Yesterday, I interviewed Bill "Billy" Taylor, the man who obtained in his own name, four of the six city-issued permits for protest "zones" in FDR Park. Those permits would ultimately thrust him into a leading role as an activist and organizer of the protests against the DNC. For many in Philadelphia, he's the face of the political revolution.

Bill "Billy" Taylor, is a a local business owner and single father living in in Philadelphia. He's also one of the principal organizers behind the marches and rallies that will occur when the the Democratic Convention is held in Philadelphia the latter part of July. Specifically, Bill Taylor is the executive director of PHILLY.FYI, an organization that works diligently to coordinate and assist the numerous organizations that have events planned for July 24th - 28th. In addition, PHILL.FYI is the primary group that has negotiated with the City of Philadelphia regarding health and safety issues, and now housing concerns, for all those coming to Philly to participate in the many marches and rallies.

When I interviewed him Wednesday, July 29th, my first question was this: what made him decide, long before large protests against the DNC were ever contemplated, to apply for those permits so far in advance of the Democratic National Convention? Here's what he told me:

The two main reasons when I originally applied roughly over six months ago [for the permits] was one, I knew the Sanders' campaign was in town and wanting to reserve locations, so I reserved as many locations as possible for Sanders campaign. Two, I wanted to stop any Hillary supporters from obtaining permits to make sure it was strictly Bernie supporters in Philadelphia.

However, as the primary season ran its course, his original reasons "evolved into something else." Now Taylor tells me, he wants to see that a "spotlight is shined on the grassroots" who supported Sanders and his call for a political revolution. His remarks on that point echoed Bernie's own, oft repeated refrain that his campaign and his call for a political revolution was not about him but about us. I received the impression from Bill that he took Bernie at his word regarding creating a political revolution from the bottom up, not the top down.

The various marches and rallies against the DNC were not generated by the Sanders' campaign, but arose organically from among the many grassroots volunteers and activists who responded to the issues and values that formed the core of Bernie's message. In his view it's the grassroots - not the City of Philadelphia, and not the Democratic Party establishment - who now hold the most important cards, and it's all because of those permits.

The beautiful thing is the [City of Philadelphia, the Clinton campaign, the DNC and even the Sanders campaign] messed up [when he was allowed to obtain the permits]. First off, I'm grassroots. Second, I'm local. So, in my opinion there is no voice, no matter how small or large that should be silenced. And I'll personally see to that.

I next asked Bill how negotiations were going with the City of Philadelphia. What he told me was disturbing.

He said that, after the City initially agreed to help provide services "for cooling stations, for medic tents [and] for water drop offs," negotiations have essentially come to a halt. The City has been sending mixed messages and "stalling." He questions whether their actions are intended to simply waste the organizers' time, making it harder for his group and others with permits to plan for the needs of all the Bernie supporters and others who will soon descend on Philadelphia.

Thinking back ... [the City] had been cooperative [on health and safety matters], but not in a timely manner. In fact, the time frame they have operated under has been very counter productive.

Recently the City cancelled two scheduled meetings with PHILLY.FYI, including one scheduled yesterday. These meetings "were not postponed and not rescheduled," they were just "straight up cancelled." Their reason for the most recent cancellation? Because they had to plan for the Fourth of July. As if they hadn't been planning for that for months.

In addition, on the issue of obtaining permits for people to camp out in tents in the City's parks, Taylor said that he was told by Robert Allen of the City's Special Events department to apply for them at another department, only to learn later from a mainstream media reporter that "the Mayor said they were absolutely not going to approve" permits for tent camping. Indeed, as Taylor noted:

[The City] just released the locations of the zones [for the permits Bill has held] for months. How can we plan properly when they just released [that] four weeks away from an event that could possibly have a million supporters?

When I asked him if he believed the City has been, in my words, "slow walking" the process, he told me bluntly that "They have been playing games ... they're obviously playing games."

He suggested to me that both the the City and the Sanders campaign have put the word out they both want large numbers of people to come to Philadelphia, if for different reasons. The Sanders campaign wants large crowds as leverage for Bernie. The City of Philadelphia wants a lot of people for the revenue it can generate, not only for local businesses but for the City, itself. That includes money from issuing tickets for a host of misdemeanor offenses, thus avoiding the costs associated with making an arrest.

Unfortunately, Taylor says that neither the City nor the Sanders campaign has been much help to the grassroots groups, such as PHILLY.FYI, who have been shouldering the burden of how to manage such a large undertaking, all while keeping the demonstrations peaceful. To be clear, he emphasized that was his main concern and the concern of PHILLY.FYI .

We personally are for a peaceful revolution. Any organization that [PHILLY.FYI] signs on to, that we have placed onto the permits with us, we have asked them to sign a peaceful petition. We have a petition for a peaceful revolution and they must sign it. Regardless of what the City or anyone else does, we don't want want to see anyone get hurt, knowing there's going to be elderly and children in the crowds.

He was also quick to praise Susan Britton Seyler, the head of Bernie Peacekeepers, one of many projects that PHILLY.FYI is supporting. They will provide volunteers trained in non-confrontational methods to de-escalate potentially violent situations. Susan, he said, is a Quaker, and she stands for "peaceful, non-conflict, non violent ways" to defuse tense situations. He stated:

I have full confidence in her [ability, and those she trains, to employ] any and all means, without physical confrontation, to de-escalate any situation that may arise.

My next question sparked the most intriguing response of the entire interview: "What's the main message you'd like to give people going to Philadelphia?" His response follows:

The main message? We promise a political revolution. We will do that because the establishment has proven to everyone that our vote does not matter. They've figured out a way to twist, manipulate and corrupt our vote. Where our power lies is in our registration form. We will organize a massive de-registration and ultimately take back the power from the party. We will make an example of the Democratic party, [of] the Republicans and any other party that we the people will take our power back. The party only has power in the amount of members [it has] so we'll take their members and ultimately their power.

That generated this follow-up question: "Would you support a third party run by Bernie? Again, Bill's response:

Absolutely. We encourage it. Regardless if Bernie pushes third party or not, I personally encourage it. Jill Stein's [Green Party] platform is almost identical to Bernie's, so if you believe in Bernie and the issues he fought for, you'll believe in Jill, as well. She extended a hand out to Bernie, offered him a seat with her, so there's more than one way to have Bernie placed into power outside the Democratic Party. Outside of that, the political revolution will more than likely start with the Green Party. Let's de-register from the Democrats and register as green, and put them in a position to properly fight the corrupted parties that we have.

Bill then compared Bernie's call for breaking up the big banks as analogous to his position to de-register from the two major parties.

When they're too big to fail, break them up. Well I think Bernie would agree the same thing applies to our political parties. We stood by Bernie and we still continue to stand with Bernie. Regardless of whether this is the end or not, we're standing with him. But maybe it's time Bernie joins us in the streets and [stand] with we, the people.

My final questions regarded whether Bernie would join the march in Philly on July 24th, the March for BernieUSA, an event that will occur not only in Philadelphia but in cities across the country. He said no, that the campaign never expressed an interest in having Bernie march, they just hoped to have the marchers end up at Bernie's rally in FDR park.

However, the site at the park the Sanders' campaign wanted for the rally, the area to the south where the baseball field is located, is not available. It doesn't fall within the areas for which Bill has permits. He still offered the Sanders' campaign three of the four zones he has a permit for at FDR park for their rally, but hasn't heard back from them. He's heard rumors that Bernie has found another location at which to hold his rally on July 24tth that is outside the control of the City, but he didn't know for sure where that might be.

At that point the time for my interview ran out, and I thanked Bill for all that he's done and for allowing me to speak to him on the record.