errorThe immediate results of the Los Angeles Counter Inaugeration Coalition were witnessed today on the mysterious non space in downtown LA. Though several organizations have been claiming credit for birthing this event, as always, the true heros are those people who marched out of passion.

All this said, I will breifly outline some of the organizations that backed the march and why these organizations put their time and effort into this project.


While doing this research, certain points of tension became apparent, though it is clear that the coallition managed to surmount these issues. After a brief out-line of some of the major participants, I will discuss this fact and other information in the analysis section.

section 1 Setting

I attended the J20 collective meeting on January 16th after speaking to several other members of the Los Angeles IMC. As is ussual with big-tent progressive meetings, this final pre march organizational meeting was held in the Basement of a Church on Wilshire Blvd in KoreaTown. I entered the same room where previously, I'd been to a Bus Riders Union Meeting and a press conference for the Homies Unidos. If only these walls were constituents.

My fellow IMC folk were outside conspiring and analyzing, pushing the radical critique amongst ourselves. They gave me the lowdown, and I stepped in to the back edge of the circle.
100 or so earnest liberals talking in a corrupted spokescouncil format. Corrupt because as I was told by the facilitator, though all decisions are made in the open where everyone involved can speak, the group used a democratic vote, not a concensus model. The meeting broke up and my fellow IMC informants pointed out the three main players to interview.

2 The Players

a.Brian Jones of the Campaign to end the death penalty. He had been moderating the meeting.

He stated that he had begun the Counter Inagural Coalition after attending some of the ongoing protests at the Federal Building in Century City. He realized some horrible fraud was going on and it needed to stop. Through a list serve, he and others came together to plan a towards this coalition. At first there were no more then ten or so people. He said that the coalition was able to grow so much because, as the reader might expect, people were energized.

Brian stated that he had been involved in the Democratic (D2K) protests and saw how certain organizations did not participate. He said that the individuals and organizations who did participate in D2K were teaching everyone else that it was allright to criticize the Democratic Party, that you could open your mouth and say what you think.

I asked him what he hoped would come out of tomarrows march.
He referenced a conversation that occured earlier in the meeting, that people wanted to have the coalition morph into an ongoing coalition. I asked him what he saw as the agenda of the coalition, and he said it could be something akin to a "Bush Whatch-dog group." He said that the coalition could force the Bush people into passing good laws that helped people, and cited the Nixon addminostration under which some of the most progressive laws in history were passed..

When asked if there were alternative views to the "Bush Whatch Dog group", he pointed to a member of the Green Party and said that that man has another less direct idea, "to start an amourphous pro-democracy movement."


b. Alix-Green Party. He was doing logistical work for the J20 group.

Alix appeared to be a little nervous while speaking, as if he was unaccustomed to media interviews.

I asked Alix why he was involving himself with this mobilization and he said that "Something needed to be done.There is an assention to the top of the country an illigitamate ruler and we need to organize for a true democracy. Gore was the last to go, he has no guts."

Alix spoke for the need of building a movement for electoral reform. .

He mentioned that the Greens stand by a consensus form of DemocracyHe Mentioned that he and the other Greens were protesting during the convention.

c. Suzzi- Americans For Democratic Action.

Suzzi was busy planning the logistics of the march, working with the police to get permits and seemed to have an important roladex. She was surrounded at all times by several other ADA members.

She Stated that she nor the ADA were involved in the D2K protests. They saw these events as devisive. She and the ADA were now putting much of there resources into this event and were gearing for four years of activism. This organixation has many mainstream political ties and seems to work out policy with the National Lawyers guild.

The ADA hoped that through this march, people would be fired up to write letters to representatives to stop Bushs apointees.

She said that she personaly got involved with planning this event because of her experience working with crowds. She refrained from telling me some information regarding the ADA's policy stands because she was not sure as to whether the info was clearly defined enough to be released to the press.


3Analysis

From this meeting, I came to understand how otherwise radical people with anarchistic ideaologize get drawn into more mainstream movements like the ADA. They have an organization that aims to get things done, to deal with the allegedly apathetic masses. I am amaxed that I am in a room discussing an event with these folks.

