Denver: The Immigration March

Ric sends us his last dispatch from the Denver Convention protests.  I look forward to your blog.  Thanks for a great week of posts Ric!

RR– First off, I want to say thank you for the opportunity to report to you and your readers.  I’ve been putting off a blog of my own but this has made me reflect on how beautiful blogging is.  One of my frustrations in journalism school was exactly that: you had to have a bachelor’s degree to “be” a journalist.  It’s not enough that you’re “just” a good writer.  Blogging offers the ability to bypass that.  I’ll most likely be blogging under a pen name at first and I hope you can announce my blog on yours.

Andele pues comrade…

The immigration march.

We gathered at Rude Park at 9:00am. Estimated crowd size: 3,000.   There are few factors that wouldn’t let me predict the crowd’s size before the march:

1.        The influence that non-profit organizations and wealthy foundations have on the immigrant rights movement in Colorado.  Simply stated: they domesticate the struggle in the legislature and 100 people at their events is considered massive turnout.

2.        The media hype.   What undocumented immigrant in her/his right mind is not going to think twice about attending this type of event when freedom cages are announced and ICE raids are mentioned over the airwaves?  The Minutemen also announced they were going to counter protest with 30,000 minutepeople.

3.        This is an immigrant rights march that is taking place during the Democratic National Convention, something many immigrants won’t respond to for lack of familiarity.

4.        On the flip side, on May 1^st 2006 anywhere between 75,000 and 100,000 immigrants converged in Denver to voice their grievances.  I was (romantically) hoping that this would help our numbers.

So we marched from Rude Park to Lincoln Park.  Police presence was relatively lax compared to the other protests I had attended.  This may be the product of how much the movement has been domesticated in Colorado.   The crowd was mixed.  I’d say 65-70 percent immigrant and up to 35 percent white.  For me the white people in the crowd could mostly be broken down to local liberals, non-profit staff and anarchists.

The march was lead by a local group of Azteca danzantes who often perform at protests and rallies in Colorado.  Pretty f’ing cool actually.

Upon arriving at Lincoln Park we were greeted by a relatively small number of cops and a slew of musicians and speakers.  I didn’t really stick around for the speakers.  I’ve been to numerous other immigrant rights rallies, protests and actions in Denver and the speakers usually encourage the crowd to: 1) pray 2) participate in legislative politics and 3) do the solidarity clap to the chant of “si se puede”.  I’ve had my fill of all three.  Don’t get me wrong, si se puede comrade, I just don’t think que se puede through legislative politics.   Besides, your readers also want pictures.  Can’t do everything knawmsayin’?

Overall the march was inspiring.  Boots Riley of The Coup, Johnny 5 of the Flobots and Rebel Diaz were all present.  So were some local elected officials but I can’t think of their names (former SEIU organizer/co-worker/current Councilman Paul Lopez being the only exception).

P.S.  I’d be surprised if the Minutemen turned out 30 people.

Iraq Veterans Against the War March Pics

Ric’s fantastic shots of The Iraq Veterans Against the War demonstration at the DNC.  August 27, 2008

Denver: IVAW On ‘A Move

From Ric-

A very inspiring night tonight at the DNC protests, RR.

Iraq Veterans Against the War led thousands of people from the Denver Coliseum (where Rage Against the Machine performed) to the convention.  I overheard someone say between 7,000-7,500 people and sure, I’ll go with that.  I don’t want to sweat the exact number, the point is also that we felt strong, spirits were high and the chants were right on.  There was even a contingent of immigrants in the march!

Along the route the vets made occasional stops to share some of their war stories through a megaphone.   To think that someone would train and command our youth to carry out the atrocities they described defies all reason and logic. One of the most horrific stories came from a vet who was ordered to include children in his list of targets to shoot for.  Another vet almost broke down describing how no amount of therapy could ever take away the guilt of what he did in Iraq.

IVAW marched with a letter for Senator Barack Obama.  Three demands on that letter:

1.     Immediate withdrawal from Iraq

2.     Health benefits for Iraq vets

3.     Reparations for the Iraqi people

I dunno about you RR but I think the demands are totally reasonable.  Like, totally reasonable.  And there’s only three of them!

