>
>
> Doug Henwood wrote: [ THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT]
>
> Yes, but the "Kids" are calling each other scoundrels.
>
> Both hissing and cheerleading in respect to Seattle is becoming
> obscurantist. The question is not what happened at Seattle and
> was it good and bad but --
>
> IS ANYTHING MORE GOING TO HAPPEN?
Well, yes. At Euston station in London, about 1500 people gathered for a protest. It was low key, to a large extent because people knew the cops were going to be targetting people after 'losing it' at J18. Turns out that is exactly what the cops did (I'll post my report on it in a couple of days).
1500 people is not a bad number. An interesting aspect of the protest, which, unfortunately, was not explored as much as it could have been, is that the protest itself was suggested as a forum for discussion. I think this is an interesting aspect of Seattle - in many ways, people are demanding that protests be more than a march from point A to point B. Instead of just getting together to 'unite and fight', the protest itself develops an agenda of questioning, and of communicating.
The next action 'everyone' is talking about in London in the MayDay 2000 one. A number of anarchist groups want to do a couple of days of actions leading up to May Day, and there certainly will be an event on the day. Looking at how things are moving, I think you can expect a fair amount of discussion on how to organise things creatively. (Already, the method of organising the J18 and N30 actions - largely stickers in tube stations, word of mouth, etc. - is pretty creative, especially in that it has reached people that traditional organisations have failed to reach)
The question for me is less whether something else will happen, and more, what do I think I should do next time? For N30 I put together a quick leaflet - if I had the time (unfortunately, I will be travelling around 1 May), I would get together with some other people, grab a megaphone, and organise a (Paulo Frere-style, not lecture-style) teach-in for the next protest.
What are you going to do?
Peter -- Peter van Heusden : pvanheus at hgmp.mrc.ac.uk : PGP key available Criticism has torn up the imaginary flowers from the chain not so that man shall wear the unadorned, bleak chain but so that he will shake off the chain and pluck the living flower. - Karl Marx
NOTE: I do not speak for the HGMP or the MRC.