Republican National Convention Sept 1-4

[gla22]

http://www.nornc.org/

On September 1-4 of 2008, the Republican Party is coming to Minnesota to celebrate their latest conquests in global domination and exploitation. We of the RNC Welcoming Committee want to make sure that this time the fear-mongers will be met with their own biggest fear: people mobilized, organized, and taking the future back into their own hands.
For those of you who abhor the rapid growth of racist militarized borders across stolen lands, the raids and deportations, destruction and commodification of our shared and living earth, police brutality and prison industry, fear propaganda and subjugation, exploitation and robbery of peoples worldwide, and all forms of injustice and oppression - we ask you to be prepared for 2008. This will require new alliances, strong networks, the awakening of those who’ve given up, as well as the mobilization of those who’ve never before taken action. Let’s use this opportunity to make the changes we thirst for manifest and take root before us, making the Republicans/Democrats (whatever you want to call them) obsolete.
Labor Day weekend of 2007, anarchists and anti-authoritarians from across the country gathered in the Twin Cities to develop goals and plans for the RNC 2008. This is what we’ve come up with:

What we want (the goals):
1. Build Our Capacity – A new reality will not emerge by simply stopping the 4 day spectacle of the RNC. We need folks with an alternative vision to come to the Twin Cities and turn their dreams into reality. Start something new, be creative, and come ready to build sustainable alternatives worth fighting for and defending. The new skills that we teach, learn, and put into practice here will allow us to return to our communities stronger, smarter, and more empowered.
2. Crash the Convention – We didn’t get an invitation, but we’re showing up anyway. This party will be what we make of it. We don’t want to confine our potential by imposing a single vision of what success will look like. We recognize that there will be a lot of people coming with their own agendas and carefully laid plans and want to be open to the diverse tactics that will be necessary to accomplish our many goals. Together, we can derail the purely ceremonial show of this repressive system and remake it with our own hands and according to our own visions.
How we get there (the strategy):
1. Start Strong – Throw all of our energy into the first day. We’ll kick this off right and stretch the militarized police state out so far that it can no longer contain and suppress our voices and desires.
2. Transportation Troubles – This includes blockades downtown (at key intersections), on bridges (10 bridges over the Mississippi River in the metro area), and other sporadic and strategic targets (busses, hotel and airport shuttles etc).
3. Respect, defend, and be prepared for autonomous self-sustaining alternatives – Lasting projects and spaces will be born out of our actions and will need to be protected. We also won’t knowingly bring the hammer down on existing long-term community projects. It doesn’t matter if we win the RNC battle, if the war for our lives is lost.
4. Be inclusive of local communities and respect alliances – We are all on the same side of the barricades and are trying to build lasting bonds for future mutual aid. We may not agree with each other on all of our tactics, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t venues for us to work together and build on the trust and community that already exists.

What the Welcoming Committee is doing:
1. Logistical support – We will organize legal support, housing, food, transportation, and a convergence space as well as anything else you may need to make our collective actions successful.
2. Framework coordinating – We will map out key points and layouts and gather intelligence to help you plug into the bigger picture. Let us know your needs, desires, and capacities.
3. Local outreach – We are building alliances with local groups and communities to help build our collective support. We encourage you to do the same.
4. Networking – We’re hooking y’all up with each-other so that you can work with people you might not already know, strategize, and share a glass of some good old mutual aid.
What we are calling for:
1. Get it together – Have regional consultas, organize in your communities, and form your affinity groups. We are expecting people to come with concrete plans for action that they have devised and the capacity to carry them through.
2. Lead up actions – Practice makes perfect. Use this entire year leading up to the RNC to develop and practice your own tactics and strategies that step things up a notch and build true alternatives. Resistance doesn’t start and end at ‘the next big protest’; it is a way of life.
3. Fundraising – We’re not saying to let your community projects flounder, but we’re going to need some serious cash to help arrange legal support (we’re still looking for a lawyer dumpster), a convergence space, and a thousand other logistical puzzles. Pass the hat at every regional consulta and meeting you attend, hold fundraisers, and send a chunk of it in our direction!
4. Communicate – Maintain strong security-culture values, but let us know your capacities and what you will need. If you want a single point person to communicate with, we can arrange it. What you say you can do and will need shapes the course that we take.
5. Come to the Twin Cities – Come early and come often! Take advantage of that “Minnesota Nice” and come long before the convention to help make things happen. Also, put May Day weekend (May 1st - 4th 2008) on your calendars to send a representative or two from your group to the Twin Cities for our next networking and strategizing event (more info TBA).
September 1st, 2008, we, the RNC Welcoming Committee, invite all anarchists and anti-authoritarians, all radicals and rabble-rousers, all those who are fed up with government lies and spectacles to show up ready for action and ensure that we leave no place for these expired politicians. What we create here will send the convention crashing off course into insignificance.