There is a broad swath of the liberal and progressive left planning this march. A moment of tension arose when a proposal was made to concense around the fact that this would be a nonviolent march that would do no direct action. Most agreed openhandedly, while a few people grummbled and asked for clarification. They wanted a clause in that statement that if the LAPD responded in stereotypically brutal ways to a peacefull march, that protesters were justified to respond with nonviolent tactics. The motion carried.

The split between Democrats and the Greens and other nontratitional left groups was appearent. At times, statements about Al Gore being the Man (in a good way) were pointed towards the Greens, but I would imagine that the traditional Greens are learning something to. There is a lot of talk about the corruption in both parties and the pointing of the finger towards big business.

A woman from the "U" group that is affiliated with the Rainbow Push movement was energized by what she saw in this first meeting, the invocations of "what we learned in Seattle" and where we need to go. Somehow through this mainstream wing of something, this is what democracy looks like.

"You can't have a revolution with a consensus"--John Reed.
Who's to say consensus is always better than a majority vote?

As one of several major players involved in the J20 Coalition that was formed to make the Counter-Inaugural Rally and March for Democracy a reality yesterday, I was a bit (a bit?) dismayed to see our organization (rather our network) relegated to being mentioned in passing somewhere between the reference to the "ongoing protests" outside the Federal building in Westwood to the "list serve" that was used to organize this event. No actual mention of CounterCoup, my group, without whom, none of this would have happened. We were the street warriors out every weekend at the fed. building facing down hundreds of abusive Bushies calling us "communists" and "baby-killers". We were the ones notifying the media and every progressive organization, politician and celebrity/activist of our actions week after week. We brought the Orange Ribbon Campaign to Los Angeles, giving away hundreds of ribbons in the Crenshaw and at the Santa Monica Promenade. By the time Brian Jones of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty made his way down to the fed. building that day, we were already discussing J20 and what we would plan. We knew that we would have to work hard at the in-gathering of left organizations and obtain their endorsements or it wouldn't fly. Many of these organizations were reluctant as they were gearing up for the Ashcroft fight. In the end though it all worked out. But I wanted to set the record straight that CounterCoup was one of only two or three organizations that began the J20 Coalition.

The story of CounterCoup (as I'm sure you know if you've been following this since Day One which technically I guess would be Nov. 8th) is a heart-warming one. Within 48 hours of the election, people all over the country started to gravitate toward an unknown website that had, by one man's sense of foreboding and genius, been created a month before the election. That website was CounterCoup.org. By Nov. 11th, anti-Bush pro-democracy rallies were mobilized in 80 cites. By the next weekend, 140 cities. We got very little coverage by the corporate media obviously.

After the Scalia 5 did their thing and the rest was history (albeit, two different versions for those of us in this movement), we knew that we were in this for the long haul. We have made a commitment to that.

I can't speculate what will become of this Coalition per se. We are having a Call to Action planning meeting next Saturday the 27th to discuss our direction. These other groups all have various agendas and issues they concentrate on and I'm sure they'll all go back to those. As for CounterCoup....we are everywhere and we are everyone.... with many little tapping fingers on keyboards reaching across a nation. And kind of like Indymedia....we are not going away any time soon :-)

Jamie Murray
CounterCoup/TrustthePeople-LA

Jamie's right. It was the same thing with us in Houston. The rest of the coalition were all Johnny-come-latelies. We were out beginning on Nov. 11 when Greens were saying: "Let the process work." All we have done since then is work on planning actions. No seasonal holidays for us. I could go on and on. The most amazing thing is that most of us never even knew the others existed prior to our CounterCoup.org involvement. Maybe that's why we were so effective. History will eventually relate the story of what really happened and how CounterCoup.org inspired the entire movement.
Hah! I remember anarchists on indymedia sites trying to bribe us by saying that they would protest "if" we supported clemency for Peltier.
Wise up. Visit CounterCoup.org. Join our discussion lists. Lend a hand. Counter the Coup.

