...
> >Yeah. Do you think the march on parliament thing will work? I'm
> unconvinced.
> >The distance is too much to get enough people for an effective
> demonstration,
> >surely?
>
> Yes, it seems excessively ambitious, waste of resources busing people to
> Canberra. I think perhaps we might be getting past the point where marches
> are going to be effective in terms of influencing the government. The point
> of public demonstrations is, as I keep saying, to appeal to the public.
>
> In this case, the public is already largely on-side. Public demos are
> preaching to the converted. There is some good to come out of deepening and
> re-inforcing that public support, creating social bonds between the people
> who go to the demos, but it isn't going to have any direct effect on
> preventing the war.
I understand that it's not just about converting others, but building community, in the sense that some of the people/groups involved don't generally understand themselves to have common cause. But, yeah, waste of resources is a problem, but also diminished impact: extra marches may not do much more, but small ones after the really big ones are going to help others see the concern as more passing than it surely is.
> I think the time for direct action is approaching. It needs to start out
> small and conservative and escalate. Bob Brown is our man to lead that of
> course, he has the experience in organising the Franklin dam direct actions
> and he usually has a pretty good antennae for public sentiment. I wonder if
> he's thought of it?
Well as I think I've suggested, I'm a bit unsure about Brown's messiah role. I don't think he'd do that kind of thing now. He has other things on his agenda. The support of the protesters is clearly not only a reflection of his popular appeal (as mr conscience) but a big boost for him too. I don't think I'm misreading him. The more support he has the more cautious he'll be.
> > > So what was the "openly anti-French rhetoric" anyhow. He's really
> clutching
> >> at straws if he thinks that might get a guernsey.
> >
> >He said he was dissapointed in the French "obstruction", that it made
> >a "peaceful disarmament" of Iraq less likely (implying impossible) and
> >explicitly said France had always been jealous of America -- its rise to
> power
> >and its current power relative to Europe in particular.
>
> Where the hell did he get that? France is America's oldest ally. That sounds
> like American right wing paranoia.
Well, in a way. But France's more or less systematic attempts to defend "Frenchness" against "Americanisation" is part of this too, as well as the repeated attempts to restructure a "Europe", within which France is very powerful, relative to America-as-sole-superpower. Anyone else see Jay Leno interview Bill O'Reilly? A truly frightening display.
> And why the hell should Australians care
> anyhow, what on earth made Howard suggest that as a reason Australians should
> get involved in the war? It is more likely to re-inforce the strong sense
> that this whole affair is someone else's fight that we should stay out of.
It's heavily reliant on the belief that Americans are more like us than Europeans, and on certain legacies of WWII (America as "saviour", France as "collaborator"). A great deal of Howard's vision of Australia (Britain- Australia-America defend righteous Anglocentrism) is at stake in this, I think. Do those legacies, does that Anglocentrism, still mean as much as Howard thinks to the voting public? And, of course, there are the trade and military alliances that map onto that, but the bulk of people rarely vote for those.
> He's losing it. If he took his head out of George Bush's arse for a few
> minutes he might smell trouble.
I hope he is in trouble.
Perhaps I'm even more sceptical than I want to be, but I'm not yet convinced the "trouble" won't just, as Howard wants, disperse under the weight of our own comfort, and the idealised picture of "people like us" that makes the whole Anglo-American thing such a huge part of Australian politics.
Catherine
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