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First we fight the battle,
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Then we fight the battle of summation
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This is our contribution to the battle of
summation
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Telling a reliving the collective story of the
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Of the republican national convention
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Is fundamentally important for resistance movements in the US
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By remembering these huge sparks in activity
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We remind our selves that we can confront the state in all its might
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And all of a sudden another world seems so
much closer
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And so much more real
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But just as important as telling our collective
stories
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Is learning from our collective experiences.
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In this election, there is something happening in America
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l know these a are tough times for many of you
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You're worried about kee... (interrupted)
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My friends, my dear friends
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Please, please don't be diverted by the ground noise and the static
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(Laughs)
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The RNC Welcoming Committee
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The Anarchist, Anti-Athoritatirian body
organizing for the protests
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Started publicly organizing a full year and a half before the convention
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This amount of lead time is something that hasn't be prevalent
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in the north american protest movement since the summit protest era
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at the height of the the global justice movement
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On labor day weekend 2007
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Exactly a year before the convention
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the RNC Welcoming Committee held a weekend long planning
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and training meeting, attended by hundreds of activists
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Representing organizations from around the country
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What kinds of activities are expected
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for the protests?
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Well, something that came out of the first Pre-N.C. was
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that we were going to blockade the streets
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And try to prevent the delegates from reaching
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the Xcel Energy Center
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in the Welcoming Committee's words, crash the convention
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the RNC Welcoming Committee is not planning any actions or protests
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Ourselves, we are more or less creating the clearinghouse
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for people to come through us to have those actions happen.
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We plan to provide you with over 300 buses
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And hundreds of private cars to transport you
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From your lodgings to the Xcel Energy Center
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All four days of the convention
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With more than several freeway entrances
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Into Downtown Saint Paul
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Including the l-94 Kellogg exit
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The l-94 fifth street exit
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The 35E Eleventh street exit
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The 35 E University exit
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The l-94 Tenth street exit
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And the l-94 12th Street exit
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Getting to the Xcel Energy Center might be half the adventure
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Awesome
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No blood for oil, U.S. off Iraqi soil
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With the Coalition to march on the RNC and
Stop the War
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Scheduled to march on the Xcel center same day as the
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RNC Welcoming Committee's Crash the Conventions Blockade
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Organizers for both groups worried about how the two actions will play out together
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on the streets, but in February '07, organizers from both groups came together
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To establish the Saint Paul Principles
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What it was, was a way make sure that all the work that the local organizers
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Wouldn't get pushed aside when the national groups came in
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We've had a lot of success having other groups sign on
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to the Saint Paul Principles, and it's actually pretty historic
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First we mentioned, our solidarity will be based on diversity of tactics
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And the plans of other groups, meaning while
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people might disagree with tactics, we all recognize
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which side of the barricades we're on
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There will be a separation of time and space for actions
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And what that means, we're going to make sure that
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lf someone is having an action in an area that nobody is going
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be bringing their actions down on that one that's already going on
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The third one which is a pretty new agreement for people to sign on to
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for a march or an action like this is
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Any criticisms or debates of tactics, individuals, they will be kept internal
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We're not going to go to the media and
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denounce this group that has different tactics than us
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The last one is that we oppose any state repression of dissent
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Including surveillance, infiltration, disruption and violence
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We agree not to assist law enforcement in actions against activist and others
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lt's pretty nice to see that people seem to be coming around to the idea
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that when it comes to protests the police very firmly on one side
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This is your final warning, you will be subject to chemical irritants
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If you do not disperse and clear the streets
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ln some sense the battle of the RNC was kicked off on Thursday August 28th
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with the erection of Bushville, a tent city modeled after the Hoovervilles
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of the great depression. This encampment on Harriet Island, will serve as a home
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for the poor and homeless arriving in the Twin Cities
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to protest the Republican National Convention.
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Homeless people sleep every single night
across Saint Paul
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The only difference between myself and other homeless people
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That would be here in Saint Paul, is the fact that they don't have signs up
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ls that the difference? Is that we're saying something about what's happening
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In this country
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We know our families don't have the kind of health care that they need
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They don't have the kind of housing that they need
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We live in a rich country and none of us should have to be
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Dealing with 9,000 police officers
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Just to talk about what's wrong in this country
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On Friday, August 29th and Saturday, August 30th,
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police make a series of preemptive strikes against the movement.
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Armed with a search warrant, police kicked in the door of
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the RNC Welcoming Center, a convergence space for protesters.
