Posted on 08/21/2005 10:39:30 AM PDT by Callahan
On Saturday the 20th, members of the International Socialist Orgnization (ISO) were thrown out of the new Camp Casey site by Crawford law enforcement personnel at the request of protest organizers...
Here's the deal from a DU eyewitness. The ISO set up a table under the new "Camp Two" tent (which is huge) and loaded it with copies of Socialist Worker and Howard Zinn books. They then started peddling their stuff and handing out flyers to advertise the socialist-leaning anti-war protest in DC on September 24. They were eager, if perhaps a little too aggressive in sales, and I was indeed considering buying one of the Zinn books anyway.
Before I could head back to the booth to actually puchase anything, one of the ISO volunteers jumped on a table and announced to everyone that they were being arrested. Sure enough, there were two or three policemen at the ISO table, and some organizers from Veterans for Peace had joined the growing fracas, with someone from ISO claiming that they were being expelled and/or arrested just for being socialists.
According to Veterans for Peace spokesmen, the folks from International Socialist Union had indeed gained an interview with Cindy Sheehan and permission to put her statements in Socialist Worker magazine, but Sheehan and the organizers asked the ISO not to set up a banner tent or engage in fundraising at Camp Casey. From what I gathered from the spokesmen, organizations such as CODEPINK and Intelligence Failure that do sell T-shirts and other products at Camp Casey have reached an agreement with Sheehan and the other primary organizers to contribute their profits to the overall effort, which encompasses Crawford Peace House, Gold Star Families for Peace, Veterans for Peace, etc. ISO, on the other hand, had reached no such agreement with the organizers, which meant that all of the money they raised from product sales would go straight into ISO's coffers.
The overall impression I got was that almost all free speech was allowed at Camp Casey, but with the growth of the protest movement at Crawford, there was an increasing need for organization and some need to focus the overall energy of the protest to keep Camp Casey from imploding during Cindy's absence. Camp Casey is not a democratically-run site out of sheer necessity; there has to be some control of the overall message coming out of Crawford. This means that you can wear whatever shirts you want (PETA, CODEPINK, Socialist Worker, Green Party, Amendment II Democrats, etc.) and even informally share your initiatives and platforms with other folks at the rally. But, as Cindy herself has learned, the mainstream news media is extremely sensitive to any message that comes out of Camp Casey, and as Cindy refocuses her plea to meet with Bush and explain the need to invade Iraq, so too the organizers see the need to prevent the message from diffusing under the weight of the special-interest cornucopia and turn Camp Casey into yet another exercise in herding cats. Apparently, the ISO tested the fences once too often, and for that they had to be thrown out.
I don't think anyone was arrested, but the situation had grown somewhat tense for a bit. Does anyone have any other updates or clarification on this incident?
/sarc
Hypocrisy is just so charming when it is espoused by Satan's familiars. I say charming, but it's rather like the charm of being handed a can of insecticide with which to kill a roach colony.
Regards, Ivan
Follow the money
"Cindy refocuses her plea to meet with Bush and explain the need to invade Iraq"
What the heck does this mean? DU does not proof read?
ISO-Cindy Sheehan backers
WHO WE ARE
PROTEST The International Socialist Organization (ISO) stands in the revolutionary tradition of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. We have branches across the country that organize activists in workplaces and communities and on campuses in order to mobilize opposition to all forms of oppression and exploitation. The ISO believes that capitalism produces poverty, racism, famine, environmental catastrophe and war. By getting involved in struggles big and small, the ISO aims to build with others a society where we all have control over our lives. We believe another world is possible.
Sigh... the end of tolerance.
SOI
Public Meetings
Boston
August 25, 6:30 p.m.
Cindy Sheehan Is Right: Troops Out Now
United South End Settlements, Harriet Tubman House, 566 Columbus Ave. (corner of Mass and Columbus Avenues). Call 781-551-6649 or e-mail isoboston@yahoo.com for information.
Patient Zero's peach rants are so much more enthralling.
"The ISO believes that capitalism produces poverty, racism, famine, environmental catastrophe and war."
So, the ISO got thrown out of Sheehan's camp because these socialists were producing poverty, racism, famine, environmental catastrophes and war? LOL!
As more of Cindy's comments and true beliefs come out, more and more of the media are beginning to report them with a smirk and a roll of the eyes. This circus is just about over.
bump
Very interesting.
Translation .. they are commies
For which Cindy and her handlers don't have a problem being there or wearing t-shirts
They just aren't allowed to divert money from Cindy and her friends
It's hard to tell.
But in her other statements Cindy has clearly said that the purpose of her meeting with Bush is to tell him "Bullsh#t."
Peachy.
LOL .. thanks for that link .. I got a chuckle out of this one
They let PETA set up a tent but NOT DU????????????
If any organization is too extreme, PETA is, IMO. At least it's a lot more extreme than DU.
I got a good laugh from that too. I think a few DUers actually made some good points, but the moonbat types took over the thread and it was just locked.
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