This is my incredibly true story of RNC demonstrations in three part dissonance
Part One: My Crazy House, My Committed Community
I am hosting dozens of young activists at my home. Already my house is crowded. My friends and their two young kids needed a place to stay after becoming homeless after the market demand for new graduates plummeted. My single-dad friend and his two young kids needed a place to stay suddenly, too. Unable to rent due to bad credit history, with a job working third shift, he couldn't afford childcare and housing. Even before out of town activists arrived, our three bedroom house had up to five kids under ten, and four adults. Even without added pressure, our social system and local economy showed cracks. Still, in the community people hold each other up.
Beginning last weekend, August 30-31, two dozen youth with their backpacks and zines arrived in groups looking for floor space or a lawn to roll out sleeping bags. My neighbors provided a big soup pot. If there's room for two, there is room for three. If there's room for seven, there's room for seventeen. We accommodate.
Foreshadowing the week to come, as out of town guests arrive, before RNC starts, police raided many community houses in Minneapolis and St Paul. My ex's house, the house that brought over surplus dumpstered yogurt and cheese, the one that fixed my bike's flat tire--all raided by police with guns blazing. Armed with a warrant, during nighttime hours "under the cover of darkness" to prevent the "loss, destruction, or removal of objects," police broke down the Twin Cities activists' doors. Most of those present in these homes were detained, identified, photographed, and released. However, during these weekend raids and picked up off the street, eight anarchist/anti-authoritarian organizers associated with the RNC Welcoming Committee were targeted for serious charges.
By Wednesday, September 3rd, Ramsey County Prosecutor charged these eight activists detained during the pre-emptive raids with Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism. In the first application of Minnesota's version of the Patriot Act activists associated with the RNC Welcoming Committee Monica Bicking, Eryn Trimmer, Luce Guillen Givins, Erik Oseland, Nathanael Secor, Robert Czernik, Garrett Fitzgerald, and Max Spector, currently face up to 7 1/2 years in prison.
Recently, law enforcement agencies revealed that multiple paid informants and infiltrators were used to gather information about the RNC Welcoming Committee. This did not surprise those involved; three months ago the local free paper reported on the recruitment of moles to infiltrate RNC protest organizations. RNC Welcoming Committee activist William Gillis analyzed the situation, saying the use of infiltrators "includes befriending and working with [a] group to move that group's agenda forward. That is work of sick people, and a sick tactic used against activists." Cela Kutz commented on the difficulties in maintaining friendships in that environment, "We suspect that there are four infiltrators in the Welcoming Committee. It has definitely negatively affected how we as a group have come back together and been able to work together."
Over the duration of the RNC, 818 people were arrested. Many more are detained and released on the streets without charges. Presumably information gained during detentions without charges is used for monitoring activists' movements. The large number of people arrested, the enormity of the charges on a select few, powerfully impacts our intertwined community.
Part Two: Health Care at the RNC
"I'm so excited, inspired really, to see the difference in interactions between providers and patients," states Dr. L, a volunteer with North Star Health Collective a health activist organization providing free care for RNC protesters and community. "The goal here is to eliminate the power differential between us doctor types and the people we serve." Dr. L sits in the triage area at the Wellness Center at the RNC leading an orientation session for fellow EMT and medical student volunteers. I volunteer with Dr. L and assisted in the founding of the health collective. Our Wellness Center sits within walking distance of protests, across the street from the Level 1 Trauma Center in the County Hospital.
For the past 8 months, local health care providers and activists have been meeting to discuss the needs of the community during the convention. North Star coordinated and provided health care services, resources, and training for protests and participants during the RNC. The services come with a radical social critique of medical system, "We reject the idea that health care should be distributed based on ability to pay," states a founding collective member Kim Christoffel, a graduate student in Social Work at the University of Minnesota. The three principals of unity in North Star Health Collective include:
- Resist the commercialization and corporatization of our health care.
- Organize on the principles of decentralization, autonomy, sustainability and mutual aid.
- Work to end all relationships of domination and subjugation, including but not limited to those rooted in patriarchy , race, class, xenophobia, and homophobia
Pharmacists, herbalists and doulas worked along side trauma nurses and physicians in a situation where lines blur between disciplines of medicine. 'Sarah,' a young woman hit with rubber bullets, enters the Wellness Center accompanied by a street medic and a friend. In tears she gulps breaths, "I was just standing there, turning to leave, and they shot me!" An herbalist sits down with Sarah to get the full history, while a nurse practitioner evaluates for serious medical injuries. After ruling out critical trauma, attention turns to healing and treatment. By the time she leaves the center, Sarah receives Tylenol, Motrin in addition to massage therapy and homeopathic remedies. This represents an innovative multiple treatment strategy led and directed by Sarah.
As a medical student, I created a brutality documentation form that allowed people like Sarah to catalogue their stories in a cohesive way. While only a part of the process, health care providers document instances of brutality so that we can help future legal defense cases or civil suits. More importantly, we allow survivors of violence an opportunity to share their experiences in a safe, comfortable atmosphere free of judgement. During the RNC, the most common injury was from chemical agents used for crowd control--second degree burns with skin peeling occurred with sustained contact with pepper spray and tear gas. These injuries are being reported to the National Lawyers Guild for use with the development of their work to protect civil liberties. The rapid response of community health care providers to support democratic justice movements builds opportunities for ongoing alliances in the Twin Cities.
Part Three: Brutality--Are We Safe?
We saw a trickle of injured protestors at the wellness center. On September 5th the members of the North Star Health Collective denounced the use of violence to suppress protestors. Garth Kahl, an EMT from Oregon explained, "There is a reason that these are called less-lethal weapons as opposed to non-lethal weapons. The indiscriminate firing of baton rounds, sponge grenades, and other blunt force projectiles in crowded areas is highly dangerous and irresponsible."
Throughout the organizing during the past year and a half, the Welcoming Committee endorsed a strong use of "security culture" to protect activists from arrest, prevent infiltration and disruption of long-planned-for direct actions or civil disobedience. One element of security culture utilized during Welcoming Committee organizing alienated many locals: vouching. This form of security allows entry to meetings or conferences only when two known activists "-vouch' for that person. Suspicion and paranoia pervaded the activist community, creating an elitist activist echo-chamber. The "security culture" failed to exclude three infiltrators, but successfully excluded a lot of community organizers.
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