By Richard Wolf
USA Today
TAMPA — A protest against the Republican National Convention largely fizzled in a drizzle Monday because of a threatened hurricane that never materialized.
What was planned as a 5,000-strong march on the convention hall attracted only about 300 die-hards as busloads of others decided not to make the trip.
“If the hurricane weren’t an issue, I believe there would have been more than (5,000),” said Robbey Hayes, 21, a Students for a Democratic Society organizer from Gainesville, Fla.
Instead, reporters, photographers and speakers from dozens of affiliated organizations nearly outnumbered the protesters, who braved wind, light rain and humidity under the watchful eyes of police on bicycles and National Guard members.
What they lacked in numbers, protesters made up for in causes: good jobs, affordable education, health care, abortion rights, gay rights, labor rights, the Postal Service and Trayvon Martin.
Florida labor organizer Jose Soto said 16 buses of protesters canceled from New York, Miami and the Florida Panhandle. He said the bus companies didn’t want their equipment and drivers heading toward a storm.
Protest organizer Jared Hamil urged those in the crowd to “take the streets” before they marched to the convention site. “Rain and wind -- people still came to show that we can demand a better future,” he said.
The peaceful demonstration was nothing like the protest movement of the 1960s and ‘70s. It paled even compared to convention protests in 2008.
Instead, it was a loose coalition of women, students, immigrants, veterans and others. Some vented against the Republicans, while others blamed Democrats for joblessness, poverty and repression.
“Both parties don’t give a damn about us,” said Cheri Honkala, founder of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign. “To hell with the corporate-dominated parties. We’re taking our country back.”
Copyright 2012 Gannett Company, Inc.