RUTHFULLY YOURS

The Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago this week is already invoking memories of another, infamous DNC in the windy city. In 1968, between 9,000 and 10,000 people – mainly students – gathered in parks and outside the convention centre to protest against the Vietnam War. The resulting violence and mayhem was broadcast around the world.

This week, thousands of demonstrators protesting against Israel’s war on Hamas arrived in Chicago. The aim of the Coalition to March on the DNC, which is made up of more than 200 organisations, is to pressure the Democrats to abandon their support for Israel. On Monday, the coalition held a demonstration of about 3,000 people and hopes to up those numbers on Thursday, when vice-president Kamala Harris is due to speak and officially accept the presidential nomination. The coalition’s website brands the current president ‘Genocide Joe Biden’ and warns: ‘Democratic party leadership switching out their presidential nominee does not wash the blood of over 50,000 Palestinians off their hands.’

Some of today’s protesters hope to explicitly invoke the 1968 protests. ‘This is the Vietnam War of our era’, said Hatem Abudayyah, a spokesman for the coalition. ‘The attacks on our movement, our students and our organisations are similar to the attacks on the movement that was trying to stop 1968… I absolutely see those parallels.’

There are indeed some notable parallels between 1968 and now. Just like the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968, the recent, unsuccessful attempt on Donald Trump’s life threatened to change the course of history. Similarly, the 1968 DNC protests followed a wave of student unrest across American campuses over an overseas conflict. Just as Biden is stepping aside for Harris, then president Lyndon B Johnson made way for his heir apparent, then vice-president Hubert Humphrey, to take the nomination.

The Democrats would rather not see these parallels, given that the eventual outcome of the 1968 election was victory for Republican Richard Nixon. There is certainly an air of desperation in the many media attempts to dismiss the comparisons. Elderly protest veterans have been wheeled out to say, essentially, that 2024 will be nothing like 1968.

There are many dissimilarities, though. Certainly, we are unlikely to see a repeat of the police brutality that occurred in 1968. Then, Chicago’s Democratic mayor, Richard J Daley, was determined not to have a repeat of rioting that followed the assassination of MLK a few months earlier. As a result, the police were instructed to crack down hard on the protests. The Associated Press estimated the number of civilian injuries during the DNC unrest at over 300. Chicago police also launched internal investigations into complaints of police assaults against 22 reporters. An official report found that 198 police officers were injured and 54 hospitalised.

Nowadays, police have been trained to protect protesters’ First Amendment rights and to de-escalate situations rather than charge in with their batons. They are more likely to trot out emotional-support ponies for the protesters than to break their heads. In any case, the theme of this year’s DNC is ‘unity’, and few inside will want any disturbances to distract from what is, in effect, a coronation for Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz.

Another glaring difference is the level of public interest in the two wars. The US had a much greater stake in the Vietnam War and its casualties dwarf the Israel-Hamas War. In 1968, the US was on the way to losing some 60,000 American lives. As a result, an overwhelming 69 per cent of Americans identified Vietnam or the war as the nation’s top problem in 1966. Today, despite the size of all the pro-Palestine protests and camps, Gaza ranks near the bottom of even young voters’ concerns, well below immigration, economic growth and income inequality.

Nevertheless, the Israel-Hamas War undoubtedly has potential to change the American political landscape. American Jews have been an important part of the Democratic coalition since the 1930s. But a recent poll of New York Jews found that a majority – 53 per cent – prefer Trump to Biden. Harris, who has called for a ceasefire and has stridently criticised Israel for allowing too many civilian deaths, could lose votes in important areas as a result.

It is highly unlikely that this week’s DNC demonstrations will replicate the chaos and violence of 1968. But it is wishful thinking on the part of the Democrats to ignore the many other parallels and to imagine that Harris will have an easy path to the White House. Israel could well be the issue that reopens those old wounds.

Kevin Yuill is an emeritus professor of history at the University of Sunderland and CEO of Humanists Against Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia (HAASE).