Well, the Industrial Workers of the World were there. We're thinking about organizing a labor aspect to the April festivities. We'll probably contact the local unions, even though personally I'm loathe to work with the business unions who have a long history of collaborating with capital. At the meeting I spotted some guy with a union jacket--may have been an electrical worker (no, not in the charismatic "electric" sense). Some other folks in the meeting talked about getting the AFL-CIO involved, but they were mainly just mouthing some dogma from their "party."
> Anyway the other missing pieces are the lawyers. I saw a note that the
> legal working group will be formed later. Better sooner than later. It
> is a great comfort for demo participation to know there is legal help
> in the background if something goes wrong and you get arrested from
> out of town with no local contacts. Just making bail is almost
> impossible unless you have some kind of support from local groups (or
> you're well-off).
There were no lawyers there so it was kind of hard to have the lawyer working group. Maybe they should have pried some of the leftists out of the huge "theory/message" working group.
> It is important at least for those who show up, to know the local DC
> laws on demos, and local penalties for the usual high crimes and
> misdemeanors associated with street demonstrations. You know, worst
> case, best case, phone numbers for reporting your arrest, charges,
> case number, making bail, getting a lawyer or joining a large class of
> other defendants under a single legal team. A local law team will
> also know the court scene and the likely disposition of cases, jails,
> detention centers, and have local city contacts with the cops and
> district attorney office, etc. BTW, it sure would be nice to get some
> of DC city workers involved so they could shut down DC city
> services--maybe remind Congress of something called 'the people',
> 'democracy', and 'real life'.
Good suggestions. The problem is that we don't have much experience in this area. The D.C. and Fed cops are good at harassing us, but try to avoid arrests. That's how i constantly get away with teasing the cops, including those dumbshits in suits, the Secret Service.
> I can't tell you how much better I used to feel when organizers could
> hand out or read out legal help information like that at the
> collection points. I used to write down the lawyer's name and number
> on the inside of my wrist in indelible laundry markers that were
> handed around for that purpose.
Good ideas. Thanks.
Looks like we're going to re-enact Seattle in my neighborhood and I'll be out of town.
:-(
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