[lbo-talk] nuts watching nuts (smashing windows)

Jim Devine jdevine03 at gmail.com
Mon Jul 11 14:57:49 PDT 2005


Chuck: > ... The dismissal of radical protesters as agents
> provocateurs is mostly a myth spread by pacifists who refuse to
> recognize that there are other activists who have no reservations about
> using violence and property destruction.

I don't think anyone on LBO was dismissing "radical" protesters as agents. Rather, they were pointing to those " who have no reservations about using violence and property destruction" as being self-gratifying and/or destructive to the movement.


> ... Undercover cops are normally reliable, quiet fake activists. A common
> misconception is that loudmouth activists are cops. Actually, they are
> just loudmouth activists.

some of them may well be cops, especially with people like Ashcroft and Gonzales in the AG seat.

me: > > BTW, what good does it do to break a window of some store (e.g.,
> > Starf*cks)? ...

Chuck:
> It's good for several reasons. On the one hand, you are taking action
> against a manifestation of capitalism. If you want a world without
> capitalism, you have to start taking it apart somewhere.

sounds like "thinking with your blood" more than with your brain.


> More
> importantly, destruction of a Starbucks shows people that their is
> resistance happening in say, the USA. ...

and it associates a serious issue (the opposition to corporate globalization) with infantile tactics.


>... The anti-capitalist and anarchist movements were gaining more members
> when they were engaged in militant actions at summits and elswhere.
> Contrary to what some people argued about the actions turning off
> people, they had the opposite effect. People flocked to the movements.
> Now that summit protests are less frequent, the growth of the movement
> has been much slower.

of course, lots of other things were going on that might have caused the alleged change in trends.

-- Jim Devine "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list