We wish for anarchists and anti-authoritarians organizing against the DNC to maintain autonomous organizing structures, so we can initiate and coordinate our own actions rather than simply reacting to others’ decisions. We should use our power in a way that complements and supports others in their struggles, but retain our own infrastructure and decision making. In previous mass actions, when anarchist and anti-authoritarian efforts have been subsumed into vertically structured organizing, it has neither benefited us nor, in our opinion, the effectiveness of the mass actions in general... read more

It's convention time again and the Colorado Street Medics have been planning coverage for the Democratic National Convention here in Denver August 24th through the 28th. Since it is now officially 2008, here is our update.

The turning of the seasons brings the turning of the tide. No matter what happens, in one year, Bush, the greatest evil the world has known in 60 years will be gone.

Audio: 1 min 19 sec There are those who would replace Bush and Cheney with more of the same-but this is not their year! There are those who would mislead us with the false promises of the Democrats-but this is not their year! read more

A NEW YEAR’S SONG FROM R68
(sung to the tune of “Auld Lang Syne”)

Should we the people be forgot
For a big fat corporate fee
Should we the people be forgot
Must be time for the DNC

CHORUS:
The DNC, my friends
The DNC
They’ll lock us out and lock us up
At the DNC

CHORUS

The Dems will have a big party
With corporations by the score
But there’ll be no invitation
For the homeless or the poor

CHORUS

The city says ‘twill be easy
For folks to demonstrate
As long as they’re ten miles away
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With the failure of the Democratic Congress to meaningfully challenge the Bush administration's agenda painfully apparent, renewed interest in direct action against the spectacular machinations of the political process itself has been growing across the country. Activists in Denver and Minneapolis/St. Paul are busy preparing for mass mobilizations against the 2008 Democratic and Republican National Conventions. In the Baltimore area, a few signs expressing support for protest against the RNC have been spotted, including this one at MICA and this banner off I-83, which has stayed up for more than a week. More substantial regional activity against both conventions will be happening on January 26th and 27th in Frederick, MD, during a regional Anti-RNC/DNC consulta.

Related news: Unconventional Action publishes free Unconventional Strategies tabloid | Twin Cities Indymedia: TransFolk and Queers to Blockade RNC | Colorado Indymedia: Democratic National Convention Media Walk Through at the Pepsi Center

Unconventional Denver, a faction of the anarchist/anti-authoritarian network Unconventional Action (UA), hosted a discussion open to Denver community members involved in protesting the DNC to hear their ideas, concerns and other thoughts about what the DNC protests hold for our work for justice.

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Yes we know, a meeting has been long over-due. Our next planning meeting will be next Wednesday, December 5 at 6:30pm. Some agenda items are listed below. If you have never been to an R-68 meeting, all are welcomed and encouraged to come. R-68 has been working hard over the last year to prepare the community for next August, but we can use more help for this large and historic event that will take place at the DNC in Denver in August. Updates for the website will be completed by this weekend, please take a look and don't forget, bring your ideas and creativity to the meeting!

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The Colorado Indy Media Center needs active participation and financial suupport to expand alternative press coverage of the Democratic National Convention in Denver during August 2008.

Whether you are here in Denver or anywhere else in the country or the world, we need your help.

To find out more about what we can do together to help make sure the inside story of the DNC gets out to the general public, please contact us at http://colorado.indymedia.org.

Thank you.

*Please Forward to Other Interested People*
DNC Opposition Meeting
Thursday November 29th
7-9pm
1st Unitarian Church- 1400 Lafayette St.

This is a place for people who are excited, nervous, anxious, ecstatic, hesistant, ambivalent and everything in between for the DNC protests to come and air their grievances, state their hopes, and again everything in between.

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November 9th through the 11th, Milwaukee hosted the Midwest Anti-RNC Planning consulta. During the Sunday break-out strategizing session, a group met to discuss the possibilities of militant Trans and Queer action against Republican National Convention in 2008.

We’re looking for media activists that are going to be in the streets in Denver and Minniapolise for the DNC and RNC respectivly, to collectivly produce a xeroxed (we already have a copier) daily paper for the course of the protests. We have been thinking about a layout similar to our current paper The Red Pill but that could change.

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RECREATE 68’S
“DO IT IN DENVER” E-NEWS FLASH!!!

Hey all you R-68ers and supporters. Sorry for the long delay between communications. We are not gone and are actually gearing-up for a big push over these next ten months and we need your assistants. We are working on a location for the next meeting and we will have the date, time and location out to you all as soon as possible.

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The group that may be the most prepared for the 2008 Democratic National Convention is also the least likely to be prepared. It doesn't represent labor unions or mainstream progressives, but anarchists. A loose coalition of anti-authoritarian factions from across the nation have formed an outfit called Unconventional Action, with the express goal of disrupting and shutting down the DNC and RNC. Activists say that anarchists in this country have never planned such a large-scale action so far in advance of a specific event, and certainly not with such openness and strategy.

Talks are growing about what a success would look like for those of us fighting for justice at the DNC. With a consulta quickly approaching (October 5th) to develop a strategy for the protests here in Denver we at Unconventional Denver decided to take the ideas and proposals that have been generated so far and synthesize them into an updated "Denver Proposal." This by no means represents the entire Denver community, it is a plan drafted by a couple of locals who have been active in the organizing against the DNC so far. read more

Since then, the city's security forces have eagerly embraced an Escape From New York-aesthetic -- an urge to turn Manhattan into a walled-in fortress island under high-tech government surveillance, guarded by heavily armed security forces, with helicopters perpetually overhead. Beginning in Harlem in 2006, near the site of two new luxury condos, the NYPD set up a moveable "two-story booth tower, called Sky Watch," that gave an "officer sitting inside a better vantage point from which to monitor the area." The Panopticon-like structure -- originally used by hunters to shoot quarry from overhead and now also utilized by the Department of Homeland Security along the Mexican border -- was outfitted with black-tinted windows, a spotlight, sensors, and four to five cameras. Now, five Sky Watch towers are in service, rotating in and out of various neighborhoods.