Coleen Rowley: Minnesota Still Adversely Affected by Republican National Convention

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from HuffPost:




Coleen Rowley
Posted March 28, 2009 | 07:58 PM (EST)

Minnesota Still Adversely Affected by Republican National Convention



Minnesota Prosecutor Petitioned by Thousands to End Persecution

What do 17,000 members of the Duluth Central Labor Body; the "Minnesota 8" sixty-year olds whose Vietnam draft resistance experiences were commissioned into a 2008 "Peace Crimes" play; over 3000 people from all over the world (many of whom not only signed an on-line petition but also wrote small essays about the need to protect Constitutional rights and freedom in their comments); and nine "Americans Who Tell the Truth"--painted as part of an educational art project all have in common? All strongly support the right to dissent and specifically the eight young organizers of RNC protest actions who were pre-emptively arrested before the Republican National Convention and then later charged under Minnesota's version of the Patriot Act with "incitement to riot in furtherance of terrorism". While there was a common conclusion communicated via yesterday's petition delivery to Ramsey County Prosecutor Susan Gaertner, a variety of reasons and perspectives were brought forward on why dissent needs to be protected and why pre-emptive arrests and prosecuting these young people as "terrorists" is wrong.

History of "Criminal Syndicalism" laws and the Duluth Central Labor Body's Resolution

In the early 20th century (circa 1917), about twenty states, including Minnesota, passed "criminal syndicalism laws" (like the one below) to put more pressure on labor organizers and others who would commit civil disobedience or other "disorderly" political activities.

185.06 POWER OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT OR COURTS NOT CURTAILED UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS; CRIMINAL SYNDICALISM.(3)
Nothing in sections 185.01 to 185.06 shall hamper or curtail, or in any manner take away, the power of the executive department, or of the courts, where there is threatened any irreparable injury to business or property by reason of violence, threats, or other unlawful acts, or where criminal syndicalism, or the acts constituting the same, are involved; and criminal syndicalism is hereby defined to be the doctrine which advocates crime, sabotage, violence, or other unlawful methods of terrorism as a means of accomplishing industrial, social, or political reform.

Before 1940, the law was frequently used to put Industrial Workers of the World organizers and publishers in jail in Minnesota. Then the 1917 law sat unused for decades, until January 1986, when the Hormel Local P-9 strike led to the police chief of Austin and the county sheriff holding union members on "criminal syndicalism," in order to undermine the union's plan of peacefully blockading the Hormel plants. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/coleen-rowley/minnesota-still-adversely_b_180391.html