DNC 2016

Thousands March in Philadelphia Kicking Off Vocal Week of Protests at DNC

In July 2016, leaders of the Democratic Party gathered in Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention where delegates would nominate their candidate for president.

It was widely expected then that Hillary Clinton would be given the Democratic nomination over Bernie Sanders who’d surprised the political class in close primaries with his openly socialist message.

Though at that point, few could predict that Clinton would eventually lose the General Election in November to Republican nominee Donald Trump. Her election as the first female president seemed inevitable from inside the Wells Fargo Center where the convention was taking place.

Outside of the Convention, activists to the left of Clinton, including supporters of Sanders and Green Party nominee Jill Stein, were much less optimistic after a nomination process they saw as outdated and undemocratic, “rigged” by party elites to benefit Clinton through an emphasis on Super Delegates, too few and untimely debates, and media favoritism.

Just days earlier, WikiLeaks had published a collection of hacked emails indicating that supposedly independent DNC staff, media personnel, and the Clinton campaign were coordinating against Sanders to help Clinton. This evidence all but confirmed many peoples’ speculation that the odds were intentionally stacked against the Sanders campaign. DNC Chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz would resigned from her position as a result of the leaked emails on July 24 before the Convention was over.

Below are photos taken from the streets of downtown Philadelphia as dozens of demonstrators crowded the area to oppose Clinton’s nomination and propose a more Democratic party nominating process among other demands.

You can find full reporting from these demonstrations at Occupy.com: part one, part two, part three, and part four.