Ann Arbor "Unwelcomes" Bush Presidency

Ann Arbor "Unwelcomes" Bush Presidency by Ted Sylvester

ANN ARBOR - On Jan. 14, as George Bush was climbing into the saddle of power n Washington, about 250 people gathered downtown in front of the Federal Building for an "anti-George Bush Inaugural Protest." The crowd alternately cheered, jeered, and shivered as representatives f rom 17 local activist groups took the podium to urge the new president to build his promised "kinder, gentler nation."

For one hour, speaker after speaker expressed a common theme. From homeless activist to peace activist, from gaylesbian rights activist to tenant rights activist, from anti-racist activist to pro-Palestinian activist, from student activist to abortion rights activist- the radical, progressive, revolutionary, and liberal alike - all voiced a common abhorrence of the Reagan Revolution and George Bush's role in it.

"While some things have changed, too much has remained the same," Pam Nadasen from United Coalition Against Racism (UCAR) told the crowd. Nadasen cited Miami's Overtown riots as an example of the continuing and pervasive problems of racism and poverty in America. "The question we need to be asking," she said, "is why are Blacks and Hispanics fighting over crumbs under the table when down the block you have rich white men making sixdigit salaries without doing a damn thing?"

Many of the other speakers echoed the sentiments of a pre-protest press release issued jointly by 13 sponsoring groups, which called on the Bush administration "to reverse the spending priorities of the past eight years. . . by helping the most oppressed people of our country and overseas." The groups specifically called for cuts in the defense budget and a return to pre-Reagan levéis of social spending. According to the statement, "human rights must be a priority and should be reflected in ncreased spending for AIDS research, affordable housing, and education."

The crowd, for ts part, carried many handpainted signs, some of which read "Healthcare Not Wealthcare," "Shelter People Not Cars," "Maintain Roe vs. Wade," "Secret Wars Obvious Crimes," and "Test Peace Not Nuclear Weapons." Though many speakers urged them to "take to the streets," only about one-half of the protesters chose to march the few blocks to the offices of The Ann Arbor News after the rally. After a short speech demanding fairer media coverage of social issues, and a short conversation with a News editor, the crowd dispersed.

One of the organizers of the protest, Dave Austin , a member of Latín American Solidarity Committee (LASC), said he considered the rally a "success because of the diversity of the participants," and the possibility that "people can make a connection between what they're working on and other causes." Part of the success of this particular protest, Austin added, was that t was organized from the start to include a cross-section of groups from Ann Arbor's progressive grassroots community.

According to the protest's emcee Phillis Engelbert, also a member of LASC and an organizer of the event, the list of sponsoring groups and their speakers just kept on growing, and not everyone made it to the podium.

Representatives from the following organizations spoke at the rally: Homeless Action Committee, Concerned Faculty, Public Health Students Association, National Lawyers Guild, Latin American Solidarity Committee, Interfaith Council for Peace, Ann Arbor Tenants Union, U-M Asian Student Coalition, United Coalition Against Racism, Palestine Solidarity Committee, Center for Health, Peace and Understanding, Lesbian and Gay Rights Organizing Committee, Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament, Revolutionary Workers League, Socially Active Latino Students Association, Committee to Defend Abortion Rights