PROTEST

Anti-War Veterans, Others Gearing Up For Convention Protests

Coalition Leaders Predict 50,000 Protesters Will March From The State Capitol To The Xcel Energy Center In What Would Be One Of The Biggest Protests In Minnesota History

by Chris Strohm

Monday, Sept. 1, 2008


Iraq war veteran Wesley Davey is mad as hell and he wants presidential candidate Sen. John McCain and delegates at the Republican National Convention to know it.

A retired Army Reserve master sergeant, he knows of too many soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder who are not getting the care they need from the Veterans Affairs Department.

"I'm angry about how the veterans have been treated," said Davey, a former psychological operations soldier who was deployed to Iraq during the March 2003 invasion. "It's heart wrenching for me to hear and see these things happening. ... It's just utter bullshit."

Davey, who leads the Minnesota chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War, will join tens of thousands of marchers outside the convention this week. More than a dozen have been arrested so far, police say.

Along with veterans, there are anti-war crusaders, truckers facing bankruptcy from paying high gas prices, labor and immigrant advocates, the poor, families who have lost their homes to foreclosures and Hurricane Katrina victims.

"I think it's going to be four days of spirited protest and I think it's going to show the liveliness of the anti-war movement," said Meredith Aby, an organizer with the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War.

Coalition leaders predicted 50,000 members of about 125 local and national groups would march today from the state Capitol to the Xcel Energy Center in what would be one of the biggest protests in Minnesota history.

Anarchists and anti-authoritarian activists also vowed to "crash the convention" by blockading key intersections and bridges in an effort to prevent delegates and party officials from getting around the city.

But other groups, including Families United for Our Troops and Their Mission, held a counterdemonstration today in support of the military.

"We want to go out there and show [the troops] that we support them and we support their mission and their families," said Merrilee Carlson, the group's president, whose son died in Iraq in 2005.

The GOP convention has been designated by the Homeland Security Department as a National Security Special Security Event, which means the St. Paul Police Department and the Secret Service are in charge of security. Up to 3,500 police officers and state patrol officers have been dispatched to the convention, along with federal security officials.

Aby said she wants to hear McCain call for an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq, give a commitment not to invade Iran, offer support for Palestinians and end military aid to dictators in other countries. She doesn't expect the candidate to meet her demands.

Iraq Veterans Against the War wants to give McCain's staff a list of healthcare issues of concern to veterans, which the group hopes the candidate will adopt in his platform.

"What we'd really like to see is a streamlined process, more of a proactive effort by the VA to reach out to veterans and make sure that they aren't slipping through the cracks," said former Army Second Lt. T.J. Buonomo, an organizer with the group.

About 400 Veterans for Peace protesters carried a flag-draped casket through St. Paul Sunday and were met by dozens of Ramsey County sheriff's deputies in riot gear, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported. Seven people were arrested and two others, including a nun, were ticketed.

Authorities have conducted a series of raids in the Twin Cities since Friday, targeting what they said was an anarchist group called the RNC Welcoming Committee. Six people are in custody pending possible conspiracy charges.

Buonomo said he wants to hear McCain support negotiations with Iran without preconditions, denounce long-term oil contracts in Iraq, and recognize Iraq's sovereignty by withdrawing U.S. forces from the country.

Protest organizers are counting on support from many veterans who have already been in Minneapolis for the past four days attending national conventions of the groups Iraq Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace.

Litigation over police tactics against the protesters has already begun. The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Lawyers Guild filed motions in local district courts Sunday seeking the return of some "First Amendment-protected literature" that has been seized in raids, said Chuck Samuelson, executive director of the ACLU of Minnesota.

Also Sunday, a judge reviewed the cases of the six members of the RNC Welcoming Committee and determined there was probable cause to continue holding them in jail. One of the arrestees was later released, and the Ramsey County attorney's office was given until noon Wednesday to charge or release the five others.

A "poor peoples" rally is planned for Tuesday, in which organizers might risk arrest by marching to the front doors of the Xcel Center to present a citizen's arrest warrant to delegates and party officials.

Organizer Cheri Honkala said the group wants the U.S. government to stop spending billions of dollars on wars and instead invest money into a universal healthcare system, public education, drug and alcohol treatment programs, and building homes.

Meanwhile, the Minnesota Anti-War Committee plans a march on the final day of the convention Thursday. Some participants will risk arrest by marching to the doors of the Xcel Center when McCain accepts the nomination.

"I wouldn't say that we're against John McCain," said Tom Atchison, a peace activist in Minneapolis. "What we're against is the warlike way of doing things."

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