Guild Mobilizes to Defend Dissent at 2008 RNC
When George Bush and the Republican Party arrive in the Twin Cities for their 2008 national convention they will be met by mass protest. Local activist groups are already making plans and expect tens of thousands to participate in a week of dissent and protest. A mass march has been scheduled for September 1, 2008. Some groups are discussing civil disobedience or direct action. Simultaneous conferences and meetings around progressive causes are also being planned.<!--break-->
Past experience with the national Republican and Democratic conventions in 2000 and 2004 demonstrate that the government will interfere with and violate the rights of citizens engaged in protest and dissent. During the previous conventions, government authorities confined (or at least sought to confine) protesters to areas where they could not be meaningfully visible. Protesters at the conventions and other national demonstrations were arrested without legal basis, brutalized by police, subjected to pre-emptive raids on organizing offices and detained for excessive periods of time and in unsatisfactory conditions. At each convention, the NLG played a key role in challenging restrictions on protests, providing legal observers at the protests, defending activists against criminal charges, and initiating civil rights litigation both to prevent and respond to Constitutional violations.
There is no reason to believe that the same legal problems will not be present in the Twin Cities. Although local city officials, as in other cities, have expressed commitment to protecting free speech, it is the federal government and the Secret Service that will ultimately make the decisions. A desperate Bush regime is more committed than ever to raising the specter of terrorism as a tactic to create fear and inhibit dissent. Local media coverage has already discussed protesters as a source of disruption and problems, rather than as participants in a vibrant democratic exercise. And while the Ramsey County Sheriff is already arranging for a large outdoor area to be used has a holding pen for arrested protesters, the St. Paul Police are refusing to issue permits for marches and protests until at least March of 2008.
Our Minnesota NLG chapter is now gearing up to coordinate the varied and extensive legal support required by thousands of activists, locally and from around the country, who will be using the RNC convention as a vehicle to express their opposition to the murderous and oppressive acts of our government. We have extensive experience supporting our vibrant local activist community with legal observers and criminal defense. Over the past decade, the Minnesota NLG chapter has represented hundreds of demonstrators arrested in protests large and small. The RNC convention will require efforts on a far larger scale. We will need to recruit and train hundreds of legal observers for the protests, and dozens of attorneys to defend those arrested. The NLG may also be called upon to take legal action to challenge restrictions that are ultimately set up for protests, or to file civil rights lawsuits for violations at the protests.
In initial preparation, the NLG already has a listserve with local and out-of-town lawyers, activists, local officials to discuss and inform about legal issues related to the convention and have begun the process of forming committees to work on Legal Observing, Legal Defense, and Litigation. We also look forward to working with the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union and other legal organizations outside the Twin Cities. The NLG will need as many lawyers, law students and legal workers as possible in order to deliver on our commitment to meeting the legal needs to progressive activists. We welcome all volunteers. If you can help in any capacity, please contact Jordan Kushner, the coordinator of the Legal Observer and Political Defense Committee (612) 288-0545, kushn002@umn.edu.