1.

DENVER PROTESTS MORE SUBDUED THAN AUTHORITIES HAD ANTICIPATED
By Pam Louwagie

** The Democratic National Convention's host city had braced for groups as large as 25,000 people, but numbers haven't been nearly that high. That doesn't mean, however, that the pattern will be repeated in St. Paul. **

Minneapolis Star Tribune
August 27, 2008

Original source: Minneapolis Star-Tribune

DENVER -- Originally, the antiwar march that started after an afternoon concert at Denver's Coliseum on Wednesday wasn't a permitted parade.

But when police got word that thousands were expected to take to the streets in what had the potential to be the largest protest of the Democratic National Convention so far, they struck a deal with protest leaders.

Two officers in a golf-cart-like vehicle found themselves leading the march of an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 protesters, a sign on the back of the police cart flashing "Welcome to Denver. Follow us."

It was an example of a join-them-instead-of-beat-them tactic being used here in what so far has turned out to be a mostly peaceful week, despite predictions of anarchy.

Low protester numbers have helped, too. Authorities had prepared for more than 25,000 marchers based on permits and Internet blogs, but Wednesday's protest was the largest, and it, too, remained peaceful, with no reported arrests related to it.

Several marchers, including Bruce Berry of Minneapolis, predicted far bigger crowds in the Twin Cities next week.

"I think it'll be 10 times more," Berry said, because Republicans are "the part of the machine that's running the motor right now."

All told, there have been 141 convention-related arrests since Saturday, authorities reported Wednesday evening. The bulk of those arrests came Monday evening, when a group of about 300 protesters blocked traffic, refused to disperse, then rushed a police line. Officers used what they called a limited amount of pepper spray. Courts stayed open through the night Monday to process the arrestees.

"Things have been going fairly smoothly," said Denver Police Lt. Ron Saunier.

It would be hard to predict if the situation will be similar in St. Paul for next week's Republican National Convention, authorities in the Twin Cities and Denver said.

Twin Cities police may use tactics similar to those seen in Denver, Assistant St. Paul Police Chief Matt Bostrom said.

2.

DOWN, DOWN IN DENVER
By Russell Morse

New America Media
August 27, 2008

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/26/EDCG12IMCJ.DTL

DENVER -- Half-way through "On the Road," Jack Kerouac finds himself alone and depressed in Denver. He works in a fruit market, lugging watermelon crates, and goes to softball games, alone, at night. It's a dark time for him, and in the middle of his narrative, before he describes leaving for San Francisco in a car with two pimps, he stops to craft two lines of verse:

Down in Denver, down in Denver
All I did was die

Fifty years later, in the dry and sagging days of August, something else is dying in Denver. A disappointing turnout of aging protesters make its way through downtown's streets, weaving past the common landmarks of modern America's downtowns: Barnes & Noble, Virgin Megastore, Niketown, Chili's. They beat a drum or start a chant, but those are clearly limp acts of desperation.

They're here to send a many-tiered message to the thousands of Democrats gathered for their $200 million pep rally: End the war, stop torture, upset the setup, demolish corporate greed. As political conventions have evolved, though, no delegate will ever see a protester. No protester will get within a mile of the arena where the delegates are gathered. And the act of protesting itself seems to be an embarrassing relic from a different time, the protesters putting on some kind of re-enactment, playing dress-up, about as relevant as Civil War buffs or Trekkies.

The major organizing body for protesters in Denver is calling itself Recreate'68. I have a hard time getting my head around this name. I can't imagine why anyone would want to recreate such a traumatic, violent, devastating, and ultimately fruitless year in American history. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, Bobby Kennedy was killed, the Democratic Party imploded, and its convention was marked by chaos and violence. The next time America looked up, Richard Nixon was president of the United States, and it would be a long time before anybody came home from Vietnam.

Members of the group that I've spoken with (both young and old) are careful to distance themselves from what most of us know of 1968, citing instead the "front line battle for social change." That's what they mean by Recreate'68. This is an admirable goal, except that there is such a pitifully low turnout of protesters that they would have a hard enough time just to re-create an episode of Ricki Lake from 1998.

In fact, the only ones who look prepared and excited to re-create the mayhem and violence of 1968 in Denver are the police. Every street is lined with officers on bikes, hanging off of sport utility vehicles, clad in riot helmets and padded gear head to toe. They are an army (no exaggeration) with helicopters, guns, batons, jeeps, tear gas and horses keeping Niketown and the Sheraton and the Pepsi Arena safe from a handful of malnourished and dread-locked sign toters. The police seem like they, too, are playing a bit of dress-up -- but there is an excitement and intensity in their eyes that reads, "Please give me a reason." It is more than a little bit unnerving to be a pedestrian in Denver this week.

Many of the protesters are young, just as many are not. The leaders and most prominent voices are well past their idealistic prime. At the front of the march on Sunday, for instance, was Ron Kovic, the 62-year-old paralyzed Vietnam veteran whose memoirs were the basis for the Oliver Stone film "Born on the Fourth of July." The protests keynote speaker Monday night was Cindy Sheehan, the 51-year-old mother of a soldier who died fighting in Iraq. This is not a march of the young and idealistic, flying in the face of authority. This is an exercise in confused and jaded futility.

