BY NAOMI CRAINE
Two hundred high school students and others drowned out
parts of Patrick Buchanan's campaign speech in Lexington,
Massachusetts. Some in the audience jeered and booed at his
rally in Columbus, Georgia. Almost everywhere the Republican
presidential candidate goes, workers, youth, and others are
turning out - some places in ones and twos, other places in a
more organized way - to make it plain that Buchanan does not
speak for them. The ultrarightist demagogue failed to win any
of the eight primaries held March 5.
Buchanan has put a special focus on campaigning in the South. But statements like, "My friends, if there is room in America for the fighting song of the civil rights movement, `We Shall Overcome,' there has got to be room for `Dixie' as well," and his defense of the Confederate battle flag get an angry reaction from many. "Dixie" was the anthem of the slave- holding states during the Civil War.
Protests against the candidate have hit on his stance on immigrants, women's rights, gay rights, and his racism and anti-Semitism. Some 2,000 mostly Mexican protesters took to the streets in Chicago on March 1 after a prominent columnist picked up on Buchanan's anti-immigrant stand and wrote an extremely derogatory column against Mexicans.
In Georgia, where Buchanan concentrated his campaigning, he came in 12 percentage points behind Sen. Robert Dole, who won every contest that day. In most other states, Buchanan lost by an even wider margin. Buchanan came in second in seven of the races. In Connecticut he was third behind millionaire Steve Forbes; in Rhode Island he wasn't on the ballot. A few days earlier he lost to Dole in South Carolina. This stands in contrast to Buchanan's unexpected wins in the Alaska straw poll, Louisiana caucuses, and New Hampshire primary, and his strong showing in second place in the Iowa caucuses just a few weeks earlier.
Following Dole's March 5 win, Lamar Alexander and Richard Lugar announced their withdrawal from the race. Buchanan said he will stay in. On the March 3 television show "Meet the Press," Tim Russert asked Buchanan, "If you lose in Georgia, your run's pretty much over."
Buchanan replied, "No, I don't think so. We're going to take a Dixie express or a Buchanan express," and described his plan to keep campaigning until the Republican convention in San Diego. He intends to go to the convention with a chunk of delegates. The ultrarightist candidate told Russert, "There's not only the Mr. Republican chair that is open, and not only the presidency, but the chair for leader of the American conservative movement in the post-Cold War era."
Conceding that Dole will most likely get the nomination, Buchanan called the front-runner's campaign "hollow, an empty vessel. We think we can fill that vessel up with our ideas if he is the nominee." Buchanan won't say whether he will endorse Dole if the Senate majority leader receives the presidential nomination.
Forbes is also staying in the race for now. The publisher has spent millions of his own dollars on the campaign so far, and won the primaries in Arizona and Delaware. He has mostly campaigned around a reactionary flat-tax scheme.
Dole and Forbes are the only candidates who made it on the ballot throughout New York state in the March 7 primary. High petitioning requirements make it hard for anyone except the candidate endorsed by the state Republican Party to get on the ballot. Forbes went to court to get an order securing his spot. Buchanan won ballot status in some districts.
Another Republican candidate, Alan Keyes, was arrested in Atlanta when he tried to get himself included in a television debate with Alexander, Buchanan, and Forbes March 3. Keyes, a radio talk show host who is Black, said Buchanan, Dole, and the other candidates "sound like a bunch of socialists."
Buchanan paid several visits to factories and textile mills in the last week, presenting himself as a defender of jobs for "American" workers. In the "Meet the Press" interview, he pointed to falling wages for meatpackers, while the executives' salaries increase. "That is a depression," he said. "If that's what capitalism means, I can't defend it any more." But many don't buy his fake concern for workers. Below are articles on several protests over the last week.
BY STEVE CRAINE
LEXINGTON, Massachusetts - Patrick Buchanan chose the
Minuteman statue on the green here as the site for his last
appearance in Massachusetts before the March 5 primary.
"Minutemen" was the name taken by the revolutionary militia
who fought British colonialism. But his attempt to claim the
heritage of the anticolonial revolution of 1775 was foiled by
a boisterous crowd of anti-Buchanan minute men and women who
had mobilized on short notice to oppose his reactionary
program.
Buchanan and about 200 of his supporters were surrounded by an equal number of protesters - overwhelmingly young - and a forest of hand-lettered signs, including: "The Minutemen were sons of immigrants," "Buchanan's dirty laundry - white sheets and brown shirts," and "Lexington High School students against Buchanan." Through most of the fascist-minded politician's 20-minute appearance his words were drowned out by the spirited chanting of the anti-Buchanan crowd. Buchanan was clearly rattled by the protest, which, according to the New York Times, was the largest he has met so far.
