St. Paul, MN – Even though the 2008 Republican National Convention (RNC) has been over for a year, eight Twin Cities activists are still caught up in its aftermath. The weekend before the RNC, local police led raids on the Convergence Space and the homes of members of a group calling itself the RNC Welcoming Committee. Eight Twin Cities activists (Monica Bicking , Robert Czernik, Garrett Fitzgerald, Luce Guillen-Givins, Erik Oseland, Nathanael Secor, Max Specktor and Eryn Trimmer) were arrested pre-emptively and held for the entirety of the convention. Despite these arrests and other acts of intimidation, thousands of people turned out to protest all four days of the convention and a groundswell of community support has grown surrounding the group now known as the RNC 8.

Minneapolis, MN – Activists planning protests at the Republican National Convention packed a city hall conference room here, Aug. 8, to blast a proposed ordinance that would place big restrictions on the right to demonstrate. Deb Konechne of the Welfare Rights Committee told members of the city government’s ‘Free Speech Working Group’ that the proposal was trash.

Minneapolis, MN – On Monday, Sept. 11, 125 people protested against the ‘war on terror,’ and demonstrated an act of international solidarity at Peavey Plaza in downtown Minneapolis. The demonstration was organized by the Anti-War Committee.

San Jose, CA – On June 2, members of the San Jose Japanese American community met at the Yu-Ai-Kai (Japanese American Seniors' Center). They were there to learn more about the attacks on Arab Americans, Muslims and civil liberties following Sept. 11. Susan Hayase moderated the program on behalf of the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee. In her introduction, Hayase said, “It is happening again,” and pointed the connection between the mass arrests of Japanese Americans following Pearl Harbor and the detention of Arab and Muslim Americans today.