- BOSTON -- Anti-war campaigners
claimed yesterday that tight security at this week's Democratic national
convention was being used as an excuse to quash dissent.
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- The protesters will go to court today over a decision
confining them to a small pen under a flyover, ringed by razor wire and
largely out of sight of the convention centre, where party delegates from
around the country will gather to hear Bill Clinton and Al Gore open the
convention.
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- "We don't deserve to be put in a detention centre,
a concentration camp," said Medea Benjamin, a peace campaigner from
San Francisco. "It's tragic that here in Boston, the birthplace of
democracy, our first-amendment rights are being trampled on."
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- At the weekend, a judge described the protesters' conditions
as a "festering boil" and "an affront to free expression",
but he stopped short of ordering any substantial changes.
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- The judge in today's appeal, Douglas Woodlock, did grant
anti-war groups a permit to march by the convention centre yesterday, and
they took advantage of the ruling to demonstrate against the Democratic
party leadership's support for the Iraq invasion.
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- The Democrats won a significant battle against the threat
of chaos yesterday when firefighters, who had been threatening to picket
last night's delegate- welcoming parties, reached a deal with the mayor
over pay and conditions.
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- The extraordinary security around the convention is a
sign of how the political world has changed since the September 11 attacks.
Amid reports that al-Qaida will try to strike again to disrupt the presidential
election, the authorities in Boston and Washington are taking no chances.
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- Eight F16 fighter jets will fly non-stop over the city,
to guard the convention centre against hijacked planes, while coastguard
boats will patrol Boston harbour and Massachusetts's coastal waters. Manhole
covers have been welded closed, a hundred surveillance cameras monitor
the convention hall, and troops are mingling with police in the security
cordon.
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- Far worse from the point of view of ordinary Bostonians,
the authorities are closing 40 miles of motorway and other arterial roads
around the convention centre every evening and have shut down a nearby
hub on the city's underground system, the "T", hindering travel
to the downtown commercial district for the four days of the convention.
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- Two-thirds of Boston commuters have told pollsters that
they plan to work from home or take a holiday.
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- Despite the local population's scepticism, the city's
leaders are determined to make the first party convention here a turning
point in Boston history.
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- Under the slogan A new Boston, they are hoping to ditch
an image of grouchy insularity and traditionalism and bury the memories
of the mid-1970s, when white Bostonians rioted over a plan to force desegregation
of Boston schools. Instead, countless brochures point to the city's role
as a hub for hi-tech industries and medical care.
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- The charm offensive has been overwhelming at times. The
15,000 journalists covering the convention were feted on Saturday night
at an extravagant party in the city's newly built convention centre by
the harbour. Volunteers in white uniforms lined a red carpet and applauded
as the bewildered reporters filed in.
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- Inside, a vast hall was decked with exotic tents lit
by coloured lanterns beneath a ferris wheel. Free food and alcohol were
on offer every few yards, and awestruck guests gathered around fountains
of liquid chocolate.
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- As bands played and acrobats whirled on ropes above the
concrete floor, images of recent world news events were projected on the
walls, with a single relentless slogan, "Momentum".
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- The next four days will determine whether the rest of
the country gets the message.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1269120,00.html
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