>Actually, I think Mark Ritchie is missing quite a lot, mainly because he spent
>so much time inside. I and many others have written extensively on the
>solidarity shown at the frontlines by Ecuadoran enviros fighting rainforest
>destruction and giant dam building schemes, Korean farmers and
>enviros, farmers
>and biotech activists from France, Ireland and Canada. Ritchie spent a lot of
>his time in the International Media Center harassing the French and the
>Ecuadorans for smoking. Solidarity, indeed, but please don't smoke on my
>parade.
I'm no antismoking zealot, so I can't get behind Mark's tobacco policing. But I find this notion that the only authentic place to be is at the "frontlines" a little disturbing. Why not a division of labor in a coalition? Why not ideological differences in a coalition? What kind of organization should exist behind and beyond the frontlines? What do people think about on the frontlines, and how do they know what they're fighting for? What should they do if they win, or lose, or draw? Enforcement of authenticity is at least as problematic as enforcing of no smoking laws.
Doug