Gar Lipow wrote:
>
> 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.
I think you misconceive what such actions do. By themselves they are nothing. But they add up. And they add up to a very strong message to the 'powers that be': How much disruption of "civil society" are you able to take?
That isn't quite the right way to put it. As Lou pointed out, the key thing is the stage we have reached. I think he is right: in the nation as a whole we have reached a point where it is necessary to point out (by actions first, and only subsequently by words) that "life as we know it" will be continuously disrupted if the war continues. And yes, that does mean disrupting life for innocent people -- ordinary (non-elite) people. It is not only violent warfare that generates "collateral damage." Peaceful protest does also.
To give a microcosm. Back in the mid-60s the issue in Normal, Illinois was (a) a fair-housing ordinance and (b) establishment of a human rights commission. A brilliant black grad student organized the protesters in groups of about 20 (and this was from a total of over 500) and sent them off in all directions on _side walk_ "marches" (they were merely pedestrians, obeying the traffic laws, etc.) But the town of NOrmal was filled with four way stops. And the marches were at the afternoon rush hour. It paralyzed the town. It didn't cause any trouble for a single "elite" person. It probably really ticked off a lot of "ordinary people." It took two weeks to get everything the marchers wanted.
A large enough movement can cause that kind of trouble for a whole nation. The education will consist merely in revealing to more and more people (even if they become more vigorously pro-war in the short run) that people do have power.
Incidentally, this is no defense of Chuck0's strategies. In this case his strategy and an intelligent strategy both select the same particular tactic. But Chuck0 and others like him, who are objectively provocateurs though they don't intend to be, raise a tactic to a matter of principle. He is right this time in the proverbial way in which a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Carrol