**UPDATED MARCH 2008**

The following FAQ is for members of the Media. We hope it may answer any questions you have about the RNC Welcoming Committee, who we are, what we do, and what we believe. For more information about Anarchism and the many strains of thought that exist within it, see the Anarchist FAQ.

1. What is your media policy?

Currently, the policy we have consensed on is one of “limited real-time engagement with the media.” This means that we

• may send out press releases and update this FAQ;
• may do real-time engagement with independently owned and operated media (e.g., Indymedia, community-based radio programs, newspapers that serve local communities). Even so, each request will be reviewed individually on a case-case basis.
• will consider answering further questions submitted to rncwcmedia@riseup.net or rnc08media@riseup.net. These questions/possible answers will be brought to the full Welcoming Committee for discussion and approval at the first meeting following their submission.
• DO NOT do on-the-spot interviews;
• DO NOT answer new questions, give new answers, or agree to interviews without the approval of the full Welcoming Committee;
• DO NOT allow members of the media, acting in that capacity, to sit in on our meetings.

Our group is in constant flux, and we expect our media policy to evolve with us and the context in which we are working.

THE NCs…

2. Why the RNC? What are your goals? Is there a broader purpose to what you’re doing?

Because it’s coming here. Oh, and because as a political party which controls an enormous portion of state power, the Republicans are responsible for an enormous amount of the horror and devastation currently experienced by the world and its peoples. As for a broader purpose, yes: we want not only to ‘protest’ something, but also to continue to build a culture of liberation, where all people can be free. Most people are appalled with what the government is doing, but their dissent stops with voting for the other guy, or with cynical disengagement from the political system. Our resistance is justified, and we want our resistance to be constructive and creative.

3. What about the DNC?

We resist the politics of representation and support a vision of life where we run our own affairs, directly and without political parties. Therefore, we are also opposed to the DNC. But, the RNC happens to be coming to the Twin Cities. (See our anti-DNC Support Statement.)

4. What was the pReNC?

The pReNC, or Pre-RNC, was a national event that the Welcoming Committee held in September 2007, exactly one year in advance of the 2008 RNC. It was a weekend of workshops and skill shares culminating in a decentralized strategy session to help prepare for the 2008 RNC. We want people to know, and respect, our local culture and our cities the way we do. For people from other parts of the country, the pReNC served to as a way of getting to know our cities. You can read more in the pReNC Report Back.

5. What is the pReNC 5.3?

The pReNC 5.3 will be a one day, non-hierarchical spokes-council meeting at the beginning of May. Representatives of organized affinity groups from various parts of the nation will share strategies for resistance to the RNC in September. This event is not open to the public. Affinity groups which have agreed to heed our Call to Action and would like to be represented at the pReNC 5.3 can e-mail pReNC@riseup.net.

WHO WE ARE, WHAT WE BELIEVE…

6. Who are you? How do you operate? What do you do?

We are a group of Twin Cities residents facilitating resistance to the 2008 Republican National Convention. Fed up with our dysfunctional and oppressive social system, we are organizing for a world of justice, equality, and direct democracy. We all agree on our Points of Unity. We operate by consensus, and our activities are planned and executed collectively. As anarchists and anti-authoritarians, we’re very diverse. We’re often portrayed as mindlessly destructive but, in contrast to our critics, we recognize that the power for positive change lies directly in our hands, and not in the hands of an elite few.

7. What is consensus?

It’s a collective decision-making process for groups of diverse or like-minded people. There are many different ways to practice consensus, but the main principle is always to avoid subjecting any member of the group to a collective decision they find repellent. If one blocks (or does not support the decision being made), it should be the responsibility of all group members to come to a collective compromise that respects all opinions voiced on the issue.

8. What is anarchism?

Short answer: Democracy without government.

Longer answer: The radical notion that people ought to be allowed to control their own lives, and not each other’s. There are lots of different varieties of anarchism, but all share this basic principle that people are the best masters of their lives, and that the notion that we must be protected from each other is nothing more than Mafioso hype intended to scare us into being quiet.

One group’s vision of what anarchism really stands for can be found at the Anarchist FAQ, a useful tool for any journalist who wishes to appear to have a basic understanding of what he or she writes.

9. How would anarchism work on a large scale?

Generally, the point of anarchism is to reduce the scale of operations. Communities should have the resources and power to manage themselves, but not enough to control others. We don’t imagine one utopia replacing the current system (which isn’t working on a large scale, either) but, rather, innumerable communities adapting to their unique environments.

10. But that’s just chaos, isn’t it?

Only in the sense physics gives to the word: generative, creative, the basis of all life, a ‘hidden order.’

11. What would you do without, and don’t people need, cops and prisons?

The fact that a society needs to coerce its members into behaving and following the rules is a sign that things aren’t going so well. Real problem solving in communities doesn’t and can’t occur through authoritarian intervention. On the other hand, there are effective models of restorative justice that have been in practice for thousands of years.

12. Don’t people need money to motivate them?

We are all flawed, and we live in a system that exploits our imperfections and pits us against each other, making money necessary to motivate us towards action. Anarchism is about creating a world in which it is easier for people to be and do good. History and personal life-experience have demonstrated time and time again that people have a deep capacity for caring and empathy, and a strong tendency towards mutual aid. An historical example of mutual aid is the reaction to the crisis for the people of the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, during which ordinary people went out of their way to help others. Organizations such as FEMA and the Red Cross, people being paid to respond to the crisis, failed, while unpaid community groups, such as Common Ground, provided substantial relief.

