Plans

Anarchist "group" Unconventional Achtung has released its 'to-do' list for the DNC. First, of course, there's some verbilage:

Unconventional Action’s strategy at the Democratic National Convention will hold the Democratic Party accountable for promoting environmental degradation, the enforcement of arbitrary borders, war and occupation, attacks on the poor, and racist policing. We will expose that no matter which party you vote for, your vote is for war, ecological devastation, and increasing disparity between rich and poor.

Anarchists and Anti-Authoritarians are urged to engage in a broad variety of tactics to disrupt fundraising events and prevent Democratic delegates from putting on the spectacle they claim as democracy. Unconventional Action will honor and support autonomous actions while coordinating a highly publicized assault on the pageantry, violence, and abuses of the Democrats and the two-party capitalist system.

Highly publicized. With that in mind, here's the anarchoids' list:

• shut down, disrupt, or delay the convention

• storm convention events

• dismantle Denver’s capitalism, gentrification, and eco-devastation networks

• feel our movement’s power as a confrontational force

• make direct action a threat again

• bring our international anarchist movement back into the public consciousness

• build momentum for the opposition to the RNC

• ensure that the DNC is a thing of rowdy beauty

• turn the DNC’s festivities into our own

• bring the direct action that meets the needs of local communities

• continue multiracial coalitions with multiracial turnouts

• stop racist development and the targeting of immigrant communities

• further Denver anarchist community’s ties with other local struggles.

• have such a good time and create something so magnificently awesome that forms of hierachy no one will ever want to leave. ever.

ever. More exhortation:

Can you hear it? Put your ear to the ground, listen to the rustle of the leaves, the background noise of your dreams : something different is going down this summer, and you’re going to want to be in on the fun. We’ve been keeping on the down low the past few years - healing, community projects, processing the past, reassessing our strengths. Many of us have been waiting for the moment to once again rise up and strike at the heart of the machine. We’ve had a chance to rest, we’ve learned from our mistakes, it’s now or never to get back in the streets. We’re going to Disrupt the DNC, Crash the RNC, Roadblock I-69, Treesit the University of California, and then we’re going to bring the whole fucking thing down. . . .

It's the treesitting (one word, no hyphen) that'll do it.

Seattle? Quebec? Cancun? You’ve heard the myths. You wish you’d been there. You’ve never been to a mass action and thinking about it makes you a little scared and a lot excited. Harness the fear, ride the excitement, and be a part of the next chapter of the history that’s being written at this very moment. If you don’t know what if feels like to hold an intersection with a tight group of your friends, while the capitalists sit stuck in their bus unable to reach their convention center... If you’ve never experienced a crowd of a hundred new friends swarming a street and forcing police to retreat.. If you haven’t prepared food for hungry protesters and then seen the grateful smiles of a thousand satisfied bellies...

A thousand smilin' bellies. So here's the schedule, which is basically R68's with a few extra, um, annoyances:

24th March Against Occupations and Militarizations!

Begin the day with a massive anti-war march. We’ll be in the streets in solidarity with all who oppose imperialism and its tools of war and occupation.

Space Reclamation. Following the march, we’ll reclaim space somewhere in Denver. In a city under police occupation,we’ll take space back from the capitalist elite and create our own autonomous space, highlighting our ability to create horizontal systems of organization.

While celebrating, we’ll get to know each other and our community. We’ll tell stories, party, and conspire. Not forgetting that profiteers of imperialism use Denver as a headquarters, affinity groups are encouraged to autonomously target these corporations.

25th March Against Prisons: Free All Political Prisoners!

A morning Freedom March demanding an end to the prison industrial complex and freedom for the many political prisoners currently incarcerated for their acts in defense of the earth, animals, and fellow human beings:

In the evening, clusters, affinity groups and individuals take action against major fundraisers, delegate parties, restaurant outings and corporations using the DNC to sweeten their position with the party. Picture restaurants, hotel lobbies, theatres, and other mid-size venues: Opportunities abound for subversive pranks, over-the-top theatrics, anti-capitalist extravaganzas, and whatever else you can think of.

26th March Against Walls and Borders: No One is Illegal!

A historic convergence of Latino and Chicano communities, Immigrants and their Allies will be taking place in the morning. We will be in the streets making connections between the walls that separate nations, people, genders.

Blockade the Spectacle: We Vote NO! Delegates will be meeting in the afternoon to finalize their platform and we will be standing in their path. Coordinated technical blockades, street theater, and other diverse actions will shut down the flow of delegates to the Pepsi Center while supporting those trying to infiltrate their messages inside. As the DNC reaffirms its agenda of co-optation, subverting democracy and protecting corporate and imperialist power, we will bring their party to a halt.

27th Actions and Alternatives: No Warming!

All day creative direct action to stop the direct causes of global warming and the corporations profiting from environmental destruction. Let’s demonstrate alternatives so that people can see another way of living opposed to our consumer lifestyles which aredestroying the planet.

Possibilities include: shutting down polluters, targeting corporations in Denver funding Democrats and destroying the planet, bike blocs, guerilla gardening, simplicity enforcement, consumer re-education, and anything your creative little hearts can think of to show the world another way to live.

28th Media Savvy Actions: End White Supremacy!

Today we will engage in visually stunning, media attracting actions targeting the Democrats’ complicity in racism in Denver and nationally through gentrification, police brutality, criminal injustice, the prison industrial complex, etc. We will target institutions and corporations that force US imperialism and racism on the rest of the world, as well as those that inflict it upon us.

UA has a few other things to announce:

[W]e have a kickin’ convergence center where everyone is welcome. It will be a great place to get plugged into everything going on, as well as see old friends and meet new ones.

Unconventional Denver is finding space specifically to be set aside as safer space. Already planned are safer spaces for people of color, trans and queer folk, wimmin, and survivors. We hope for them to be a short distance from the convergence center.

Safer spaces for wimmin, people of color and survivors. How sexist, racist and survivorist can you get? But this will reassure Tasha:

Unconventional Denver has a sexual assault policy in place for all organizing, spaces, and actions leading up to and during the convention. Sexual assault will not be tolerated in any shape or form.

Make sure somebody takes Benjie's wood rasp away, would you?

They must have an anarchist adwriter:

Denver, located smack dab between the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains, separates east from west and is a stomping ground for many good folks who traveled through and never left. We are a diverse city with a large and vibrant radical scene with active groups addressing immigrant and native people’s rights, police brutality, gentrification, sexual assault, and homeless discrimination. As well, we sport a radical bike collective, two FNB servings a week, an anarchist variety show and many other strong projects aimed at building a community independent from government and hierarchical political structures.

Denver Visitors Bureau, take note.

Anarchist boot camp July 12-18:

unconventional denver is inviting you to an action camp in the foothills of the Rockies. Come join us for a week of direct action training, medic training (put on by the world famous Colorado Street Medics), know-your-rights training, and a day of DNC strategizing. While camping with our comrades somewhere near Denver, we’ll learn the tactics necessary to successfully confront the DNC and the police and corporate state the convention represents. Bring camping equipment, a strong desire to determine your own destinies, and a friend or two (or just plan on making some friends at the camp).

Update: Had to fiddle with this 'cause I had basically everything on the wrong date.

Update II: Just in case you had doubts about R68's peaceful intentions, UA says this: "Unconventional Denver is working closely not only with R68, but also with a number of other anti-DNC organizers, to ensure an effective and supported strategy of direct action."