A Moveable Feast:
An Update on the RNC Protests (August 2nd, 2004)

by the NYC Anarchist Grapevine

General Scene Report (This is our second update…a final one will follow)

There will be a delectable smorgasbord of radical activities leading up to and during the RNC protests. We are very encouraged by the level and diversity of activities being planned for NYC this month. It is the beginning of August, and New Yorkers are steadily planning for the RNC's attempt to take the city and it turn it into a giant infomercial for their right-wing agenda. Unfortunately for them, people of all political persuasions are ready and organized to stop them.

So here is a revised update of what is happening in NYC so that you and your pals can better plan for your time here.

Infrastructure

The No-RNC Clearinghouse: Meeting for a year, this has been a gathering of different collectives, groups and individuals planning actions. The amazing thing about the clearinghouse is that it has not yet become yet another three-letter coalition. The next RNC Clearinghouse meetings are August 12, August 26 at St. Mark's Church. 2nd Avenue and 10 Street. Closest subways are the L to 3rd Avenue, 6 to Astor Place or the R to 8th St. Orientation for new attendees of the clearinghouse meeting starts at 7pm sharp!! The regular meeting starts at 7:20 sharp! Every other week they host the RNCClearingHouse Bazaar which groups set up tables, people mingle and what not.

Bike Convergence: NYC will have an active Bike Convergence (from the good people at Times Up!) Here's what they say: "Time's Up! Is hosting a calendar of events throughout a busy week of rides that will lead up to the Republican National Convention. The Bike National Convention (BNC) will provide New Yorkers and bike enthusiasts pedaling in from around the country a chance to participate in rides that showcase New York City's unique environment, and the communities of cyclists who inhabit and support it." www.times-up.org

Food. You will not starve in NYC. The Anti-Capitalist Kitchen and Food Not Bombs are here, churches and community centers will be feeding folks too. There is also a group called Tamales for the Revolution that plan on serving steaming hot vegan tamales to the hungry masses on the street. Not to mention New York’s fine dumpsters. No anarchist will go hungry in NYC. www.abcnorio.org/affiliated/fnb.html

Legal will be handled in tandem by the National Lawyer’s Guild and the NYC-People’s Law Collective (a local anarchist legal group.)

Legal collectives from across North America are coming to help along with NYCLU, Center for Constitutional Rights and other national and local progressive legal organizations. They will have an office, street teams, legal observers and jail support. www.nycplc.mahost.org or www.nlgnyc.org There will be tons of Legal Observers, a well-functioning legal office, lawyers and many others working to make sure "The Man" doesn’t fuck you over.

Street Medical. The Medical Activists of New York (MANY) have been doing Medic trainings for the last year and will be doing street medical work along with several groups and individuals from across the region and country. MEDIC is another group that will be coordinating medic dispatch, opening a wellness space and is currently working on a clinic. If you need medics at an action contact them at: www.aloofhosting.com/medic/outreach.html

Misc. Support for the Protests: There will be radical librarians providing references on the streets look for their cute blue hats radicalreference.info/ There is a group working to provide child-care during the events. There will be free collectivo vans provided by Gypsy Moth Collective for those getting out of jail. There will be live streaming of video, radio and web-casts from groups like Indymedia, Paper Tiger, Democracy Now and other radical groups. There will be up-to-date calendars and updates of events on www.rncnotwelcome.org and www.counterconvention.org (and no doubt other web-sites). There will be the Electronic Soapbox Group providing protest related infomercials on the street from their multi-media kiosks through-out the city. There will be a group called I-Witness Video collecting and documenting police abuse on the streets. There are numerous other organizations/collectives providing support for the protests (more will be added in the next update).

Trainings: There are a ton of trainings scheduled for August leading right up to the RNC. These trainings include: Self Defense for Activists; Know Your Legal Rights; Medic First Aid trainings; Street Media; Security Culture; and so on. Take the time to learn new skills and prepare yourself for RNC and beyond.

Art, and shows, and parties, and dancing, and other tomfoolery: The city will be awash with posters, puppets, costumes, radical cheers and Rude Mechanicals (a radical marching band!) Most of these art groups are still looking for people to plug into their projects…if interested you should contact them. Lots of benefit shows of course, and a free continuous performance space on the Lower East Side for music, spoken word, theater, etc. (they are still looking for performers…so take a few hours break from Smashing the State and perform).

Weaknesses: Space in general and housing in particular is our weak link. The housing situation is still not completely sorted out. Don’t plan on being able to get hooked up with a place to crash at the last minute, so plan ahhead:

You can contact the RNC Hosing Working Group voicemail at 212.696.6625 for starters. Then check out the housing boards on a few different websites including nyc-hospitality.org and another one on Counter Convention, a large anti-RNC website, counterconvention.org/lightningbug/index.phpaction=enumerate&board=3

Best of all, call your friends, relatives and other people who can get you housing. We have handled big protests in the past, but it’s best for affinity groups to show up with their housing sorted out if at all possible. New Yorkers can be stingy with their space, so be warned.

There is at the writing no convergence center but we know people are working on it. We will have to wait and see – but it seems pretty certain there will be at least one convergence/welcoming center by the end of August.

What’s the scoop on the action?

There are an ever growing number of projects and events to meet the taste of every connoisseur of radicalism. There will be dozens of events which stretch from small single issue protests to UFPJ’s undoubtedly massive (permitted) march by Madison Square Garden and rally on the West Side Highway (far away from everything but the river).

So what should you expect action-wise? From the people here on the ground, the big rotten apple is wide open. There will be demonstrations aplenty. There will be the chance to confront Republican delegates in the Times Square Theatre district during the evening of Sunday the 29th there have been two complementary calls for direct action: "Mouse Block" and "Chaos on Broadway".

