>Speaking of which - and I think you mentioned this the other day -
>who needs rallies with interminable lists of speakers? The press
>release for the ANSWER gabfest in DC listed something like 55
>speakers! Who fucking cares? What is the point of an endless
>procession of windbags invoking every predictable phrase and cause
>ever imagined by someone left of center? Why does this style and
>structure persist? Does anyone really like that stuff?
>
>Doug
As people have noted, these rallies are televised in full on C-SPAN, and I do admit to watching the Sept. 29 anti-war rally, mostly because at that point I thought there was some news to be had about what people thought about it all.
Watching it, I was embarrassed for the left, thinking that if some random civilian stumbled across this on their TV they would wonder what planet most of these people were on. OK, I was wondering, too. There were a few good speakers, the NAACP president who got in hot water for speaking out against the war and his obvious, genuine struggle with that, others. I did NOT have that what-planet-are-they-on feeling at more localized or focused rallies like the Charleston 5 rally in South Carolina last summer. There, on another too-long speakers list, one found people speaking about their problems and how they thought they could be solved. The Republican Convention protest in 2000 was almost parody of the 'if it's 2:05 it must be Mumia' type rally. At least Billionaires for Bush or Gore were there.
Doug asks why the structure and style persists. I think it's the shortness of the speeches that leads to their inanity. Faced with 3-5 minutes what significant point--new or old--can one really develop? People fall back on cliches and haranguing, hoping something will stick. To give one of a list of 55 groups more time than another, of course, would require prioritization--the tough stuff. I don' t think anyone much thinks such prioritization is necessary, not to mention the obstacles even if there were the will. But it's clear the product would be better. Heck, the focus on Palestine saved this one, from what I can see, too bad it had to be forced on us.
No, the speeches do not make me want to go to the big mobilizations, and I don't think breaking it up with music helps--the sound is too poor. I'm all for more satire. But I recall that I did listen at the first two or three national rallies I went to (in the early/mid-80s -- I'm one of those scarce 30 somethings). At one of them Jesse Jackson told us to go back to our campus and sit in for divestiture from South Africa, so that sounded pretty good so we did it--the plan was made in the van on the way back.
Jenny Brown co-chair, Alachua County Labor Party 1720 NE 75th St. Gainesville, FL 32641 USA (352) 378-5655