(MintPress) — As 2,286 delegates arrive in Tampa, Fla. for the 2012 Republican National Convention (RNC), police and the FBI are anticipating a large contingent of protesters from the Occupy movement and from more radical anarchist groups like the black bloc and Anonymous.
While there has been relatively little violence at major political conventions since the 1968 Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, authorities have taken precautionary, some would say, excessive steps to ensure the security of delegates, politicians and visitors to the northern Florida city. The 2008 RNC in St. Paul, Minn. drew at least 10,000 protesters calling for an end to the war in Iraq. Now, with the focus on the faltering economy and the increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan, a large group of protesters will continue the long-held American tradition of protesting political nominating conventions.
Anarchist action at the RNC
The major concern for authorities continues to be the more radical left wing elements infiltrating the ranks of largely peaceful protesters. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a warning in March saying, “Individuals from New York plan to travel to Tampa and attempt to close all of the Tampa Bay-area bridges during the Republican National Convention.”
The warning went on to say that groups could even use improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to try to penetrate the tough security surrounding the RNC and later the DNC in Charlotte, N.C.
Many of these concerns are substantiated by directives issued from the online internet hacker group Anonymous. The group issued a recent YouTube video called, “Anonymous RNC Battle Objectives Preparedness Plan”. The group has suggested jamming police radio devices with scramblers and knocking down protective barriers where there is a smaller police presence.
Anonymous also advises protesting the headquarters of large corporations in Tampa while avoiding small businesses. The secretive movement has been involved previously in shutting down illegal child-pornography websites and has also attacked various U.S. government websites.
The presence of more radical groups, like Black Bloc raises the spectre of violence at the RNC. Blac Bloc, a radical anarchist group, has been involved in rioting at major anti-globalization rallies in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. At the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Seattle in 1999, Black Bloc members rioted, causing damage to GAP, Starbucks and Old Navy stores.
A much larger contingent of peaceful protesters is expected to converge on the RNC to protest the GOP party platform. The largely peaceful Occupy movement issued a call to protest the RNC saying,
“As of now, we are a Coalition uniting groups from around the country to say NO to this political system that only works for the 1 percent and therefore are marching at the Republican National Convention to let our voices be heard. Together we stand to march for good jobs, healthcare, affordable education, equality and peace.”
CodePink, a grassroots women’s peace initiative, will also be part of the protest contingent at both the RNC and the DNC, offering a similar call for “Peace, Economic Justice, and Freedom for all!” as posted on its website.
The Iraq War
While the direct confrontational protests of Occupy, CodePink and others may seem like a nascent phenomenon, the post-9/11 landscape has produced a number of social and political protests, starting in 2003 with the revival of the anti-war movement.
Prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2002, major protests were held as then President George W. Bush attempted to rally support for the subsequent, illegal invasion. Early protests drew as many as 100,000 people in Washington D.C. and 50,000 in San Francisco.
Following the invasion, major protests were held across the U.S. From March 22-23, 2003 an estimated 250,000 people demonstrated in New York City while large scale protests were simultaneously held across North America, Europe and the Middle East.
While the protests did little to change the course of the war, they signalled a major global opposition to the U.S.-led invasion. While estimates vary widely, most sources fix the fatalities at more than 100,000, with the WikiLeaks project estimating that more than 60,000 Iraqi civilians were killed during the fighting.
2008 financial crisis
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, both unpopular with most Americans, cost U.S. taxpayers more than $89 billion, according to the War Resisters League. While the size of defense spending has been called into question by a number of groups, a confluence of more pressing financial issues caused the 2008 financial crisis, prompting what is the latest surge of U.S. demonstrations.
While built upon different ideologies, the tea party movement and the Occupy Wall Street movement can both be seen as responses to the economic recession of 2008. Occupy captured the world’s attention in late-2011 when thousands of protesters occupied Zuccotti Park to protest the excesses and problems of what many described as “rampant greed, financial fraud and speculation.”
Predatory lending associated with the subprime mortgage crisis contributed to an ongoing foreclosure crisis across the U.S. Unregulated derivatives trading on Wall Street further contributed to the financial collapse.
While Occupy never developed an official platform, there was generally consensus among protesters for greater government regulation of Wall Street, with many promoting a reintroduction of the 1932 Glass-Steagall Act. Many others decried the evils of lobbyists, corporations, labor unions, wealthy individuals and special interest groups usurping American democracy by giving millions of dollars in campaign donations to political candidates through political action committees (PACs).
The legacy of the 1968 DNC
While Occupy has decreased in its visible public presence following the police raids on encampments across the U.S., many of the original Occupy protesters are expected to travel to Tampa for demonstrations at the RNC. While unlikely to escalate into violent protests, the ominous warnings by the FBI and the DHS have caused authorities to be prepared for the possibility of violent confrontational attacks.
Part of this preparedness at political conventions stems from the legacy of the 1968 DNC at the height of U.S. anti-war activism during the Vietnam War.
An estimated 10,000 protesters associated with various anti-war groups protested the 1968 DNC in Chicago. Protesters were met with more than 20,000 hostile police and National Guardsmen, inciting riots across the city.
The strong police response was inspired partly by the ongoing FBI Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO), in which agents investigated and illegally attempted to subvert groups involved in the anti-war movement, the civil rights movement and the black power movement.
A bevy of groups, including Students for a Democratic Society, the Black Panthers, the American Indian Movement and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, comprised 85 percent of COINTELPRO operations.