drew dellinger - planetize the movement

Mile High History: Report from the Democratic National Convention--Denver 2008

Tonight, for the first time ever, an African American was nominated as a major party's presidential candidate in the United States of America, a country founded on the fault lines of freedom and slavery.

The energy was amazing in Denver's Mile High Stadium as I packed in with my dad, my brother, and some 80,000 others for Barack Obama's acceptance speech on the final night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

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I guess the DNC is becoming something of a family tradition.

In 2000 I spent four days at the DNC in Los Angeles, demonstrating outside the convention; marching in the streets and protesting the corporate, militarist complicity of the Democratic Party. On the last night, I went inside the convention with my dad and listened to Vice President Gore's acceptance speech. Within minutes I had gone from the streets to the suites--from protesting behind a fence, to eating shrimp in a skybox with Gore's Chief of Staff, and the family of the keynote speaker, Harold Ford, Jr.

Candidate Gore was at the peak of his populism and gave a passionate speech in which he vowed that, as president, he would work for the people, not the powerful.

The next morning I drove from L.A. to the Bay Area, winding my way up the California coast on Hwy. 1 along the blue-green Pacific. (This was the day that I moved to Oakland: a sunny Friday in mid-August of 2000. Three months before Florida and the stealing of the election. A year before September 11.)

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Historic Seattle Settlement = Money to Movements

WTO Protests, Seattle, WA, December 1, 1999    (Photo: Holly Roach)

 

Below is a open letter from my dear friend, Holly Roach, along with a press release, describing a historic victory for free speech and the right to protest.

I was honored to stand with some 50,000 protestors for global justice in the streets of Seattle in 1999.

I felt sanctified going to jail alongside 600 courageous activists, undettered by the casual brutality of the state. Occasionally during the days in jail, while being transferred in handcuffs, chains and shackles, I would turn to one of the cops, and say, "We are being held illegally and unconstitutionally." The cops of course responded with a snicker, a smirk, or stony silence, but 9 years later a jury agreed.

The case of 175 protestors arrested at Westlake Park in downtown Seattle finally made it to court, and the jury found that the police and the city had violated the Constitution. The jury awarded us $1 million dollars.

Much more important than the money, is the message this verdict should send. Governmental and police officials must be accountable, and cannot be allowed to trample the Constitution and the rights (and bodies) of those working for peace, justice, democracy and the earth.

I felt lucky to be a Westlake Class member, and I was thrilled to channel every cent of my share of the settlement back into the global justice struggle, to support those working on the front lines of the movement, in the hearts of our communities.

Please consider supporting this vital work for global justice by contributing a matching donation to the MONEY to MOVEMENTS project.

--Drew

 

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