Ex-organizer Obama says he was never a fan of mass protests

If any President might sympathize with the thousands of protesters expected to flood Pittsburgh this week for the G-20 summit, it would be the one who used to be a community organizer. But in an Oval Office interview Friday with The Blade and its sister paper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, President Obama said while working on Chicago's South Side in the 1980s, he was not an advocate of mass protests such as the ones planned for this week. "Probably not," Mr. Obama said when asked if he might have been holding a sign then. "I was always a big believer in - when I was doing organizing before I went to law school - that focusing on concrete, local, immediate issues that have an impact on people's lives is what really makes a difference and that having protests about abstractions [such] as global capitalism or something, generally, is not really going to make much of a difference."




Ex-organizer says he was never a fan of mass protests
By DANIEL MALLOY
BLOCK NEWS ALLIANCE

WASHINGTON - If any President might sympathize with the thousands of protesters expected to flood Pittsburgh this week for the G-20 summit, it would be the one who used to be a community organizer.

But in an Oval Office interview Friday with The Blade and its sister paper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, President Obama said while working on Chicago's South Side in the 1980s, he was not an advocate of mass protests such as the ones planned for this week.

"Probably not," Mr. Obama said when asked if he might have been holding a sign then. "I was always a big believer in - when I was doing organizing before I went to law school - that focusing on concrete, local, immediate issues that have an impact on people's lives is what really makes a difference and that having protests about abstractions [such] as global capitalism or something, generally, is not really going to make much of a difference."

The protesters and the potential for violence and disruption of the Group of 20 Summit have been a hot topic in Pittsburgh since May, when Mr. Obama chose the city as the site of the summit. The city plans to line up about 4,000 police officers, with significant help from surrounding jurisdictions, and 2,000 National Guard soldiers will be on call if protests spiral out of control.

Mr. Obama said demonstrations - a key feature of any gathering of world leaders or central bankers - are a sign of a healthy democracy, but he doesn't agree with many of the protesters' views. He urged dissatisfied workers to understand that globalization is inevitable.

"I think that's part of what makes America wonderful is people have a lot of different opinions," Mr. Obama said.

"We've got a robust and sometimes contentious democracy, but if you think about what's happened to our economy - there was a period of time in which heavy industry took a beating in this country and we didn't respond as quickly as we should have. And we then had the choice of trying to pretend that change wasn't coming and trying to close the world off from that change, and that's just not possible."

Though the protesters' topics range from war to global warming to anarchy, many are concerned about the economy and hold
G-20 policies in part responsible for the global recession. The working class has been hit the hardest, they say, but has not benefited from large bailouts.

Mr. Obama said the nations are doing their best to dig out of the recession, and if some of the protesters would give the plans a chance, they might approve.

"One of the things that we'll highlight at the G-20 - and maybe the protesters are missing this - is that I and other world leaders are very interested in making sure that the excesses of global finance are reined in," he said, "that we've got a regulatory framework and structure that assures you are not seeing the sorts of abuses that resulted in this most recent financial crisis that did create enormous hardship for Main Street."

The Block News Alliance consists of The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Daniel Malloy is a reporter for the Post-Gazette.

Contact him at:
dmalloy@post-gazette.com
or 202-445-9980.