For several weeks, the election was a continuing series of upsets and feints, lurching toward an ill defined and unknown conclusion, vis the fate of Gore's chances of actually collecting the votes he'd obviously won.
On the evening of the election, I was looking on the web for action. I found Countercoup.org, a geocities hosted site with a list of 85 cities in which spontaneous protests were called for the following Saturday, the 11th of November. I also found the eGroup TrustThePeople, at that time still a wide open national discussion board, filled with strident calls for open rejection of the impending Coup.
I made a flyer, "Recount, Revote, Reject" and posted it to the national list section for downloading.
That was the first of 16 flyers I've made every week since then, including the one I made on December 12, calling for a Counter Inauguration Council of allies united to mount a demonstration on J20. By the time we got the flyer out to the Federal Bldg. in Westwood (for the 5th consecutive weekend), the same call was being issued by the ISO. We hooked up and within three weeks had a Coalition representing East LA (Chicano Moratorium, Danza Azteca Cuauhtemoc, etc.), South Central LA (The Organization Us, Project Islamic H.O.P.E., African American Clergy, Community and Labor Task Force, etc.), west and east-side liberals (Rev Ed Bacon, All Saints Church, Rabbi Steven Jacobs, SCADA, Alliance for Survival, etc.), the Civil Rights - Religious community in South Central (Rev Leonard Jackson, 1st A M E Church, Geraldine Washington, LA/NAACP, Rainbow/PUSH, etc.)...

Saturday, as I saw what we had accomplished, I was proud and hopeful. But I also wondered how it came to pass that all this togetherness at a leadership level had not been in sight before the Coup was done. We in CounterCoup were from many divergent backgrounds... Green, Democrat, Independent. At a grassroots level, we were on the MOVE! We in CounterCoup had been faxing, calling and emailing every one of these leadership groups and more for weeks before any of them so much as returned a phone call. In fact, to most of us who were calling, they never did return a call. Its not what you're saying, I guess, its who knows you and wants to listen.

I just have to say that I know that if this demonstration, with this representation, had taken the streets in November, there would have been no Supreme Court coup. Without the sexy big names in front, there was not enough opposition to it to scare anyone. So I am disappointed in the celebrity culture of leadership, which seems to have an inertia problem. And with journalists who ignore events until the last minute, then talk as though they have authority to describe events they have no knowledge of.

Anyway, that being said, I look forward to the leadership of all groups with a dedication to Justice to turn their attention to supporting the groundswell of readiness in the public at large to make an effective stance against the entire Bush agenda. The people need their leaders to LEAD... not to wait.

peace,
elbop

The LA Times coverage was a big joke, but they didn't pretend to analyze what happened and draw conclusions. They simply undercounted and gave little coverage. I can't blame the corporate media for ignoring us--we don't butter their bread or stuff their bank accounts.

I decry, however, this pathetic attempt to analyze LA's J20 protest. If somebody were to analyze who was behind this, they'd have to dig much deeper than observing one planning meeting and interviewing three "players".

I also attended that planning meeting. I found the reporting of the facts somewhat inaccurate, and the analysis pathetically disingenuous.

Although the author critiqued the organization as being a pseudo spokescouncil model, because we voted (although we claimed to be working by consensus), he failed to note that the only item to be voted on carried with no opposition or abstention. The "vote" was only a straw poll, to get a feel for where everybody was--this is a valid tool in consensus work.

It could be valid to critique the J20 Coalition's use of the consensus process, as well as the flow of power and information. It would probably be more effective to get involved in the coalition and to help organize a more effective structure. I think a good job was done in the few weeks the group has been in existence. I believe that progress must be made if the coalition is to endure, but this was a good example of a brand-new group working to meet a deadline and implementing a spokescouncil model.

A motion came from the floor, that we all agree to non-violence. Some discussion ensued, with individuals wishing to be able to defend themselves if assaulted by the LAPD. THIS MOTION WAS NOT ABOUT ENGAGING IN DIRECT ACTION OR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE.

