Affinity group prepares for Democratic Convention

By Benjamin Parke

Daily Bruin Contributor

A giant face made out of papier-mâché ““ to be
used in the protests during this week’s Democratic National
Convention ““ was just about ready, but the creator was unsure
as to whose image should be painted on the strips of newspaper.

“It could be Gore, it could be Bush,” said Mike
Gharabiklou, wavering between the two choices.

“It’s Gush!” was Kirsten Isaacson’s
appraisal.

Gharabiklou, a recent graduate from UCLA, and Isaacson, who is
still a student, were among a number of people from the university
who were at the Convergence Center last week, preparing for the
upcoming demonstrations.

The MacArthur Park building is used by protesters as a sort of
staging area ““ conducting workshops in protest tactics,
distributing literature, and constructing puppets and other visuals
such as the papier-mâché face.

The confusion over who the face should represent may be
indicative of one of why some UCLA students have chosen to join the
demonstrations.

“Personally, it’s because I think that the two-party
system is not democratic,” said Nikki Pyles, a Germanic
languages graduate student. “The fact that both parties have
the same campaign sponsors is undermining the public
process.”

Pyles and about a dozen other students from UCLA have formed
their own affinity group, in which members with a common background
or purpose join together for the protests.

They consult with one another before making decisions, and an
affinity group forms a sort of building block in the decentralized
structure that characterizes the alliance of protesters.

Drawn primarily from the Environmental Coalition ““ but
also with members from other campus organizations such as MEChA,
the Asian Pacific Coalition and the African Students Union ““
the UCLA affinity group will be participating in several
demonstrations this week. One of them is the Aug. 14 Million
Billionaire March, in which they will dress up in
“billionaire wardrobe.”

“Because inequality is not growing fast enough ““
that’s our motto,” said Ellie Cijvat, a graduate
student in electrical engineering jokingly.

Both Cijvat and Pyles said such theatrical types of protests are
much more effective than the slogan-shouting kind. Humor attracts
attention, and it was those types of protests that got a message
across in Philadelphia for the Republican National Convention.

Unfortunately, they said, the protesters there were at a
disadvantage because the police closed down the Philadelphia
Convergence Center, confiscating puppets and other props.

They said protesters expected the Los Angeles Convergence Center
to be closed by police as well, although that comment was made
before the Aug. 11 ruling by a federal judge ““ restricting
the latitude Los Angeles police have in searching the protest
headquarters or seizing puppets.

In the wake of recent protests at UCLA over the school’s
labor practices, Nikki Pyles said she thinks activism is on the
rise at the campus. It is still less pronounced than at UC
Berkeley, something she attributes to Los Angeles’
“fashion culture,” and the fact that UCLA is situated
among the city’s most affluent neighborhoods, such as Bel
Air.

“A lot of students fall into that culture without thinking
about it too much, or realizing that there are other
options,” Pyles said.

She is a veteran of campus protests, having participated in the
1998 takeover of Royce Hall in protest of Proposition 209 which
ended the use affirmative action throughout California. For Pyles,
what the protesters see as the corporatization of politics ties in
with what goes on at UCLA ““ such as the AT&T logo on the
back of the Bruin Card.

So she and the rest of UCLA’s affinity group will be out
on the streets this week. One of them, Kevin Rudiger, a graduate
student in urban planning, is now even frequently quoted as a
protest spokesman by mainstream media outlets such as the Los
Angeles Times.

“UCLA students might not think they can make a
difference,” Pyles said. “But one person makes a major
difference.”