----- Original Message ----- From: "Chuck Munson" <chuck at tao.ca> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2002 2:58 PM Subject: Re: Up and down the road to a big anti-war movement
Nathan Newman wrote:
> A load of crap-- rallies and movements have had
marshalls controlling the
> fringe probably since Igor the caveman protested fire
inequality. When
> groups agree on protest behavior democratically
before an event, there is no
> "civil war" when groups violating that agreement get
shut down, just a lot
> of whining by those who have little respect for
others.
It's one thing when marshalls control the people who have agreed to the guidelines, another when they attack activists who weren't party to this agreement. This confusion caused alot of arguments on the streets of Seattle and even led to some pacifists beating on other activists. This is why I advocate that peace marshalls not be used in demonstrations, since they mainly exist to help the cops punish those who don't go along with the party line.
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This assumes all non-black block activists and CDer's are pacifists, a dubious proposition.
If anything, this tactic shows little respect for people who want to be free in their choice of tactics.
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Lets see, you want some to be free to do PD but you don't want others to be free to stop them. Mmmm, I'm puzzled big time over who get s to determine who is free to do their own thing at a demo.
There has been a conscious attempt by more moderate groups and coalitions to change the role of 'peace cops.'
=================
A good idea.
> If someone decided that their "do you own thing" idea
of activism was to
> take down names and hand them over to the police, I'd
shut them down too.
> Or would that violate their anarchist rights to
"multiplicity of activism"?
That's your choice. Most anarchists and other activists would have problems with that. This is quite different from an activist coercing another activist. In this example, you are actually turning over people to the clutches of the violent state.
It never ceases to amuse me when I hear of pacifists who turn other activists over to the cops. ===============
Again the dubious use of the term pacifist.
> This idea that movements should enforce no rules of
behavior is just
> individualist scab ideology. It's the idea that
democratic agreements mean
> nothing, that if you think you are more righteous
than everyone else, you
> can ignore their wishes and serve your own individual
idea of what to do.
I have two things to say to this. One is that you are assuming that activists who organize outside of a "protest guidelines" structure don't have principles and guidelines of their own. In practice, what happens among these groups is much more fluid and situational. The black blocs at the S29 protest in Washington and at the IMF/WB protests in Ottawa decided to de-escalate in order to not provoke the cops into attacking groups of people that including children and people who didn't want to be arrested.
The other thing I want to point out is how "official agitators" have always served to recuperate rebellion and dissent into something that can be controlled by the ruling class, the state and the authorities. Look at how the ruling class used the AFL-CIO to tame radical labor for example. Or how socialist groups latch onto the hot dissent du jour and try to force dissenters into their bureaucratic organizations.
Dissent in America is pretty tame, compared to the rest of the world. Those who wish to control it need to let their hair down and enjoy the times.
<< Chuck0 >>
==============
The times ain't enjoyable when avoidable violence is one of the results......
Ian
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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).