Pubdate: Sun, 13 Aug 2000
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2000 The Denver Post
Contact:  1560 Broadway, Denver, CO 80202
Fax: (303) 820.1502
Website: http://www.denverpost.com/
Forum: http://www.denverpost.com/voice/voice.htm
Author: Mike Soraghan

ACTIVIST PROTESTS COLOMBIA AID, "CORPORATE GLOBALIZATION"

Aug. 13, 2000 - WASHINGTON - Ben Scribner is an idealistic young man 
hitting the Democratic National Convention this week to live out his 
political dreams.

But he's got a decision to make: Is he willing to get arrested?

Scribner, a 28-year-old resident of Denver's Baker neighborhood, isn't 
going to cheer the nomination of Al Gore.

He is one of thousands heading to Los Angeles to upstage the Democrat's big 
party by protesting everything from "corporate globalization" to U.S. 
military aid to Colombia.

Colombia is Scribner's particular issue. He says the money is going to a 
military that has "the worst human rights record in the Western Hemisphere."

"It puts the U.S. in the position of having blood on its hands," he said.

Democrats supported the aid package, another sign to him that the 
Democratic Party doesn't really deserve its liberal reputation. In the 
minds of Scribner and his fellow protesters, Democrats have abandoned the 
downtrodden to stick up for the same big companies as the Repub licans.

"They're both pursuing the same agenda, the agenda of the big 
corporations," Scribner said. "I'm pursuing democracy." Like many of the 
protesters hitting the conventions this summer, Scribner is a veteran of 
last year's protest against the World Trade Organization in Seattle.

Now, he and a dozen friends are forming an "affinity group" to look out for 
one another as they protest in California.

He planned to leave Friday night, drive straight through for 18 hours in 
his 1995 Geo Prizm and stay with the family of a fellow protester. Getting 
arrested would probably involve an attempt to "lock down" an intersection, 
linking elbows with other demonstrators so they couldn't be separated, then 
spreading across streets to block traffic. But an arrest could also mean 
taking time from his job at a Denver-area union.

So he and his friends debated limiting themselves to carrying signs in 
support of their causes.

Scribner says he is hoping for confrontation, not violence, in Los Angeles. 
He says that the violence in other recent protests like Seattle was caused 
by police.

"We want a confrontation in the sense that we want people to see our 
issues," Scribner said. "As for violence against people, I don't think 
anyone in the movement wants to see violence against people."

Scribner is originally from Las Cruces, N.M. His political awakening came 
after he moved to San Francisco with a rock band and lived in a 
working-class neighborhood. He started reading dissident intellectual Noam 
Chomsky, moved back to New Mexico to study sociology and later got a 
master's degree in the field from the University of Oregon.

He lived in San Diego before moving to Denver three months ago with his 
girlfriend, Erin McCarley.

On the way, they toured Central America, where he picked up his interest in 
aid to Colombia.

As it neared time to go last week, Scribner and his affinity group were 
reaching a decision: They would not seek to be arrested.

"If there's a line we're supposed to cross, we won't cross it," Scribner 
said. "But it depends on the moment, too."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens