march/april update from RNC welcoming committee

April 5, 2008 by RNC-WC

here's your rnc welcoming committee march/april update - it's less than 5 months and counting to September 1!

we apologize for the lack of an april fool's joke; the Twin Cities corporate media and police have been fulfilling the role of fool so well that we have nothing to add.

items for your perusal:

*pReNC 5.3: RSVP now!

*5.3 housing and ride boards are up

*we need bikes...

*...and your creative blockade ideas

*endorsing the st. paul principles and crash the convention strategy

*national tours reportback

*tasers for every protester?!

*our wishlist - donate your refund!

*upcoming regional appearances and events

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pReNC 5.3 and May Day festivities are coming up fast!

The pReNC 5.3 is the second national gathering for planning radical resistance to the 2008 Republican National Convention. It will take place on May 3rd in the Twin Cities.

This gathering will function as a spokescouncil, and is open to representatives from all groups familiar with the strategy and that have begun organizing how they will fit into it (not limited to anarchists), including support roles (medics, legal, food, etc). We are asking that groups send 1-3 spokespeople. All attending must RSVP to prenc@riseup.net by April 17th in order to register and be vouched for.

For the full pReNC 5.3 invite, visit: http://www.rncwelcomingcommittee.org/2008/03/31/prenc-53-were-now-taking-rsvps/

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HOUSING and ride board for 5.3 are up...

Coming to the Twin Cities for 5.3 and need a ride or a place to stay? Or maybe you're already here and looking for a way to show solidarity. We must've missed the memo that anarchists are against all organization, 'cause our ride and housing boards are up and running.

Check out the boards at: http://rncwc.informe.com

(if you tried to post earlier but were unable to, we're sorry for the glitch. create a new account and post away!)

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BIKES: republicans hate 'em, we love 'em...

In addition to rides and housing, the RNC-WC intends to have several dozen bikes for pReNC participants to use throughout the weekend. And of course we're planning for several hundred bikes during the RNC itself. Do you have an unused bike or three that's been carrying out its own blockading strategy of your garage or basement? If so, please contact us to arrange drop-off or pick-up. We also hope the bikes can remain in the community, perhaps as part of a community bike-share program, long after the convention.

Thanks!

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BARRICADES, bike blocs, or boomboxes - it's all a blockade

Blockading the RNC is a way of organizing our diverse actions that allows individuals and groups to decide on their own plans, while also promoting a larger goal in which we are greater than the sum of our parts. A blockade is any action that works to stop or slow traffic. It could be occupying an intersection with a clown performance, linking arms or using lock boxes to block a bridge, marching through the busiest streets with thousands of protestors, dancing to a homemade soundsystem, filling the road with heaps of objects (like trash or stuffed animals), or doing Yoga, pretending to be dead, meditating, or praying in the middle of the road. Those blockading will make it impossible for the Republican Delegates to reach the convention center in St. Paul, denying the Republicans their spectacle and affirming the ability of the people to truly participate in politics. But this will only be successful if we can work together in ways that we each find appropriate.

No matter your political affiliation, we want you reclaiming space in the Twin Cities come September - it's time to up the ante! The organizing is in full swing and the strategy wants you. Are you ready? We’re eager to talk to you about how your creative actions can be in solidarity with the blockading strategy.

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ENDORSE the st. paul principles and crash the convention strategy...

More and more groups are signing on to the historic St. Paul Principles, helping build a unified front for RNC resistance. Among others, the Campus Antiwar Network - UW Madison is encouraging all other CAN groups to support the principles, and locally, the Arise! collective in Minneapolis has signed on. Read about the Principles here: http://www.rncwelcomingcommittee.org/st-paul-principles/

Groups far and wide are also endorsing the crash the convention blockading strategy. A small sampling includes Asheville Rising Tide, CrimethInc Far East, the Northeast Anarchist Network, the People's Networking Convention Organizing Committee, Unconventional Denver, and ACTIVATE (Grand Rapids SDS) - read their endorsement and call to other chapters here: http://www.activategr.org/organizing/rnc-dnc/sds-rnc-call/

Check out the strategy and all the endorsements at http://www.rncwelcomingcommittee.org/about/ and send along your endorsement to rnc08@riseup.net.

