BEWITCHED BY THE SPECTACLE OF POLITICS, we confuse
elections with freedom, representation with self-determination.
We look to politicians to solve our problems, and when they fail
we replace them with other politicians. ese politicians have been
unanimous in their support for a disastrous war based on false pretexts.
They are unanimous in defending borders that tear up families and countrysides while enabling corporations to export jobs, exploit workers, and pillage resources. ey are unanimous in pushing cutthroat competition as the only possible economic model, even as the gulf widens between rich and poor and profit-driven environmental destruction causes global warming to accelerate at a catastrophic pace.
They’ve created these problems, and now some of the same politicians offer to solve them for us. They try to maintain our attention by debating whether to change this or that detail. But it is foolish to expect different results from appealing to the
same class of people: we can only extricate ourselves from the mess they’ve made by acting for ourselves, without so-called representation.
Our protests against war, global warming, and exploitation must be directed against the electoral system itself, so they are not reabsorbed and neutralized when new politicians offer to “represent” us. Our protests must interrupt the practical activity of the politicians—otherwise, they can be brushed off, to remain in the sphere of personal opinion. Even if we do not throw off their power entirely, the most efficient way to exert leverage upon politicians is by bypassing them to make the changes we desire ourselves, so they can offer us nothing and must struggle to catch up. We are proposing a strategy for each convention, a general framework to coordinate our individual efforts so they add up to something powerful. This must be public, so thousands of people can take part: a good strategy is effective regardless of whether the authorities are forewarned. is framework must offer space for a wide range of tactics and plans, so a diverse array of people can participate. Inside this framework, participants can craft their own roles, retaining as much privacy as they need to play the parts they choose. If we succeed in disrupting the political spectacle of the conventions,
politics in this country will never be the same.

Baltimore Resistance to the Electoral Conventions (BREC) is an anarchist/anti-authoritarian organizing body formed to prepare for the 2008 Republican and Democratic National Conventions.

Those who work with Baltimore Resistance to the Electoral Conventions must agree to:

1. A rejection of Capitalism, Imperialism, and the State;

2. Resist the commodification of our shared and living Earth;

3. Organize on the principles of decentralization, autonomy, sustainability, and mutual aid;

4. Work to end all relationships of domination and subjugation, including but not limited to those rooted in patriarchy, race, class, and homophobia;

5. Oppose the police and prison-industrial complex, and maintain solidarity with all targets of state repression;

6. Directly confront systems of oppression, and respect the need for a diversity of tactics.

DNC:
www.unconventionaldenver.org
www.recreate68.org
www.dncdisruption08.org

RNC:
www.nornc.org
www.unconventionalaction.org