> But by post-Genoa period it had increasingly came to seem to me that the
> whole movement was capable only of a sort of forced (i.e., stunted)
> growth. That was focused when (on another list or lists) I read posts
> from activists talking about how the decision to hold some "global"
> meeting in some isolated location in Canada "plated into our hands" (not
> exact phrase, but something like that) because there was _such_ limited
> access that it would be easy for small numbers of activists to block the
> delegates from getting there. I don't remember the details accurately
> enough to claim accuracy here, but whatever the details were, my
> response to them at the time was that a 'movement' with this kind of
> thinking was not going anyplace. The prominence of the various 'black
> blocs,' not only in the demonstrations but in leftist discussion
> afterwards reinforced my feeling that this was a movement was made up
> (MOSTLY) of activists with with no base.
Actually the movement has quite a base, which was demonstrated in post-Seattle protests where more people converged on central locations. One very important thing that is often forgotten about Seattle is that is was just one protest during a day of protests around the world. And Seattle followed on the heels of J18, where hundred of protests had happened around the world.
I haven't been able to put my finger on the exact reasons for the decline of anti-globalization protests in the U.S. One big factor was that our momentum was disrupted by those assholes who flew them planes into the World Trade Center. Another factor is that we have managed to win quite a bit and have managed to spread our messages to large portions of the population. When the pundits are talking about how globalization is on the ropes and activists can see how US unilateralism has torpedoed globalization, there is less of incentive to protest. And then there are the liberals and NGO and unions who are working very hard to make sure that the movements don't do anything that falls afoul of their agenda.
> And most importantly -- I _never_ heard any reports of mobilizing demos
> and forums in localities prior to the big demos or well attended and
> reported and widespread local support demos on the day of the big
> demos.
Sorry, Carrol, but most of the old school American Left was caught by surprise when Seattle happened. This is one of the reasons why the radical left in the USA has become so irrelevant. They talk about being down with the people, but they were so clueless that they weren't even hawking papers at Seattle.
You may not have heard of any mobilizing demos or forums, but that doesn't mean that they didn't happen. The organizing for Seattle/N30 didn't exactly follow the pattern of left activism either. There was a lot of local organizing for Seattle and there were a bunch of N30 rallies around the country. I went to one that day in Lafayatte Park, where we set up a forest of stumps to depict our opposition to clearcutting.
I've spent alot of time collecting materials on N30 and J18. In fact, I was running a live newswire during the Seattle protests.
http://www.infoshop.org/no2wto.html http://www.infoshop.org/june18.html
Chuck0