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.
- SDS Call to Action: Endorse and Participate in Shutting Down the RNC
- Why We’re Organizing against the RNC
* 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.