conventions

[Chuck0]

Christine Petersen wrote:
> 
> Are any of you going to the republican or democratic conventions? What are
> your feelings about the protests?
>   I'm really wondering about the judgment of the GOP of choosing
> Philadelphia. That city has to be at least 80-85% not republican within the
> city limits. So many of the wealthy people left that my friend is renting a
> whole floor of a nice house for about $275, while my slumlord is charging
> $500 for a room w/o windows or heat in my rooming house here, where she has
> come over every day this week w/o notice and is sanding off the lead based
> paint all over and leaving it to us to clean up. anyway, minor tangent.
>    I want to go to Los Angeles in August. But Gray Davis, who has cited
> Singapore as a model of law enforcement, is spending millions on
> 'counterterrorism'. And there is somehow less imminence involved with facing
> Al Gore vs. the WTO.
>   I think Geov Parrish (Seattle Weekly, ETS!) is right is saying that 'we'
> need to keep evolving in strategy, like the police are. #1 would not be
> storing supplies in one central location (puppets signs u locks) is anyone
> even thinking of doing barricades this time? That wouldn't necessarily be
> such a good idea because we should take advantage of the fact that there
> already will be tons of media there, whereas at WB/WTO, those were
> previously essentially secret organizations that wouldn't have made the
> front page at all.

I think when it comes to the conventions that there will be a
mutliplicity of opinions. Just the very nature of the target makes it
hard for reformists and revolutionaries to work together.

I'll just guarantee that there will be lots of chaos. Chicago '68 will
look like a church picnic. I get the sense that many young people are
itching for a fight.


>   It seems inconceivable that activists coming could ever agree on any
> central theme or message, although it would be great if people could come up
> with a good clear way of saying 'they're lying to you. listen to us, we make
> more sense'. It seems impossible to pull that off. Somehow, I've noticed
> that at recent events in California such as a Mumia march, sectarian
> communist groups have made up the bulk of people. In Berkeley, the
> spartacists can actually have more people represented than any liberal
> group. Cultlike as they are, they actually bother to show up. It would be
> bad if they were the biggest visible presence outside either convention.

Well, that's because the authoritarian communist groups have taken over
the Mumia movement, for the most part. Somebody made a decision or two a
couple of years back that grassroots community coaltions were not the
way to go and that the commie groups could provide reliable,
well-disciplined foot soldiers who take orders and don't question.
Anybody who attempts to criticize the movement is immediately labeled a
guvmint agent using COINTELPRO tactics.

I could go on, but many of you have heard me kvetch about this before.

Don't worry, their numbers at the conventions will be insignifcant
compared to other groups.

<< Chuck0 >>

This was the year *everything* changed.

      -- Commander Ivanova, 2261

Mid-Atlantic Infoshop    -> http://www.infoshop.org/
Alternative Press Review -> http://www.altpr.org/
Practical Anarchy Online -> http://www.practicalanarchy.org/

Homepage -> http://flag.blackened.net/chuck0/home/

"A society is a healthy society only to the degree 
that it exhibits anarchistic traits." 

        - Jens Bjørneboe