Originally published at MintPress News.
PHILADELPHIA — While delegates rally and Hillary Clinton turns on the charm at the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, the streets will be full of activists demanding justice.
MintPress News reporter Kit O’Connell will be there as supporters of Green Party candidate Jill Stein demand that she have access to the voting ballots and the debates. He’ll be at a march to end the war on cannabis users and growers. And he’ll talk to other activists representing diverse causes as they protest, march and rally outside the Wells Fargo Center from July 25 to 28.
On Wednesday, Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican Party’s nomination at a convention so divisive that even many major GOP personalities stayed home. Outside Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena, the riots that many feared failed to materialize, as protests, such as the massive “Wall Off Trump” immigration reform rally, remained mostly peaceful.
Both Trump and Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, remain notably unpopular. FiveThirtyEight, a well-known statistical analysis site, still predicts a Clinton victory, but a November Democratic victory is far from assured, even with the help of Tim Kaine, the Virginia senator Clinton named as her running mate on Friday.
Meanwhile, thousands of Bernie Sanders supporters are expected to descend upon the city, demanding that the Vermont senator’s message of financial and election reform be carried forward into November and beyond. Thousands of internal Democratic party emails released on Friday by WikiLeaks show Democratic party leaders mocked Sanders’ campaign, which may inspire Sanders backers to even more fervent protesting.
The Black Lives Matter, anti-war, climate change movements will all be represented, as well.
Here are highlights from each day’s events:
- Monday, July 25: At 3:00 p.m., The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign will lead the March for Our Lives to demand an end to systemic inequality and economic injustice. At the end of the march,Jill Stein, the Green Party’s presumptive nominee, will kick off the Power to the People Rally.
- Tuesday, July 26: At 2:00 p.m., the Philadelphia Coalition for REAL Justice will lead the Black DNC Resistance March against Police Terrorism & State Repression. “[T]he Black community can no longer watch a few control the lives of many,” the organizers wrote on the event’s Facebook page.
- Wednesday, July 27: At 2:00 p.m., the Who Would Hillary Bomb? Anti-War March and Rally is scheduled to take place somewhere near the convention center (as of Friday afternoon, the location had not been confirmed), followed by the No More Endless War Speak-Out, a 4:00 p.m. anti-war rally at the Second Bank of the United States. Activists also hope to highlight the plight of U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning.
- Thursday, July 28: At 3:00 p.m., demonstrators will celebrate victories in the drug reform movement at the 2016 DNC Cannabis Pride Parade. Organizers Nikki Allen Poe and Chris Goldstein wrote, “It has been quite a ride the past few years fighting for marijuana reform in this country. But guess what? We’re winning.”
For the latest from MintPress News’ coverage of the DNC in Philadelphia, be sure to follow @MintPressNews and @KitOConnell on Twitter And “Like” MPN on Facebook for live coverage.
