Things I've Learned at recent UFPJ meetings in DC:

1) UFPJ is planning to have tents on the Mall. They plan to charge groups a minimum of $20 for each table (this price tag goes much higher if you want to sell things at the table or if you want the table both saturday and sunday).

2) UFPJ is more interested in having a fundraiser than a protest. This is evidenced by the above mentioned charge for each table, as well as the fact that in the "Logistics" working group meeting they are much more interested in talking about getting people to be "money collectors" on saturday and to help set up the rented out tables, than talking about important things such as the Convergence Space, or mass housing, two things critical to having a successful mass mobilization.

3) They plan to have money collectors at both Operation Cease Fire and at the large rally before the march on saturday, as well as during the Peace And Justice Festival (formerly the Anti-War Fair). Since they expect to raise thousands and thousands of dollars from all the wealthy liberals who plan to attend their events, they are concerned for the safety of their money collectors and specifically the person with the large bucket all the money collectors dump the cash flow in. To remedy this problem, they came up with a concrete solution. UFPJ is HIRING off-duty undercover police officers who will be carrying GUNS to protect UFPJ's money.

4) UFPJ is planning a series of non-violent direct actions at the White House for Monday, September 26th. These actions are set to be arrestable and since liberals are afraid of spending a night in DC Jails, UFPJ has initiated dialog with the POLICE to make the processing go faster. Thats right, they actually called up the cops and said, this is our plan, this is how many people we plan on having you arrest on monday, what can we do to make sure you are able to process us all quickly.

5) I never want to sit through another UFPJ meeting again. UFPJ is one of the most hierarchical, disempowering, organizing body I have ever experienced. In UFPJ the only thing that matters is their bottom line, the amount of money one can give, and how to maximize profits. They actually passed the hat during their organizing meeting. They call themselves, grassroots, but they are in fact nothing better than a money (and power) hungry force of capitalism.