> The typical excuse I keep hearing for giving the WWP a headline role in
> the anti-war coalition is, "They already got the permits for all the
> good dates." Perhaps that's more a sign of how disorganized the rest of
> the left has become than anything else, and perhaps it'll go away if we
> do become better organized. I can't help thinking it's a pathetic excuse.
Actually, the rest of the left is better organized (see F15 earlier this year), but the rest of the left has to deal with this little thing called "democracy." When your coalitions practice democracy, it takes a little longer to get to the point of obtaining permits, when you discover...
...that the authroitarian ANSWER/IAC organization has already requested the permits months in advance because this is how they manipulate other activists. Perceptive veteran activists in DC can tell you all about how ANSWER operates. Their leadership determines when they are going to have a national protest. They typically pick a date around the time that they know other groups will be organizing protests, i.e. the annual protests against the World Bank and IMF. ANSWER (or the IAC) would request permits for the normal protest venues (Lafayette Park, etc.).
This strategy is pretty cleaver if you are a small organization which doesn't have to worry about democracy and coalition-building. If the date you pick is a week off the main protest which gets called by other groups, you make a big fuss about moving your protest to "work with the other groups." Even if the other groups blow you off, you can issue a press release talking about the unity between ANSWER and the other groups. When you are the group holding desirable permits, you become a player in the plans of the other groups. They are forced to work with you because you have all the permits. And to cap it all off, your allies on the police force play along with ANSWER and start talking about revoking permits. This creates a legal controversy which puts your organization (ANSWER) into the local news as THE organizer of the protests. This takes away media attention from the other groups and sets up ANSWER as the leaders of the movement.
You can call this "being organized." I call it disruptive, undemocratic, conniving, dishonest, and harmful to activism.
This is not a method of organizing that other activists should emulate.
<< Chuck0 >>
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"...ironically, perhaps, the best organised dissenters in the world today are anarchists, who are busily undermining capitalism while the rest of the left is still trying to form committees."
-- Jeremy Hardy, The Guardian (UK)