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They ended up breaking through the door, all of us were in there
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They had us get down on our stomachs as we were watching a movie
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We were both terrified, the cops went in and started cuffing everybody
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For our safety and theirs, supposedly as he is crying and in hysterics
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The Ramsey County Sheriff's department and the Saint Paul Police
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Raided the RNC Convergence space and detained over 50 people
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ln an attempt to preempt planned protest on the RNC on Monday
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Looking for items in any Twin Cities house like jars, paints and rags
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This attempt to portray us as criminals and destroy our credibility
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Has already backfired as evidenced as the masses of people who have come
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to support us
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Frank is Gena, there's two more house raids going on in Minneapolis
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One's at 2301 twenty third avenue south and
the other is at
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3240 seventeenth avenue south, just thought
you might want to know
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Me and my partner were sleeping and l was
naked and officers came and
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separated us, made me lay on the floor naked for about an hour
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By the time the first wave of raids ended,
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At least three houses had been invaded and
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Eight RNC WC organizers had been arrested on felony conspiracy to riot charges
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In response, the legal, communications, and community outreach structures
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Jumped into high gear, legally contesting the arrests and the searches
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Providing solid, accurate information and running rumor control
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and generating a widespread expression of
community outrage.
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Private First Class Shane Penley, Age 19 Sauk Village Illinois
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Died in Iraq, April 6th, 2008
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We will remember you
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August 31st. We remember, say the Veterans For Peace
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as they march on the Xcel Center to read out the names of US soldiers
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and Iraqi civilians killed in the war.
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Unknown Iraqi child, bloody face and loss of right eye, we will remember you
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Let them in, they have served their country, let them in
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Nine are arrested for breaching the security perimeter.
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Monday, opening day for the RNC
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At the State Capitol, the people assemble, preparing to march
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in peaceful protest to the Xcel center.
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Estimates vary on the size of the crowd, between 10 and 30,000 people.
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The police are armed with extended batons, pepper spray, tasers,
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tear gas guns, automatic rifles, and guns firing less lethal projectiles
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Today, public order will be kept by 3,700 police from across Minnesota
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with the help of thousands more from over 30 agencies
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The RNC Welcoming Committee had divided Saint Paul into 7 sectors
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So that organizing groups throughout the country can coordinate their actions
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and blockade as many access points as possible.
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Each group created a unique blockade, independent, yet collaborative
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Major entrance and travel points in each Sector, from highway on-ramps,
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to busy intersections, to hotel shuttle bus loading spaces,
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were claimed by the affinity groups.
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Traffic was blocked for several hours in downtown St. Paul
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and during the chaotic scene the swarm of protesters was able to disable
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at least two buses by slashing their tires and smashing their windows.
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Delegates were delayed in getting to the Xcel Center and hundreds of America's
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political elite were directly and personally confronted
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by an energetic declaration of opposition.
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l'm shutting down, they are getting ready to spray down here
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l said the riot, the protesters have come down, the police are on their way down
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Here and l am going to shut down before they spray
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The police reacted aggressively, strategically and methodically
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working to force protesters out of key
intersections and off of main thoroughfares.
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They use blunt object force, chemical weapons, and concussion grenades
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in an attempt to disperse, or at least push back crowds.
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And when their numbers allowed it, police surrounded and arrested
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entire groups of protesters, reporters, and bystanders.
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Put your hands behind your back
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You're under arrest
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Get down
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from that day on, the Saint Paul police held a constant assault
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against all RNC protesters, regardless of their affiliation, or permit status
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We remember the US tank that fired on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad,
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killing Spanish journalist Jose Couso,
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and the US missile attacks on the offices of Al-Jazeera in both Iraq and
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Afghanistan shortly after the US invaded those two countries.
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Altogether at least 217 journalists and media assistants have been killed in Iraq
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since the start of the US-led invasion, according to Reporters Without Borders.
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Recently, Indymedia journalist Sally Grace Eiler was raped and murdered in
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Oaxaca, Mexico, in a case linked to political repression, much like the case of
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Indymedia videographer Brad Will, who in 2006 was gunned down in Oaxaca
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while covering the teachers strike. Journalists serve as the eyes and ears of
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democracy. Without free access to the story,
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there can be no freedom of the press.
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ln St. Paul, the police escalated their usual heavy-handed attack on
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media activists by first detaining, nearly a week before the convention began,
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members of the Glass Bead Collective
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They confiscated our cameras, they confiscated our notes
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They confiscated our computers. What they took away is our ability to report
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Later police raided i-witness video, a cop-watch group.
