The Republican national convention is expected to draw 50,000 people to Cleveland, Ohio, next week.
Not all of those will be Republican party members. Or journalists. Thousands of activists are also expected to be in the city for a range of protests and rallies both in support of and protesting against Donald Trump, while other demonstrators will seek to draw attention to a range of other issues including police shootings, racial inequality and abortion.
Anti-Trump
A number of rallies are planned for the first day of the convention on Monday. The largest of those is likely to be an anti-Trump demonstration organised by the Coalition to Stop Trump and March on the RNC. According to organisers, more than 40 different activist groups will take part.
“We’re taking a stand against the racist and anti-Muslim attacks on people from Trump and the Republican party,” said organiser Tom Burke.
“We hope to impact how people vote and how people relate to others in this country.”
People will be travelling from around the country to attend the march. Participating organisations include the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, which earlier this month organised protests over the police killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile; Utah Against Police Brutality and the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee. Burke expects “a few thousand” people will demonstrate on Monday.
“We have a different vision for the way forward. Our vision is one of peace, justice and equality, and we think the Republicans are heading in the wrong direction,” Burke said.
“If we can protest, and get our message out, we think can stop Trump. That’s what it comes down to. We want to stop Trump.”
The march is organised by the same group that protested at the 2008 Republican convention in St Paul, Minnesota, and at the 2012 event in Tampa, Florida. The hope is that the demonstration will distract from the conference itself, taking attention away from Republicans and toward the activists’ message.
“If we’re successful through the media in getting our message out, besides reaching the people of Cleveland, we’ve seen that we can compete with the Republicans’ political agenda for the day and project a different vision of the country,” Burke said.
The Freedom Road Socialist Organisation is among the groups attending. Steff Yoreq, a national leader with the FRSO, said 100 members will be marching.
“The majority of people who think that the racism and Islamophobia and anti-immigrant hysteria that Trump spreads is not the standard-bearer, is not the mainstream,” Yoreq said.
Pro-Trump
There is a pro-Trump event, too. Citizens for Trump is planning an America first unity rally, which will take place on Monday. The organisation says it will be a “celebration of Mr Trump’s nomination”, although the event was originally set up for a different reason, said Tim Selaty, director of Citizens for Trump: “to protest the RNC because we thought they might steal the nomination from Mr Trump.”
He added: “[Now] it’s just a rally to unify the Republican party, the Tea Party, and everybody together in a massive show of support and celebration.”
Tim Selaty Sr, the director of Citizens for Trump, said the group had originally planned a “procession” through the city, with thousands of motorcyclists and truckers.
The city of Cleveland thwarted that, however, when it rejected the group’s application to march and then proposed a 3.3-square mile security perimeter around the Quicken Loans Arena. A judge overruled that decision, but it had already thrown Citizens for Trump’s plans into disarray. Selaty had to cancel his original plan for a march and has been scrambling instead to organise a smaller rally.
“Our original estimate was 5,000, [but] we were expecting up to 25,000 to show up or more,” he said of his original application to march.
“This one we only put 1,500 down on it, and I’ll be honest – I’ll be thankful if we even get that many people there at some point.”
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter will also have a presence in Cleveland. The organisation’s founder, Patrisse Cullors, said details would not be announced in advance “because of what the RNC represents and what kind of attacks Black Lives Matter activists could be getting”.
The Cleveland chapter of the Black Lives Matter movement is planning a number of events, Cullors said, to draw attention to their wider message and to criticise the politicians convening at the Quicken Loans Arena.
“This country has to reckon with the violence it has caused black people from the moment we were brought here. And that in order for there to be a nation that actually values black lives, politicians and elected officials like Trump shouldn’t even be a candidate for president.”
The group will also be protesting on behalf of victims of police shootings.
“We’re always going to be uplifting the violence inside the US police forces,” Cullors said.
“We still haven’t seen justice for Tamir Rice, we still haven’t seen justice for John Crawford,” she said, referring to 12-year-old Rice and 22-year-old Crawford, who were shot dead by police in Ohio in 2014.
Anti-abortion
Another group in Cleveland will be the anti-abortion group Created Equal. Activists have been in the city since Wednesday. Created Equal’s main aim was to have a provision to defund Planned Parenthood written into the Republican party platform.
The group had been petitioning the platform committee for two months, and apparently got their wish this week – the Republican platform seems likely to specifically mention withdrawing funds from Planned Parenthood.
Created Equal had booked a plane to fly an anti-abortion banner over Cleveland every day during the convention, but had to rethink that after the Federal Aviation Authority announced on Wednesday that there would be a no-fly zone over the city. Instead the group will fly their plane and banner twice a day from Thursday to Sunday, the day before the fly ban begins.
The banner says “rescue unborn children” and has a graphic picture of what Created Equal says is a foetus aborted at 15 weeks.
The group also plans to engage in “outreach”.
“We’ll be anywhere people gather,” Harrington said.
“We’re reaching out to passersby, delegates, those who are attending the convention, those who are here for the convention.
“We have pictures: we use these large photographs of pre-born babies, along with abortion imagery. One of the signs says GOP stop the killing, and it points to an abortion image.”
Others
Other groups planning events in Cleveland include the Aids healthcare foundation, which will hold a concert on Sunday, featuring hip-hop group the Roots. The organisation had planned a march through the city, which Al Sharpton was to attend. The group cancelled the march “because of Dallas and elsewhere”, a spokeswoman said, referring to the shooting of five police officers in Texas. Global Zero, a nuclear disarmament group, had planned to set up a 48ft inflatable rocket in Cleveland, but also backed out.
It had been reported that the New Black Panther party would be protesting in Cleveland – a Reuters article quoted the group’s leader, Hashim Nzinga, as saying he had encouraged members to carry guns – but Nzinga denied having said that on Wednesday and told the Guardian the organisation would not have a presence at the RNC.
The most eclectic protest in Cleveland will be held by Mijente, a Latino social justice organisation. Activists are planning to erect a “border wall” close to the convention. The wall will be made of fabric and constructed by artists and protesters.
