The activists turned out in force to the MDP meeting in Westland on Saturday, where members of the MDP’s State Central Committee elected delegates to the Democratic National Committee. The response they received, however – including a physical altercation at the event – suggests some of the hurdles they face in reforming the party’s structure of leadership.

As the MDP meeting opened in Westland City Hall, a group rallied by the Young Democrats of Michigan marched through the building’s lobby chanting “Whose party? Our party!” The activists, mostly younger, had gathered in a show of support for Detroit native Keith Ellison, a key Bernie supporter, in his bid to chair the Democratic National Committee – succeeding Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who stepped down this past May, under fire for tilting the DNC in favor of the Hillary Clinton campaign during the primary.

The activists, however, standing around the edge of the hall – many wearing Bernie Sanders T-shirts – were not all ready to forgive the leaders for their role in the 2016 debacle. “We as a party, we have been stripped to the core, and we know we have to change,” said Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence – one of the Michigan superdelegates who backed Clinton over Sanders, despite Sanders’ victory in the Michigan primary.

Lawrence acknowledged that Sanders “stood up and said things we didn’t say anymore,” which promped someone in the crowd at the back of the hall to call out, “We tried to tell you!”

During their meeting, Sam Pernick, president of the Young Democrats of Michigan, and other Sanders supporters—who nearly outnumbered the rest of the attendees at the meeting—protested the lack of transparency and openness exercised by the Michigan Democratic Party, which rigged the DNC delegate nomination process behind closed doors. Michigan Democratic Party officials responded with force. Pernick and several others were nearly dragged out of the meeting. Pernick is pursuing charges, and the Westland Police Department recently issued Mike Stone, a senior Michigan Democratic Party official, a ticket for assault and battery.

“We need to make it clear that violence, assault and battery have no place in our party,” Pernick said in a press release. “We came there to protest a lack of transparency and support Keith Ellison for DNC Chair—the reaction from leaders within the party was to violently throw us out of the room.”

Six delegates were to be chosen at that Michigan Democratic Party meeting to represent Michigan at the DNC for the next four years, where they would be able to vote for the next DNC chair, and participate in other important decisions to determine the direction of the entire party. Pernick and his group claimed the voting process was predetermined to reflect the preferences of the party leaders—not its members.

Through a movement Pernick has called “Michigan For Revolution,” he and other activists are organizing meetings across the state to encourage youth and progressives to engage with the state and local Democratic Party, and to push for reforms. He cited eradicating the influence of corporate money in the party, removing the practice of “vote buying” in which party members are influenced by outside interest groups to attend meetings and vote as a bloc, and to obtain greater representation for the young Democrats in the party’s leadership positions.