What is the RNC Welcoming Committee and the RNC8?
The RNCWC are an anarchist group based in the Twin Cities, Minneapolis that coordinated and facilitated discussion for the protests against the 2008 Republican National Convention, so that the actual plans for the protests were decentralized. Groups were empowered to plan for their own actions. They also created an infrastructure so that protesters that came to the Twin Cities would have places to stay, food to eat, medical services, legal aid, counseling. The RNC8 are members of the Welcoming Committee who were arrested in police raids that preempted the protests. The eight: Robert Joseph Czernik, 32; Monica Rachel Bicking, 23; Erik Charles Oseland, 21; Garrett Scott Fitzgerald, 26; Nathanael David Secor, 28; Max Jacob Speckton, 19; Luce Guillen-Givens, 23; and Eryn Trimmer, 23, were charged with a range of felonies, including a charge of “conspiracy to commit riot in furtherance of terrorism,” “A charge of this nature significantly chills political speech… Calling the intent to dis
