Bush protested at Notre Dame (mention of the Deniacs)

[IndianaGreen]

Here is a first hand account from one of the comrades that demonstrated against Bush in South Bend. Don't ask for a link, this comes from an e-mail and it is not a published article (at least not yet):

About 150 demonstators protested President Bush's surprise and ultra-secret appearance on Friday the 4th at a " family-friendly town meeting " to discuss his plans for Social Security.

The trip was announced only the weekend before, with no timeline provided. Secrecy and misdirection were maintained to the last minute. This was deliberate; less than a week before local Congressman Chris Chocola had had his own town hall meeting at South Bend's Public Library, a very raucous affair dominated by a large turnout from the Dean Movement , MoveOn.org, largely overlapping with the Dean People, and Jobs with Justice. Chocola broke the Q&A part of the meeting off early rather than answer the hardball questions, and in Sunday's Tribune, his aide said that MoveOn.org had trained its people to disrupt the Congressman's meeting. Be it noted Chocola is one of the three Congressmen criticised in national MoveOn.org TV ads for his pro-Bush stand on Social Security.

Bush was going to take no chances that this would be repeated. The President of the local AFL-CIO Central Labor Council had intended to bring busloads of people to the forum site at the Joyce Athletic and Convocation Center on campus, but did not have enough lead time to put it together. We didn't even have a tentative time for the appearance until late Wednesday afternoon, and could not even plan anything until the Dean America for Democracy Meet-up Wednesday night, at which we had been going to discuss a Save Social Security Campaign.

The ticket distribution was totally handled by Congressman Chocola's office, and even Departmental Chairs at Notre Dame could not pry loose the time.

And on top of all that , they lied about the time and started 45 minutes early , before our planned march from the ND Vietnam War Memorial to the JACC.WE learned of this quick enough to get the march started early and were on site before Bush.

The rally was very enthusiastic despite cold and sleety weather. The chanting was loud and vigorous, most of the signs opposing the war in Iraq, and demanding saving Social Security.

The rally was addressed by the president of Local 5, an amalgamated UAW local that is the second largest in the area after the Teamsters. also addressing the rally was Dr. Matin Wolfson of the Higgins Labor Center on the ND campus, an authority on pensions and a public speaker for the North Central Indiana Central Labor Council's and the local Alliance of Retired Americans Chapter's official campaign to save Social Security Also attending was Dr. Teresa Ghlarducci, a nationally recognised authority on and author of a major book on pension system reform. The president of the Central Labor Council, a trained journalist and retired Teamsters president managed to get a ticket and covered the "Town Hall Forum " for Teamsters Magazine.

Three anti-war activists managed to acquire tickets, but vocalising protest inside , were escorted by the police out of the arena to the cheers of the demonstrators. In the Saint Joseph Valley area, (including the cities of South Bend , Mishawaka, Elkhart, and Goshen) The Dean movement is basically an extension of the local Peace Movement,giving a more political dimension to the largely religious based local peace movement. The "Deaniacs" were out in force at the rally, including the local speaker for Military Families Speak out, whose son ihas been stationed in Iraq for more than a year.

The scene got ugly for a few minutes as the local Republican Faithful streamed out of the Center; young Republican types hastily put together a counter demonstration on the other side of the street screaming obscenities and pro-Bush cheers at us.Our numbers had dwindled to about half by then. We were treated to the sight of well dressed middle-aged " gentlemen " flipping the bird to students holding " What Would Jesus Privatize ? " signs. It got tense enough that a line of police moved in front of the counter demonstrators. A sign of the times, the cops began to take photographs of the demonstrators ! We stood our grounds, and as it began to snow wet and heavy, the Republicans began to melt away, probably to save there hairdos.

Overall, the protest lasted about three hours

End

[Erika]

1. Way to go!!!

[fooj]

2. What's the matter? Did Shrub forget to bus in his handpicked crowd?

LMAO! Way to let your voices BE HEARD!

[burn the bush]

3. I didn't see any cops taking our pictures.

Thats not to say it didn't happen, but I didn't see it. The pugs were taking our pictures but that was ok. I has holding my sign with hands formed into the bird. Not the peace dove. Just the bird. I thought it was rather mild.

[FtWayneBlue]

4. Members of the protest group crossed the street a few

times to take pictures from the Bush side, and yes, I did see a policeman take a few quick pictures. I got there as the group began their march from the fountain to a spot just across from Gate 10 and was given a sign to hold that said "Citizens United Against Bush," and smiled at the inventiveness of the fake Bush Social Security Card enlargements. I was happy to shout myself hoarse in protest of the Bush regime.