It’s the 4th of July.
About seven weeks to go before the Democratic National Convention.
Now I read that a national network of activists calling itself “Unconventional Action” is planning and promoting “militant direct action” to disrupt the convention in Denver, and then the Republic National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
We aim to organize militant direct action that manifests opposition to both the Democratic and Republican Parties. As anti-authoritarians, we oppose so-called representational politics, but even those who still believe in it must understand that we can only have leverage over our rulers by showing our own power, that we must back our demands by demonstrating that we can interfere with their business as effectively as they interfere with our lives.
It’s a full schedule for the week in Denver.
Sunday, Aug 24: Anti war/occupation day. A march, a party, and afterwards “affinity groups will be encouraged to depart and engage in autonomous actions targeting those who profit from wars and our oversized military.”
Monday: Free political prisoners/human rights day. Another march in the morning, and in the afternoon it’s “shutdown the fundraisers!!!”
And so on through the week. You can read the summary schedule here.
Check other sources, such as Unconventional Denver, and dnc disruption08, a blog which includes information of all kinds on the convention planning, planned disruptions, and city preparations. And don’t miss the primer, “Disrupt the DNC”, with all you need to know about the Denver protests.
Whew. I haven’t heard whether the Democratic Party is informing delegates of the nature of the protests and planned disruptions. In fact, I haven’t seen explicit discussion of all this among the blogs that will be part of the State Blogger Corps. More work to do.
Meanwhile, the Denver Post reported last week that “police, firefighters, paramedics and even utility workers” have been trained to watch for suspicious activity that could be linked to terrorism.
Among the suspicious things to be reported–“taking photos of no apparent aesthetic value” (so now they’ve got to add “art criticism” to their other duties”), “taking notes” (reporters beware), etc.
Tucked away in the story is one thing that was reported by this expanded intelligence gathering network that has local implications: “Thefts of copper that could be used in bomb-making.”
And we’ve just been concerned about copper wire being sold to gray-market recyclers. Obviously we’re imagination-challenged when it comes to innovative uses of such things.
So it goes on this holiday Friday.
As I wrote earlier, this is Feline Friday but my weekly cat photos weren’t ready as early as the regular post.
So here, a bit tardy, are this week’s images.
This is Ms. Harry, also known as Harriet. She’s in self-imposed exile, having decided that she wants to spend most of her time on the front deck.
Anyway, just click on her photo for the week’s cat fun.
Discover more from i L i n d
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
i think ms. wally is also very photogenic.
any luck so far with the cat diet?
Every convention has demonstrators. In Boston in 2004, there was a small number of demonstrators protesting outside the Democratic Convention. But most of the anger was directed against the Republicans in NYC, who resorted to mass arrests and preventitive arrests.
Although Obama has so far dissused some of the opposition with his amorphous message of change, his recent moves to the right-center on NAFTA, FISA and Israel may signal the end of the honeymoon with the progressives. Will the disillusion meant grow sufficiently to swell the number of protestors already frustrated with the failue of the Democrats to end the war in Iraq, block the war moves against Iran or defeat the FISA extension?
If Obama takes the progressives for granted, a larger group than necessary may shift to supporting Nader, AND to protesting in Denver, but I suspect the anti-Bush sentiment is so powerful that protests in Denver will be fairly small.
Also, a group the opposes “representative democracy” is not likely to be capable of either speaking, or listening, to the American people, in my opinion. Most Americans WANT both more “democracy” and more “representation.” The complaints are not against representative democracy, more the failure to implement it.
Forgive the typo?:
“Although Obama has so far diffused…”