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TOURS: final reportback...

Despite 1 lockdown, 3 misdemeanor charges, 5 tickets and 1 "border incident,", the RNC Welcoming Committee's Northeast, Southeast, Southwest and West Coast tours completed 56 events in 27 states between January 22nd and March 10th, 2008. After gas and tolls, we came out about $2,700 ahead. All told, the tours were a big success.

We had countless opportunities to meet and dialogue with radicals all over the country. Many of them have already been pouring energy into anti-RNC organizing, and many more used our events to kick off those efforts. We received invaluable input on the strategy, on the direction that anti-RNC organizing should take from here on out, and on the needs of existing organizing networks. Further, it became clear to us that the national interest and momentum necessary for a successful execution of the strategy is out there, and that events such as the upcoming pReNC 5.3 and ongoing regional consultas throughout the country will play an integral role in transforming that energy into effective action at the RNC.

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RNC-WC orders tasers for every protester...

(From March 13) The RNC Welcoming Committee (RNC-WC), an anarchist and anti-authoritarian organizing body based in the Twin Cities, announced today that it has ordered tasers for each of its members and friends. The announcement comes on the heels of last month’s St. Paul City Council approval of a St. Paul Police Department (SPPD) request for 234 tasers. Due to a unique corporate-anarchist confidentiality agreement, the exact number of tasers or documentable evidence of this new order will not be disclosed.

Both the SPPD and RNC-WC taser orders are scheduled to arrive before the September 1 so-called Republican National Convention (RNC) in St. Paul. However, “The RNC Welcoming Committee’s order of tasers has absolutely nothing to do with the upcoming Republican convention,” said Ann O’ Nymmity of the RNC-WC. “These deadly, yet humane, weapons are needed simply to protect the safety of members of our community on a day-to-day basis. The timing is purely a coincidence.”

Last month, St. Paul police spokesperson Tom Walsh made similar statements to the Associated Press, saying that in regards to the RNC, his department’s purchase is “in no way related [to the timing of the RNC in St. Paul]. It simply isn’t.”

read more, plus media reaction: http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20080314110446314

...JUST IN! some actual fan mail...

"I do hope the moment you point a tazer at a Minneapolis or Saint Paul police officer, he/she unholsters his/her firearm, points it directly at your pointy little head, and calmly pulls the trigger.

Hey, I guy can wish, right?"

[sincerely,

your biggest fan]

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MUTUAL AID in action...

We've got a long wishlist... and at the top of it is cash.

So here's a reminder that our callout to all of you tax refund-eligible people sick and tired of fueling this capitalist economy is still in effect. For the rest of you, please check out our entire wishlist at: http://www.rncwelcomingcommittee.org/wishlist/

Send your cash, check, tasers (it's a joke, all you right-wing bloggers!) or fan mail to:

RNC - WC

PO Box 4514

St. Paul, MN 55104-9998

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UPCOMING APPEARANCES of the RNC-WC...

Enough internets - let's meet in person instead! Here's a sampling of regional events we'll be presenting at in the next month.

Chicago, IL April 5-6th: Bash Back! Radical Trans and Queer Anti-RNC Convergence, see www.myspace.com/bashback

Madison, WI April 11-13th: Madison RNC Consulta, see www.myspace.com/madisonconsulta

Iowa City, IA April 18-20th: Campus Antiwar Network Midwest Regional Conference, see cbusimc.org/node/13390

Chicago, IL April 18th-20th: Finding Our Roots conference, see mayfirst.wordpress.com

If you're in Minnesota, our local tour is still being organized, but stay tuned for probable upcoming appearances at Hamline University and the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park, and Tent State at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities.