If anybody wanted to "analyze" who was behind this, they needed to dig a whole heck of a lot deeper. They needed to get onto the email lists where J20 was being discussed, at the very least. No mention was made of elbop, who tirelessly designed flier after flier. No mention was made of Jamie, who kept showing up in the face of brutal Freeper crowds. No mention of Jon Sherman, who kept the beat going on the street and showed up to organize. Plenty of people at the meeting, whose names I do not now recall, were obviously heavily involved, but not interviewed.

This was a poorly researched piece. The pretense of analysis was a farce. Did any *real* journalists pay attention to this process?

whoah, relax

Just a few notes on what I thought was a generaly well run organization that dealt with some interesting conflicts.

Of course lots of people did a lot of good work.

consensus is consensus and democratic vote is democratic vote.

The main idea of this piece is to give some clarity to some of what the discussions were that went into the planning of the event, the more transparent an event is, the better others are able toreplicate and expand on them.

It was a great demonstration and march for the most part. But I was a bit disturbed when I saw the "2004, VOTE FOR GORE" signs , and the GORE buttons some people had... but o'well.

I'd just also like to say that we don't have another 4 years to "elect" (it's not democracy, please remember) another president. America is a plutocracy. Could it be more obvious? Look outside your window. (if those even belong to us) .. In a plutocracy, corporate enterprise empowers the government, which empowers the military, urban law enforcements along with just the whole political system in general. It's based on the capitalist pyramid were you keep the majority ( us, the people.. or in most cases, we are products ) weak and ignorant. Oblivious and tamed. Often too afraid to challenge authority or look face the truth. We are put in this position because it is the position that empowers the evil empire: the united states of america. This is how the system works. We, are to be the consumers. The classified batteries that make the corporations go 'round. Our priorities are set within nonessentials, division and self destruction, and the majority of people do not know this. Nevertheless, they do not understand this either. We have been engendered to become so helplesy dependent upon the systems protocal. We have been put into the path of extreme denial. Compulsive patriotism and overgrown nationalism. We've become so delluted, so dysfunctional and drunk dead off each pill we pop that we will fight to protect our current belief system... Thus we fear drastic change, because it's drastic change that will bring us back to a free world.

The US Government is the MOST DESTRUCTIVE GOVERNMENT IN THE WORLD.. When it comes to truth, and I mean the truth. The FACTS. ( what you don't see on television, and what is not noted in your school history books ) .. The US government is NO different then the nazis. Ironicly, they worked with nazis (and smuggled them into the US) during the cold war to destroy the communists. Why destroy the communists? Because such economies that put people BEFORE profits contridict the US agenda. This is also, why the united states government; CIA, MILITARY .. etc. Launches secret wars against every third world country. They masecure entire villages, bomb food factories, pollute water, kill men woman and children in cold blood.. They wipe out entire villages.. Killing millions of people in each war against these countries. Where do they hide the dead boddies? Once they are done shooting them over pits, or pilling them up and moving them with tractors, they cover them up in mass graves..... It happend in Cambodia, Vietnam, Chili, Indonesia, Cheklosavkya, Panama, Africa .. etc..etc.. So many many places. Even right here in america. Not to mention, the government trains death squads (police) in these 3rd world countries to attack inocent civilians.. They are given lists of people to kill.. Anyone who refuses is masecured under the eye of our government as well. Even if they are children, women, men .. etc. They too stack their bodies, throw them into mass graves, cut of their genaltels and shuv them into their mouths to sufacate them - Sorry for being so graphic, and my bad spelling.. but it's the truth.. your tax dollars at work. - ... The reason why they do this to 3rd world countries.. well, one reason is to create a stronghold of nations under US control.. This way they can destruct countries like China. who can actually defend themselves if the US nazi attacks took place on their turf. Accept, what the US does, is they infiltrate these vast economic structures like a cancer. They begin to reform them towards the benifit of right-wing agenda. China is not even full communist anymore. We can see the establishment of these multinational corporations begin to take shape as they utilize cheap labor in sweat shops all over the world. One of the very few, that the US government has not taken down is Cuba. They have tried to assinate Fidel about 12 times. Nevertheless, they have leaders assinated in 3rd world countries ( or even larger countries ) at the stroke of a pen. It's done that easly. They put their own men; nazi commandos on cable operative missions and pay them.. They assinate right here in america as well. The US government spends more money (WAAAY more money) on it's military then any country in the world..

