This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.

In search of witnesses!

MIM Notes distributor arrested at the DNC

BOSTON, July 30, 2004--Boston Police arrested a MIM Notes distributor at Roxbury Community College during an event called the "Progressive Democrats Convention" on July 29th. Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich were among the main attractions as speakers. The police backed Roxbury Community College's claim that they are "private property" where MIM Notes cannot distribute on their outdoor property.

Activists with Kucinich had bombarded the public including the MIM table with flyers for their event all week. In fact, the Kucinich activists were the best organized of any activists seen on the streets this DNC week, not that we think that is all good since there should have been more radical activists around.

We showed up at 1:30 pm and an event organizer in the parking lot told us we had not missed the action, because it was going to last till 5pm. We handed out copies of MIM Notes and interviewed the Utah Progressive Democrats Caucus, Kucinich delegates and even a pair of pre-voting age kids carrying signs to repeal the "Patriot Act" and some others. We asked many of our interview subjects if they were aware Kerry had co-authored the "Patriot Act" and we asked them to tell us what they believe they can accomplish as individuals inside the Democratic Party that they can't accomplish outside it.

The trouble started when the director of the center came outside to tell us we were on private property. We told him more than once that he had invited the public to his building, and not only that, with big-name speakers and that he was not entitled to apply usual rules concerning "private property" in that context. We explained further and repeatedly to the Boston Police that such a claim does not even fly in shopping malls, never mind publicly-funded colleges hosting multiple public figures.

This was a classic case of wanting to "have it both ways." If Roxbury Community College had wanted a private event, it should have organized it "invitation only." Once the RCC invited the public, that public does not surrender any free speech rights on RCC grounds.

A red-tag delegate to the DNC had gone in the building and come out as she had promised to interview with MIM Notes. Just as MIM Notes finished that interview, Boston cops assembled on the city sidewalk some meters away to prepare to arrest the MIM Notes distributor.

The RCC and Boston cops had asked us to leave RCC property and go onto city streets, but there was no way that MIM could have covered the city sidewalks efficiently to hand out newspapers, because people funnel in from the sidewalks covering hundreds of yards to the doors leading into the convention. This is MIM's second run-in with RCC and Northeastern is also under the impression that it can invite the public and then disinvite them when they hand out newspapers. That's why we need to take the legal offensive to get this squared away in Massachusetts. MIM Notes absolutely relies on being able to get out its newspaper at big-name political events. We are looking for legal help obtaining restraining orders on college administrations in the Massachusetts area.

If you saw MIM handing out papers at RCC, we would like to hear from you as a witness at bosmim@mim.org.

Had the issue stayed at the level of what college administrations can and cannot do in inviting the public, it would have been a ho-hum case that we nonetheless needed to win and follow-up on in agreements with colleges in Massachusetts. The Boston Police were wrong in interpreting the law in RCC's favor, but the whole arrest became another matter when Boston Police forcibly took the recorder/camera with the day's interviews and the evidence from the arrest.

MIM is currently pursuing return of the digital recorder via legal means. The fact that police took the recorder is an outrage to all journalists and photographers.