> Mass direct actions would be even better than mass actions plain and
> simple, but the Anti-Capitalist Convergence and the like would be lucky
> if they could get 2,000 out on their own; the unfortunately named
> "People's Strike," as well as the broader Mobe event, was a (literal and
> figurative) bust (Monte Reel and Manny Fernandez, "Protesters' Momentum
> Weakens as Crowd Thins," _Washington Post_, Sunday, September 29, 2002,
> Page C01,
> <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A17468-2002Sep28¬Found=true>).
> The police, having learned from Seattle and other prior mobilizations,
> can easily overwhelm ACC (and they did in DC). Direct actions in the
> USA post 9.11 have to be reorganized to become effective.
Yoshie: The goal of the People's Strike was not to mobilize a 100,000 people in the streets. It would have been nice to have seen more people involved, but that will take some time and more effort spent on local organizing. For what it is worth, the ACC's action and the police reaction to it, did manage to shut down the downtown area of Washington, DC. The authorities take the ACC seriously. You can cause alot of disruption with 2000+ involved in illegal direct action.
I don't see the Mobe action as a bust either, but it wasn't Seattle or Quebec City. Perhaps there would have been more people if the Mobe had talked more about Enron and the U.S. economy. Perhaps the number of protesters was about right for a movement that has been chugging along and has one several victories.
Lastly, Yoshie is way off base when she suggests that the ACC "would be lucky
if they could get 2,000 out on their own." The ACC includes many good organizers and is quite capable of organizing tens of thousands. It just sucks big time that all of our work last year went down the tubes because some assholes decided to crash some planes in the World Trade Center and Pentagon. If you remember, the police were estimating that around 100,000 would attend the September 2001 anti-WB/IMF protests and there was a buzz on the streets that this would be Seattle 2. Despite 9-11 and the change of venue for the IMF/WB meetings, the ACC continued with an anti-war protest that turned out 2000 people.
As a core organizer of last year's protests, I can't begin to describe what it feels like when you are two weeks away from "Seattle 2" and the world gets turned upside down. I don't think I'd wish those feelings on my worse enemies.
Chuck0
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"...ironically, perhaps, the best organised dissenters in the world today are anarchists, who are busily undermining capitalism while the rest of the left is still trying to form committees."
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