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e-Action Report: Pushing Back
October 2008

UPDATE: RNC 8

In the last eAction report we told you the story of our co-worker, Jonathan Williams, who was unlawfully arrested at the Republican National Convention (RNC) protests in St. Paul. We were overwhelmed by your positive response. Your calls to the jail, mayor, and Governor help expedite the release of most of the protesters including Jon. He's back on the road now, on his way to court to defend his right to dissent. Along the way he'll be giving workshops and trainings to youth across the country to keep this kind of dissent active. Sadly, there is still work for us to do as well.

The RNC 8 are a group of peace activists who are currently being charged with Conspiracy to Commit Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism, a 2nd degree felony that carries the possibility of several years in prison. They were picked out of a larger group of organizers who spent over a year preparing to "welcome" the RNC to their city. Under the Minnesota version of the Patriot act these activists were followed for over a year; their phones were tapped without a warrant; and, they were arrested without having ever committed a crime.

From their website: "On Friday, August 29th, 2008, as folks were finishing dinner and sitting down to a movie when the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department stormed in, guns drawn, ordering everyone to the ground. This evening raid resulted in seized property (mostly literature), and after being cuffed, searched, and IDed, the 60+ individuals inside were released.

The next morning, on Saturday, August 30th, the Sheriff's department executed search warrants on three houses, seizing personal and common household items and arresting the first 5 of us- Monica Bicking, Garrett Fitzgerald, Erik Oseland, Nathanael Secor, and Eryn Trimmer. Later that day Luce Guillen-Givins was arrested leaving a public meeting at a park. Rob Czernik and Max Specktor were arrested on Monday, September 1, bringing the number to its present 8. All were held on probable cause and released on $10,000 bail on Thursday, September 4, the last day of the RNC."

Five people from our organizing group in Washington D.C. were also in the convergence space when it was raided. At a report back last week activists described the fear and uncertainty they felt during the raid. Sonia Silbert, a colleague from the Washington Peace Center, recounted watching a mother holding her 2 year old baby while his father was handcuffed on the ground. It was painful to hear especially given our plans to organize for the Inauguration here in D.C.

In their letter the RNC 8 explain the difficulty of dealing with 'conspiracy' charges, "Conspiracy charges serve a very particular purpose- to criminalize dissent. They create a convenient method for incapacitating activists, with the potential for diverting limited resources towards protracted legal battles and terrorizing entire communities into silence and inaction." In this case the strength of good organizing prevailed the day and the protests went on as planned despite the incarceration of organizers. Sonia said, "It was really sad because they would have been so proud to see how well everything worked even when they weren't there."

It is hard to believe that we live in a country where this abuse of police power is tolerated. The arrests were made before the protests even happened, before any crime (if there were any crimes) could have been committed by organizers. The arrests were made specifically to quell the voice of dissent. As a local D.C. organizer I am happy to serve as a host committee for any peace and justice minded group who want to protest in my city. However, I fear that my freedom to serve and our freedom to protest are under assault and this isn't the first time.

At the 2004 RNC in New York protestors were similarly beaten, unlawfully arrested, and illegally detained. They won a class action lawsuit against the city. Earlier protests against the WTO, the G8, World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have resulted in similar outcomes globally. Some protestors have won their lawsuits and some have lost their lives; but, the call for global justice keeps protestors coming to the streets.

As the RNC 8 point out in their letter, the struggle against the abuse of state power is one we fight everyday. "The fact is that we live in a police state- some people first realized this in the streets of St. Paul during the convention, but many others live with that reality their whole lives. People of color, poor and working class people, immigrants, are targeted and criminalized on a daily basis, and we understand what that context suggests about the repression the 8 of us face now."

Keep the calls coming and keep up the dissent. We cannot and will not tolerate living in a policed state. The right to protest should be fundamental in this country. After all, even the President tells us we have to protect our freedoms here and abroad. In the coming months we'll be sending you updates on how to get plugged into protests and actions around the country. Keep checking back and keep the wave of resistance alive.