...AND mark your radicalendars further out for....

Great Lakes Anarchist Gathering, June 6-8th, Toldeo OH

This is going to be an important event due to its proximity, both geographically and chronologically, to the Republican National Convention in September. With the GLAG taking place in June and the RNC in September, it will provide a three month window for those in attendance to take advantage of the skills learned and share any plans made with those unable to attend. We'll be building on the progress made over the last year and a half in bringing the Midwest/Great Lakes region anarchist communities together and strengthening the Midwest Action Network. It will also be a good chance to make solidify MAN's plans for the upcoming RNC. For more info: http://midwest.azone.org/ typea@riseup.net

...ALSO look forward to:

Seeds of Peace Action Camp, July 6-27, Northern Wisconsin

The Camp will be located at Anathoth Community Farm near the small town of Luck, Wisconsin. (anathothcommunityfarm.org) It will run from July 6-27, and is composed of two parts: a Direct Action Training Camp and a Wilderness First Responder certification course with an added Action Medical component. Interested parties are invited to participate in one or both sections of the Camp. For more info: http://seeds-of-peace-collective.org/ seedsofpeace@riseup.net

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love'n an ark key,

your friendly neighborhood anarchists at the rnc-wc | nornc.org | PO Box 4514, St. Paul MN, 55104-9998 | rnc08@riseup.net

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Health Bill Ignores Industrial Health Harms

56 min 53 sec ago

by : Anonymous

(Actually, this is for all Colorado and all of the country. Why's that option not there in the "Region" box?)

Health care bill, now in hands of the Senate, ignores every industrial threat and harm to health. It finds that people's behavior is the biggest threat. Could this be because all Senators are economically-linked to health-harming industries, AND their insurers and investors? Sworn and public-paid Congress members wouldn't go AWOL on their solemn oaths and duties to the people, would they?

If it were not for people, there would be no Health Crisis.

The legislation the Senate is discussing now is quite interesting and telling by what's there, or not.

See the Bill at: democrats.senate.gov/reform/patient-protection-affordable-care-act.pdf

A convenient search tool at the site finds the number of times a word appears in the legislation:

Nutrition 29 times
Tobacco 25
Smoking 11
Obesity 9
Exercise 9
Behavior 8
Lifestyle 5
Alcohol 2

However:

Pesticides 0
Insecticides 0
Herbicides 0
Dioxins 0
Mercury 0
Chemicals 0
Carcinogen(s) 0
Chlorine 0
Radiation 0
Depleted Uranium 0
Salmonella 0
Pollutant(s) 0
Pollution 0
Vehicle exhaust 0
Smog 0
E-coli 0
Asbestos 0
Toxins 0
Toxic 0
Hazardous waste 0

And... Marijuana 0
Condoms 0
Vegetarian 0
Organic(s) 0

There seems to be a theme here, perhaps aimed at reassuring us that private industries, especially investment properties of for-profit insurers, are no threat to health. That is off the radar. Nothing to worry about or act on there.
We (the) people are the problem.

FREE GLUCOSE METERS + AMERICAN DREAM PROGRAM FREE 800 306 0990 24HRS

6 hours 39 min ago

by : Anonymous

Government Diabetes.Org located in Washington, DC has reported, "There are free watches for every state plus billions of dollars in assistance earmarked for people previously diagnosed as diabetic. Public and private funds are now available for them to repair homes, start a business, consolidate debts and any worthwhile purpose." In addition, he reported how new financial resources have been committed to help diabetics get job training and re-enter the job market.
"Now is the time for diabetics to act if they need money, Wall Street has no effect on theses funds," urged Greene. He also revealed that several reduced-cost and free programs now exist to help diabetics and the economically disadvantaged who have been diagnosed with diabetes. Such programs include energy assistance, free prescriptions, free diabetic watch,home repair and legal aid.

