Direct Action at the Holland Tunnel RIGHT NOW!

Gar Lipow lipowg at sprintmail.com
Tue Feb 11 17:36:59 PST 2003


On: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 19:49:15 Chuck0 <chuck at mutualaid.org>

quoted loupaulsen at attbi.com as saying:
>
>
>>
>> This is not a new issue, and it gets argued out over and over every time
>> someone occupies an intersection or a revolving door.
>>
>> It depends on the context. If it were a new issue, if we were just starting
>> out trying to do the work of education, if it were something people hadn't
>> thought about, then this kind of action might well just turn people off.
>>
>> I personally don't think we are in that kind of time. If you go out and block
>> a tunnel over the issue of the impending war on Iraq, it's not as if it's
>> something people haven't thought about. I think that there is already a vast
>> amount of anti-war sentiment out there, we are very clearly at a crisis point,
>> and the point now is to mobilize that sentiment using a variety of means. At
>> a time like this, it is well worth sending the message that if we go ahead
>> with this war, there will be costs and disruptions, and that disruption and
>> direct action are appropriate and necessary.
>>
>> PARTICULARLY since they have suspended the First Amendment and outlawed non-
>> violent protest marches in New York.
>

Chuck replied
>
> All the more reason to engage in civil disobedience.

Chuck, it might be a good idea to read what you are replying to. Lou was AGREEING with you, supporting the action in Holland tunnel - saying that awareness is high enough that this is a good time for that kind of tatic.

I have a question for both of you and Lou since you agree on this. What good exactly does it do? A strike costs elites money. The disruption of ordinary folks lives is incidental. Generally CD and direct action do two things. They raise costs for elites and eductate the public. (Sometimes they also build solidarity within a movement.) Which of these three purposes does blocking the Holland tunnel serve, and how? This is not a rhetorical question; I am not in or from the NY area, so I have no idea of how blocking the Holland tunnel would affect elites. And while I can't think of how CD by 25 people will educate people or build movement solidarity, perhaps it does do one of these thing.



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