The so-called “People’s Convoy” that reached the District of Colombia this weekend seeks to be a pale imitation of the so-called “Freedom Convoy”. Inspired by the anti-COVID restriction demonstration in Canada, the truckers’ protest in the American capital is much vaguer in its objectives, methods, leadership, and is unlikely to accomplish anything meaningful. Despite the hype created around the event, the convoy created little to no disruption in traffic during its day-long drive around the Beltway Circuit.
The first problem regarding the People’s Convoy is its lack of leadership and unifying goals. At least 30 self-declared ‘organizers’ of the groups have been identified by news networks so far. These form a very diverse array of people with no apparent hierarchy or chain of command, ranging from high-profile conspiracy theorists and ‘stop the steal’ leaders such as Leigh Dundas of California[1] to independent blue-collar workers from rural Pennsylvania. As countless on-the-ground and online interviews by reporters have made abundantly clear, the participants seem to have vastly different visions of what the end goal is. The most common denunciation, as observed in the convoy’s placards and exclamations by individual truckers, is that of vaccine mandates.
This brings us to the second problem. However, threatened conservative workers in the transport industry may feel from the Biden Administration, the facts simply do not match their perception of the real state of affairs. Even most mask, let alone vaccine, mandates have been struck down pretty rapidly in the United States, either by the judiciary or the executive depending on the state.[2] Furthermore, it has already been years since a nationwide lockdown was last ordered to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Many of the restrictions that do remain have been put in place by private businesses and local governments; entities that will hardly be impacted by a protest in front of the Capitol. Such a mob strategy might have been effective in the summer of 2020, but there is simply little left to protest at this point. This is one of the main reasons even many conservative political commentators – who supported the Canadian version – have spoken out against the idea of a convoy in D.C.
There is also widespread confusion about the level of disruption the convoy intends to cause. While some organizers and participants want to stay out of the capital altogether in order to avoid troubles with law enforcement, others want to go as far as to occupy the National Mall.[3] So far, the drivers failed to slow down traffic by attempting to clog the Beltway route that encircles the capital city for two consecutive days but the regular traffic affected their route forcing them to go with the flow. Some participants have shown intentions to gradually escalate the situation until their demands are heard.[4] In the end, it is likely that the disorganized group will disperse rather quickly with the slightest intervention by the authorities, and the 1,500,000 $ raised by the People’s Convoy would have gone in vain.[5]
[1] https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/02/21/whos-behind-the-peoples-convoy-to-washington-dc/.
[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/01/25/here-are-the-states-where-mask-mandates-have-been-struck-down/?sh=3980fa7d2a30.
[3] https://www.thedailybeast.com/peoples-convoy-truckers-are-still-very-confused-about-their-dc-plans?ref=scroll.
[4] https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/03/05/peoples-convoy-protest-beltway-dc-region/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=wp_main.
[5] https://jnews.uk/givesendgo-hosts-freedom-convoy-trucker-fundraiser-1-4m-raised-despite-cyberattacks/.
