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."