The last update I heard was that someone from the Obama campaign offered to listen to the demands from the Iraq war veterans.

Okay…

“Someone” from the Obama camp offered to “listen” to the demands.

Frankly I’m surprised there’s not more enthusiasm from the Obama camp about meeting with the vets.  After all, Obama is our supposed anti-war candidate, public sentiment has been against the war for as long as I can remember, Obama toured Iraq and met with troops on active duty and for fuck’s sake: they’re the vets!  Nothing could be politically safer than meeting with vets!

Why is there no red carpet for these guys?

Obama voted for $300 billion in war allocations, doesn’t he want to see the product of his investment?  Doesn’t he want to feel reassured that those $300 billion didn’t go to waste and that US troops are indeed being ordered to gun down Iraqi children?  Obama also wants to send more troops to Afghanistan, this is the perfect opportunity to both articulate the wisdom behind his plan and check on troop morale.

There was some confusion on the direction of the march, RR.  Somehow we ended up at a barricaded dead end located behind (and to the side of) the Pepsi Center.  Not knowing exactly what to do, we stayed in that area for a while, just standing, sitting, photographing, filming, singing, talking and chanting.  I heard the media speaking in several languages and they interviewed, photographed and filmed the IVAW.

After a while a march organizer announced that the cops were going to give three warnings.  If we weren’t gone by the third: tear gas.

Now…that’s a bit of an escalation.  Regardless, I think the IVAW made a good move by getting us out of that barricaded dead end and onto Speer Blvd where those who didn’t want to get arrested could turn right and those who were willing to risk arrest could turn to the left towards the entrance of the Pepsi Center.

I turned left along with several thousand other IVAW supporters and allies.  This was worth risking arrest, rubber bullets and tear gas.

The pictures speak for themselves, RR.  There were cops EVERYWHERE.  We had cops surrounding us and standing in the center of the protest area.

They were on scissor lifts, on bikes, on horses, in SUVs, in riot gear with rubble bullet rifles in hand.

Despite the looming police state, morale was highest I’ve seen in the protester front.  There were just too many of us and the cause was stubbornly just.

Ric’s Denver Pics

Of the “Anti-Capitalist March” in Denver August 25, 2008

Denver Day Two: The Anarchists Parade, The Cops Come Down

Ric Urrutia, photographer, bass player for Debajo Del Agua and all around revolutionary mensch, reports on Day Two—

More terror on the home front, RR.  It’s really the police state that’s getting to me.  It’s a total drag.  So.  Many.  F*cking.  Cops!

Today Denver experienced the anti-capitalist march, mostly attended by anarchists.  I got there about 20 minutes before the cops boxed in a group of approximately 200-300 anarchists (and others) at an intersection downtown.  The anarchists were trapped between three rows of cops in every direction who were backed by hundreds more in full riot gear.

Cops had the whole nine tonight: riot gear, water canon, pepper spray, rubber bullets, tear gas, cops on horseback, cops on bikes, etc.  I left the scene at 9pm and by that point numbers had dwindled on both fronts.  From what I’ve heard, the cops saved the pepper spray for a handful of the anarchists who were trapped.  I think a few of the anarchists also got roughed up.

My friend Blake got trapped and detained.  We kept in touch while cops took down information on everyone.  Little by little the cops started releasing people to the cheers of spectators.  It’s 12am and no word from Blake though.

The atmosphere was intense and I really wasn’t up for getting arrested, tear gassed or beaten.  Not for this.  This is a grossly outnumbered counterculture provoking a confrontation with heavily armed cops.  What is the point?  Seriously.  Why are you putting yourself and others in this type of danger?

Frankly I need to justify a police beating with something better than a group of masked and alienated youth shouting “no slaves no masters.”  Had it been immigrants demanding basic rights or wage increases, I’d be right in the thick of things.  But not this.  Exactly what were they expecting?  We saw our numbers yesterday so we knew a confrontation wouldn’t have resulted in any kind of victory for us.

