Kelli Refer, 22, of Littleton, and other organizers discuss an offer to abandon
protests if the city spends $50 million on community programs. ---- In the
afternoon of Monday, July 28, members of Unconventional Denver held a press
conference on the steps of the City and County building in Denver to make their
priorities clear and to contrast those priorities with those of the DNC and
city. In a prepared statement, Ben Yager of UD announced the groups offer to
call off their planned protests against the DNC if the $50 million federal grant
that will be used for new police weapons and a massive security operation at the
DNC is redirected into local communities for things like healthcare, schools,
etc. Members of Unconventional Denver understand this is a far fetched offer and
will continue preparing for the demonstrations during the final week in
August. However, they felt making this offer was an important act that
demonstrated their committment towards working for real change and
meeting people's basic needs while exposing the undemocratic and
oppressive nature of the DNC. The full text of the statement made during
the press conference is below. Unconventional Denver is the local
organizing body of a national network of anarchists mobilizing in
opposition to both the DNC in Denver and the RNC in St. Paul.

07.27.08: Statement from Unconventional Denver

Unconventional Denver, an anarchist and anti-authoritarian group
organizing direct action to confront the Democratic National Convention
this August, is here today on the steps of the City and County Building
to make an offer. We are here to make clear our vision of a world where
the needs of people and the earth guide our decisions and where
democracy is direct and face to face. The heavily policed, corporate
funded political spectacle coming to Denver at the end of August is yet
another jarring example of how the government and its wealthy backers'
priorities are exactly the opposite.

We are here however, to give the City of Denver, Federal Government, and
the DNC a chance to prove us wrong.

In a few minutes, the City Council of Denver will be meeting in the
building behind us to discuss an emergency ordinance aimed at
restricting what demonstrators can carry during the DNC and beyond. The
peddlers of these enhanced police powers continue to insist that people
looking to exercise free speech and stand up against a corrupt system
will allegedly be carrying disgusting weapons such as "super soakers
filled with urine."

Anyone who takes a close look at the recent history of mass street
protests in this country knows that there is no record of this ever
happening. In fact, if you were to look back on protests, including
those in Denver itself, you would not see images of fecal covered
protesters terrorizing the public. What you would see instead are police
forces again and again acting above their own laws. Police minimize and
marginalize free speech through protest pens, unnecessary force and
unjustified arrests, and through ridiculous, unnecessary ordinances such
as the one before council today. Major court cases have come from New
York, Seattle, Miami, Washington D.C. and other cities where the courts
have found that the police intentionally brutalize protesters to silence
their dissent and have been forced to pay out millions in damages and
compensation to protesters they have systematically targeted. This
exemplifes that the violence and lawlessness was not coming from
protesters, but in fact the government itself.

And so in a way, local government officials and the corporate media are
right about the coming violence that will descend on Denver. It is true
that there is a group mobilizing forces from across the country and
amassing exotic weapons they refuse to disclose to the public. They have
a track record of inflicting violence on unarmed civilians and illegally
spying on citizens working towards positive change. They even dress in
black -- they are the Denver Police and the various local, state and
federal forces that will be transforming Denver into a miniature version
of the occupation of Iraq when the DNC comes to town.

This invasion has been given one of the largest single allotments of any
department in Denver history. The DNC comes to Denver with a $50 million
dollars security budget -- money that was tacked on to funding for the
War in Iraq and approved by the Democrats. And like the war abroad, the
militarization of Denver comes at an equally high cost. Imagine the
Denver Public Schools receiving $50 million dollars for a week-long
event. That money alone would be enough to re-open six of the schools
closed last year. Or what if that money were invested in the healthcare
program? It would provide 18,986 uninsured children with a year's worth
of healthcare they deserve. This would be a small but important step

towards taking care of the more than 160,000 children in the Denver area
without healthcare coverage. And yet, as anarchists, we know that this
will never happen. Addressing the real needs of the people is not in the
interest of the government or its wealthy backers.

There will be no democracy within the DNC. There will be no one
sincerely addressing the grave problems the average person in the United
States faces on a daily basis. There will only be a scripted political
performance guarded by walls of heavily armed riot police as party
insiders and corporate lobbyists live it up behind closed doors.

We, Unconventional Denver, have a different vision of what democracy is.
We see democracy as direct; where decisions are made by those most
affected, not those with the most money; where democracy penetrates
every aspect of our lives; where the workers rather than CEOs decide how
their workplace should look; where instead of incarcerating more people
than any other country, we meet the needs of our children and raise them
in loving communities. We seek a world where the land is seen for what
it is, the source of life, not a piece of property to be exploited for
profit. The government will never bring these visions to fruition; in
fact it stands in the way of it. It will take us as people, organizing
on a grassroots level to make the change we wish to see.

This is why we are taking to the streets. Enough is enough. This
government does not care about meeting people's needs. AT&T, Lockheed
Martin, Coca Cola -- Obama will serve the same big money that all
politicians end up serving. As anarchists working towards dismantling
this corrupt political system of violence and corporate greed, we are
not going to allow this spectacle to go uninterrupted --

unless the City of Denver, the Federal Government and the Democratic
Party can prove us wrong.

We have watched Obama ride a wave of political momentum based on a vague
rhetoric of hope and change all the way here to Denver. We however, are
demanding that real change be implemented immediately. If the Democrats
want to show they are sincere and are going to depart from the sad state
of politics in this country then they should start immediately. ... and
use the convention as an example.

So we come here today with this offer: If the Democrats and their allies
in the city government of Denver can show their good faith ... can show
they are immediately working for real positive change by using their 50
million dollar federal grant for something better than crushing
democracy then we will change our plans. If they are willing to do this,
then Unconventional Denver and hundreds of anarchists coming to town
will sit this one out. We anarchists are willing to call off all of our
protests, if the democrats are willing to call off their occupation of
Denver and re-invest their police budget toward real community security.

New elementary schools; healthcare for the uninsured; providing clean,
renewable energy to the city -- 50 million dollars could do all of this.
If this money is used to concretely demonstrate that meeting people's
needs will be the top priority of the Democratic Party and the City of
Denver instead of protecting the robber barons of today, we will spend
the last week of August with our friends and family continuing our work
of furthering our communities instead of direct action confronting the
Democratic National Convention.

Otherwise... . we'll see you in the streets.