The Republican National Convention (RNC) wrapped up Thursday night with a sharp escalation in brutal arrests outside the Xcel Center in St. Paul, MN — and a still small voice of resistance inside. After being denied access to convention delegates, at least one member of the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and two members of Code Pink were able to sneak into the Convention Center and disrupt Presidential Candidate John McCain's acceptance speech with an anti-war message. In contrast, the IVAW had some success in getting their message to Democratic presidential nominee Barak Obama in Denver, CO the week before.

Both weeks saw sustained, peaceful protests and a constant stream of civil disobedience expressing consternation at both parties' continual pursuit of war and imperialism, coupled with the mass incarceration and economic human rights violations of its own residents. In response, police rounded up over one thousand in the streets.

Over 800 of these arrests were at the RNC. Although hundreds of protesters had been arrested the week prior outside the Democratic National Convention (DNC), the scale of repression at the RNC was literally unparalleled — and significant enough to even the attention of Amnesty International. Those arrested included dozens of media workers, both freelance and affiliated, as well as volunteer street medics, who were on hand to assist with unintended injuries. Moreover, reports have surfaced of brutality and torture and racial profiling by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agents at the Ramsey County Jail where protesters were being held.

Many of the arrestees were taken in pre-emptive roundups the weekend before the convention began. On Saturday, multiple house and office raids took place and people were detained for hours, most prominently members of the I-Witness Video Collective and the RNC Welcoming Committee. Eight members of the Committee have been charged with “conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism” based on a Minnesota law that was shaped after the Patriot Act. Their group was infiltrated by at least two undercover police officers and the sheriff has admitted that his office spied on local activists.

Many were also taken in mass roundups during protests, such as Tuesday Night's violent police attack on people who had converged from the Poor People's March and a multi-act outdoor concert where "Rage Against the Machine" was prevented from playing. This led to dozens of arrests and "crowd dispersal" tactics involving the use of allegedly "non-lethal" weapons, including concussion grenades, tear gas and pepper spray. Outside pressure and jail solidarity countered these abuses of power somewhat, resulting in improved prison conditions, including some detainees receiving needed medical attention by Wednesday.

Through all of this, activists continued to raise up messages of resistance to the Republican agenda, and independent media workers from around the country documented them. READ ON for archive of roundups & selected dispatches from the streets | | | IMC-US DNC/RNC Organizing Page | Indybay Conventions08 Page | | | Staying Plugged in PostRNC and beyond: a mini-update | Demonstrators Do It with Humor at Republican National Convention from Indybay | Conventions are over, ramifications still unclear from Houston Indymedia