Coincidentally on both Sunday and Monday I heard two people ask two anarchists why they hide their faces.  The essence of the anarchists’ response: “to hide [their] identity from constant surveillance by a repressive government.”  What the fuck planet are we on?  Do these guys seriously think that a black handkerchief is going to throw off the state in any way?  If the anarchists reaffirmed anything tonight it would be that you have to be very public with your identity when doing political work.

Pardon the venting RR.  It’s just been a long night of figuring out whether or not I should’ve taken a solidarity beating with the anarchists.  In the end, I’m happy with my decision.  I’m not going to land in the hospital without health insurance for the rhetorical battle cry of a counterculture.   I’d rather go home, post this on RR and look forward to the moment when I have my own blog and can write without losing my non-profit job.

The Dems Do Denver: Day One

Ric Urrutia, with his diversity of talents, reports for us from the scene of the protests as the Dems gather in Denver for their convention. The Denver Police have certainly lived up to their reputation as some of the worst in the nation. Thanks Ric, take it away —

I have to say, for the first hour of the Recreate ’68 anti-war rally/march I was nothing but disappointed in the turnout.  I think at its peak, the rally was about 2,000 people strong.  I was expecting 50,000.  I was expecting the masses, tear gas, arrests, beatings, fancy new crowd control devices, pain, helicopters, tire-burnings, an ocean of pigs all over the place.

The media asked Glen, the most publicly known organizer for Recreate ’68, “where are the masses?” enough times for him to share his response from the podium. Glen had a good analysis.  To paraphrase: “And what are these people? [pointing at the crowd]  Do they not count?  Are they not the masses?  The city and the cops got what they wanted, they scared the shit out of everyone.   What do you expect to happen when there’s thousands of pigs all over the place with barricades and freedom cages?  These are some pretty brave people that made it out today.”

He was right.

I was terrified on my way there.  I stopped to take that first picture of the barricades and my hands would not stop shaking.  I had already thought about what it would be like to be gassed and beaten by the cops and wondered what landing in the hospital in that condition without health insurance would look like.  Yeah, I was fucking  terrified.  And so were a few other people I had spoken to beforehand.

We’ve read full newspaper spreads about the freedom cage to detain protesters.  We’ve heard and seen military helicopters flying over Colfax Avenue practicing “urban anti-terrorism” drills.  I then reflected on how those choppers were practicing for warfare with me, a “terrorist” as defined by the Patriot Act.

That’s all the city had to do!  Duh!  Why didn’t I realize that?!  Scare the shit out of everyone to keep them from going to the rallies!  Of course turnout is gonna be low and the mayor comes off looking like a champ cuz he showed the world that 1) not too many people are pissed off about the war 2) groups like Recreate ’68 could be dealt with by scaring the living shit out of the rest of the population and through slander and 3) there’s no reason why we have to resort to tear gas to deal with this small group of anarchists, communists and malcontents.

It was interesting to get a look at the media’s perks during the DNC.  As you know, I play bass for Debajo del Agua.  Two nights ago we played a show for an international press gathering hosted by the mayor.  The show took place at Elitches, a Six Flags amusement park within spitting distance of downtown Denver.  The mayor was expecting 10,000-17,000 people and well, so was Debajo del Agua (they were 16,700 people short for our performance but that’s another blog).  What’s going on inside?  The international media is being catered to.  Like, nicely:  free booze, free food, free cotton candy, free fried bread powdered sugar things, free stuff animals for not guessing your age correctly, free performances by some of Denver’s bands and of course: free rides.  And sure, this is nothing new but…

What reporter in her/his right mind is gonna write a negative article about the police state in Denver when they’re being fed Captain Morgans (who, btw is “running for president”), watermelon on toothpicks and have free and continuous access to the Tower of Doom?

Back to the rally: one interesting moment was when this Fox News reporter wanted to interview Ward Churchill and physically pushed my friend Shareef (also a journalist) out of the way in an effort to do so.  Shareef was in the process of interviewing Ward himself and things escalated.  Twice.

The first time I saw the Fox News guy surrounded by media and protesters. Yo, I kid you not, I was like scared for that guy.   I thought our little group was getting ready for a four-horse dismemberment.  People were pissed!  Things calmed down after a few minutes though.

The second time was with Shareef directly.  I honestly don’t know why this whole exchange was divided into two acts but I’m just reporting the facts here.   This time the Fox News reporter “resolved” the issue by “letting” Shareef say whatever he wanted (minus the cuss words) on live television.  Shareef agreed and spoke on Dick Cheney, Haliburton and how the rise of fascism includes the merging of state and capital.  Short and sweet!

Once the camera was turned off and Shareef started walking away he turned to the Fox News reporter once more and said “oh yeah, and tell Bill O’Reilly: ‘fuck you!'” to the cheers and laughter of the surrounding crowd.  Fucking classic.

Chillin’

Apologies to regular readers for my absence.  The RBR has been taking advantage of no school or work this August to get out of town.   I’ll be back at the helm at the end of the weekend after my return to the Wolverine State.  The reading list for this downtime has included Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, a Lenin collection on The Split in the International, The Black Hearts of Men by John Stauffer and a lesiurely page through Twain’s still-scathing A Pen Warmed in Hell.  A hearty congratulations to the Cuban baseball team for humiliating the Yanks in the Olympics as well as to Dayron Robles for the 110m hurdle.  Hasta la victoria siempre!

Enjoy these last days of Summer comrades.

Rocky Mountain High

The convention season is fast upon us.  Obama and McCain are waiting for the right media moment to announce their VP picks. The Olympics and the war in the Caucuses have to leave the front burner lest their choices be overshadowed. Clinton is doing some behind the scenes Machiavellia.  Obama is getting his Hollywood friends to produce some spectacle at a stadium in Denver.  McCain has recently been instructed to seem less dour.  Yawn.

There are plenty of protests planned at both Denver and Minneapolis.  Here at the Rustbelt we think the ire of activists should be firmly aimed at the Democrats.  Leaving aside for a moment the entire history of the Dems in office, the Democrats cosigned nearly every one of Bush’s policies over the last 8 years while pretending to be “the opposition”.   What needs to be exposed and denounced more than enemies who pose as friends?

The Rustbelt Radical has asked Ric Uruttia to be our eyes and ears on the scene as the Dems do their thing.  We hope Ric brings his intrepid camera, keen eye and stays safe.  I have found that the best way for me to stay out of trouble at demonstrations is to take photos.  That way I can be in the action without directly participating.  For some reason I find the smell of tear gas a little intoxicating.

There is lots of coverage in the press, scare tactics to be sure, of the Denver police’s preparations for assaults on civil liberties and activist organizations around the convention.  This despite Recreate ’68‘s (dubious, IMO) decision to meet and negotiate with the forces of law and order in the run up to the convention.

Cynthia McKinney will be participating in events though the Colorado Greens, who want to distance themselves from the radicals in the streets, advised her not to. Here is her response. Good for Cynthia and Rosa!

There’s music too!  The Coup, David Rovics, Rage Against the Machine and Brother Wayne Kramer are joining with the Iraq Veterans Against the War to demand an end to the war in Iraq (and Afghanistan?)  The Tent State Music Festival will have music and more outside the stadium while inside Obama accepts the nomination for the Imperial presidency.

Captured enemies would be sacrificed when a new Roman Emperor ascended the Purple Throne, sometimes after being held in some comfort for years previously.  Watch the “anti-war” Democrats suffer the same fate as the Dems stake out their war position.  We’ll not hear a peep of demands from them.  And poor Kucinich will call it a victory.

I sure wish I could be there, but 2,000 miles is a hell of a bike ride plus I am still pissed off about the MLB expansion.  Minneapolis will also see protests.  And surely the Republicans should be booted out of the home of Teamsters Local 574.  Closer by a thousand miles still makes it near 700 miles away. Do the Europeans know how fortunate they are for having an integrated public rail system to get folks to demos?  Here are some of the folks in Denver doing the good work of building protest and action:

• Come On Up To Denver
• DNC Disruption
• DNC People’s Law Project
• MyPopuli
• Unconventional Action
• Unconventional Denver
• Ward Churchill Solidarity Network