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Glenn Beck has warned America MONTHS AGO that this “uprising” will evolve from the “Arab Spring/Caliphate” from the Middle East.
America has witnessed Occupy Oakland, Occupy DC, Occupy Charlotte, etc. for months now. The newest venture in the planning stage is “Occupy Chicago” (to coincide with the G8 and NATO meetings scheduled for May 2012).
Bob Parks, at Canada Free Press states:
Uh, oh they are going tactical:
Tactical Briefing #25
And if they don’t listen … if they ignore us and put our demands on the back burner like they’ve done so many times before … then, with Gandhian ferocity, we’ll flashmob the streets, shut down stock exchanges, campuses, corporate headquarters and cities across the globe … we’ll make the price of doing business as usual too much to bear.
It looks like the AdBusters-Occupy brats are pleading for relevance and the police have been warned (threatened) in advance. Should be a fun May, the Chicago way.
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If you haven’t read this YET, I suggest you click the link and educate yourselves. One of the authors is non other than Van Jones.
RECLAIMING REVOLUTION
(pdf format)
Note: Van Jones named his son Cabral after the Revolutionary Amilcar Cabral; an African Revolutionary leader. I guess Che would be too obvious.
Discover the Networks has great information relating to Van Jones and S.T.O.R.M
Excerpts:
Amid mounting controversy over his radical past, Jones resigned his post as “green jobs czar” on Labor Day weekend 2009, claiming that he had been victimized by “a vicious smear campaign.”
Jones was later asked whether President Obama had been aware of Jones’ controversial history before appointing him as green jobs czar. Jones replied: “I was fully candid, I mean, about my past, about the ideas that I explored….”
In April 2010, Jones said the following about the nature of the Obama administration: “You look at the New Party, which is now the Working Families Party, the idea of a new politics — that you could actually in this country bring together labor and civil rights and feminists, etc., and actually make a difference … is the basic framework for what just took over the White House.”
Jones serves as one of 20 advisers to the Presidential Climate Action Project (based at the University of Colorado), which makes climate-policy recommendations for the Obama White House. He has been praised for his environmental work by such notable leftists as Thomas Friedman, Tom Daschle, Nancy Pelosi, Arianna Huffington, Ben Jealous, Laurie David, Gavin Newsom, Carl Pope, Tavis Smiley, Fred Krupp, and John Podesta.
In June 2011, Jones formally launched the American Dream Movement. He also serves, along with Gina Glantz and others, as a board of trustees member for the public-policy organization Demos.
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In the early 2000s, STORM was active in the anti-Iraq War demonstrations organized by International ANSWER.
In December 2002, STORM dissolved due to internal tensions and rivalries. In 2004, a number of STORM’s former members collaborated to publish a booklet titledReclaiming Revolution, wherein they recapped their own organizational history — in hopes that their reflections and observations would help “move the Left forward.”
STORM’s most notable leader was Van Jones, who would go on to become President Barack Obama‘s “Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation” in 2009.
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The Leftists were behind Obama’s 2002 Anti-War speech (conveniently scrubbed from those wanting to know).
Chicago New Party and Barack Obama
In Chicago, the New Party consisted mainly of ACORN, DSA, SEIU (Service Employees International Union) and the Committees of Correspondence (CoC). A breakaway from the Communist Party USA, CoC worked closely with DSA and many activists were members of both organizations.
The Chicago New Party began to get organized[8]in January 1995.
On Saturday, January 14, the New Party in Chicago took another step in its effort to establish itself as a political force by holding a major outreach meeting directed at Chicago’s Left. About 100 people, with sizable delegations from DSA and CoC among others, heard Bruce Colburn and Elaine Bernard preach the gospel of the New Party…
Elaine Bernard, a Labor Studies lecturer at Harvard, is a prominent DSA member. Bruce Colburn was an officer of the Milwaukee Central Labor Council and the Chair of the local New Party affiliate in Milwaukee.
The meeting was held at the meeting hall of SEIU Local 880, a local that is tackling the extremely difficult task of organizing home health care workers in Illinois. SEIU Local 880 and ACORN share office space.
DSA and their CoC allies saw the New Party as a vehicle for major political change-to both move the Democratic Party leftward and to eventually prepare the ground for an entirely new third party.
At a meeting attended[9]by Chicago DSA members Kurt Anderson and Bob Roman, plus CoC members Ronelle Mustin and Sandy Patrinos, CoC leader Carl Davidson explained the New Party’s role in first working through the Democratic Party then eventually replacing it.
- On January 27th approximately 45 people attended the Chicago DSA and Chicago CoC organized public form at the ACTWU hall on Ashland Ave. Each organization had two representatives on the panel to present their particular elections ’94 post-mortem perspectives. Chicago DSA was represented by Co-Chair, Kurt Anderson and Political Education Officer, Bob Roman. CoC was represented by Carl Davidson, who is a member of CoC’s National Coordinating Committee and Ronelle Mustin, an activist from the 22nd ward. The event was chaired by Sandi Patrinos, chair of Chicago CoC…
- Carl Davidson wanted to focus on “voting patterns.” There were essentially two winners. Naturally the Republicans, but so were the most left in Congress such as the Progressive and Black Caucuses. The latter were re-elected while the neo-liberal and conservative Democrats were voted out. More importantly this election was the de facto defeat of the elitist Democratic Leadership Council who do not care about the poor or Labor.
