Saturday, December 20, 2008

How one snitch could bring national media attention to your campaign

While reading the following, note how national media attention is felt by the local city council. Although the group being targeted for defamation has not been accused of a single act of disruption before the incident, and although the city council had every right to ignore the incident, and usually do (it was based on the statement of a ideologically-opposed crackpot infiltrator), national media attention informed the public and it is the public who, misinformed, would demand action... this is how political pressure is applied to destroy the reputation of a donation-based organizers' network working to achieve political action independent of the state elections.


An interview with Nick Brown from RAIM-Denver, 2008-12-20 [https://web.archive.org/web/20130108085645/http://anti-imperialism.com/2008/12/20/nick-brown-anti-imperialism-organization-and-expansion/]
MSH: Last question. What happened between you and Alex Jones?
NICK BROWN: It’s a long story, but I’ll try to keep it short. The confrontation stemmed from our work with Recreate ‘68 (R68), the main coalition that organized the anti-DNC protests in Denver. RAIM-Denver was one on the main groups working with Recreate ‘68, though much of our involvement was behind the scenes. Needless to say, RAIM-Denver’s local contributions R68’s efforts were considerable. Early on, Recreate ‘68 came under attacks in incidents ranging from anonymous threats, probable infiltration and not so covert agent provocateurs, as well as a media smear campaign to go along with it. Additionally, the were divisions within Recreate ‘68. A lot of it came down to rhetoric and the right to self defense.
In walks Jonathan Elinoff. Jonathan Elinoff at first glance seems like a hopelessly devoted “Truther.” He pretentiously came to a single R68 meeting, demanded an extravagant amount of publicity during the protests for his viewpoints and was unanimously rejected. During the course of the night he talked to a RAIMer and got ahold of a Troublemaker DVD. From this, he wrote an article claiming that we told him we were stockpiling blood and urine to throw at the pigs. He also claimed that Recreate was a front group for RAIM-Denver. The wild accusations spread from there. Unfortunately, the “stockpiling blood and urine” story stuck and was circulated word to mouth and through the internet. It even spread to mainstream national media. Using the non-violence issue as pretext, groups such as Colorado Communities for Peace and Justice, Tent State, the Colorado Green Party, Code Pink, and the International Socialist Organization split from Recreate ‘68. Unable to unite around the principle of letting the pigs kick your ass, they formed a coalition called The Alliance for Real Democracy, whose main activity was wrecking the real work being done against the DNC. They were de facto Democratic Party operatives. They ended up going to far as to host as Convention watching party and a friendly delegate meet-and-greet, among other things.
But it didn’t stop there. Alex Jones, nationally syndicated crackpot and white supremacist, invited Jonathan Elinoff, whom others in the 9-11 Truth Movement have told us is shady, on his radio show. There Jonathan embellished his claims even further, saying that we were planning violent acts and claiming that he had a tape of us telling him or someone else about it. Of course no such tape exists. Jonathan couldn’t keep his lies straight. Alex Jones however went ahead repeating Elinoff’s fabrications and instructed people to watch out for us and even video tape us. A situation was being put into place were RAIM-Denver could have been taken out before the DNC began. A similar situation was used against Anarchists prior to the RNC. More humorously, the “blood and urine” story made it to the Denver City Council. An ordinance was passed barring the possession of blood and urine with the intent to throw it at a pig. We thought it was funny at least.
During the Freedom March for Political Prisoners during the DNC, someone told me that Alex Jones was at the back of the crowd. He was hard to miss. Even before I got there he was yelling and flailing his arms around. I grabbed a bullhorn and got into a confrontation with him. I exposed his white supremacist and amerika-first world view and how his view implicitly supports the police state. A few reporters were on hand and it was noted in mainstream media outlets. Because of their lies, Jones and Elinoff are, for the most part, both looked at with hostility in the Denver activist scene. They never took responsibility for their pig behavior and they have never since mentioned RAIM-Denver.