>Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 15:39:18 +0000
>From: James Heartfield <Jim at heartfield.demon.co.uk>
>Subject: Queen's Speech, NSPCC, Nice
I don't know if James wrote this or he's forwarding something but in either case
>NICE RIOT, BUT WHAT'S THE MESSAGE?
>
>Showing an admirable indifference to law and order, young people rioted
>in Nice outside the European Union summit. The Nice riots come after a
>year of protests at world business and political forums since the
>protests at Seattle. But onlookers could be forgiven for asking, what's
>the message? The protestors' indifference to the law is matched by an
>indifference to gaining a wider audience for their views.
This is the BIG probelm with using the media as your source for information about the movement. The reality is that all the protests have included large and well attended counter-summits to which the media were invited and at which a mixture of names and ordinary activists discussed their vision for an alterntive world and other messages. I know I was one of the speakers in Prague (as an activist), the texts of my talks are at http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/andrew.html
Amazingly not only does the media not cover these events in the hundreds of hours coverage they give (at least in the case of Nice) they also turn around and accuse the protesters of not knowing what they want. And people who rely on the media for their analaysis echo this! The truth is we are not rich, we don't own major papers, TV or Radio so our ability to 'gain a wider audience for our views' is limited to internet sites like http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/wsm/global.html and to whatever printing we can afford money and time to.
>At Nice protestors clashed with members
>of the Front Nationale, who sought to join in the demonstrations. Though
>the anti-capitalist protestors reject fascism, their message echoes the
>far right's hatred of everything foreign.
What complete nonsense - the protests are composed of 'everything foreign' in that they never consist simply of people from the host country but also people from a huge range of other countries. Again see my talks for why we are against their globalisation but actually represent a globalisation of our own - something nobody objected to!
>At a recent public meeting in London, anti-capitalist spokeswoman Naomi
>Klein was at pains to reject the charge of economic nationalism. But her
>protests only underline the point. Where the enemy is seen as the
>foreign influence of global capitalism
So a Canadian speaking in London against capitalist globalisation was really speaking in favour of British capital and against foreign (including Canadian) capital!! These are not _national_ mobilisations, they are international ones and in that context there is no 'foreign' capital and no 'national' capital.
For where we want to go see also http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/wsm/statements/nice2000.html
Andrew
***************************
International anarchism http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/inter.html
Issues-> http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/revolt.html Me + PGP-> http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/andrew.html
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