>On Behalf Of John Gulick
>
> My harsh remark about Global Exchange is based on 1) Medea Benjamin's
> controversial comments in the NYT in which she suggested the cops should
> have been cracking skulls of (OK, arresting) property-destroying
> anarchists
> in Seattle (while I don't think vandalizing and looting
> Starbuck's was terribly
> politically constructive, Medea's remarks were inexcusable, trying to
> build up the credentials of the "responsible left" by slagging a few
> rock-throwers),
John, this is ignorant idiocy. To even suggest that Medea said anything about "cracking skulls" is being libelous and politically irresponsible.
Do you know what Medea said the cops should have done with the protesters in the streets who she had helped organize? Arrest them too. You are depending on one distorted quote chosen by the mainstream media that was calculated to have exactly the effect it has had-- to get other activists to attack her while making sit-at-home types feel all superior.
Medea like a lot of activists severely criticized the police for doing their job badly. The leaders of the Seattle protests had expected mass arrests within the first hour or so; instead, the police first hung back, then charged with tear gas when they lost control.
But instead of reading the New York Times, maybe you should actually check with Global Exchange itself for what was said and happened. On their web page, they have a long discussion on tactics and the response to the window breakers. See http://www.globalexchange.org/economy/rulemakers/tactics.html. But the core of the statement on what Medea said was:
"When asked by a reporter what she thought the police should do with those who were destroying property, Medea responded rather matter-of-factly, "arrest them." After all, we all went to Seattle expecting to be arrested--but not to be terrorized by the police."
Pretty straightforward. In a series of interviews criticizing the police for terror and failure to arrest all activists in an orderly way, the reporter picked out a two-word comment where she said the police should arrest the window breakers, as opposed to the tear gas and rubber bullets being used on the nonviolent protesters.
As for this crap:
and 2) the fact that Global Exchange likes to build itself
> up as a super-militant Third World solidarity organization, when in fact,
> stealing the words of a very savvy leftist friend of mine, it is
> little more
> than a glorified travel agency for Volvo-driving Berkeleyites
> (but I suppose
> Global Exchange focuses on "reality tours" and selling peasant collective-
> grown organic coffee to First Worlders in order to have an independent
> funding base).
Global Exchange may pick up some money from such activities - which is a hell of a lot better than depending on liberal foundations - but the point is to educate activists through direct person-to-person contact. And the tours are a tiny part of GX's work. If you hadn't noticed, they are a core group training and educating activists, especially youth across the country, in anti-corporate tactics, leading corporate accountability campaigns, and organizing mass resistance like the Seattle protests.
Your "savvy" leftist friend is another idiot who thinks attacking other activists is a substitute for real politics.
> I do agree w/both yours and Pat's remarks about Kevin Danaher, though --
> a very astute, committed, hard-working, down-to-earth guy ...
Who would likely rip your lungs out if he read your message.
I was talking to him this morning, since I brought him out for the "Rebellious Lawyering" conference here at Yale to talk about the whole anti-corporate agenda. And we privately happened to discuss all the left attacks on Medea. I think he justifiably thinks the critics are a bunch of macho, sexist sectarians who choose to trust the New York Times and libel a committed left activist because it makes them feel so superior.
> Anyway, in the future on lbo-talk I will try to refrain from
> hair-splitting
> and tarring individuals and/or organizations purportedly of the "left."
Too late.
This is libelous sectarian crap.
-- Nathan Newman