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Their footage of police arrests at the RNC 4 years ago in New York resulted in
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hundreds of arrested demonstrators getting off since the i-witness video footage
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showed time and again that the police were lying about the circumstances
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of the arrests.
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gentleman in the house had cameras and we were videotaping
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and photographing as we heard the police bust through an attic door
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Yell 'Police' come down the stairs and enter the living room with a hand gun
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Drawn on us.
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Put them on top your head please, on top of your head please
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Two members of the PepperSpray Collective, Lambert Rochfort and Joe LaSac
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were arrested in St. Paul while covering the protests. They were both held for
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days and their cameras were not released until after the story they traveled from
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Seattle to cover was over. It was a serious blow
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which put the lens cap on their reports.
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Hold it right here. Ma'am, sidewalk
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Release the accredited journalists now!
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l'm coming from the convention floor.
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Sidewalk, now
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Sir l want to talk to...
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Authorities picked up a rock only to drop it on their own feet with the arrest of
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Democracy Now's popular host Amy Goodman, and her crew.
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The police quickly let Amy out of jail as they were inundated with a storm of calls
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and other pressure demanding her release.
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independent Filmmaker Flux Rostrom operates Mobile Broadcast News
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a school bus that serves as video production facility, roaming the country
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to cover underground news.
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Throughout the RNC the Saint Paul Police attempted to break in numerous times
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without a warrant, forcing the mobile broadcast news crew to keep watch on 24l7
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Get out of here!
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l can't see, ahhhh! Press! Press!
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Get down on your face!
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On your face!
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Get down on your face!
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Domestic preemptive raids and arrests against protest organizers and the press
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marks a big escalation by the authorities. They clearly wanted to cripple the
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movement and or ability to report on it, and certainly did not want the unblinking
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eye ofthe camera trained at them while they did their dirty work.
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These tactics raise political questions around the constitutional right
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Of freedom of the press, and exposes the ugly face of the police state
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You alright Flux?
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Yeah, l'm all right. They only got one eye, l still got one left
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Good morning slaves and welcome to
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part two of ground noise and static, by now you probably thought....
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Wait a minute, where's my mother fuckin eye?
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thanks.
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OK, so you suckers though we were just going
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to grill the Republicans and let the Democrats off the hook, didn't you?
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My selecta, rewind that shit
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Our team of video ninjas went to Denver for the same reasons we covered the
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protests in St. Paulice. There is a resistance movement growing throughout the
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land and all around the world. A movement that is bigger than elections.
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A movement that broadly unites people across a diversity of class, social, political,
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economic, racial, and gender lines. A movement that in the spirit of the St. Paul
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principles can live with its many differences,
because we are all united
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against against a common enemy. We know there is something fundamentally
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wrong and even suicidal as a species, with the corporate vision of the future.
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So the movement went to Denver, just like St. Paul, to proclaim mutiny,
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to stand up and be counted on the better world that is possible.
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When things like these happening, somebody better recreate some struggle
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Our immigrant sisters and brothers, are being rounded up by the thousands
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Dragged out like slaves, dragged out of plants and factories, dragged out
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of their homes, thrown in prisons, some of them are dying in prison for lack of
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Medical attention, deported, some of them are being beaten to death, lynched
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Somebody better recreate some struggle
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Somebody better recreate some militancy, some unity
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What occupation do we oppose? What war do we oppose?
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All war? Any war? This war? That war?
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How about the war that's right here in occupied Denver?
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With the DNC coming to town, it's like Santa Claus has dropped off gifts
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For the Denver Police Department, only these gifts are in the form of
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new riot shields, new security cameras, and gas canisters to use on protesters
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Have you notice that with all this talk of stopping terrorists and Bin Laden all
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that stuff and all this militarization and homeland security,
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that it all comes down to the government's guns are pointing at us?
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This is what happens in a Nazi country, not what happens in America
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You can't even walk down the street, without them coming out
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with their war gear on.
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-Protester.. Help!
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-Police.. Camera, camera
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-Protester.. Help!
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-Protester.. l'm shot
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You're in charge?
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and you're instructing these officers to hold me here?
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Under what freaking authority?
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While its no doubt true that some people who were righteously interested
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in bumping chests with Republicans skipped Denver, to avoid making the
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Democrats mad. Its safe to say that those who showed up in Denver,
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and there were a lot's of them, were clearly sick of the two party,
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corporate-police-state system.