Key to organizing this strong response was the work of students at Lexington High School. The day before Buchanan's visit, some 200 students met after school and decided that the demagogue should not go unchallenged. "I heard he was coming during my first class," one of the demonstrators said, "and by the end of the day, I'd told everyone I knew about the meeting."
In his brief address, the candidate added a response to the protesters to his regular package of rhetoric. He tried to portray himself as the defender of free speech whose rights were being trampled by the noisy demonstrators, whom he denigrated for their youth. "Come on, children, stop it or I'll take away your Pell [educational] grants," he shouted over their chants.
As part of his cynical claim to speak for working people, Buchanan alluded to the fact that Lexington is a mainly well- to-do town. "The establishment is terrified. Look! We have here the revolt of the over privileged." In an appeal to Jew hatred he added, "How did the Brandeis football team do last year?" Brandeis is a nearby private university that was established to admit Jewish young people facing discrimination in college admissions.
Demonstrators also engaged in debates with Buchanan supporters. By the time Buchanan was bundled back onto his campaign bus and left the area, most protesters felt that they had scored a political victory.
BY JAMES HARRIS
LA GRANGE, Georgia - Patrick Buchanan campaigned in
Georgia the day before the Republican primary. He came to
Milliken Mills here at the request of Roger Milliken, one of
his largest campaign contributors. The textile boss has given
at least $1.8 million to Buchanan's campaign through American
Cause, a nonprofit organization set up by Buchanan to support
his bid. Buchanan appeared in the parking lot of the almost
completely rebuilt carpet plant, which had been destroyed in a
fire about a year earlier.
Milliken attempted to warm up the crowd of 300, in its majority office workers from the plant and construction workers doing the rebuilding, along with Buchanan activists. The production workers were not invited to the rally.
Buchanan's speech focused on "jobs for American workers." He pointed to Milliken as the kind of manufacturer America needs, because when the factory burned he didn't move it to Mexico. The majority of the crowd was polite but not overly enthusiastic. When Buchanan supporters made several attempts to get a "Go Pat, Go" chant going, it fell flat.
One worker openly wondered why Buchanan was with Milliken, a notorious opponent of unions. There is no union at the mill. A group of construction workers from Mexico wanted to make sure this Militant reporter knew that Buchanan was an enemy of the people of Mexico.
Buchanan also spoke at a rally of 700 at Columbus College in southwestern Georgia the same day. The meeting was not built on campus, and few students attended. Most of the people who came for the rally supported Buchanan, but there was scattered opposition in the crowd.
A socialist campaign table was on the campus before the rally. Several students stopped to discuss with the socialists why they opposed Buchanan. One woman said a few of her friends were going, but only to heckle Buchanan.
Derek Bracey contributed to this article.
BY CLAUDIA HOMMEL
CHICAGO - Well over 1,000 people filled the plaza beside the Tribune Tower March 1 protesting an anti-Mexican column written by Mike Royko and published by the Chicago Tribune in its February 27 issue. The protest was made up overwhelmingly of Mexican workers and students. A teacher from Cesar Chavez Elementary School said in an interview that her students initiated their participation by demanding that they be brought to the protest.
"I've decided that for the moment I am a Buchanan supporter," Royko wrote in his column. In defense of Buchanan's vicious anti-immigrant rhetoric, Royko said, "In truth, Mexico, while it has nice beaches and other tourist attractions, is not a very nice neighbor. Besides doing nothing to prevent its surplus citizens from sneaking into this country, it is a corrupt narco-state that pumps tons of drugs into this country. Its police and politicians - a really sleazy crowd - are owned by the drug bosses." The rest of the column continued in a similar vein.
The massive outpouring - estimated as 1,000 protesters by the Chicago Tribune and as 3,500 by the Spanish-language press - was spirited and grew during the afternoon even as the weather became bitterly cold. Along with Mexican flags and an occasional U.S. flag, handmade picket signs and banners linked Royko's racism to the politics of Buchanan and California governor Pete Wilson, who pushed anti-immigrant Proposition 187. Demonstrators also demanded the Tribune fire Royko. Some signs proclaimed "I'm proud to be Mexican," "Enough, enough, no more insults," and "We didn't cross your border, you crossed ours."