> Personally I incline to the belief that the most creative thing protesters
> could have done was skip this meeting without making a statement and hit
> the next one. It would have shown that they weren't tropistic, and it
> would have dramatically avoided falling into the waiting trap set by what
> I think was a very inspired (but one-shot) move on the WEF's part. And
> all without having to dilute their message a bit.
That's a good point. Any good tactician understands the option of not acting. It's foolish to reify tactics or patterns of tactics (which is why the black bloc decided to try and take over a closed hospital for the September protests).
This one was a tough call. We didn't have a lot of time to plan and many activists in the region were burned out from planning the big September protests that didn't happen. One factor that argued for doing the protests was what the more moderate movement spokespeople were saying after 9/11. When our own people are helping the media spin lies about the movement dying out, it's kind of baiting us to prove us wrong.
If anything, I think the WEF made a bad move in choosing to meet in the U.S. Whatever happens, more Americans will know who the WEF is, which is not exactly something that a secretive organization desires.
> But I have to admit, it brought a smile to my troubled face to read
> Chuck0's voice of sweet anarchist reason. And I have to admit further
> that my idea of the most creative tactical response is limited by the fact
> that tactically I'm not very creative.
Thanks!
<< Chuck0 >>
Infoshop.org -> http://www.infoshop.org/ Alternative Press Review -> http://www.altpr.org/ Practical Anarchy Online -> http://www.practicalanarchy.org/ Anarchy: AJODA -> http://www.anarchymag.org/ MutualAid.org -> http://www.mutualaid.org/ Factsheet 5 -> http://www.factsheet5.org/ AIM: AgentHelloKitty
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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).