>I've been an activist and anarchist for over 15 years. I cut my eyeteeth
>on South African divestment protests and got arrested for civil
>disobedience. In 1986 I was arrested duing an anarchist riot in Chicago
>(Haymarket 1986) for disobeying the cops. I'm all in favor of just about
>every strategy that was used in Seattle, from the town meetings to the
>street occupation to the window smashing. My experience as an activist
>has shown me that one should not limit one's toolkit. You can't use the
>same socket wrench for every situation.
ditto. why you had to find disagreement is, i suppose, your problem. i said i didn't disagree. i spent considerable amounts of time defending the seattle anarchists. so give it a rest; you don't have to convince me. i'm not a boomer either so please save that for someone else too. i think smashing windows has very little value, symbolically. don't give a rat's ass about the betrayal issue either. i'm talking about use symbolism in different ways, in ways that can be just as unexpected and dangerous--particularly if you take something of "theirs" symbolically speaking.
>Folks may feel uncomfortable with the window-smashing, but they do have
>a visceral hatred of the Wall Marting of their communities.
well tell me what do youthink ought to be done with this contradiction. include in that how you understand that relationship to walmart as it really is for a lot of people.
>I think this is why the Seattle actions disappeared from the screen and
>papers of the boss media so quickly. They could have easily spent weeks
>demonizing the anarchists and street occupiers as backward anti-American
>elements. They didn't do this. Why? Does the ruling class understand the
>threat that Seattle poses to their ruling ideology, the one that say
>that history has ended and that capitalism is the logical outcome of
>eons of human history?
i doubt that it's because they were afraid of it. rather, i think it's more likely that everything passes pretty quickly when it's only value is that of the Spectacle. if all anyone wants to do is get attention rather than building community and the technical, networking, resource infrastrucutre that's needed to sustain a long term struggle then i wish you lots of luck.
kelley