13. How to you plan to work with other groups?

The Welcoming Committee is a coalitional group, with participant individuals rooted and working in a variety of communities. For us, our Points of Unity are our bottom line, however, to the extent that we can do so without compromising our core values, we’re willing to work with groups that don’t ascribe to our Points of Unity.

A recent result of our coalition work produced the “St. Paul Principles”, tactical and strategic principles which have been agreed to by a broad spectrum of groups planning to resist the 2008 RNC. The principles are:

1. Our solidarity will be based on respect for a diversity of tactics and the plans of other groups.

2. The actions and tactics used will be organized to maintain a separation of time or space.

3. Any debates or criticisms will stay internal to the movement, avoiding any public or media denunciations of fellow activists and events.

4. We oppose any state repression of dissent, including surveillance, infiltration, disruption and violence. We agree not to assist law enforcement actions against activists and others.

You can read more about the St. Paul Principles here.

The Welcoming Committee expects to contribute to a broad base of resistance, but we don’t feel the need to control or direct everything that goes on in the lead up to, during, or after the RNC.

14. Do you intend to apply for a permit to protest?

The Welcoming Committee is NOT planning specific actions. The WC’s role is to serve as a clearinghouse for groups that have a plan for actions. That said, we do not intend to allow the state to dictate the form of our resistance. Requiring permits simply to exercise one’s freedom of speech is a tactic used by the state in an attempt to create divisions by labeling some protesters “good” and others “bad.” The Welcoming Committee is in solidarity with all groups preparing to resist the RNC, whether they seek to obtain a permit or not.

15. How do you keep a reporter busy for hours?

See frequently asked question #23.

16. What are you gonna do after the revolution?

Grow a garden along a stream and make love until harvest…

THE QUESTIONS WE’RE TIRED OF ANSWERING

17. Isn’t anarchist organizing a contradiction in terms?

Nope. We’re not against organization; we’re against hierarchy and coercion. We’re anarchists, we’re organizing, and you can’t prove we don’t exist. Deal with it.

18. (Insert question about rock throwing/smashing windows)

As the Welcoming Committee, we refuse to condemn the defense of individuals, communities, and the Earth. Most violence comes from the state. When you come to St. Paul in September, look around: we won’t be the ones with nightsticks, guns, and Tasers.

19. What’s your stance on violence and property destruction?

Destruction bad. Property bad. The concept of property is used to deprive people of the basic necessities of life. We live here, and want to live in beautiful, clean environments, just like you. We also believe we have a right to defend ourselves, and if the tools used to attack us include the tools of property, it’s not exempt.

20. Will Black Bloc, Inc. be at the RNC?

Black blocking is a tactic, not a group, association, or corporation. Black blockers dress alike in order to minimize the targeting of individuals. Insofar as they further our struggles for autonomy, peace, and liberation, we stand for black bloc tactics.

21. Why black?

Black ain’t the absence of color, it’s the combination of all of them. Also, it matches everything and doesn’t show dirt and grime. For Johnny Cash’s take on the Black question see here.

22. So you’re all white kids, from middle and upper-middle class backgrounds, right?

Nope. There is a mixture of class backgrounds in the RNC-WC; some of us are quite proud of our working-class families. Similarly, we’re not all kids — some of us have been active anarchists for more than 30 years.

We support and share a movement with the anti-authoritarian struggles of people of color around the world, and we learn from them. The Zapatistas in Chiapas; African-Americans trying to reclaim New Orleans against the wealthy interests who would steal it away from them; Argentinean workers who occupy and reopen abandoned factories as worker-run enterprises; striking teachers and their supporters in Oaxaca; the on-going struggle of MOVE members in Philadelphia – all inspire us and give us a lot to think about. While not always anarchist in name, these movements and others throughout history, across racial and geographic boundaries, manifest the principles we strive to enact. Like others, we work for a world in which ordinary people have more say in their own lives; where wealth is distributed equally; where democracy is not reduced to voting for the lesser of two evils every four years; where people are not bombed and robbed by their own governments; and where no one thinks that skin color says anything about the inherent worth of a person. Anti-racism is very much within our core philosophy.

At this time, the group consists primarily of people with white-skin privilege. We believe that we can, and certainly want to be, a strongly anti-racist group nonetheless. We intend to interact with communities of color in the same way that we intend to interact with all communities devastated by capitalism, imperialism and the state - with respect, empathy and solidarity. We have all been socialized into a racist system; racism exists everywhere in this society, even within radical circles, and we realize that claiming the title of “anarchist” doesn’t automatically change that. To be genuinely anti-authoritarian means to resist domination and subjugation through race as much as through class, gender, sexuality, or any of the identities and intersections thereof exploited by our oppressors as a means of attempting to divide our movement.

23. What’s the best way to occupy a reporter for hours on end?

See frequently asked question #15.

24. Are you all (angry young men from the suburbs/dirty dreadlocked hippies/college kids)?

No. (See: Points of Unity and #22)

25. Do you hate America?

If by America you mean the land that we share and the diversity of beings who inhabit the land, then we love America. If you mean the United States government, currently waging yet another murderous and unethical war, or American corporations, perpetuating worker and environmental exploitation, class divisions and poverty both here and abroad, then, yes.

26. Are you terrorists?

No. If terrorism is the use of fear and violence to compel obedience, then we are opposed to terrorism, since it is obviously the dominant tactic of the State. Police brutality, State warfare, the prison industrial complex, and the militarization of the world are all attempts to control us through the use of violence and the fear it creates. We’re against all of that.

27. We know what you’re against, but what are you for?

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Healthy people in a healthy world. (See FAQ #8, What is Anarchism?)