7 Political Conventions to Make L.A. Party Central

The people behind the People’s Convention--veteran leftists who hope to build something like a third-party movement in Los Angeles in August--are concerned about being overshadowed by the Shadow Convention’s celebrity-studded roster.

The folks organizing the Homeless Convention are scrambling to house the 1,000 homeless people scheduled to attend their affair.

Reform Party planners are wary that Pat Buchanan supporters, who chanted “lock and load” at the last party meeting, might get rowdy during their party’s convention in Long Beach.

And let’s not even get into the traffic problems that other convention is going to cause as thousands of delegates and reporters pile into Staples Center on the edge of downtown Los Angeles.

So many conventions, so little time. There will be seven conventions--as well as an anarchists’ conference--in the space of one week in Los Angeles County this summer, as all manner of groups try to snatch their share of the Democratic National Convention’s spotlight. That event, the sun in the solar system that is this summer’s convention season here, is expected to draw 15,000 members of the world media to Los Angeles Aug. 14-17.

“The fact that there are so many conventions going on shows that people are waking up,” said Frank Tamborello, who is helping organize the Homeless Convention.

There may be another explanation, less heartening for the organizers of many of the events intended to highlight progressive causes.

“The left is just not a solidified mass the way the right is,” said Denise Robb of the L.A. Greens, a local group of Green Party members that has endorsed both the People’s and Homeless conventions. “It seems like there’s an awful lot of activity going on, and it would be easier if there was just one thing we could go to.”

Rich Convention, Poor Convention

Not all the conventions are created equally. While the Democrats were raising $1 million for their effort at Mayor Richard Riordan’s house last month, People’s Convention organizers were begging for money from a sparse audience at the Freedom Socialist Party meeting.

And though the city will cordon off several blocks around the DNC site, the organizers of the Homeless Convention are struggling to find lots to use for their event. One prospect fell through when a local business had second thoughts about donating its parking lot after getting a look at the Laker championship melee.

Certain conventions have more cachet. Speakers at the Shadow Convention--which will address campaign finance reform, the growing divide between rich and poor and the drug war and is organized by author and commentator Arianna Huffington--include comedian Bill Maher and Warren Beatty.

“Warren Beatty’s going to be at the Shadow Convention?” asked Reform Party member Judy Duffy of Westminster, who is coordinating logistics for her party’s convention. “Hmm, maybe I should go to that one.”

That sort of talk, however tongue-in-cheek, steams the organizers of the People’s Convention, who say their event will address issues affecting common people, not just millionaires and celebrities.

Indeed, People’s Convention organizers take an almost perverse pride in their scant funding, savoring a $50 contribution from a man who receives Social Security and arguing that they will be the only representatives of working people this August.

The event is scheduled for Aug. 10-12, a time picked so that participants can join the massive DNC demonstrations slated to begin Aug. 13. Organizers are hoping for a debate among third-party candidates running on such tickets as the Socialist and Workers World parties, among other events. The schedule is still being worked out, but organizer Dele Ailemen said the first day will highlight local issues, the next will focus on the two main political parties in the U.S. and the third will be centered on global issues.

Casey Peters of the Peace and Freedom Party said the People’s Convention is expected to draw up to 1,000 people and is intended to create a unified, progressive agenda for the Southern California region, catapulting third-party candidates onto municipal ballots.

“We are also planning a convention for next year as well, which won’t be in the shadow of another major convention,” Peters said.

From Aug. 10 to 13, the Reform Party will gather in Long Beach to nominate its president and vice president.

Reform Party organizers say they too scheduled their affair to draw media who come to Los Angeles for the Democratic National Convention. They hope to outdo the main event at least in terms of suspense: Though Al Gore already has locked up his party’s nomination, the Reform Party will not reveal the results of its national primary until the convention is underway.

Previous Reform Party gatherings have attracted some rowdy participants, and planners have increased security for the event, expected to draw 5,000 to 6,000 people.

“Somebody said maybe we should rent Kevlar jackets at the door,” spokeswoman Donna Donovan quipped. Then, naturally, she put the best spin on the event. “The idea that there’s a convention that isn’t scripted for TV--ours certainly isn’t--should be intriguing.”

Meanwhile, somewhere in Southern California--the site hasn’t been selected--another convention that isn’t planned for prime time will take place. Technically, it’s a conference rather than a convention, but the annual North American Anarchists Conference has generated a lot of talk.

That’s because the Los Angeles Police Department has flagged it as a possible trouble spot after a handful of self-proclaimed anarchists smashed windows during protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle.

“We don’t see any policing requirements for any of those [alternative] conventions except for the alleged anarchists’ convention,” LAPD Cmdr. Dave Kalish said. “That’s because of their publicly stated beliefs and tactics.”

