> I'm not referring just to them, but really to the folks who like the battles
> with the cops, like the violence and the tear gas. I've been to enough
> demos to see that faction- heck, I probably have a small strain of it
> myself, which is why I recognize it easily. Window-breaking is often a
> shadow parody of more real violence, but it's often acting out that fantasy
> (safely) as much as making a political statement.
Thank you. The support for property destruction is quite widespread in the movement, although many of the mainstream folks keep their support in the closet. It shouldn't surprise anybody that the NGO-run Mobilization for Global Justice was going to take the money it got from the AFL-CIO to by ladders for the black bloc (at the September anti-IMF protests that were called off).
More extreme and militant tactics make the reformists look more palatable to the other side.
> >And second, what do you
> >want "the vast number of activists" to do? Surround the
> >window-smashers? Call the cops?
>
> A big yes on one. No on two. I am a big proponent of "peace police"; every
> union rally has one. I think it is the responsibility of those advocating
> alternative social institutions to demonstrate that their alternative is not
> a lawless one, but a more just and democratic vision.
I'll make one thing clear right now. If there is an increase in the number of peace police at anti-globalization protests, moderates like myself will call for activists to treat peace cops like regular cops. Police yourself if you want, but leave me and my friends alone.
> >And third, don't you agree that it helps the "vast number" of activists
> that there
> > are some crazies around, to whom they can seem like reasonable
> alternatives?
>
> No.
>
> The crazies are not enough of a real threat to cause actual fear in the
> corporate class-- other than creating the minor inconvenience of moving to
> safer venues, but gated communities are a price the corporate class are
> quite willing to pay. So the crazies are not even the potential threat
> sometimes used by moderate forces to extract reformist concessions. They
> had a small public relations advantage of pulling attention to the initial
> protests, although even then that was counterbalanced by their absorbing the
> media oxygen of the actual message, and that more damaging effect outweighs
> any potential positive with each new action.
What do you mean by crazies?
<< Chuck0 >>
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INTERNATIONALISM IN PRACTICE
An American soldier in a hospital explained how he was wounded: He said, "I was told that the way to tell a hostile Vietnamese from a friendly Vietnamese was to shout ‘To hell with Ho Chi Minh!’ If he shoots, he’s unfriendly. So I saw this dude and yelled ‘To hell with Ho Chi Minh!’ and he yelled back, ‘To hell with President Johnson!’ We were shaking hands when a truck hit us."
(from 1,001 Ways to Beat the Draft, by Tuli Kupferburg).