..... This all here is just the tip of the ice berg... I'm sure, or I hope lots of you know bout this. But what I am trying to say here .. THIS is where "voting" has taken us. Even if 99% of the people voted... america is NOT a democracy and never was. It was built to benifit the few of those who sit in power. You cannot vote in a plutocracy. Obviously not. america also works through a vast system built on international obligarchy, international oblipoly, bearucrat feadulism, facism .. etc.... And all of what I am explaining here is NOT just a peice of the past. It's happening right now. Right now as you read this.

The problem will not be solved by democrats OR the republicans. This is the two system party that was built to abolish the power of the left-wing, labor movements, socialists, communists .. etc.. right under the american dream's blind-mind dance. And too many of us mimic that.

A reform is not possible in such a system. The current system will only stay intact. Humanity will never again see the light of true freedom if we decide that all we need is reform... We must organize a global counteragenda through coiliations and direct action... A peaceful revolution of the concious mind is possible, but next comes the big battle.. and by that, it determins who our planet belongs to. This system needs to be taken out in my opinion. By any means necessary. Otherwise it will be too late. We cannot accept the illegitamate fact that we have another 4 years to "elect" a better president, because we don't.

Personally, my stand point on this is towards bush is, "STEP THE FUCK DOWN, OR BEING TAKEN THE FUCK DOWN"... It's been over 200 years and look where we are. How long can we continue to comprimise, confirm, submit, be chewed up and spit out. We won't win this battle in a court room, or in a video game.... And if we think it's hell now, just wait until we see what hits us next. BUSH is going to bring in the rest of hell that's been hiding around the corner.

We will only continue as victoms under tyranny, opression, plutocracy and self-destruction if we do not have a REVOLUTION!!



peace.

The IMC is not really "journalism" per say-

Its an open sourced media outlet meaning that YOU get to write whatever you want for an audience to read it.

I, like most folks reading these pages, am interested in changing the political and cultural climate in this country and wrote about something I thought folks who read the IMC web-page might want to read. It got picked up on the main page, not just the side bar.

IF anyone feels like PUBLISHING an article, Its easy, DO-IT-YOURSELF.

The writer of the piece attended one meeting and picked out the people who at that meeting seemed to have major responsibilities...Im not sure who Alex was but during the debate on the future a couple of the greens were vocal and articulate, which probably led the writer to them...

As for this we were here first stuff, Its childish and will destroy the coalition...The bottem line is many of the groups that joined had the experience to jump in and pull things together.

My first meeting was January 2nd. At that time we were nowhere on logistics and i pushed ahead...ADA has an staffed office, and experienced organizers, naturally they were going to get a lot of work done. The groups that joined have been doing this for a long time together...we are sorry if you felt we took over, we didn't mean to...we were just doing the tasks we have been doing for years

One of the weaknesses of the IMC is that it doesn't have the resources to perform exhaustive fact checking. Or any at all. What they do is try to report on what will go unreported. The behind-the-scenes information presented in this article is *always* ignored by the commercial media.

That's their job - to simplify reality into easily consumed *stories*. (And deliver targetted markets to their advertisers.) IMC tries to keep it real.

They make mistakes too. In a commercial paper, when someone writes in a rebuttal to an inaccurate story, it *might* get printed, in edited form, in a later edition. On the IMC site, the comments remain contextualized, and hopefully, the truth emerges.

Perhaps, in five years, the LA Times will see fit to research social movements, and fact check their stories about what hundreds of local activists do to make not only demos happen, but make numerous institutions operate. Today, though, the activists have no recourse but to operate the IMC.

bull sh**