<html><body> <DIV>Chuck,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>You, and others, gripe about the tactics of mass, legal  demonstration of UFPJ and ANSWER, however  you cannot articulate anything that would be comparable in impact. Would letter writing to Congress give a better impact? Would a handful of young kids going on a violent rampage do the trick? Or, would spewing out conspiracy theory propaganda be more effective?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As far as civil disobedience is concerned, I fail to see  how the ritualized "c.d" we have grown used to over the past 30 years can serve to built a movement, It seems to me such things drain the movement of effort and expenses to pay for legal defense.   So you have activists sitting down on a  sidewalk and get arrested?  They can then brag that they got arrested this year at Livermore ,or where ever, and  feel good they made a personal statement. That is a far cry from the civil disobedience of the civil rights movement which, above all, MASS actions and deadly serious - with risks to life and limb. The point was to fill the jails and create an untenable situation for the local authorities that would compel a change. With thousands of people willing to do that, it could - and did - work.</DIV> <DIV>.</DIV> <DIV>I agree with the historian Deutscher that a good dock strike against a war is preferable to demonstrations.  But the unions aren't ready for that.  A mass civil disobedience of 100,000 people to block the transport of troops or of war equipment would be great, and I would  wholeheartedlysupport that. But we don't have those 100,000 people either. In the actually existing  movement, the options are either attempt to build the biggest popular demonstration  with the largest numbers to show the leaders and the world the breadth of the movement,  arrange to have a few dozen worthy saints get arrested by sitting on the sidewalk or wirte letters to congress people?  I personally would choose the first, as the best of some not very satisfactory choices. May be, as time goes on, as we get more and more people in the street, other, more effective tactics may available. Sadly, I don't think we are there  yet. SR</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>> <BR>> Nobody at ANSWER or UFPJ is even risking arrest when they organize these <BR>> permitted spectacles. This is my chief beef with these groups, because <BR>> their only strategy is to organize safe, permitted events. Perhaps we <BR>> should give them credit for doing this well, but they don't deserve any <BR>> kind of leadership role for this one note strategy. I would have much <BR>> more respect for an organization or coalition that was mixing up mass <BR>> protests with civil disobedience and other risky and non-risky tactics. <BR>> The Mobilization for Global Justice, for example, organized both <BR>> permitted rallies, educational events, and civil disobedience. ANSWER <BR>> and UFPJ, on the other hand, adhere to the leftist myth that simply <BR>> getting out more people to permitted events will make a significant <BR>> difference. <BR>> <BR>> Chuck <BR>> ___________________________________ <BR>> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk </DIV></body></html>