Free-Glucose-Meter-Rx.Com offers the free diabetic watch program that provides the latest information on assistance for diabetics. It covers job training, financial assistance, phone bill assistance, diabetic recipes, free grants, scholarship and loan resources available for a wide variety of purposes, including business start-ups for diabetics. The kit also includes a list of more than fifteen hundred professionals offering diabetics free advice and business guidance.

For additional information on Government Diabetes.Org, contact Charles Greene or visit http://www.government-diabetes.org http://www.free-glucose-meter-rx... , Diabetic-Testing-Supplies.Orgfor news on diabetes visit , http://www.free-diabetic-supplie... . . Government Diabetes.Org offers a free diabetics watch and a free glucose meter to qualified beneficiaries with diabetes. Free diabetic watch offers are available in all 50 states while supplies last.

Zhibin Gu: China entrepreneurship, open society revolution vs Communist dynasty: history, politics, economy, and corruption

21 hours 41 min ago

by : Anonymous

George Zhibin Gu summarizes the history of China's Communist Dynasty:

(George Zhibin Gu of China is an author of several new books, including: 1. China's global reach, 2. China and the new world order, 3. Made in China.)

The past 60 years of China's Communist history can be divided roughly into two phases.

The first phase, between 1949 and 1978, was this: the Communist bureaucracy had totally destroyed society, the economy and the culture. This was done by a total bureaucratic monopoly over all of nation's wealth, labor, markets, organizations and institutions. Furthermore, it completely destroyed the free press and the law. But this unprecedented bureaucratic domination immediately produced unprecedented man-made disasters in world history, not just China's. The disasters include endless violence and terror, the creation of the state sector and people's communes, the total bureaucratization of media, education, and thought.

In the end, beginning in 1958, the regime wanted to have a total bureaucratic miracle in the so-called Great Leap Forward (1958-60), and record disasters emerged all at once. Record deaths of some 50 million people occurred in the period of 1958-62, killing some 50 million people by an unprecedented famine as well as a record oganized violence.

What is more, these unprecedented miseries turned out to be the very beginning of bureaucratic disasters. Worse than the famine, three bureaucratic wars emerged against society and the people in the period of 1959-78, which ended to destroy countless millions of lives, or even more, by organized violence, not to mention a near total destruction of culture, education, thinking, wealth and all other good things in life.

Responding to Harmful Government Inaction, Protestors Stop Blasting on Coal River Mountain

2 days 9 hours ago

by : Anonymous

PETTUS, W. Va. – Early this morning two concerned citizens, Dea Goblirsch and Nick Martin, locked down to a drill rig on Coal River Mountain’s Bee Tree mountaintop removal site, effectively stopping blasting. Two others, Grace Williams and Laura Von Dolen, joined them in direct support, holding a banner with the message “Save Coal River Mountain”.

These nonviolent protestors have taken this action to bring attention to the extreme danger facing residents of the Coal River Valley from blasting near the Brushy Fork Impoundment. They plan to stay locked down until law enforcement removes them.

Resident of Rock Creek, W Va., Delbert Gunnoe, stated his concerns with the blasting, “You know when they put a blast over there, and it shakes the windows over here, at what, ¾-a-mile distance, imagine what it does over there.” Gunnoe continued, “if [the impoundment] did bust…what would be the destruction? The town of Whitesville would no longer exist.”

The four are fearful of the blasting that Massey Energy began in late October. These blasts are 200 feet from the Brushy Fork Impoundment, permitted to hold nine billion gallons of toxic coal slurry. The impoundment sits atop miles of hollow, abounded underground mines, further endangering its integrity. By Massey’s own estimates, roughly 998 people will die should the dam break. The emergency evacuation plan states that a 40-foot wall of sludge, cresting at 72 feet, will flow through the valley, reaching 20-feet-high about 15 miles down the road. Apart from the initial flood, the impact of this potential spill would be felt along the Coal River’s 88 miles.

