from the nation

[Chuck0]

Nathan Newman wrote:
> As always, while Chuck and I disagree on the answer, we agree that serious
> discussion of tactics and organizing is more important than singing kumbaiya
> from rally to rally while ignoring the longterm context.
> 
> Rallies are all very nice but the reason a 3/5th of Democrats voted no on
> war with Iraq is that average folks in their communities told them they
> don't see the reason for war.  That probably comes far more from
> conversations with neighbors at the park than from inspiration from a few
> thousand people at a rally.
> 
> Rallies are to the left what war is to the right-- it's the hammer they are
> most familiar with, so they yearn that all solutions are the nail that it
> will solve.  But rallies are pretty marginal to social change and political
> persuasion.  They are useful for inspiring the troops and getting an
> occasional media splash, but they are far overrated.
> 
> And for that reason, subordinating serious political discussion in order to
> make a particular rally a "success" is the last thing I think makes sense.
> I happen to be in DC that weekend and will go down to the rally, but if
> anyone else spends the day knocking on neighbors' doors to discuss the
> idiocy of this war, their time will have been better spent than me.
>

While I dislike the Democrats, I agree with Nathan's argument that some 
Democrats voted against the war because they heard from their constituents. I 
made a similar argument recently in another forum. The anti-war movements 
will have an impact when they make dissent visibly on a local level. These 
small actions allow people to come out with their opposition to the war. They 
see that other people in their town think the same way and they get more bold.

I think that rallies do have some impact on social change and they can be 
radicalizing experiences, but I agree that they are far overrate. Being an 
activist in DC I'll underscore that "overrated" part with many lines. The 
Left has to make a break with lame strategies that focus on turning out 
people for some "national" protest in D.C. So much effort is put into these 
spectacles and the result is that the media ignore it and the activists get 
burned out. This is why I've been urging activists to think outside of the 
box. Want to protest a symbolic target? Go occupy a television studio or the 
offices at NPR. Go to K street and sit in at some PR firm's office.

We need to do more grassroots organizing. Rallies are needed right now 
because they make resistance visible, but that's only a start.

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."

                -- Jeremy Hardy, The Guardian (UK)