SLC protest not just about Bush

Jessica Whatcott

Jessica Whatcott, Staff Writer

Protesters in Salt Lake City will join thousands of others across the nation Saturday in opposition to the inauguration of President-elect George W. Bush.

The Citizen’s Coalition for Fairness and Democracy (CCFD) has secured permits to march from the Utah Capitol to the Federal Building tomorrow morning against what they call “an exclusionary political system that is more beholden to corporate interests than the people.”

The gathering force behind the protest in Salt Lake and across the nation is the inauguration of a president who won by court decision and not by popular vote, said Jonathan Jemming, spokesperson for the CCFD. The group also hopes the event will provide visibility for other issues concerning the environmental, labor, women’s rights and anti-death penalty advocates, among others.

“This is a good opportunity for us to juxtapose local issues like campaign-finance reform with the national issues,” Jemming said. He said the protest has little to do with who won the election.

“This is a non-partisan coalition. Regardless of who won, we would have been there on Saturday. This goes above Gore and Bush to the issue of democracy itself,” Jemming said.

The coalition plans to gather at the Capitol at 11 a.m. for a speakers’ forum and will subsequently march to the Federal Building.

Speakers include representatives from sponsoring organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Justice Economic Dignity and Independence (JEDI) for Women, Citizens for Electoral Reform and University of Utah and Westminster College student Green Party groups.

The CCFD is a Utah-based group, but it has declared its solidarity with a national protest. Similar groups are planning at least five large protests in Washington, D.C., and sister demonstrations in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Austin and cities across the nation.

The inauguration protest in the District of Columbia follows in a series of demonstrations by progressive, generally youthful organizations calling for reform of the country’s political system and its stances on environmental, military, law enforcement and other social-justice issues.

Many groups organizing the inauguration protest supported the demonstrations against the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank that took place in Washington, D.C., in April.

Internet-based groups like the International Action Center and the Justice Action Movement have been instrumental in organizing protests since organizing over the Internet spurned the massive response to the Seattle World Trade Organization protests in December 1999.

In Washington, D.C., security forces are steeling for what officials expect will be the largest inauguration turn-out since 1973. That year anti-Vietnam War demonstrators marched while President Nixon was sworn in.

Security is also an issue for organizers of the Salt Lake protest.

Jemming said when he first got involved, he expected 50 people to turn out. But, he said, he has gotten such a huge response that he has had to obtain mass-gathering insurance in expectation of 500 people.

“The response is positive, but as an organizer it makes you nervous,” Jemming said.