WashingtonA mass bath or a deafening booing for Kamala Harris. The American city of Chicago (Illinois) will host this week the Democratic National Convention where Harris will be symbolically nominated. Formally, the candidacy had already been finalised before 7 August. Even if the euphoria over Harris’s emergence in Joe Biden’s place has overshadowed a good part of the voters, there is a group that continues to have its eyes fixed on the war in Gaza. On Monday and Thursday, the first and last day of the convention, two large pro-Palestinian demonstrations are planned which threaten to revive the memory of the riots of 1968.
The ghost of that convention is only coming back to haunt the Democrats. Biden’s resignation at the end of July was reminiscent of that of Lyndon B. Johnson, the candidate of that year, who abruptly resigned, forcing an open convention. Now the demonstrations against the Gaza war are reviving the protests against the Vietnam War. During those days, the streets of Chicago were filled with police who charged against the demonstrators, with a toll of 100 wounded and some 600 arrested. “The world is watching,” the demonstrators shouted 56 years ago.
The Chicago convention, rather than a coronation party like the one Donald Trump had in Milwaukee, will probably be a test of fire for Harris’s candidacy. In the last three weeks, Democrats have lived immersed in a bubble of joy that has left some of their weak points, such as economic policies and the Gaza war, in a secondary role. Harris is trying to extend this “safe place” as much as possible and despite having started her tour with rallies in different key cities, she has not yet given a single interview with any media.
Campaign implementation
Facing off against a journalist is an activity that is less controlled than a campaign rally: when she does it will be a test to see if Harris is up to the task and is capable of continuing to fuel that euphoria. Because the challenge until November 5 is this: to sustain the energy. Until Friday, no concrete proposals were known from her campaign, beyond restoring the right to abortion. Harris’s team is aware of this and is trying to make the campaign land softly: in Raleigh (North Carolina), Harris promised that if she were elected she would fight against the rising cost of living. The Democrat presented two star measures: a $25,000 aid for new home buyers and a ban on speculation with the price of food.
In Chicago, Harris will have to give an account of Gaza and make her position explicit beyond appearing distant in the photo with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Or at least that is what the protesters who will gather in Union Park, very close to the United Center stadium where the top brass of the Democratic Party and the delegates will march will try to do. Among the speakers, former President Barack Obama is expected to take the stage on Tuesday to speak.
American complicity in Israel’s military actions, which have already claimed the lives of 40,000 Palestinians, remains a latent problem for Democrats and within the political arena. In recent weeks, the main pro-Israel lobby in the United States, AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), has boasted about having succeeded in ousting from Congress two Democratic congressmen who had positioned themselves against continuing to send weapons to Israel. They are Congresswoman Cori Bush of Missouri and Jamaal Bowman of New York.
On Wednesday, Columbia’s president, Nemat Minouche Shafik, resigned after months of tensions on campus over protests against the Gaza war. Shafik had faced accusations from Republicans that she allowed “anti-Semitism” on campus and criticism from students for asking police to clear the campus. With the issue of the right to protest on campus still to be resolved, with the university’s school year just weeks away, a hot autumn on campus cannot be ruled out as the final stretch of the campaign to keep the Gaza war in the spotlight.
