The Ruckus Society, a leftist organization that advocates violence, destruction of property, and other "direct action" to promote what they laughably call "progressive politics" will be in attendance at the Republican convention this week to do their thing. Lowell Ponte's article at FPM gets into who they are, and how the Teresa Heinz Kerry-controlled foundation helps to fund them. In fact, one Ruckus-trained activist is actually a key member of the Kerry-Edwards campaign team:
At the 2000 Republican Convention in Philadelphia, Ruckus-trained leftists planned to bring the city to a halt with rioting. Well-prepared police stopped them, and in the process seized improvised weapons, gasoline-soaked rags, and piano wire that the protestors intended to string across streets to trip police horses. In the melee 23 police cars were damaged and 15 officers were injured.....One such leftwing activist is Zack Exley, who was trained by and has worked as a “workshop facilitator” for The Ruckus Society.
Since April 2004 Exley has been the Director of Online Communications and Online Organizing for the John Kerry-John Edwards 2004 presidential campaign organization. Are Senator Kerry (and the Secret Service agents who protect him) aware of Exley’s training with and for this law-breaking violent anarchist group, and of its links to members of domestic terrorist organizations?...
Can Senator Kerry be trusted to fight terrorism if he knowingly employs as one of his highest campaign staffers an extremist who has been involved with the Ruckus Society, whose leader was arrested for alleged activities involved with trying to disrupt the 2000 Republican National Convention, and that has trained radicals planning to disrupt the 2004 Republican National Convention?
A companion piece at Front Page on the Looney Left's planned violence and destruction for the GOP Convention, identifies Jamie Moran, founder of the "RNC Not Welcome" website, as one of the ringleaders of the left's attempt to silence voices with which they don't agree.
Moran has made it clear it is violence he intends to bring to the Big Apple. Moran was even more forthcoming in the Guardian. “We want to make their stay here is miserable as possible,” he told the British paper. “I'd like to see all the Republican events -- teas, backslapping lunches -- disrupted. I'd like to see corporations involved in the Iraq reconstruction get targeted -- anything from occupation to property destruction.” (Emphasis added.)Moran's group promises to “liberate” New York City from Republicans.
In the New York Times, the world's most influential newspaper, he branded all police precautions about the protests as “fear mongering.” But in the same article, Moran praised the success of the violent 1999 WTO protests in Seattle, boasting that “direct action gets the goods.” Perhaps that gives a hint as to what he has planned.While it is frightening enough that such people want to incite an internal communist insurrection, one can only imagine the sort of “direct action” plans they intend to use in New York to help bring this about. Already, the FBI has warned that some activist websites are listing Molotov cocktails, slingshots and bolt cutters as “offensive weapons” protestors should bring with them to the RNC.
Oh yes, they also plan to bring marbles to throw in the path of police horses in an attempt to injure the horses and their police riders. At least some of these groups are honest about their goals and their intended methods:
One of the most hyped events at the protest will be a conference entitled, "Life After Capitalism" which seeks, "to bring together and give voice to the (non-sectarian) anti-capitalist left in the United States." The group publicly states on its website that these protests intend to send a message far beyond the 2004 election: "What we face are institutional problems, problems which will only be challenged and ultimately overcome by imaginative and broad based social movements - not ballot boxes."
Is it okay for us to question their patriotism now?
Posted by dan at August 27, 2004 03:16 PM