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When it came to the constitution, the democratic leadership showed us
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that aiding and abetting illegal spying on us, was more important to them
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than protecting our civil liberties. When it came to war and occupation,
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the Democratic leadership showed us, that financing an illegal immoral war
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based on lies, was more important to them, than the peoples desire for peace
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And when the people, hurting from the financial mismanagement
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of this country, called for accountability, for the crimes that have been committed
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Against the people here, against the global community, against nature itself
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The Democratic leadership took impeachment off the table.
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And even greater use of clean coal technology
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We need to have clean coal technology
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And that's why we have to invest in clean coal technologies
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The DNC was also being billed as the greenest convention ever by the Democrats
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and a need to seriously confront green capitalism was seen as a necessary
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component to the protests.
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One of the most common things that we see every day, is this thing
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called green washing, and it's when corporations try to say they're a part
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of this environmental movement, they're part of this sustainable paradigm,
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that we all want, because we see how unsustainable our current lifestyles are
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The problem with that is that these companies, aren't part of our sustainable
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future, and the sooner that we realize that, the sooner that we're going to get rid
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the best. Let them die, and start building something that's truly sustainable.
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The clean coal lobby was out in force at the DNC passing out fans
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and buttons touting the virtues of clean coal without even explaining what it is.
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Overall the anti green capitalism mach was a success in causing a spectacle to
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counteract the dem's green image and got into the heads of unsuspecting political
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tourists. This was a powerful victory as normal folks become disillusioned with the
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political system and look for real alternatives beyond the democratic leadership
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One of the best indicators of how shaky things are for the rich is the role
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of Iraq Vets Against the War. Fresh back from the killing fields, these mutineers
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are driven by their own experiences to confront democrats and republicans alike.
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l think people need to get out on the streets, l think it has to be a real movement
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Gl's have to stop fighting the war, that's how it ends. And they need the support
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They need to see people in the streets that are supporting them.
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When they actually resist, when they go AWOL that the people are there for them
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More and more vets--and now active duty military--are joining IVAW to stand
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and confront their masters. Ron Kovic paralyzed Viet Nam Veteran,
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whose story is detailed in Oliver Stone's movie 'Born on the 4th of July,
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and who in real life rode his wheelchair in to disrupt the Republican convention
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in 1972 never stood so tall as when he wheeled out of this year's
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Democratic convention to stand with IVAW as they faced off the cops and
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their political handlers.
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When l have to go inside of a cage, to dissent to question authority. Is that the
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freedom that l sacrificed my body for? In the next couple of days, we are going to
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find that freedom. We are going to allow the American people to know that we are
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not going to be silenced. That's what being an American is all about.
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We refuse to be silent. They will not take us. We will not go silently into
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this dark American night.
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This was a photo op moment, rank and file, disciplined, silver bugle and all,
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standing against the masters of war. Here's how it all came down..
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Just a victim of the in house drive by...
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Rage Against the Machine rocked out a free concert in front of thousands of fans.
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immediately following the show, RAGE instructed the crowd to march behind the
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vets to the Pepsi Center for five freakin miles. The plan worked,
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and about ten thousand amped up peeps walked towards the DNC
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in an unpermitted march.
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We have come here to hold the Democratic Party accountable
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We want to talk to Senator Obama, we do not want to hurt you
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We don't want you to hurt us.
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They stood in mutiny, and the cops, who would immediately attack a similar
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crowd lead by protest groups, punked out. At one point the cops started suiting
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up, preparing for the order to atttack. The vets stood unwavering,
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the crowd on edge. The authorities tried to stall, but the vets determinedly held their ground.
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-We are! -We are!
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-Awaiting negotiation! - Awaiting negotiation!
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-With Senator Obama!! -With Senator Obama!!
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-The Democratic Party! - The Democratic Party!
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-ls scared shitless right now! -ls scared shitless right now!
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Finally the police blinked and it felt like a decisive battle had been won.
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The veteran's liaison is coming out to set up a meeting to talk about when
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We can read our letter to the delegates
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Your voices have been heard!
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Senator Barack Obama is going to meet with us.
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No doubt the ranks of IVAW will continue to grow with volunteers,
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stepping up to the battle. Their actions reach those unreachable by other means.
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And by example they call out to all Americans to exceed the limits
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to break ranks, and join the revolution.
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In conclusion, the republicrat rebellions of 2008 succeeded in bringing
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people from around the country together, and cementing strong bonds which
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will carry on beyond the conventions.
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See you in the streets
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They tried to use me, but l am not a tool.
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They tried to lie to me but l will not be fooled
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They tried to bribe but l could not be bought
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And they tried to stop me but l cannot be stopped
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Because we are unbeatable
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And we are unstoppable