EVIDENCE THAT UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS WELCOMES FBI INTEL OPERATIONS AGAINST WHISTLEBLOWER

3 days 9 hours ago

by : gsosbee

The universities across the nation (and AG) do more for the fbi/cia than assist in the search for foreign terrorists; today our colleges and universities directly encourage their campus police and civilian employees to engage in unlawful intel operations against whistleblower
GERAL SOSBEE.

In November, 2009, the Texas Attorney General (AG) grants near blanket authority (in Case number OR2009-16316 & Case ID#367454) to the University Of Texas Police (UTP) and Harlingen, Texas (HTP) Police to withhold from Open Records (OR) disclosure the key data in their possession relating to Geral Sosbee. The AG also states in each opinion that the AG has no authority beyond the scope of the OR statutes. The AG thus hides from his responsibility as a citizen and human being for civil and human rights violations behind the the OR guidelines ( which are designed to allow the police to engage in witch hunts, stalking, harassment, fraudulent stings and other crimes as I have documented at many pages of www.sosbeevfbi.com.) I have also provided the AG with evidence of ongoing felonies against my person (continuing in Texas and other locations for the past decade); by the AG letters referenced above the fbi now gains the AG approval and authority to use UT employees (including UTP) in efforts to silence or kill me; see for example the specifics of some of my reports at

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/affidavit2007.html

Evening of Solidarity for Dr. Mutulu Shakur

3 days 10 hours ago

by : denverabc

An Evening of Solidarity for Mutulu Shakur
Presented by Denver and Aurora CopWatch, Sisters of Color United for Education, and Denver ABC

Saturday, November 28th
Sisters of Color 2895 8th Ave, Denver, CO (8th and federal across the street from the bus yard)
7:30-12ish
Sliding Scale 1-5$ (if you ain't got it don't let it stop you from coming)

Teach-in by Professor Ward Churchill

Live Music by:
Mike Wird
Ietef
Debajito (of Debajo Del Agua)

Hosted by Shareef Aleem

Please join us on Saturday, November 28th to stand in solidarity with Dr Mutulu Shakur before his appeals hearing on Monday, November 30th at the super-maximum Federal prison in Florence, CO.

Dr. Shakur is a New Afrikan (Black) man whose primary work has been in the area of health. He is a doctor of acupuncture and one of the most prolific, committed and conscious freedom fighters and political prisoners to whom the Black liberation struggle has given birth.

Since the age 16, Dr. Shakur has been a part of the New Afrikan
Independence Movement. As a part of this movement Dr. Shakur has been a target of the illegal Counterintelligence Program carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (COINTELPRO). This was a secret police strategy used in the U.S. starting in the 1960's to destroy and neutralize progressive and revolutionary organizations. It is believed that Dr. Shakur's resistance to this program led to his arrest and trial.

"Straight ahead, stiff resistance"

contact info: 970.302.7349/miketruswell@yahoo.com
www.mutulushakur.com
www.dare2struggle.org

The Shortwave Report 11/20/09 Listen Globally

4 days 4 hours ago

by : Anonymous

Dear Radio Friend,
The latest Shortwave Report (November 20) is up at the website
http://www.outfarpress.com/outfa... in both broadcast quality (13.3MB) and quickdownload or streaming form (4.9MB) (28:59)
(NEW! If you have access to Audioport.org there is a higher quality version posted up there {26.7MB} http://www.audioport.org/index.p...)

