REHEARSING A RUCKUS ACTIVISTS PRACTICE AT PROTEST CAMP.

Byline: Jordan Smith  Staff Writer

MALIBU - The revolution began this week, not at a demonstration at City Hall or an attack on a police station but on a secluded parcel of land with a sweeping view of the Pacific Ocean nestled high in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Nearly 150 activists from across the country have converged on a beautiful piece of Malibu property for a six-day Democracy Training Camp that the nonprofit, Berkeley-based Ruckus Society is sponsoring to prepare activists for protests during next month's Democratic National Convention.

``We're nonviolent revolutionaries, citizen activists, people of conscience,'' said Ruckus director John Sellers. ``We are looking to replace the system. We don't want to tweak it, we want to replace it. People deserve better, they deserve more.''

Since 1995, Ruckus has sponsored such camps to organize disparate activist groups. Ruckus-trained protesters flooded Seattle for the World Trade Organization meetings in 1999, and swamped Washington, D.C., for meetings between the World Bank and International Monetary Fund this spring.

The activists, who represent a host of concerns and affiliations - from Earth First and the Direct Action Network to the Los Angeles-based Youth Organizing Communities - came to the quasi boot camp to learn how to take direct, nonviolent actions against what many present consider a corporate takeover of democracy.

``The two-party system is owned by corporate elites and big-business interests. We really don't have much access to those who claim to represent us,'' said Han Shan, Ruckus' 27-year-old program director. ``Give us real democracy, free from corporate interests. That's what citizenry is supposed to be, what democracy is supposed to be.''

And the way to replace the you-name-it industrial complex is through direct actions, he said. While Shan admits Ruckus is known for its ``more sexy'' protest techniques - such as scaling tall buildings to hang gigantic protest banners and forming human chains with PVC pipes - he stressed that most of what Ruckus teaches activists are techniques of communication and empowerment, skills to strengthen their larger communities.

So from now until Tuesday evening, activists will learn to tie knots and scale 60-foot structures, create and maintain human blockades, begin social change campaigns and consensus building, defuse tense situations and even talk to the media.

While many said they were at the camp for long-term skill building, many had their eyes on the more immediate prize - organizing effective protests during the convention of Aug. 14-17, as was the case with 29-year-old Pasadena resident Shawn McDougal.

A community organizer for the American Friends Service Committee and a volunteer with the Bus Riders Union, McDougal said it is important to be prepared for August's convergence.

``The goal is to get the word out, to explain the ways in which democracy has been shanghaied by corporate interests,'' he said. ``Our biggest fear is out-of-control police. We're concerned about the LAPD being provocateurs. Looking at Rampart and the killing of Margaret Mitchell, I mean, if they said killing her was an appropriate use of force, then . . .''

Uncertainty about Los Angeles Police Department reaction to the assembling of an expected 50,000 protesters next month was palpable among the group - many of whom experienced the effects of police-administered tear gas and flash-bang grenades in Seattle last winter - when they discussed their fears during a nonviolence workshop Friday afternoon.

Sitting on metal folding chairs underneath a hazy midday sun, activists said they have been misrepresented in the media as brick-wielding, crazy mayhem-makers bent on destruction and that they are concerned that the police see them that way as well.

``And that's not true,'' McDougal said. ``We have clear action guidelines that say if you want to be a part of our actions you must sign a nonviolence agreement.''

Sellers and Shan agree they can't speak for every protester's actions. They are committed to helping weed out rogue elements from their ranks, they say.

``We do trainings in how to de-escalate situations, how to approach and interact proactively, to say our message is not to be co-opted and people are not to be brutalized,'' Sellers said. ``We just want the cops to do the same, to say that they are not going to use an escalation of force unless people's safety and health are in jeopardy.''

LAPD spokesman Cmdr. Dave Kalish said police believe the majority of protesters coming to the city next month will demonstrate peacefully and will obey the laws. But, he added, police are on the alert for rogue troublemakers.

``Often those with the intention to cause major disruptions become integrated into nonviolent groups and that is difficult for all involved,'' he said. ``Our intent is to extract, if possible, those involved with inciting the violence within the nonviolent. The reality is, that is really difficult.''

Back in camp, a group of 50 protesters lined up for a role-playing exercise called ``hassle line.'' The scenario: a group of people with varied interests - National Rifle Association members, police organizing groups, members of the ``prison industrial complex'' - are going to a convention delegate-sponsored dinner. Outside the hotel where the event is to be held, protesters are forming a chain to block entry. Twenty-five activists each represent members of the two groups. The objective is to try to imagine and vocalize what each side would say and do in the situation.

Then veteran activist trainers Cathie Berrey and Sarah Seeds debrief the group. How did it feel? What did you say? How did you react?

Standing in parallel lines, the groups meet in the center. Tension runs high and body language gets defensive.

Two minutes later, Seeds called time.

``So, how did it feel?'' she asked.

``Frustrating,'' McDougal said, an answer given by a majority of the protesters.

Even as members of the dinner-bound group - a representation of the elements most protesters said they do not support - players said they felt their intentions to get through the line of protesters was misunderstood.

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Photo: Protesters form a ``hassle line'' Friday while training for action around the Democratic National Convention next month.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer