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The 2012 Republican Convention
by Jo Freeman

Protests

Protests at the Republican Convention were diverse, frequent and small. Despite the weather, none were postponed, but some ended early with a downpour.

Most of the many marches started from different city parks and ended in an empty field set aside for demonstrations.
The "99%" marched on Sunday, on a permit obtained by the Service Employees International Union.
The official protest zone met the legal requirement to be within sight and sound of the convention. It was unlikely that anyone attending the convention could see the rallies or any of the posters without making a special effort.
At the other end was a stage which had more police than protestors watching whoever was on it. There wasn't much competition for the allotted time slots.
While one could march on the streets from the parks to the protest zone, to get within the vicinity of the convention required negotiating an obstacle course.
Vehicle entry to the security zone. No pedestrians allowed.
A small but spirited group defied the threat of a hurricane to March on the RNC on Monday.

A wide variety of groups and people participated in this march.

The black bloc created a minor kerfuffle when a dozen masked marchers tried to get ahead of the front line. They were surrounded by march marshals and pushed back inside.

Some demonstrations stayed in one place.

Two New York artists installed an ice sculpture to illustrate the melting middle class www.meltedaway.com
CodePink and Planned Parenthood both protested the Republican "War on Women," that was really a war on sex. In the previous year, Republican-controlled state legislatures passed a series of bills to make legal abortion harder to obtain. Virginia's provoked controversy in February when the Assembly debated a bill which would require all women seeking abortions to first get a transvaginal ultrasound. This was widely denounced as very invasive. In June, Michigan Rep. Lisa Brown used the word "vagina" while speaking against a bill to limit abortions. One Republican Representative said the word was "so offensive, I don't even want to say it in front of women. I would not say that in mixed company." The Speaker banned Ms. Brown from speaking from the floor. She responded in a press conference: "If I can't say the word vagina, why are we legislating vaginas?" To show their support, CodePink created some vagina representations to be worn by protestors. These garnered a lot of attention and some verbal circumlocution. A lot of the newspapers described these costumes as "female body parts" instead of vagina representations.
Planned Parenthood rally
CodePink greets guests coming to a Republican fundraising party.

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