Coordinators of the conference bristle at what they are calling a police misinformation campaign about anarchist ideology. In fact, said Matt Hart, an anarchist who is coordinating the conference and ensuing demonstrations during the DNC, the gathering will give anarchists from around the country a chance to discuss their ideas instead of tactics.

Though the conference, which is expected to draw up to 1,000 anarchists and runs Aug. 11-17, usually takes place in Eugene, Ore., Los Angeles anarchists thought the city would be a logical place for this year’s event. According to the conference’s Web page, most of the discussion will occur through Aug. 13, giving participants time to take to the streets during the Democratic convention.

“We figured it’d be a good time to have a conference,” Hart said, “since there are a lot of people coming down” for the expected DNC protests.

That’s what the Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness thought when it began organizing its Mothers’ Convention for the morning of Aug. 12, the Saturday before the DNC begins.

The comparably brief convention, said organizer Suzy Harrington, will ratify a platform on how to reform welfare reform. “Right now the policies and programs are not effective,” she said. “The clock needs to stop on time limits” for receiving aid.

Once the DNC officially begins on Aug. 14, three other conventions will swing into high gear.

The Shadow Convention, which will also assemble in Philadelphia during the Republican National Convention two weeks earlier, will feature speakers on its major themes during the day and satirical commentary on the DNC’s doings in the evenings by such comics as Maher and Al Franken.

Its organizers say they are not surprised that backers of other events are sending barbs in their direction.

“One of the marks of doing something that works is that people are taking potshots at you,” said co-founder and Internet entrepreneur Peter Hirschberg.

He and Huffington said that many grass-roots groups such as Common Cause are working on the convention. Their convention in Patriotic Hall--also the site of the Mothers’ Convention and only a few blocks south of Staples Center--will feature displays, workshops and an auditorium where 800 people can cram in to watch the main events.

Housing Homeless Delegates

Ted Hayes is also thinking about crowds. The veteran homeless activist is hosting his Homeless Convention on the other side of the 110 Freeway from Staples Center, in the tiny homeless enclave of Dome Village.

The event is designed to highlight the gap between rich and poor and formulate a national agenda to combat homelessness. It is quite a logistical headache, though; Hayes is trying to arrange food, shelter and medical care for the 1,000 homeless people from around the nation he expects to assemble.

The city has forced Hayes to alter the route of his planned nightly marches, but Hayes said officials have been cooperative and he expects it all to work out--and possibly become a model for future political conventions.

“Whatever sort of convention is going to be in town,” he said, “there needs to be a convention right next to them for the poorest of the poorest.”

Last but not least in the convention plans--among the poor and the rich; the wry and the earnest; the conservative, the liberal and the anarchistic--are the young. The Youth Convention has experience at being a counterpoint to mainstream political affairs. It began during the conventions in 1996 as an effort to create a platform for youths’ needs.

Organizers poll youth leaders on their Web site (www.youthlink.org) to determine the issues and canvass young people nationwide. This year the platform will be hammered out in Philadelphia and approved in Los Angeles.

The New York-based organization coordinating the convention, Youth in Action, says it has not finalized its speakers list, though it hopes to get the presidential candidates to address the 500 or so youth delegates. Its schedule isn’t set, but the event will run the same days as the DNC and one session will be held at Patriotic Hall, courtesy of the Shadow Convention.

And like the others setting a course for Los Angeles this summer, the Youth Convention organizers say this is their chance to be heard.

“Our convention,” said organizer Akilah Watkins, “is the vehicle we’re using to give young people an opportunity to get their voices out.”

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A Week of the Conventional and Unconventional

Political conventions to be held in Los Angeles County during the week of Aug. 11-17:

*

People’s Convention

Description: A gathering of progressive groups

Location: Unannounced

Date: Aug. 10-12

*

Reform Party Convention

Description: National meeting of the U.S. Reform Party

Location: Long Beach Convention Center

Date: Aug. 10-13

*

Mothers’ Convention

Description: Meeting of activists on welfare reform

Location: Patriotic Hall

Date: Aug. 12

*

North American Anarchist Convention

Description: Annual gathering of anarchists

Location: Unannounced

Date: Aug. 11-17 *

Homeless Convention

Description: National summit on homeless issues

Location: Dome Village, downtown L.A.

Date: Aug. 14-17

*

Shadow Convention

Description: Satire, policy discussion on issues critics say establishment ignores

Location: Patriotic Hall

Date: Aug, 14-17

*

Youth Convention

Description: Gathering of delegates representing youth issues

Location: Occidental College and Patriotic Hall

Date: Aug. 14-17

*

Democratic National Convention

Description: Quadrennial meeting of Democratic Party

Location: Staples Center

Date: Aug. 14-17