From the occupied territories of Minnesota,
The RNC Welcoming Committee
nornc.org

Looks like it will be a pretty big thing and it has had alot of organization. The way people are talking about it it sounds like 1999 Seattle. i wish I could make it.

[LiberaCHE]

Let it Burn !

[Comrade Rage]

i wish I could make it.

Same here.

[Comrade B]

hmmm... lets see if I can persuade my family to go there for this, or get enough friends to come with me to make guess not too expensive...
Sounds fun...

[bcbm]

I'm going to be there.

[LiberaCHE]

[gla22]

Yeah i will be eagerly watching the news to see how this turns out.

[cameron222]

I personally would contemplate doing some things OUTSIDE the sectors, a few blocks away, while the cops are preoccupied with the convention. this would take only a few people. perhaps there are walmart supercenters nearby that would like to be vandalized?
I'd do it myself, by myself, but i can't afford the plane ticket and my car is a pos.

[midnight marauder]

Please don't talk about that sort of thing on the boards.

I'll be attending as well.

[gla22]

anyone know what the most intense section will be?

[leftspot]

There will be a mass, legally permitted march on the opening day of the RNC, September 1, which starts at 11:00 am at the MN State Capitol and marches from there to the XCel Center, where the RNC will take place. Info on that is at marchonrnc.org

There will be a militant anti-war march on Day 4 (Sep 4) initiaited by the Anti-War Committee, which is the day the repubs will nominate McCain as their candidate. That march has the theme "No peace for the war makers".

Also some great activities and actions on Day 2 and 3, including a great concert at the capitol on day 2. And Rage Against the Machine is playing on the night of Day 3 at the Target Center! For overview of many activities and contingents check out protestrnc2008.org

That covers the mass activities. It should be said that while there are many permitted actions, recent history of police reaction to these conventions makes clear that mass arrests and roundups are certainly possible. There has been a huge and protracted battle between activists and St Paul officials over even getting a real permit to march to the XCel Center. So it's possible that cops could incite conflict at any time. But the legally permitted activities are supposed to stay that way.

The anarchists are saying they'll do blockades and that kind of stuff. Info on that at nornc.org An important agreement was reached among all forces in Minnesota organizing against the RNC to respect diversity of tactics, called the "St Paul Principles". You can see them at marchonrnc.org and nornc.org. The basic deal is having a separation of time or space between legal activities and, um, other stuff. Also noone will publicly denounce other forces in the movement. It's quite an important breakthrough.

[John Lenin]

A city ablaze would be nice to see.

[Mindtoaster]

Gaaaaaaaaaah I want to go so bad.

Heres to hoping for another Seattle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk0_W...eature=related

[Comrade Castro]

AHHHHH! I wish I could be there! Just wait till they have their convention in Miami! Anyways, all who are going there, good luck and kick some ass!

[rocker935]

I WANT TO GO SOOO BAD!!!! BUT IM ONLY 16!!!! There is no way I will be able to ditch school for a week...



RAISE HELL COMRADES!!!

[bcbm]

anyone know what the most intense section will be?

The midwest cluster and bash back! have both claimed sector 5 and since those groups have the largest numbers, I would suspect 5 will be the place to be. Or whatever section the delegates end up coming through.

[cameron222]

i can't find WHERE the main republican activities are... at the xcel energy center? i did some checking at indymedia and stuff, i know they're using many different convention centers and public places in the area, but there's got to be a main one, where most of the media will be focused, right? anyone know where it is?

[rampantuprising]

Please don't talk about that sort of thing on the boards.

I'll be attending as well.

pick me up in iowa!

[hekmatista]

I'll be at both conventions. At 55 mobile tactics are not my forte, but I can still take and hold.

[RHIZOMES]

Gaaaaaaaaaah I want to go so bad.

Heres to hoping for another Seattle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk0_W...eature=related

That video kicked ass.