TOWARD A MAXIMUM ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT

[Marta Russell]

I witnessed some tired old demo control in LA on the 11th.  First the 
organizers seemed only to agree to unite to pull this march off if no 
one broke ranks and did any CD.  Seems the last event several NION 
folks sat down in the street and got the police angry. We can't have 
that! Blase Bonpane, of the Christian contingent of the organizers, 
said NO CD. The numbers of marchers was over estimated I believe. But 
also our efforts played to an empty downtown LA.  It was Saturday, 
the office buildings were empty, there wasn't much media. And the 
same old tired rhetoric, except for some good music from Burning Star 
at the end. They did have an intepreter for the deaf who was 
challenged when the two rappers started talking at the same time.  He 
did not know which one to sign for but kept the beat.

I'm 50 and been to lots of demos but I agree MORE has to be done.  It 
was as if the organizers wanted to prove to Washington DC and San 
Francisco that they could turn out some numbers in LA. A tiring 
rehash by Ron Kovic reminding us that his injury happened 35 years 
ago.......the man trapped in the wheelchair pity-thing again.  I can 
say that because I use a wheelchair too and have been disabled longer 
than Ron. Boring enough that most of those who had participated in 
the march did not stick around for the rally to hear Ron or any one 
else.  But perhaps it did give people an outlet for their 
frustrations. And there was a heartening mix of race -- lots of 
hispanics and black persons. Youth turned out too.  What did it 
accomplish, however? How do we measure it?

Marta


>TOWARD A MAXIMUM ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT
>
>FEBRUARY 2003
>
>Are you outraged with the US government's arrogant practice of 
>policing the rest of the world, yet are you leery of having your 
>outrage exploited b y obsolete Leftists for their own bankrupt 
>agendas? Are you pissed off that the US military is once again 
>bullying tiny Third World countries and preparing to slaughter 
>innocent civilians, yet are you hesitant to give any credibility to 
>the Paleolithic Left's claims to leading a mass anti-war movement? 
>Are you disgusted with America's imperial business-as-usual, yet are 
>you also bored to tears with the Left's protest-politics-as-usual? 
>There's a simple, do-it-yourself alternative that effectively 
>challenges the US government's military adventurism while denying 
>the fossilized Left its organizing and leadership pretensions. This 
>strategy is based on the idea that thousands of grains of sand can 
>cause even the largest, most powerful machine to grind to a halt by 
>becoming wedged in the gears and stuck between sensitive parts to 
>gum up the works. The goal of this alternative strategy is to put 
>our anti-war activism and movement to maximum effect.
>

-- 
Marta Russell
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.disweb.org