> Unfortunately it's not just anarchists who have this problem. There's
> something seriously screwy about the whole Ruckus-style approach, which
> teaches how to rock-climb and set up tripods and get arrested but nothing
> about knocking on doors or phone-banking or, you know, talking to people.
> Seattle led a lot of smart people down a blind alley, IMHO.
Wow! More ignorant anti-anarchist crap. Why do you assume that anarchists and direct action activists don't have door-knocking, phone-banking and "talking to people" skills? Ruckus Camp is designed to teach people skills such as banner hanging and various forms of civil disobedience. Asking Ruckus to teach phone-banking is like asking some NGO to teach climbing skills in some backyard in suburban Maryland.
These comments rely on stereotypes of radicals that compartmentalize their skills. I'm all for teaching all kinds of skills to all activists. The thing to keep in mind is that people operate on different paradigms of activism. Some people like risky activism and others do not. I know liberal activists who sneak into black blocs and I know anarchists who abhor protest and street activism. And then there is the fact that people have different natural skills. I have one anarchist friend who is awesome as door-knocking and talking to strangers on the street about politics. I keep asking that person to share their skills with more activists. I'm a shy person, so I would make a terrible door-knocker or phone-banker, but I make up for this with other skills.
Chuck0