I've been lurking on this list for months, but now I'd like to post quickly re: my experiences in DC. I won't give the whole spiel, just some general impressions and notes:
- the slogans and banners were decidedly left-radical. There was no sign of Left-Right conciliation on the ground.
- the slogans and banners were decidedly internationalist. I saw and heard little about 'national sovereignty' and alot about international solidarity. Also, militance was general, and not just confined to the RACB.
- the RACB was disciplined, and seemed quite young.
- the cops were in control. They also did alot to fuck with the protestors. For instance, at a convergence site on Sunday, motorcycle cops were circling, firing blanks into the air. For another instance, I was holding the line all day at 20th and Pennsylvania, where we had our backs facing the cops. On a couple of occasions they geared up, drove up some motorcycles and a bus, got out the gas canister gun and the pepper spray canisters, and had the chopper hovering just over head. I almost peed in my pants.
- the girl power was tremendous. I'd guess that the women outnumbered the men overall, and they certainly out-chanted and out-danced them. Or maybe I'm biased because I'm into girl power myself.
- the civilian population didn't seem unfriendly.
- many of the protestors were pretty vague on why they were there. Some (esp. on Monday) seemed more like tourists than revolutionaries. (One of my affinity group partners took off at the first whiff of pepper spray, taking my bag with him. I wasn't pleased.)
- the militant wing is indespinsible. Window smashing really isn't so terrible. Without it waiting in the wings, the 'soft core' protestors would too easily incline toward symbolic protests, permitted marches, and general purpose Woodstock shit. After all, Woodstock shit can be fun, and the cops can be really really scary.
One note about Monday: somebody on the list said that it was a flop. I was on the ground at 20th and Penn (my fav. spot in DC, apparently) as long as anybody was there, and I had a different impression. First off, I don't think that the move against the barricade was only or mostly RACB. Maybe it was - I couldn't see very well. However, it was not spontaneous or violent in any case - actually, the police had been warned that the move would be made. When the 'arrestables' gave up, it was through a negotiation that specified that they would walk through the barricade before they were taken, and all officers had to take off their masks and put on their badges (if they'd happened to bring them). The arrestables, while including some of the blacks, included many people who were not. Maybe it would have been better to sit it out, but by that time support was dwindling because everyone had been rained on all day. And the move was powerful symbolically - breaking the barricade separating us from the mechanisms of transnational financial control. I think the press missed that part.
Overall, my impression is that this movement is turning more revolutionary, popular, and international, and less green-malthusian, local-fetishistic, and reformist. Hopefully it will put big labor in a crisis that culminates in the final purge of the evil spirit of Meanyism. Then all we have to do is bury the Dems and we're finally getting somewhere.
Still a little high, David
----------------------------------------------------------------------- David Jennings SSS II | Agri-Services Labs CAES, UGA | (706) 542-5350 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "It was like masters and children. You didn't want to cross the man who provided your bread and butter." - a Kannapolis NC textile worker