- To win elections, Davidson emphasized that there are two necessary coinciding factors. First, a passive majority… Secondly, a militant minority, which came to fruition for the Right wing with the Christian Coalition…
- Hence Davidson emphasized that in this historical period the Left’s strategy must be electoral politics not revolution. Consequently the Left must galvanize the “majority” – the working class and poor… Moreover the democratic left needs get active in the New Party which has won 20 of 30 local elections. Thus a short-term strategy of working with the Democratic Party and in the long-term work with the New Party.
Barack Obama clearly saw the potential of the New Party, because he was soon seeking their support[10]-alongside Michael Chandler, Willie Delgado, Miguel del Valle, Alice Palmer, Sonya Sanchez and Jesse Garcia.
- About 50 activists attended the Chicago New Party membership meeting in July. The purpose of the meeting was to update members on local activities and to hear appeals for NP support from four potential political candidates. The NP is being very active in organization building and politics…
- The political entourage included Alderman Michael Chandler, William Delgado, chief of staff for State Rep Miguel del Valle, and spokespersons for State Sen. Alice Palmer, Sonya Sanchez, chief of staff for State Sen. Jesse Garcia, who is running for State Rep in Garcia’s District; and Barack Obama, chief of staff for State Sen. Alice Palmer. Obama is running for Palmer’s vacant seat…
- Although ACORN and SEIU Local 880 were the harbingers of the NP there was a strong presence of CoC and DSA (15% DSA)… Four political candidates were “there” seeking NP support.
Barack Obama won the 1996 election, by using legal technicalities to get all his opponents disqualified-but he still encouraged New Party volunteers to join[11]his task forces on Voter Education and Voter Registration.
- The NP’s ’96 Political Program has been enormously successful with 3 of 4 endorsed candidates winning electoral primaries. All four candidates attended the NP membership meeting on April 11th to express their gratitude.
- Danny Davis, winner in the 7th Congressional District, invited NPers to join his Campaign Steering Committee.
- Patricia Martin, who won the race for Judge in 7th Subcircuit Court, explained that due to the NP she was able to network and get experienced advice from progressives like Davis.
- Barack Obama, victor in the 13th State Senate District, encouraged NPers to join in his task forces on Voter Education and Voter Registration…
LINK
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Brief History Of Chicago’s 1968 Democratic Convention
(Sources: “Miami and the Siege of Chicago” by Norman Mailer, Facts on File, CQ’s Guide to U.S. Elections)
The Riots
Outside the official convention proceedings, anti-war demonstrators clashed with 11,900 Chicago police, 7500 Army troops, 7500 Illinois National Guardsmen and 1000 Secret Service agents over 5 days.
The violence centered on two things: the Chicago police forcing protesters out of areas where they were not permitted to be; and protesters clashing with police, and their reinforcements, as they tried to march to the convention site.
The violence began Sunday August 25th. Anti-war leaders had tried to get permits from the city to sleep in Lincoln park and to demonstrate outside of the convention site. Those permit requests were denied, although the city did offer them a permit to protest miles away from the Amphitheater But the protesters were undeterred. When the park was officially closed, Chicago police bombed protesters with tear gas and moved in with billy-clubs to forcibly remove them from the park. Along with the many injuries to anti-war protesters, 17 reporters were attacked by police (including Hal Bruno, who was then a reporter for Newsweek and is now political director for ABC.) Throughout the convention, police would see the press as the enemy. Subsequent battles between police and protesters occurred nightly in Lincoln Park and Grant Park.
Also present that first night and throughout the convention were the famous Beat artists Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs and French poet Jean Genet. Most events and protests featured speeches from Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin.
The worst day of protesting was Wednesday, and was dubbed the “Battle of Michigan Avenue.” Protesters were stopped in their march to the convention site and the media recorded graphic violence on the part of the Chicago police. Many innocent bystanders, reporters and doctors offering medical help were severely beaten by the police. Many hotels where the delegates were staying were affected by the riots. Fumes from the tear gas used by the police and “stink bombs” thrown by the protesters drifted into the buildings. (One of those affected was the Conrad Hilton, the headquarters for the Democratic party and the press.)
Another major clash occurred on the final day of the convention, when protesters tried once again to reach the convention center. They were twice turned away. A barricade was put up around the convention center to prevent anyone without credentials from entering the facility.
When the convention was finally over, the Chicago police reported 589 arrests had been made and 119 police and 100 protesters were injured. The riots, which were widely covered by the media, led to a government funded study to determine the cause of the violence. The study was led by Daniel Walker, a Democratic businessman from Illinois who would ran successfully for governor in Illinois in 1972. The study placed most of the blame on the Chicago police. Mayor Daley disagreed with the report and issued the Chicago police a pay raise.
The Aftermath
On March 20, 1969, a Chicago grand jury indicted eight police officers and eight civilians in connection with the disorders during the Democratic convention. The eight civilians, dubbed the “Chicago 8,” were the first persons to be charged under provisions of the 1968 Civil Rights act, which made it a federal crime to cross state lines to incite a riot. David Dellinger was chairman of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. Rennie Davis and Tom Hayden were members of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin were leaders of the Youth International Party (YIPPIES). Lee Weiner was a research assistant at Northwestern University. John Froines was a professor at the University at the University of Oregon. Bobby Seale was a founder of the Black Panthers.
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Demos, one of the nations premier leftist “think tanks” has close ties to Democratic Socialists of America, and, until the organization morphed into a vast array of semi-disguised clones, ACORN.
Interestingly Demos’ founding 1999-2000 Board of Trustees, included an obscure Illinois State Senator named Barack Obama.
A few years later an equally obscure San Francisco communist radical named Van Jones would also join the Demos Board.Small world isn’t it?
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| Demos 2009 report “Flying blind”, page 3 |
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