Some folks from the NorthEast Anarchist Network (NEAN) came to the Twin Cities this weekend and delivered the below endorsement of the WC on behalf of their group:

To the RNC-Welcoming Committee:

We are the NorthEast Anarchist Network, and we have reached consensus regarding endorsement of your public Call to Action.

This new year of 2008 will soon show itself to be a critical time for everyone in the U.S., radical, liberal, and otherwise. As the “open elections” draw nearer and the usual power struggles of politics, capital, and influence further alienate the “average” citizen, it will become critical for us, those who are prepared to act and express our beliefs in an effective manner, to work together to achieve the critical goals of wresting power back from the broken, skewed system that currently has control of the future of this country. We believe it is time for us to take the initiative and show those in positions of power and political privilege that we are not willing to allow “them” to continue dictating the course of our lives from the safety of their exclusive enclaves of electoral politics.

There are countless ways we can resist the current course of this country, and your call to action is a fantastic starting point for the RNC events next fall. Our Network is prepared to help affiliated and interested groups involve themselves in many ways; by plugging into the blockades and autonomous spaces you have proposed, by providing groups with the information they will need to be safe and effective while contributing to the overall strategy, and by sending legal, medical, and logistical specialists and support of all kinds to the Twin Cities. We are also sending several different groups to the Twin Cities over the coming weeks and months to liaise with your group and lay the groundwork for a mutually beneficial, cooperative relationship between us so that we can hit the ground running when the convention finally rolls around in the fall. NEAN involvement is going far beyond simply plugging ourselves into the events during the RNC.

Members of our Network have launched a regional Unconventional Action Network group in New York (UpstateUnconventionalAction(a)gmail.com), and we have put together planning and informational meetings in different cities in our region. As we know all too well, no matter how effective our actions and events are, we will ultimately fail if we neglect to reach out to the greater populace, those who don’t consider themselves “radicalized” or “anarchist”. It is only through a true, horizontal social movement that we will see lasting change and success. Over the past few months we have been constructing an informational campaign designed to discredit electoral politics and two-party elections by educating people about what the parties represent (and who they don’t represent!) and why the last two national elections failed to represent those who are most affected. This “anti-election campaign” aims to disrupt the scripted working of the coming elections by showing people that, in a national election, their votes don’t matter, and that the system will appoint whomever will best represent the interests of capital, not the needs of the people. This campaign will be kicking off within a few weeks. At our last general assembly, members of our Network proposed and created a “traveling skillshare” project. This working group aims to amplify our ability to share skills and knowledge by allowing interested groups to choose skillshares and workshops off of a “menu”, and request presentations in their local area. This project will give those who may not have access to the more centrally located skillshare presentations the ability to learn and pass on relevant, critical information and hard-to-learn skills. We hope that these projects, as well as the outreach and cooperation that is organically created by our Network, will both help create an atmosphere of momentum before the convention, as well as sustaining that momentum long after the convention is over.

Between the pending NEAN liaison trip to the Twin Cities and the multiple follow-up trips by our smaller groups and collectives, we are hoping to create a tight, cooperative relationship between our Network and the Welcoming Committee. We stand in solidarity with you and are willing to offer assistance of any kind to help make the RNC events this coming fall as effective as possible.

Take care, stay safe, and keep up the hard work; August and September are much closer than they seem!

With Love & Solidarity-

-the NorthEast Anarchist Network
-http://neanarchist.net/

ps:

Who we are:

The idea for a NorthEast Anarchist Network started in Boston, where anarchists from across the NorthEast and Mid-Atlantic regions were invited to gather in February 2007 to decide if and how to work with one another. Four subsequent gatherings have been held in Amherst, Syracuse and New York City where, slowly but surely, the dreams and ambitions of scores of anti-authoritarians have been translating into concrete, horizontal structures through which to work together and connect to each other’s struggles.

The process of creating this Network has connected many previously unconnected groups and individuals and has been a catalyst for the formation of new groups. We have reason to be optimistic about the future of this Network and we wholeheartedly welcome anyone sympathetic with our goals to be a part of it.

Purpose of the NorthEast Anarchist Network:

We are a regional, horizontal, organizing Network in the NorthEast, striving to link those committed to anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, and anti-oppressive struggles.

We recognize that the anarchist movement has a diversity of perspectives and priorities. We seek to nurture solidarity and mutual aid amongst all participants of the Network, especially in the face of repression.

With recognition and respect for existing organizations, Networks, and federations engaged in these struggles, we have created a Network, not to replace any of them but to connect all of them, not as an end in itself but as a process and a means to pursue the following collective aims:

1. To strengthen our mutual aid across the NorthEast; to forge the relationships, make the connections, and share the resources we need to sustain this mutual aid.

2. To open up lines of communication and coordination among groups active in the NorthEast and to facilitate the production of propaganda and educational programs.

3. To link up our resistance to and confrontation with the local points in global systems of oppression and destruction, and ultimately, to lend support to local struggles whenever and wherever needed.

4. To help each other develop working, sustainable models of autonomy, solidarity, and popular power, and to plant the seeds of the new world in the shell of the old.

5. To build relationships with communities and practice solidarity by actively recognizing the leadership and organized resistance of
communities directly affected.

6. To support the struggles of working-class people and the solidarity of labor, advance awareness of class, and support the intersecting struggles of all oppressed peoples.

7. To defend planet Earth and all its oppressed inhabitants from those who would exploit and destroy it, for profit and empire, to the detriment of all who live here.