[mbs] I agree labor could and should have done more, with a few qualifications.
I bumped into a number of staff people there that I knew, so enthusiasm was lacking at the top, not necessarily in the bowels of the 'bureaucracy.'
Second, there wasn't much more a bigger crowd could have done, unless you think they would have participated in civil disobedience. We shouldn't forget that the demo basically forced the police to shut down and fence off 88 city blocks. There wasn't much you could do without charging the police lines. I call that a victory. The labor movement's not at the point of committing to mass civil disobedience yet, and busing in a ton of people wouldn't have changed that. Of course, the leadership could have made a good point by getting arrested.
Regarding the Labor Party, at the 'wrap-up press conference' on C-Span held by Movement for Justice, they said the LP had played an important role in the organizing, and they had Tony Mazzochhi speak. So maybe the LP was more of a factor than evident.
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I'm getting pretty sick and tired of people
denouncing the N30/A16 activists as "young white kids."
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[mbs] I think I only said that once, so your patience is short. In any case, I still think, given the people involved, that "Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Bloc" or "Black Bloc" is a little pretentious. That's not quite a denunciation. They also seemed a bit humorless. They should all read Revolution for the Hell of It and loosen up a little.
I was glad to see one of them carrying a sign that said "Read Chomsky".
mbs