Who Owns the Movement?

Chuck0 chuck at tao.ca
Wed Dec 15 08:34:37 PST 1999


Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> Chuck0 wrote:
>
> >As I pointed out to Albert, it's the wrong question. The worldwide N30
> >actions were organized via a NETWORK. Albert is looking at this with his
> >rose-colored 1960s glasses. This is why most of the Left was caught be
> >surprise by what happened in Seattle. Those of us involved in the June
> >18th network and the anarchist mileau were not surprised at all.
>
> In an email exchange with Albert, I mentioned the J18 actions,
> assuming he'd know what I meant. He didn't. I was a bit surprised; I
> thought Z kept up on "activism."

Heh. I'm a Z Magazine subscriber and I have to say that they don't do as good a job covering activism as they should. But then, no other Left monthly covers activism as well as Z.

See, as I pointed out to Albert and mentioned on this list, it pays to read up on "the rest of the story." I'm sure that Albert is bewildered by the hostile attacks that his recent well-intentioned articles on Seattle have gotten. He's just trying to provide some perspective as a long time Leftist activist. I agree with him that the younger generation should read up on the history of the SDS and the Weather Underground. But starting off a discussion on tactics after Seattle by comparing the Eugene folks to the WU is just way off base.

I would be interested to read Albert's rewrite of his pieces after he bones up on June 18th and Reclaim the Streets and the Minnehaha Free State.

It was a shame that last night's 60 Minutes II piece on the Eugene anarchists didn't talk about the case of Rob Los Ricos. Rob is an old acquintance of mine, a guy in his late 30s, who participated in the June 18th anti-capitalist riot in Eugene. His mistake? Throwing a rock at a cop and then getting caught.

His punishment? Between 6 and 7 YEARS in prison. The Eugene judge who sentenced him said that she wanted to send a clear warning to ALL activists.

For that reason alone, if I had been in Seattle, I would have smashed a few windows too.

Wait until you guys hear about the new anti-protest laws the U.K. government is working on...

-- Chuck0

Mid-Atlantic Infoshop http://www.infoshop.org/

Leonard Peltier Freedom Month Executive Clemency For Peltier! http://www.freepeltier.org/lpfreedommonth.html

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Now! http://www.infoshop.org/gulag/mumia_idx.html

"A society is a healthy society only to the degree that it exhibits anarchistic traits."

- Jens Bjørneboe



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