Twin Cities Indymedia - Features

On Wednesday night the caravan participated in a performance hosted by the SE Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers at the Oak Center General Store/Earthen Path Organic Farm south of Lake City, MN. On Thursday and Friday they'll be River Falls, WI, before entering St. Paul on Saturday. The ride will culminate at Indian Mounds Park in advance of a New Moon Ritual beginning at 6pm.

Previous Updates at TC-IMC | More details at pnc2rnc.org | More photos | Video of performances

Interview with rider Gabi (en español) | Clint | Thistle | Acadia re: street medics
(interviews conducted by Steve Mikesell for WORT 89.9 FM community radio in Madison WI)

The following was included in an email to all University of Minnesota students today.

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As you no doubt are aware, on September 1 the Republican National Convention (RNC) will commence in St. Paul. Although most of the official convention activities do not take place near campus, the University may be impacted. Accordingly, please leave enough time in your travel plans to and from campus to account for any possible delays.

UPDATE 8/27:

Three video artists/journalists associated with Glass Bead Collective who were subject to an unconstitutional stop and seizure of their video equipment, personal property, notebooks, and phones in the early morning hours of August 26th, 2008, in Minneapolis, had all of their equipment and personal property returned in the morning of August 27th. Police obtained a search warrant on August 26th, presumably viewed all pictures and video pursuant to the warrant,and then released the property. The stated purpose of the warrant was to seek photographic evidence in support of an investigation of "criminal trespass." No charges have been filed or are expected.

Gathering Storms:
A Team Colors Statement on the Upcoming 2008 Convention Protests

Conor Cash, Craig Hughes, Stevie Peace & Kevin Van Meter
| Team Colors Collective

From Infoshop.org

In the early hours of Sunday August 24th, the first day of action against the Democratic National Convention in Denver, a Barack Obama campaign office was attacked in St. Paul.

We were walking down the street in the industrial section of Saint Paul at 6 pm on Saturday, August 23, 2008. We turned to the right as one of us turned left on his bike. We saw a police car roll by him and stop and pull him over. He was getting patted down, and his belongings were being searched and photographed. 4 more cars gradually pulled in, one strategically placed to block our view of their interactions and another strategically placed towards us so we were in shot of their police camera. We sat down on the curb about a block and a half away to keep an eye on the situation.

8/24 (from Winona, MN)

The Grassroutes Caravan left La Crosse, WI, after a well-attended event at Bluffland Bloom and Brew in La Crosse's historic downtown. Also in La Crosse, riders worked with Habitat for Humanity, at a community garden, and painting a bus headed for the RNC. Saturday, they spent the night at Great River Bluffs State Park en route to the Really Really Free Market in Winona, MN on Sunday, to be followed by a stop in Minnesota City on Monday and an event in Oak Center near Lake City on Wednesday.

Interview with rider Gabi (en español) | Clint | (NEW) Thistle
(interviews conducted by Steve Mikesell for WORT 89.9 FM community radio in Madison WI)

More details at pnc2rnc.org | More photos | Video of performances

ALL HANDS ON DECK FOR RNC ACTIONS!
During the Republican Convention, CUAPB will play a number of important roles. Along with copwatch as noted above, we'll be involved in jail medical support, jail exit support, documentation of cases through our hotline, court watch/court support, and even assisting homeless people being swept aside in both downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul. It will take a lot of hands and we really need your help. You can plug in by coming to one of the copwatch trainings listed above or coming to our volunteer meeting on Saturday, August 23 at 1:30 p.m. at Walker Church. If you can't make it to the trainings or meeting, please email us back with your contact phone number and how you'd like to be involved.

First event on the list will be the Critical Mass on August 29th. This will be the one year anniversary of the attack on Critical Mass that resulted in many injuries and 19 arrests. It will also be a kind of kick off event for protests against the RNC. As such, we think the MPD may have "special plans" for this event and we need all copwatchers out with us that day.

Copwatch at Critical Mass
Friday, August 29
Meet 4:30 p.m.
Loring Park, Harmon Place side near the dandelion fountain

PEACE ISLAND PICNIC ON HARRIET ISLAND SEPTEMBER 4TH, 2008
When the Balloons Drop for McCain, We'll be Singing in the Sun (or Rain)

ST. PAUL, MN -- As a part of the many alternative festivities populating the Twin Cities during the Republican National Convention, I am pleased to announce the days agenda for Peace Island Picnic 2008, five blocks away from the Excel Energy RNC happenings!

By Cyril Mychalejko

Five years ago this November, the Miami Police Department, with the assistance of Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal government agencies, unleashed a violent para-military occupation of the city in order to quash protests against the now defunct proposal to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Police officers, some of whom had no visible identification, fired rubber bullets, tear gas, concussion grenades, and stun guns indiscriminately at the estimated 25,000 protesters, which included 20 busloads of senior citizens retired from the AFL-CIO.

The RNC Welcoming Committee has announced the opening of the convergence center for organizing against the RNC: 627 Smith Avenue South, just south of the Mississippi and downtown St. Paul. Check out a map here.

The convergence center is a beautiful building 1.5 miles from the Xcel Energy Center. This will be a space for people to gather during, before, and after the RNC. There will be computers, limited bag storage, bikes, food and more. The center is opening on the afternoon of Saturday, August 16th with an open house for allies and people from the neighborhood. There will be games, face painting and other fun entertainment.

August 10 marks the 10-year anniversary of the Minnehaha Free State, the first urban anti-road occupation in U.S. history. On August 10, 1998, the occupation of the condemned corridor of the reroute of highway 55 through Minnehaha Park began, and would last for another 16 months. Although highway 55 desecrates the land in south Minneapolis today, the sacred Coldwater Spring continues to flow.

Below is a history of the Free State, from The Struggle is Our Inheritance: A History of Radical Minnesota.

One of the nine people arrested at the ATK weapons manufacturing facility in Anoka, Minnesota last month came home Monday afternoon to find the business card of Saint Paul Police Department Sergeant Scott Duff left in his mailbox with a note written on the back reading “Please call when you have time, thanks.” The individual immediately contacted an NLG lawyer who then contacted Sergeant Duff inquiring about the nature of the request.

Help movement media cover the RNC in Minneapolis-St.Paul! With the RNC a month away and the propaganda machine of electoral politics shifting into high gear, a strong independent media infrastructure will be critical to a successfully crashed convention. But we at TC-IMC are running on a skeleton crew, and we need your help. Read on to see what's in the works and what we need.

If you're an IMC activist coming to the Twin Cities, or if you're local and want to plug in, get in touch: IMCatRNC@gmail.com.

IWW Delivers Cake to MOA Starbucks Workers
Saturday June 26 was like any other busy Saturday at the Mall of America 1 Starbucks. A barista had called in sick during the morning shift, another had walked out in disgust the weekend prior. A Manager from another store was covering the shift of a barista who had been fired for union activity two weeks before. The store was shortstaffed, and the lines of customers were long.