[lbo-talk] Activistism and the RNC and DNC protests

[Arash]

With the criticisms brought up in the Activistism piece in mind, I was
wondering what opinions people have on protests planned for the Republican
and Democratic conventions this summer?  If there was central message to
those protests in 2000 I think it was that working within the current party
system was futile and that if progressives/radicals wanted to see real
progress on leftist goals they needed to go beyond it, building third
parties, organizing more radical movements, advocating direct action against
the status quo, etc.  Considering how much of a Bush-must-go sentiment there
is on the left for this election, I don't think protesters could draw on
this message very effectively again. Building leftist movements well outside
of spineless political parties is as important as ever but I don't think
that saying both parties are equally bad or even highlighting their
similarities are going to resonate as well as it did in 2000.  My guess is
that protesting the DNC this year won't sit that well with a lot of leftists
so that protest will be small and then for the RNC protest there might be a
large turnout but it will probably come off as being just anti-Bush rather
than as a rejection of party politics.  Having big demonstrations at both
conventions in 2000 seemed to send a clear message about the failures of the
political system as a whole, if the protests turned out to be as lopsided as
I think they'll be, I'm not really sure what they'll communicate, we really,
really don't like George Bush?  I guess I am in the GW sucks crowd but it
doesn't really seem like something worth marching for, and it seems a little
degrading, getting uncomfortably close to the rhetoric of partisan liberals.
So I'm worried they'll be no ideas behind these demonstrations, that they'll
be another in the series of protests guided by the mantra of action, to be
out in the streets even if the reasons for being out there aren't quite
clear.  I still plan on attending just because the protests from 2000 seemed
to have real impact, maybe not so much in reaching the general public but
definately in consolidating a movement for left activism after Seattle.
Even if orientation of these protests continue to be about action at all
costs, I feel that's still definately an improvement over what little
activity there was too plug into before.

Arash