>------------------------------
>
>Message: 7
>Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 19:06:32 -0600
>From: Chuck0 <chuck at mutualaid.org>
>Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] M19 in New York City
>To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>Message-ID: <423E1E18.3060409 at mutualaid.org>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
>
>Lance Murdoch wrote:
>
> > Thank you so much for your comments. A young activist from Paris was
> > telling me the exact same thing a few weeks ago. I was one of those
> > thousands out in New York yesterday - marching to the Times Square
> > direct action and later attending the Central Park rally. The idea
> > that sitting at home and playing Nintendo will do more to stop the war
> > is in my mind nuts (although that's what this list's moderator
> > suggested).
>
>THE DAMN PROTESTS IN NEW YORK CITY WILL NOT ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING!
>
>Even the people who participated in them will forget about them within a
>week.
>
>The Bush administration, the ruling class, and the pro-Bush Americans
>don't care about these protests because THEY DON'T DO ANYTHING. They are
>mass exercises in standing around, listening to speakers from the WWP,
>and feeling like you've accomplished something. The war machine is not
>threatened by these rallies and as Doug pointed out, the pathetic
>numbers just make us look bad. The worst damage that comes from this is
>that it further disillusions those activists who have been sitting at
>home in despair. You aren't going to mobilize this base with the same
>old march and rally routine!
>
>Chuck
>
>
What do you think of the european style of protests. There are many other sites, but I like to scan the different countries indymedia sites for pictures. German indymedia, where the typical person is forced to think about politics more, seems to show perpetual antifa actions every week, every day- which largely take the form of marches. It's easy to get the sense that everyone knows the ritual because they have really nice printed banners, half in english, and there is a certain procedure that always happens. The police don't have guns, nobody looks that panicky about the water cannons when it escalates to that, but most events are just people marching with signs. The greeks tend to be the most insane, in my view, with more fire oriented things. Most U.S. sites have people uploading their photos and giving a line or two of explanation, while most of the german newswire is long written accounts and philosphizing, without pictures, and they all know to block out faces when they do - (compare to the youth at the bottom of this: http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/03/1728092_comment.php#1728549 )
The visual imagery over there can become really complex too - for instance the antideutsch : http://de.indymedia.org/2005/01/105472.shtml http://www.antifa-giessen.de/
Also, you can tell neo-nazis apart from anarchists by dress, but it would be difficult if you didn't understand all the social nuances. The nazis dropped the 'auslanderaus' emphasis and picked up the palestinian cause, so they will march flying palestinian flags, and then the leftists don't know what to do, so the antideutsch dress like the black bloc, but fly american, israeli and british flags and have some websites making palestinians out to be terrorists. There is also a lot of complexity with groups overlapping with communism etc. that you just don't see here, and they have lots of long meetings about it.
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