Student basks in protest spotlight

For one week this summer, Matthew Ruben stormed the streets of Philadelphia with thousands of people, protesting against the injustices and cruelties of modern society. He joined the huge marches, screaming out for equality, all the time fearfully watching the hordes of cops lurking on the sidelines. Ruben, along with about a dozen Penn students, spent part of his summer vacation as a protester at the Republican National Convention. "It was very exhilarating, very intense, it was exciting to see people take back the streets," said Ruben, 31, an English and Urban Studies graduate student. "At the time it was very heartening," he added. During the otherwise uneventful convention, the protesters took center stage, garnering huge media attention with large-scale peaceful demonstrations and civil disobedience acts that ended with the arrests of over 100 people. Many of the Penn students present at the protests took part in a United Students Against Sweatshops demonstration, as well as other events. Not only was he a participant, Ruben was also a key organizer for the protests and he dealt with the media acting on behalf of the "R2K Network," a coalition of organizations responsible for most of the anti-Republican activities. "It was exciting not only to participate [in the protests], but through working with R2K media I got a good idea of what was going on on a broader level," Ruben said. "I learned more than I ever dreamed I would learn, about the mediaS and about myself." An activist since his days as an undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon University, Ruben is no stranger to protests or the media. He came to Penn having been involved in the anti-apartheid movement and then in broader efforts to combat economic inequalities in America. In 1993, almost a year after arriving at Penn, he began to volunteer for the Philadelphia-based Kensington Welfare Rights Union. That same year, he founded a youth health education non-profit group known as the Youth Health Empowerment Project. It is no surprise, then, that Ruben found himself organizing protests this summer during the Republican Convention. In addition to planning protests, Ruben talked to media outlets around the world and coordinated events for groups falling under the leadership of the R2K Network. Ruben was mostly critical of what he learned about the media and its coverage of the protests. Referring to what he cited as a lack of adequate reporting, Ruben said that "never in my life have I seen so many cameras without reporters -- there were no microphones!" If Ruben was frustrated by the media's coverage, he was even more upset by the tactics police used to subdue the protesters. "The cops went after the ring-leaders, and they were the ones with the high bail, not the vandalizers," Ruben said. "Even lawyers [involved in such cases] are saying they haven't seen this, ever." The biggest criticism of the summer's protests at the Republican Convention and the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles was that the protesters lacked a clear message or vision, but Ruben disagreed. "This is exactly what they were saying about kids in the '60s," he said, adding that "it's ironic because a lot of people complaining today were on the other side [back then]." Still, Ruben acknowledged that "a lot of work needs to be done about political education, and progressives need to be a part of this.