Over the next several months, ACTIVATE (Grand Rapids SDS) will be devoting a considerable amount of our time and resources towards organizing opposition to the 2008 Republican National Convention (RNC) and Democratic National Convention (DNC).* We believe that the political conventions–the DNC in Denver and the RNC in the Twin Cities–offer tremendous opportunities to not only succeed on the national level, but also to strengthen our organizing here in Grand Rapids. Our resistance to the conventions grows out of our antiwar work over the past two years and our understanding that electoral politics will not bring about the systemic changes needed to prevent future wars and dismantle the systems of oppression (racism, patriarchy, capitalism) that keep us in chains (For more on our view of electoral politics, see: http://www.activategr.org/statements/2008-elections/).

ACTIVATE (Grand Rapids SDS) has already started to organize against the political conventions. We have endorsed the direct action strategies for both conventions and have attended various meetings planning for the conventions across the country. We have developed and delivered a presentation explaining the plans for the conventions. We have circulated a call to action within Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) calling for participation in the direct action effort to shut down the RNC and have participated in organizing against the RNC within SDS. We have also been involved in organizing with activists around Michigan as a part of Unconventional Michigan. However, this is only a start–in the coming weeks we hope to announce a variety of additional efforts including workshops, movie showings, and other such efforts.

We know that many people in Grand Rapids–perhaps the majority–will be unable to get to the conventions and understand that at first glance, organizing against the conventions may seem as if it moves us away from our local work opposing the Iraq War. However, we believe that organizing against the conventions nicely compliments our work here in Grand Rapids. By holding trainings on the various skills that people need to participate in the protests–street tactics, legal, etc–we can learn skills that have a usefulness far beyond the political conventions and that can plug into a variety of organizing efforts, including antiwar organizing. In hosting presentations about the plans for crashing the conventions, we aim to initiate conversations whereby we reflect on what has worked for the left both nationally and here in Grand Rapids over the past several years. We also will challenge and confront political candidates–of any party–when they visit Grand Rapids during the campaign season. Finally, for our own group–organizing around the political conventions is fostering connections with groups around the country and in Michigan while helping us grow in new ways and acquire new skills.

We also view organizing against the conventions as a critical component of our commitment to challenge people to think critically about the electoral system in the United States. Either through direct experience with organizing against the Iraq War or study of past social movements, we have seen that elections are a dead end route for movements seeking systemic change. Time and time again we have seen “the left”–and the countless others who do not identify as a part of the left–put their faith into electing the “right” politicians only to see those politicians stab them in the back and betray the movements and individuals that supported them. With so many people seeking “change” this year, we believe that radicals have a unique opportunity to raise important critiques about the failings of representative democracy and capitalism.

In the Spirit of Resistance,
- ACTIVATE (Grand Rapids SDS) – http://www.activategr.org

* While much of our work will focus on getting folks out to the RNC–primarily because of the Twin Cities’ proximity to Michigan–we stand in solidarity with the groups aiming to disrupt the DNC. The Democratic Party has shown that it offers no alternative to the Republicans. We have seen the Democrats’ “oppositional” and so-called “liberal” politics–the continuation of the occupation of Iraq, NAFTA and neoliberal trade agreements, “welfare reform,” the militarization of the US-Mexico border, and 500,000 Iraqi children killed during US sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s–and know that they offer no hope.