There will be a huge Poor People’s March on August 12th organized by KWRU and Still We Rise Coalition and about 20 other poor people’s groups. They have a permit for the Rally near the UN but as of now no permit for their march to Madison Square Garden. They claim they will march no matter what. It should be big and interesting! Check out www.marchforourlives.org

There will be a Youth Block Feeder march on August Sunday 29th and a Day of Direct Action on August 31st. There is also a Youth Convergence on the 28th www.nyspc.net

There have been numerous other calls from folks so far: some are light hearted and vague, other are simply mysterious. There have been calls for Khaki Bloks, feeder marches on Sunday starting from Central Park (ala Feb 15th); the libertarian kooks will be holding a rally in Central Park with out a permit. There has even been a call by "Protest Warriors" rightwing knuckleheads who want to confront the demonstrators (it is dubious if they will even show). Anti-Choice fanatics will be rallying on Saturday August 28th and no doubt there will be a counter-rally.

There will be no shortage of choices for the days of action. Most of these calls are still in the planning stages and we hope by the next update there will be some more clarity.

So what about Tuesday (A31)?

Juding from the large amount of emails we got, the last Grapevine Update was welcomed and well received from activists across the country, but wound up generating a shit-storm of controversy here in New York. Here's what happened: Several organizers for the A31 protests were upset that said the "Million Yeses" call for A31 was a bad idea (Our exact, now notorious, words were that the call for the Scream was: "not being taken seriously by most local anarchists.") As several of our comrades pointed out, we were wrong to say "most." Instead of being simply a decent round-up of events and groups, that paragraph set off a mini-scene war. So, to set the record straight: we have no idea how many locals thought a primal scream on Tuesday was a stupid idea. No one, including the Grapevine, speaks for our very large, diverse and often fragmented local anarchist scene(s). So, as an olive branch from the Grapevine, here's what's going on with A31:

The good news is that the organizers of A31 have axed the primal scream thing. The exact details for A31 are still being worked out, it appears to become a more direct action oriented event. To eyeball the new call and further developments go to a31.org There are now weekly A31 meetings (Tuesdays @ 7:30pm at 94 9th Strret, Red Hook Brooklyn) Most anarchists (there we go using the word "most") should check out these meetings to learn more first hand.

No matter what the local organizers decide or what calls are put out, there are tons of opportunities for affinity group actions against the RNC and its capitalist cronies throughout the week-end. The city will provide the chaos - you should BYOA (Bring Your Own Action) and do some homework for it. For those of you searching for something to do: If each state delegation was trailed by just one dedicated affinity group from that home state for a few days, they would certainly have a week to remember.

Meeting other Anarchists, getting involved in projects and having fun in NYC:

We all know - the New York scene can be too big (or too small for some), or too fragmented, to easily meet everyone. So how can you hook-up with the ever-elusive anarchists in NYC?

There will be a TRIBES meeting on Monday, August 16th at the Brecht Forum. It will be like an anarchist consulta. Anarchists from outside the city are welcome to attend and bring info back to their communities. Here are directions to the Brecht Forum: Located at 122 West 27th Street, 10th floor. It is between 6th and 7th avenues in Manhattan. The closest subway lines are the 1 at 7th and 28th Street, or the R train at Broadway and 28th Street.

The Bike National Convention will be great for people who plan on cycling around the city. The Time’s Up Bike space is reportedly very cool place to hang out and do work on bicycles. It is located on 49 E. Houston (between Mott and Mulberry St.) Call Time’s Up at 212-802-8222 for more info.

There is also going to be an Anarchist Picnic hosted by the Libertarian Book Club on Sunday the 8th in Central Park. Call for the exact location and time at 212-979-8353

There is also an Anarchist Hotline: 800-242-0363 ext 3447 to get more up-to date info about benefits, gatherings and other stuff.

Really Free Market Gathering on Saturday, August 21st. outside St. Mark’s Church. The Anarchist World’s Fair has a nifty traveler’s guide to the city and will also be helping people connect to other groups and projects in the city.

And there is also always Jane Doe’s Library Space at 93 Montrose in beautiful Bushwick, Brooklyn: a good place to meet friendly faces (daily hours are 2-8pm, Tuesday through Saturday).

Law Enforcement

There about 40,000 thousand cops in NYC and they will be reinforced by 1,000 feds (according to the media). We can only speculate what the cops’ plans are, but history suggests that the NYPD does not use tear gas, concussion grenades, the "electric shields" used in Miami and the other gadgets so common in other parts of the country. Most likely they will be using time tested techniques of crowd control. That means horses, metal pens and a shitload of uniformed cops. Look for more updates.

Local Support

Most New Yorkers are virulently anti-Republican. Whether or not serious numbers of people from across the city will throw down in the streets is a different matter. There is a possibility of a Quebec-like show of solidarity from locals. Will they be militant? It’s hard to tell. Will they be pissed? For sure. Let's hope everyone is organizing along their own ideals and there is a diversity of tactics.

Forget 9/11

Most New Yorkers have dealt with 9/11 in their own way. We are the least freaked out city in the country as far as terrorism goes. The giant marches against the Iraq war showed New York can and will continue to have mass mobilizations. The police and feds will no doubt have a scare campaign including code-orange style warnings before the protests. Don’t worry, people will come to protest. See you there!

- The NYC Anarchist Grapevine is a loose knit of local (and not-so local) anarchists who want to give you the real shit - accurate, useful information to people who are coming to town. We will put-out one final update, the week before the RNC. If there are any general questions you would like to see addressed in the last update please do not hesitate to e-mail us at nycanarchistgrapevine (at) yahoo.com (realizing of course our e-mail is monitored).