Democratic National Convention Protests

[Paul n Shelley]

The United Campaign of Southern California G/GPUSA and the Peace and
Freedom Party invite you to attend
this important planning event for a People's Convention in Los Angeles
Aug. 11-13. For more information call
the United Campaig co-chairs Casey Peters of P&FP (213) 385-3786 or
Krista Lieberg-Wong of Green Party of Calif.
and GPUSA (626) 576-2140.

From:   kbishop1 at mediaone.net (Kevin Bishop)

Following the victories in Seattle at the WTO, a group of organizations
has come together to discuss actions around
the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles this summer. Initiated
by the Fair Trade Network, the discussion
has centered so far around getting together a broad and representative
who could agree on a general set of
principles and issue a call for a coalition to organize massive
demonstrations in L.A. in August.

Out of this and meetings of the Independent Progressive Politics
Network, has also come a related call for a
People's National Convention the weekend prior to the DNC which may well
set the political tone for the protests.

These events will be a great opportunity for the progressive community
to organize, grow and make its voice heard.

The L.A. Committee of Correspondence is holding its meeting this comming
Sunday, February 27, to discuss and plan its
role in planning the protests and to organize its work around this for
the coming months. We invite any and all
activists and groups to attend. Perhaps we may even be able to come
together as a sort of left united front
within the broader coalition. Our meeting will be held at the Southern
California Library at 6120 S. Vermont Avenue at
12 Noon.

However, even more important is the next meeting of the fledgling
coalition itself. The location has not yet been
arranged, but the date and time are Thursday, March 16 at 7:00 p.m. You
may contact me at home at 310-397-6801 or by
e-mail at redleft at mediaone.net.
 
Below is an article from the February issue of the L.A. CoC ORGANIZER:

Democratic National Convention - Los Angeles - August 14-17, 2000:

Bringing the 'Battle' Home

CoC February Meeting to Discuss and Plan Our Role in Protests

The "Battle of Seattle" proved that a unified left, in a coalition of
varied forces of common interest, can vitally
impact both the ability of the ruling class to conduct business as usual
and the hearts, minds and imaginations of
the American people.

Now the Democratic Party business agents of the bourgeoisie plan to meet
here to lay out their agenda for the future and
select someone to lead them in accomplishing it.

While we may not be able to shut them down, as the Seattle protesters
succeeded in doing to the World Trade
Organization, we can put them on notice that a new consciousness is
growing in the American people-that they
cannot simply continue to conduct 'business as usual' without
consequences.

Conservative estimates are that we should be able to put over 20,000
people in the streets of Los Angeles.

The L.A. Committee of Correspondence, as an organizationthat promotes
left unity as the key to making truly
fundamental change in this country, has a vital role to play in this
process. Now is the time for all members to come to
aid of their organization in carrying out the vast amounts of work to be
done in the coming months.

The L.A. CoC Coordinating Committee has decided that it would recommend
to the membership that we take this up as
our sole task in the period from now to September. This will be
discussed and voted on at the February meeting.

Initiated by a call from the Fair Trade Network, meetings have already
been taking place to discuss how to organize
these protests so that they are representative, militant and effective.
We have been involved in these meetings and are
working actively on outreach to broaden the proposed coalition to
involve all communities possible in Los Angeles
and the nation in leadership, planning and preparation.

The National People's Convention

In conjunction with the protests there is a call going out for a
National People's Convention to take place the weekend
prior to the DNC. It is hoped that this Convention will be able to adopt
a political agenda and platform for the
general demonstrations that are planned.

Please be at our February 27 meeting to claim your role in these
historic events.

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