slogans

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Wed Jan 30 02:59:41 PST 2002



>Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>>To reach at least some segments of the public, we have to do a lot
>>of _local_ activist work _before and after_ going to the demo. We
>>can't expect that the coverage of the demo in the corporate media
>>will be positive, even with the most innocuous slogans.
>
>Who said anything about the media? This is New York City, where
>there are, on any randomly chosen street corner, thousands of
>passers by. There aren't many places in this de-urbanized country
>where you can address so many people just by gathering on a corner.
>So if people walking through midtown - bankers, secretaries,
>messengers - see a group of people saying "burn your fucking banks!"
>they will certainly be alarmed. They won't have to wait for the 11
>o'clock news.
>
>Doug

The slogan you mention -- "Capitalism? No Thanks! We'll burn your fucking banks!" -- never resonated with me (and I imagine I'm to the left of 99.99% of Americans as far as endorsement of civil disobedience for a left cause and the like are concerned), so I think it didn't resonate with most passersby in _Seattle_ and other locations in the USA either. I figure that the slogan sounded cute to some, because it was clear that those who were saying it _never really meant it_. It was just radical posturing. Perhaps, the movement needs slogans that participants actually intend to put into practice (and not just in the WEF protest in NYC). -- Yoshie

* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>



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