RNC_2008

by l’etoile magazine staff • 10/15/08 • The spooky season is fast descending upon us!

Bedlam Theatre’s wizardry, blending avant-garde art with determined activism, is in effect once more—this time with the upcoming Because We Still Live Here, a mixed-medium evening about the aftermath of the Republican National Convention. Sarah Palin or no, it’s safe to say Bedlam will not be lauding the G.O.P. for including everybody—regardless of race, creed or gender—in the mythologically vaunted American Dream. It’s also a good guess Bedlam won’t be paying homage to how police forces protected and served the living hell out of the public. MORE »

Last week as the Republicans’ trip to St. Paul was delayed due to weather, some musicians still came to town for the Take Back Labor Day concert on Harriet Island, directly across the Mississippi river from downtown St. Paul and the Xcel Energy Center, where the Republicans were going to congregate to talk about their version of change, which is funny, given that if they actually wanted change it seems like, having control of two branches of the government for six out of the last eight years, they could have made some decisions to create some change. I guess change really does take time. But I digress; the concert and the musicians is what I want to talk about today. MORE »

“You anarchists never learn.”
“It’s always easy to sit and talk shit until it’s your house being raided.”
-comments on “Police break down doors in nighttime raid on anarchist meeting”

“How very appropriate these so-called ‘cops’ stopped the bus at the Cretin ramp. Gives us all a pretty good look at their intellectual level.”
-comment on “Big Green Bus arrested”

“How and why were stormtroopers allowed to run rampant on the streets of St. Paul?”
-comment on “Amy Goodman, other journalists arrested”

“This author really highlights the disconnect between the young white people, often from economically privileged backgrounds (who make up a large proportion of the anti-capitalist or anarchist protesters who have been participating in RNC-related demonstrations) and those people across the country who are facing racial and economic oppression. This march was supposed to be about poor people, homeless people and about poor People of Color exercising their agency and making demands of our government and of the political elite. It’s really sad when their message is interrupted, upstaged, and compromised by those who are allegedly on their side.”
-comment on “Peaceful poor people’s march ends in explosions of tear gas” MORE »

by Jay Gabler, TC Daily Planet • September 5, 2008 • There was a lot of booty-shakin’ at the X this week—credit to our West 7th/Fort Road correspondent Ed Johnson for spotting this motley montage assembled by Vanity Fair’s Ted Travelstead.

More than 300 people were arrested Thursday, according to a booking officer in St. Paul. The arrests came after security forces closed bridges over Interstate 94 to prevent protesters who had assembled at the Capitol at 4 p.m. from marching to the Xcel at 5 p.m. MORE »

Approximately 200 concert-goers from last night’s Rage Against the Machine concert at the Target Center organized themselves into a march down 7th Street in downtown Minneapolis, in defiance of Minneapolis Police. The march ended at the corner of 2nd Avenue and 7th Street when riot and bicycle police corralled around 50 marchers onto the curb and made arrests. Minnesota Public Radio reported that 102 total arrests were made in Minneapolis last night, at multiple locations. MORE »

Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan expressed relief at the lack of violence associated with last night’s Rage Against the Machine concert. Despite more than 100 arrests, Dolan said the situation had the potential to be explosive given the intersection of delegates and protesters. “We were very, very nervous about that,” he said at a press conference this morning. “We had a recipe there for a perfect storm. I’m thankful to be here today to say that things went as well as I could have ever expected.” MORE »