Let’s get on with it! : Milwaukee Anti-RNC Consulta Report Back

From November 9th through the 11th 60+ people visited and participated in a Consulta to disrupt/crash/shut down the RNC from locales ranging from Grand Rapids Michigan to the Twin Cities. The form of the event was informal, with most of the time spent hanging out and getting to know one another, perhaps seeing some of the faces that may be covered the next time we meet.

Friday was check in. MKEtoRNC, the organizers of the Consulta didn’t know how many people to expect would be coming or how much space on our floors and futons would need to be available. Anything from the few of MKEtoRNC participants who organized the event to up to 200 people were expected. Most of the time on friday was spent waiting around to greet people when they showed up to the Cream City Collectives (infoshop and collective community space). People were given schedules and guides to the city and a place to sleep when they arrived.

On Saturday there were two discussions scheduled on consensus and diversity of tactics. These discussions turned into one as the topics overlapped. People involved asked questions, discussed their motivations and intentions for the RNC in 2008. This made strategizing easier because for those who participated in discussion there was a better understanding of where people were at and this didn’t need to be painfully reached with tangents and misunderstandings while more tactical decisions were being developed. During the discussions a good number of people helped Food Not Bombs prepare and cook a warm meal for everyone. Afterwards people wandered around the neighborhood and met up at a dance party a few blocks away that went rowdy into the wee hours of the night.

On Sunday, We marched to the University nearby black flags unfurled and beating drums even if to inspire only ourselves. Once there we found an empty room rearranged the furniture and began a strategizing session for which the goal was to discuss and develop a strategy building off of the strategy consented upon at the pReNC last September. Plans had been laid out for the first day of the convention and people were made aware of what was decided then and given updated information with a presentation by visiting members of the RNC Welcoming Committee. What were plans for the second day? What fiendish mischief could we dream up? The idea was proposed to create a bear cavalry that would ride against the convention and ransack the city was definitely an exciting idea, but we had to get serious. Everyone agreed to maintain the blockades and attempt to disrupt and hopefully shut down downtown surrounding entry points to the Excel center in downtown St. Paul where the Convention will be held in an effort to prevent delegates from entering and prevent the convention from being a convention at all. If this failed it was agreed to have a plan B, potentially a day of actions against capital.

Afterwards people snaked their way back to the Cream City Collectives said goodbye and got going back to where they came from hopefully taking with them a better idea of how to hunt elephants and growing excitement for a world that does not insult us with a boredom out of our control. Let’s get on with it.

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"From a certain point onward, there is no turning back. That is the point that must be reached." Franz Kafka

I think it would be also important to include brief descriptions of what was talked about at the break-out groups.

Other than that, I really like it.

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"Down with a world in which the guarantee that we will not die of starvation has been purchased with the guarantee that we will die of boredom."

also, I think it would be important to include some more of the things people discussed during the 'vision' portion of the strategizing session. I think some of those ideas can be very inspiring and could serve as spring boards for future strategizing. It would also be interesting to see the list of ways to create blockades that was compiled by that working group.

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"Down with a world in which the guarantee that we will not die of starvation has been purchased with the guarantee that we will die of boredom."

Good write-up, I agree that the visions section should be included as that's very inspiring.

Each breakout group is sending their notes to the forum and all should be available no later than tomorrow evening so we can compile it and send it out over the server.

One thing I'd recommend is making an obvious list of the things we consented on in the main strategy session on Sunday. I believe there were 3 or 4 things to list.

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I will lay down my bones among the rocks and roots of the deepest hollow next to the streambed
The quiet hum of the earth's dreaming is my new song

do you remember what those 3 or 4 things were that we consented on?

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"From a certain point onward, there is no turning back. That is the point that must be reached." Franz Kafka

I didn't take notes on the vision part of the session. How should I include it in the write up?

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"From a certain point onward, there is no turning back. That is the point that must be reached." Franz Kafka

Who has the big notes that were written on the wall that day? Everybody's vision statements were written on that, and it would be a good thing to condense and include.

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"Down with a world in which the guarantee that we will not die of starvation has been purchased with the guarantee that we will die of boredom."

Also I think that the call-out writen for the Trans/Queer Convergence will suffice as a reportback from that breakout group, rather than writing an entirely new reportback.

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"Down with a world in which the guarantee that we will not die of starvation has been purchased with the guarantee that we will die of boredom."

mario_buda wrote:

do you remember what those 3 or 4 things were that we consented on?

Unfortunately no, if I did I'd have simply posted them.

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I will lay down my bones among the rocks and roots of the deepest hollow next to the streambed
The quiet hum of the earth's dreaming is my new song

Owen Sykes wrote:

Who has the big notes that were written on the wall that day? Everybody's vision statements were written on that, and it would be a good thing to condense and include.

I don't know exactly where they are, but would it make sense to post them here once we find them if we can't?

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"From a certain point onward, there is no turning back. That is the point that must be reached." Franz Kafka

Yeah, It would be worth posting them, even if we can't get them into the reportback.

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"Down with a world in which the guarantee that we will not die of starvation has been purchased with the guarantee that we will die of boredom."

Alright, i'm going to post up what I have. I could put a link to forum and the website. I'll work on making an MKEtoRNC page on the main website so we can add all the breakout group info to that and other things.

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"From a certain point onward, there is no turning back. That is the point that must be reached." Franz Kafka

Thanks for posting these and sending them even if they're not entirely complete.

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I will lay down my bones among the rocks and roots of the deepest hollow next to the streambed
The quiet hum of the earth's dreaming is my new song

twas my pleasure.

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"From a certain point onward, there is no turning back. That is the point that must be reached." Franz Kafka