“Let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late”
-Bob Dylan 

A few members of Behind Enemy Lines were in attendance at the July 15th “March on the RNC”. Given that some of the upcoming Chicago DNC protests are being organized by the same political forces, we have a responsibility to raise the serious problems with the approach being taken by those organizers. We understand that some people find open criticisms distasteful or uncomfortable, but we think that it’s our responsibility to the people of the world to raise these critical questions of political line and direction so that it may be openly discussed and debated. More importantly the US-Israel slaughter of at least 100,000 people in Gaza demands that we be sober, serious, and honest. This is all required if we intend to do more than just register our opposition, but actually contribute to ending the genocide. 

The March on the RNC was a relatively small rally and march, that mostly brought together the typical leftist groups with a laundry list of demands. Its march was located in a part of Milwaukee that was mostly cleared of people and outside of the convention security barriers. The only people the march was in “sight and sound” of were the police and the media. The march was patrolled by dozens of volunteer peace police in high-vis vests, some of whom were actively coordinating with the police. This includes the dozens of outside agencies, one of which would go on to murder a person the next day.  If the protests against the DNC in Chicago have the character of that RNC protest, they will be a massive failure and setback in the fight to end the genocide in Gaza, the movement for a free Palestine, and the development of an anti-imperialist movement in the belly of the beast.

For months, the Coalition to March on the DNC and its leading elements have repeated two points about their march: that they want a permit from the city of Chicago for their march, and that they want to be in “sight and sound” of the convention delegates. This was the same rhetoric used for the march on the RNC, which was organized by many of the same people, particularly members and supporters of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO). It has never been adequately explained why it’s so important for the march to be within “sight and sound” of the convention; the simple fact is that Democratic Party politicians see and hear protesters all the time and it has no effect at all. If the RNC march is any indication, even a large protest against the DNC won’t be seen or heard by the delegates, who will be safely ensconced in the security perimeter. Certainly in Milwaukee we saw very few Republican delegates, as the march steered clear of even symbolically confronting the massive fences outside of the arena where the convention was held. 

The demand that the protest be in “sight and sound”, rather than actively confronting the convention isn’t just wrong tactically, it also smuggles in a political understanding that we profoundly disagree with – treating the protests as a pressure tactic, attempting to “push” the Democratic Party to take better positions, and creating openings for people like union officials and NGO staffers to work both “inside” the convention and still support protests without risking their lucrative jobs. Notably, there is no point in the laundry list of demands from the Coalition that says that people shouldn’t vote for the criminals gathering at the DNC. In fact, many of the organizations in the Coalition, including FRSO, endorsed voting for Joe Biden in 2020. 

Genocide Joe’s withdrawal from the presidential campaign and the rise of Killer Kamala as his likely replacement makes opposition to the DNC even more urgent. The DNC will be the place where the Democrats and their mouthpieces do their best to bring all of the people who righteously hate the genocide in Gaza back into the fold, and the resistance to the convention must extend all of our efforts into resisting that project. Otherwise it will be all-too-easy for the media and some in the Democrats to spin whatever protests happen as “these people are protesting the DNC but will still get in line for Kamala.” In the case of some members of the Coalition, they’ll be entirely right. The uncomfortable truth is that many of the leftist NGO’s, unions, and “community organizations” (many of which are led by ex-radicals) that make up the Coalition and the progressive “movement” in Chicago do not want to deny the legitimacy of the Democratic candidate, much less the Democratic Party and the whole imperialist system. Their existence as organizations, their jobs, and sources of funding are completely dependent on the Democratic Party.

For our part in Behind Enemy Lines, we envision a very different week in August: one in which the protests are so creative, militant, and defiant that they seriously present anti-imperialist resistance as an alternative political pole to either of the two genocidal parties of US imperialism, that they further spread the crises of legitimacy that caused the Democratic Party to dump Genocide Joe, and they give people material ways to stand up to the modern day holocaust in Gaza. That will mean going beyond “sight and sound” and protest as usual, and being willing to confront the complicit, liberal wing of US imperialism and it’s local representatives in Chicago, especially the Zionist mayor who has welcomed the DNC with open arms. 

Fortunately, there are tens of thousands of people across Chicago and beyond who hate the genocide in Gaza and can be organized to join and support militant protests against the DNC. Behind Enemy Lines has been all over Chicago the past six months, agitating against the convention, disrupting their events, protesting, and holding neighborhood speakouts.  We are getting ready to welcome dozens of volunteers to Chicago this August to reach those tens of thousands of people and push the protests to be as defiant as possible. We invite anyone sick of protest as usual, who wants to see the DNC be actually and actively confronted, to join us and to reach out to further discuss these questions. If you have a high-vis vest in your closet, burn it.

 Come to Chicago this August, and shut down the DNC for Gaza!