But don't tune out. Behind the scenes, tens of thousands of people are planning to transform empty, scripted coronations into unforgettable protests, zany celebrations and sneaky Shadow Conventions.

Although the recent World Trade Organization demonstrations in Seattle and Washington caught the public by surprise, many of these protesters have been working to create an international movement for years. Their aim is not to prevent global trade, but to address the many problems and casualties resulting from unregulated and rapid globalization. One of their key goals, in fact, is to ensure that new international standards will not wipe out all the consumer laws we have passed during the last 30 years.

For now, many of them are not terribly interested in electoral politics. Instead, they want their movement to change the terms of debate. In short, they hope to entreat Americans to place people before profits as we rush headlong into global trade.

What neither party wants to debate -- economic injustice and inequality, at home and abroad -- is precisely what these activists seek to broadcast. At both national political conventions, they intend to force the media's spotlight on the need for campaign finance reform and a ban on the death penalty, neglect of the working poor and the homeless, and the suffering of workers and civilians affected by policies of international organizations like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the WTO.

The Democracy In Motion Caravan Roadshow began its coast-to-coast tour on July 10, hoping to spark the same earnest and whimsical spirit of activism that inspired the protests in Seattle and Washington, D.C. At each stop, veterans of these protests hold workshops on nonviolent disobedience, political economy, ecological and global policies and, lest they take themselves too seriously, creative loafing.

When the Republican convention convenes in Philadelphia on July 31, caravan organizers will join thousands of local activists who are expected to participate in daily rallies and marches for a week. On August 14, they will rendezvous with their West Coast counterparts, who plan to treat delegates at the Democratic convention in Los Angeles to similar rallies, disruptions and protests.

A small but critical mass of these young people are children of '60s activists. Inspired by their parents -- or by a romanticized version of that period -- they are now building on the ideals of that era, even as they attack new targets. Unlike so many young people during the '80s and early '90s, who worried -- with good reason -- about whether they would ever find employment, today's youth, like their Boomer parents in the 1960s, can afford to look beyond their immediate material needs and protest the economic inequality they see at home and abroad.

Unlike activists since the '60s, these young activists reject identity politics in favor of coalitions that emphasize inclusiveness. Having grown up in the aftermath of the women's movement, they instinctively analyze the different ways in which women and men experience life at home and at work. Children of the civil rights generation, they automatically consider the racial implications of global policies. Raised in the wake of the sexual revolution, they are comfortably conversant with a broad range of sexual orientations.

Their goals, they say, are economic and social justice. Within the last three years, for example, college students created Students Against Sweatshops on more than 200 campuses. In addition to launching successful consumer boycotts against sweatshirts and other university apparel produced under subhuman conditions, they also forced Nike to disclose the location of its factories and to open its books for public inspection.

Joining these students and young people are members of a newly revitalized labor movement who are anxious about the impact of globalization on themselves, as well as on workers around the world. Some of these unions have even forged unprecedented coalitions with ecological groups whose goal of sustainability is daily mocked by the irreversible environmental damage taking place each day in the deserts, rain forests, rivers and oceans of the world.

Armed with a relatively sophisticated analysis of the global political economy, this coalition condemns the ecological and economic policies that have intensified human misery in much of Africa, Latin America and Asia.

At each convention, protesters plan to highlight a variety of urgent problems. In Philadelphia, for example, they will start their weeklong activities with a march of the poor -- those who have fallen through the tattered fabric of an unraveled social safety net. The next day, they will protest the ``prison industrial complex'' that funds and builds prisons, rather than schools. On the third day, UNITY 2000, a huge coalition of some 200 organizations -- including the NAACP, NOW, Students Against Sweatshops, local union chapters and the Interfaith Coalition -- will march for the movement's two core principles: putting people before profit, and ending the corporate greed that exploits people here and around the world.

What is especially appealing about these organizers is how seamlessly they weave a complicated critique of global and domestic injustice with a playful, sometimes wacky, sense of humor. Their motto, emblazoned all over their Internet site, is, ``The Party's Over.'' Their ``Call to Action'' invites us to ``Crash the Party.'' Perhaps their most hilarious caper -- and one that may grab the most media attention -- is the Million Billionaire March, at which faux billionaires for Bush or Gore will hoist banners that protest, ``99 Percent Is Not Enough!!''

