USA: THOUSANDS OF PROTESTERS MARCH ON REPUBLICAN CONVENTION TO DEMAND ECONOMIC RIGHTS FOR THE OPPRESSED

Record ID: 278420

  • Title: USA: THOUSANDS OF PROTESTERS MARCH ON REPUBLICAN CONVENTION TO DEMAND ECONOMIC RIGHTS FOR THE OPPRESSED
  • Date: 1st August 2000
  • Summary: PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, UNITED STATES (JULY 31, 2000) (REUTERS) MV DELEGATES DANCING (2 SHOTS) (SOUNDBITE) ( English) TEXAN DELEGATE "I just want everybody to know that everything is bigger in Texas, so this is a Texas size campaign button."
  • Embargoed: 16th August 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA AND DAYTON, OHIO, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA8Z9HTYIPM0XYPHVTKHFV765U7
  • Story Text: A few thousand protesters marched on the Republican National Convention on Monday (July 31) to demand economic rights for people oppressed by poverty and homelessness. But, amid concern that the protests would erupt into clashes, the Philadelphia police held a watchful presence and let them pass peaceably.
    Meanwhile, among the faithful inside the Philadelphia Comcast Centre, the quadrennial event was marked by the usual flag waving, proclamations of party unity and prescriptions for a better future, Republican style.
    The marchers lacked the city permit necessary to parade along a major city thoroughfare. It had been anticipated the Philadelphia police would arrest the protesters as they moved along the six kilometres from City Hall to the convention centre. Indeed, in the weeks leading up to the convention, police officials were quoted as saying no-one would block Broad Street, a main traffic artery running through the centre of America's fifth largest city.
    But the police, including a brigade on bicycles, judged that the crowd posed no great threat to civil order. The demonstrators, estimated at around 2,000 people, were mostly comprised of people in their twenties. They chanted slogans and carried placards against the welfare reform policies of the Republican Party, which they regard as insensitive to the plight of the 35 million poor and disenfranchised Americans.
    Given the sentiments of the demonstrators, it was somewhat unexpected that seen walking along the fringes of the march was none other than Newt Gingrich, the Republican former Speaker of the House of Representatives and the man whose conservative politics personify everything the demonstrators were protesting against. But, except for an alert few, Gingrich was largely unnoticed by the demonstrators as he skirted across the car park of a fast food store on the way to a nearby appointment.
    Three hours past their departure from City Hall, tired and sweaty, the protesters reached their destination -- the secure perimeter of the convention site. Some demonstrators along the route had been hatching plans to breach the line, but the police stood firm at the barricades with their truncheons and plastic handcuffs at the ready. Seeing that, the protesters dispersed to a nearby park.
    Meanwhile, the Republican National Convention struck a relentlessly upbeat tone on its first day on Monday, (July 31) The Republican love fest, that will culminate with Bush accepting the party's presidential nomination later in the week, began with delegates approving without dissent the party platform for the November 7 election.
    While the delegates were voicing their support in Pennsylvania, Bush was in the key state of Ohio ahead of his long-distance debut at the party convention.
    "We got a lot of work to do, and I'm ready to do the work and I hope you join me," Bush told a cheering crowd of supporters in Dayton.
    After Ohio, which no Republican presidential candidate has ever lost and still been elected to the White House, Bush travels to West Virginia and Pennsylvania, winding up in Philadelphia on Wednesday (August 2) to watch his newly chosen running mate Dick Cheney nominated to the vice presidential spot on the party's ticket.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register