Doug Henwood:
> First of all, people who smash windows aren't "violence freaks." You
> may not like what they do, but it's pretty minor league stuff. By
> using that phrase, you're accepting the ruling class's perception of
> things. I can understand how the ruling class might, in their
> demented fantasies, see any challenge to their rule as a form of
> violence, but we don't have to play along. And second, what do you
> want "the vast number of activists" to do? Surround the
> window-smashers? Call the cops? 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?
However, the fact of breaking stuff as a regular thing will quickly be used by the government and the media for their own various purposes -- to portray a movement as made up of thugs and lunatics, to facilitate the insertion of agents- provocateurs, or to excuse police violence against persons, for example. I hope for more variegated, imaginative and humorous tactics which can be less easily turned by the opposition.
-- Gordon