Puppet processions, a signature feature of the Seattle and Washington demonstrations, will once again communicate, through images rather than political rhetoric, the impact of economic injustice and ecological catastrophe. Activists will once again don costumes carefully sewn by hand; parading as turtles, they will be making a strong statement about what Michael Lerner of Bolinas' Commonweal has called ``the Age of Extinction'' -- the cumulative loss of thousands of species.

These organizers are passionately committed to nonviolent protest, a conviction reinforced by workshops in civil disobedience and prohibitions against drugs and liquor. They want their message heard, not buried under denunciations of violent acts. But they know how impossible it is to control the behavior of those who may join them. Police in both cities, moreover, are growing increasingly edgy, especially in the wake of the excessive police force recently used in Philadelphia.

In addition to these outdoor marches and rallies, there will be indoor Shadow Conventions, hosted by Arianna Huffington, a onetime Newt Gingrich cheerleader and now a self-described ``recovering Republican.'' Funded by George Soros' Open Society Institute and other foundations, the Shadow Conventions perhaps will offer even more legitimacy to the protests outside. Huffington is determined to focus public attention on three issues that the two parties will carefully avoid: campaign finance reform, the failure and consequences of the war on drugs, and poverty and the growing gap between the rich and poor.

With her pitch-perfect media savvy, Huffington has rounded up the usual suspects -- Ralph Nader, Jesse Jackson, and Sen. Paul Wellstone

-- along with some unexpected Republican speakers, including Rep. Tom Campbell, Sen. John McCain and New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson. To grab the attention of the young, as well as that of the media, Huffington has gathered a coterie of celebrities (think Warren Beatty), along with big-name bands chosen by Rock the Vote. For comic relief, she has lined up some well-known stand-up comedians from ``Saturday Night Live.'' Perhaps her most creative innovation has been to assemble a group of satirists who will provide continuous commentary on the conventions -- through subtitles on a real-time video feed that will be broadcast over the Internet, and she hopes, on C-SPAN. If done well, it could be a scream.

Naturally, there will be those who condemn these sideshows as adolescent distractions from the real event: the nomination of the candidates for national office. But to protest organizers, it is the conventions themselves -- carefully scripted to suppress any debate about the real issues facing the American public and the global community -- that reek of irresponsible, even adolescent behavior.

Sure, democracy is messy, as endless commentators have noted. But the role of social movements is to force us to address problems and consider solutions that threaten many economic and social interests. So just when it all seems too noisy and contentious, consider the alternatives.

In any event, tune in. Despite the intentions of the national political parties, there will be serious debate, as well as comic relief and great entertainment. You just might learn something you never knew you wanted to know.

 Ruth Rosen, an editorial writer for the Chronicle, is the author most recently of ``The World Split Open: How The Modern Women's Movement Changed America,'' (Viking, 2000).

The demonstrations scheduled for this summer's Republican and Democratic conventions are part of wave of international outrage, sparked last year when thousands of marchers gathered on the streets of Seattle to protest the World Trade Organization. Here is a list of recent and upcoming demonstrations:

Nov. 3, 1999, Seattle: protest of World Trade Organization rules

April 16, 2000, Washington, D.C.: protest of International Monetary Fund and World Bank loan policies

July 1, 2000, Millau, France: 40,000 people from the Peasant Confederation rally for Jose Bove, who is on trial for attacking a McDonald's restaurant

July 17, 2000, Istanbul, Turkey: Anti-nuclear demonstration

July 31-Aug. 3, 2000, Philadelphia: numerous marches planned during Republican National Convention

Aug. 9, 2000, New Mexico: protest at Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory

Aug. 9, 2000, London: protest marking the 10th anniversary of sanctions against Iraq

Aug. 14-17, 2000, Los Angeles: numerous marches planned during Democratic National Convention

Sept. 11, 2000, Melbourne, Australia: protest over the World Economic Forum

Sept. 26, 2000, Prague, The Czech Republic: protest over the International Monetary Fund

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