No, the young people gathered in Denver right now are very much in line with the Democratic Party. They are clad in Obama T-shirts, driving Volvos covered in Obama bumper stickers, and waving signs in the convention hall. A young man named Biko Baker, the director of the League of Young Voters, made a point of saying that the young people he works with are excited about the election ". . . not because of the candidate, but because we want real change in our communities." This may be his experience, but the scene in the Pepsi center suggests otherwise. The Democratic Party is overflowing with youth, and save for the occasional blond teenage girl with a Hillary button, they are all unapologetically in love with the idea of Barack Obama for president. This is a reflection of partisan loyalty and a continuation of young people's enthusiasm for "the new hope."

A few months back, working on a story about the state of the anti-war movement, I spoke with a number of organizers who expressed frustration at dwindling numbers in their ranks. They told me they were losing people to the Obama campaign. The young and politically minded jumped ship for Obama's movement, which felt like it was going somewhere.

And now I can see it. Cindy Sheehan is far outside the convention center, and the kids have credentials.

--Russell Morse is a New York writer for New America Media.

3.

POLICE CONTINUE REPRESSIVE TACTICS IN DENVER
By Tom Eley

World Socialist Web Site
August 28, 2008

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/aug2008/denv-a28.shtml

In the two days since Denver police -- acting at the direction of U.S. Secret Service -- attacked and jailed nearly 100 peaceful protesters outside the Democratic National Convention, the virtual militarization of Denver has continued. In total, over 130 protesters have now been imprisoned.

As late as Tuesday afternoon, fifteen hours after the arrests, about 60 protesters were still being held at a makeshift detention center, sarcastically called “Gitmo on the Platte” by protesters, as well as in a downtown city jail. By Wednesday most of those detained had been released after posting a $500 bond. The protesters were processed in specially-created kangaroo courts dubbed “DNC Courts.”

The WSWS spoke with Brian Vincente, a lawyer for the People’s Law Project, which is representing many of the protesters. Vincente said that lawyers were denied access to prisoners at the detention center. Then city officials attempted to process many of those arrested in the middle of the night.

Vincente said that the city has been preparing the special court system for over one year, but “instead of creating something streamlined and smooth, they came up with this night court to slam people through.” Vincente has represented people mistakenly arrested by police, including school teachers who were on their way to work.

Police arrests and provocations continue. On Wednesday afternoon, the coordinating center for the protest group Unconventional Denver was raided and equipment used to make banners was seized. Riot police pulled up in an armored personnel carrier, entered the building and arrested two.

On Tuesday, police struck a Code Pink antiwar protester, Alicia Forest, in the face with a baton.

A Kansas pastor and religious extremist, Ruben Israel, and a small group of supporters had begun a confrontation with anti-war protesters, taunting them. A Recreate ’68 organizer, Carlo Garcia, approached police to request that they remove the pastor, as Recreate ’68 had a permit to use the public park where the confrontation took place, and Israel’s organization, Bible Believers, did not. Instead, police arrested Garcia.

In a scene captured on video and posted on YouTube, Forest can be seen approaching the police to ask for an explanation. The officer responds by striking her with his truncheon and saying “back it up, bitch.” Moments later, as she is being interviewed, Forest is grabbed suddenly by her arm and apprehended by several police. (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfISlq1gzK8)

Right wing counter-demonstrators, far fewer in number, have targeted and harassed the anti-war protesters. The right wing protesters have faced less repression from the police, and in some cases, such as the police assault on Forest, have received de facto police protection.

However, thirteen anti-abortion zealots of Operation Rescue, including its founder Randall Terry, were arrested on Monday for blocking a security gate at the Pepsi Center -- though it is difficult to imagine that the anti-war protesters would have been allowed to get so close. Elsewhere, an anti-immigrant rally of the fascistic Minutemen organization drew only about a dozen participants. The small gathering was addressed by the ultra-reactionary politicians Tom Tancredo, Bob Barr, and Alan Keyes.

As of today, no major Democratic figure has called for a lessening of the level of police repression in Denver, or for the release of those protesters who are still imprisoned. One delegate to the convention, Syracuse Democrat Alfonso Davis, confessed to being surprised by the magnitude of the police presence. “This is not my first Democrat National Convention,” he said, but “I’ve never seen this type of law enforcement presence. This is, I would say, a little intrusive.”

Police preparations are underway in St. Paul and Minneapolis for next week’s Republican National Convention, which promises to draw more protesters. According to the National Lawyers Guild, three videographers from New York City had their equipment confiscated by members of the Minneapolis Police Department on Tuesday morning. The videographers had planned to record police interaction with protesters during the RNC. Meanwhile, the Associated Press has reported that a makeshift prison encampment has been created out of a parking area in a police complex in St. Paul.