Nathan wrote:
>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.
Which, as far as I can see, and assuming that "the crazies" refers to Chuck and his gang, is a pretty dreadful calumny of the record of the Black Bloc. I don't think anyone can seriously disagree with the followin facts:
1. The TRIPS (trade in intellectual property and services) agreement on the table for discussion in Seattle was an incredibly damaging document which would have caused huge hardship, particularly in countries which needed access to patented drugs.
2. The TRIPS agreement which was later signed, while by no means perfect, was a substantial and real improvement on the Seattle draft.
3. The reason that the Seattle TRIPS was not signed, was that Seattle had been consumed by riots.
The obvious conclusion to me is that the riots gained time for the Third World negotiators, and gaining time and an opportunity to redraft turned out to be very valuable. Furthermore, it also seems clear that this time was only bought because there wa a riot; they would never have abandoned the Seattle round in response to a peaceful protest.
So I don't think we can escape the conclusion that there are thousands of people in Brazil and South Africa who may have a chance of life because someone threw a brick through a window, and that the Black Block are owed an apology by all the people who told them ad nauseam that their tactics were "counter-productive".
dd
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