It probably did some damage to James Hoffa's chances of re-election, too. All in all, therefore, we can call this protest a rousing success.