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On Tuesday, February 11, 2003, at 11:10 AM, Nathan Newman wrote:
>
>> Matthew Snyder wrote:
>>> I'm not saying that it's wrong, it's just that forming a human
>>> chain at the mouth of a major tunnel seems to me, well,
>>> counter-productive.
>>
>> Of course it isn't counter-productive.
>> So, would you ask the same question about labor strikes?
>
> Yes, all the time in the case of public employee strikes. Measuring
> likely gains against likely disruption and alienation of the public is
> a constant discussion in such strikes.
>
> That you would even not reflect on that comparison with union internal
> debates reflects why this kind of action is so ineffective, since such
> basic questions of costs and benefits haven't even been discussed and
> planned for.
>
> And here's a big difference. When say the transit strikers in New York
> go on strike, their immediate employers are under real pressure to sign
> a contract to end it. In the case of New York, Bush has made clear
> that he doesn't care if it sinks into economic misery, so why should
> making its commute hellish effect him in the least?
>
> Why fuck up the lives of New Yorkers, who are probably more sympathetic
> to the antiwar cause that most places in the country?
>