a critique of the march on Sandton/Peoples' Strike

[Chuck Munson]

Marc Rodrigues wrote:
> (Thought I would throw this out there in light of the recent discussions.
>  Especially would like to see comments on this from Chuck0 and people
> who explicitly oppose his views on protests/tactics.)
> 
> The Washington DC Anti-Capitalsit Convergence (www.abolishthebank.org)
> has been organizing for "The Peoples' Strike" for quite some time now.
>  They have produced a lot of intelligent and well-thought-out background
> information and reasons as to wh they will be protesting the WB and the
> IMF come the end of the month, and they appear to be highly organized.
> 
> But I have some fundamental problems with the Peoples' Strike:
> 
> The nature of the type of actions being proposed (which I have heard
> explained in detail and which would be better left off the internet)
> basically limits participation in the September 27 protest against the
> WB and IMF to what I call "professional activists:" people who are well-experienced
> with this type of large summit protest (experience with direct action,
> familiarity with and belonging to the culture of "affinity groups," activist
> jargon and techniques) and who have no problem being arrested and staying
> in jail for an undefined amount of time.

I really don't want to say much about the ACC's planned actions, since I 
promised local people that I'd hold off on my criticisms until October.


> In recent days the subject of "summit-hopping" type activism and the
> entire nature of the "anti-globalization movement" (in North America)
> and its status as basically a movement of white priveleged youth who
> have the resources to go to Seattle, to go to Quebec, but who often times
> ignore injustice such as police brutality right in their backyards has
> come up, and I think it's a necessary discussion.

This is completely off base. I understand that these accusations are based 
on some sterotypes of the North American anti-globalization movement. In 
reality, most of the people who attend summit protests come from the local 
community and region. The accusation that the same band of people goes 
from protest to protest is simply untrue. I only know of a few activists 
who could claim to have been to most of the summit protests in North 
America and Europe. Here in D.C., most of the activists I know didn't go 
to Seattle. A few went to Quebec City, one or two to Prague, and a handful 
were in Genoa.

I think that the movement could do a better job fo drawing more 
participation from local people who aren't hardcore activists. This is 
changing slowly, but it is changing.

As for "white privileged youth," I've only met a few in the 
anti-globalization movement. If you want to talk about activists in the 
anti-glob movements who have money to do summit-hopping, you'd need to 
talk about the NGO activists who are funded to travel. Most of the 
activists I know have little money to travel.

Chuck0

------------------------------------------------------------
Personal homepage        -> http://chuck.mahost.org/
Infoshop.org             -> http://www.infoshop.org/
MutualAid.org            -> http://www.mutualaid.org/
Alternative Press Review -> http://www.altpr.org/
Practical Anarchy Online -> http://www.practicalanarchy.org/
Anarchy: AJODA           -> http://www.anarchymag.org/

AIM: AgentHelloKitty

Web publishing and services for your nonprofit:
Bread and Roses Web Publishing
http://www.breadandrosesweb.org/

"...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)