2012 RNC convention protesters get boost from Minneapolis organizers

Local organizers who staged protests against the Republican National Convention in St. Paul in 2008, have travelled to Tampa, Fla. to offer protesters support for their own demonstrations at next month's GOP conventioin.

July 16, 2012 at 8:44PM

Some of the Minneapolis protest leaders who organized demonstrations at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul in 2008 are helping their activist counterparts in Tampa, Fla. to plan similar demonstrations at the GOP convention in August.

Mick Kelly, Tracy Molm, and Angel Buechner, all from Minneapolis, showed up in Tampa at an organizing conference last month to offer advice and encouragement to the Tampa group which is planning a round of demonstrations, according to an activist publication, FightBack News.

The publication notes that there's plans for a march in Tampa on Aug. 27, and quotes Kelly calling for "an all-out national mobilization for the opening day of the RNC." The protesters have a leaflet that says, "Say NO to the Republican Agenda! Money for human needs, not for corporate greed!"

Protests outside the major parties' national conventions have become almost automatic In recent decades. Demonstrations are planned in the first week of September at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., sponsored by the Coalition to March on Wall Street South. Among a host of demands, a poster urges, "money for education, health care, housing and all human needs, not for war and incarceration."

Several Minnesota activist groups have endorsed the upcoming demonstrations in both cities.

about the writer

about the writer

Randy Furst

Reporter

Randy Furst is a Minnesota Star Tribune general assignment reporter covering a range of issues, including tenants rights, minority rights, American Indian rights and police accountability.

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