Water and Imperialism

4 days 7 hours ago

by : NickB

(www.raimd.wordpress.com)

Water is essential, in various ways, to all human activity. Water is something that humans, literally, cannot do without. Every human needs water in order live and to have a good life. Societies need water in order to be provide for the survival of their populations. Usable water, as a resource, is finite and distributed unevenly across the planet. Most societies have difficulty providing water to their populations, especially in the Third World. The inability to access water is referred to as the water crisis.

la virgen de Guadalupe y los curas

4 days 9 hours ago

by : Anonymous

LA VIRGEN DE LA GUADALUPE ES DE TODOS LOS MEXICANOS, NO DE LOS CURAS

La Conferencia del Episcopado Mexicano (CEM) no está de acuerdo en que los Mexicanos utilicemos a la Virgen de la Guadalupe, como sucedió en la marcha de SME el pasado 11 de noviembre (2009) por “manipular el sentimiento religioso”, se ha afirmado en varias ocasiones desde que concluyó la 88ª Asamblea Plenaria del CEM. Los curas, junto con los políticos y las grandes transnacionales se han adueñado de nuestro país y de nuestros símbolos.

¿Ya se les olvidó a los curas que la Virgen de Guadalupe es el único símbolo religioso auténticamente Mexicano? ¿Ya se les olvidó que ellos llegaron con Hernán Cortés a robar y a imponernos su cruz a sangre y fuego? La Virgen de Guadalupe es Tonantzin y es nuestra, aunque no les guste a los extranjeros como ellos.

Lo que los curas del CEM no quieren es que el pueblo Mexicano, unido al SME, siga la trayectoria de don Miguel Hidalgo y les arrebate la jugosa ganancia.

Yo les pido a los curas del CEM que ya no nos “salven”.
¡¡Larguense de aquí!! ¡¡Larguense!! ¡¡Larguense!! ¡¡Larguense!! ¡¡Larguense!! ¡¡Larguense de México y de todo este continente!!
Josefa Ortiz
http://josefaortiz.hpage.com/sme...

PRESIDENT OBAMA ~ TAX EXEMPT U.S. FOUNDATIONS OF OUR AMERICAN WEALTHY ELITE HAVE BECOME TAX EVASION FOUNDATIONS THAT NEED NEW FEDERAL GUIDLINES.....

5 days 5 hours ago

by : Anonymous

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TAX EXEMPT SLUSH FUND CHARITIES(FOUNDATIONS) FOR OUR U.S. WEALTHY ELITE AMERICANS WE ALL KNOW are QUITE COMMON AND COSTING THE U.S.GOVERNMENT BILLIONS IN POSSIBLE TAX REVENUE.

***MANY OF THESE SAME AMERICAN WEALTHY ELITE NOT ONLY HAVE FULL CONTROL OVER THEIRTX EVADING FOUNDATIONS BILLIONS,BUT ALSO FIND IT NECESSARY TO HIRE LOBBYISTS TO ATTEMPT THE DIRECT CONTROL OVER VARIOUS USES OF AMERICAN TAX PAYERS TAX $$$ ???

WEALTHY ELITE AMERICANS HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OVER OUR U.S.CONGRESSIONAL TAX DOLLAR SPENDING WITH THEIR BEHIND THE SCENE LOBBY MONIES... AND ARE CONTINUING TO DENY MIDDLE~CLASS AND WORKING POOR AMERICANS PROPER HEALTH ~ CARE , PROPER LEGAL PROTECTIONS IN AMERICAN FAMILY COURTS,CIVIL COURTS,& FEDERAL APPEALS FROM STATE COURTS. **THOUSANDS OF POORER AMERICANS ALL ACROSS AMERICA ARE LOSING PARENTING AND VISITATION RIGHTS WITH THEIR CHILDREN, ARE BEING FALSELY IMPRISONED, WRONGFULY EXECUTED,LOSING THEIR HOMES OR APARTMENTS ETC...

** IS THIS REALLY WHAT MANY SAY APPEARS TO BE THE FORMATION OF A NEW WORLD ORDER IN AMERICA THAT IS ATTEMPTING TO BREAK DOWN AND DESTROY AMERICAN FAMILIES AND ESTABLISHED FAMILY VALUES ACROSS OUR GREAT COUNTRY ???

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march/april update from RNC welcoming committee

April 5, 2008 by RNC-WC

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