The tea party movement is shrinking mainly because of strong opposition to the tea parties. The largest tea parties of the year are held nationwide on April 15th also known as Tax Day. Attendance at tea parties is down 70% from last year. The demise of the tea party movement is a good thing for oppressed people here and in other parts of the world. The American right-wing created the tea party movement as a way to take over the government and impose their fascist agenda on everyone. The tea party is a loosely organized coalition of right-wingers, and as such, the tea party movement, with the exception of the state, has been the single largest and most organized enemy of radicals, leftists, progressives and anarchists for the past year. The collapse of the tea party makes it easier for us anarchists to overthrow the state and capitalism. Because the tea party movement has been defeated the chances of a real revolution happening in the near future have
been significantly increased. We can and should try to fill the vacuum created by the collapse of the tea party movement.
The tea party offered no utopian vision of the future instead the tea party offered us a glamorized version of the United States in the 19th century which in reality was a nightmarish dystopia for people of color who were enslaved in the South, Jews, Catholics, women, gays, factory workers, the mentally ill, the poor and all the indigenous people who were forced off their land and killed by the US military. Fuck that shit. The last thing we need is a return to the barbaric past.
This article is different from other anarchist writing because it contains a lot of numbers. Many anarchists aren’t used to reading stuff like this but we can’t rely on outside sources to collect the data we need. These statistics are important to us because we need to know the effectiveness of our tactics. In other words; we need to know what works and what doesn’t. The tactics used by anarchists and leftists recently to fight the tea party movement are similar to the tactics of Anti-Racist Action. About three weeks ago an article called “Crash the tea parties!” was posted to anarchist websites and also sent to hundreds of right-wing websites, listserves, blogs and message boards. The right-wings reaction to this article was really fearful. All of a sudden the threat of disruption by anarchists was the only thing on the mind of right-wingers who were going to attend the tea parties on April 15th. Fear of anarchists hit a record high. This fear
of anarchists and other counter-protestors caused many people to avoid the April 15th tea parties contributing to a 70% drop in attendance compared to last year. The anarchist riots against the G20 in Pittsburgh, the attacks on nazis and other black bloc actions gave the right-wingers a big reason to fear anarchists. Counter-protests against the April 15th tea parties did take place in at least 20 cities around the United States last week. These counter-protests were organized by local coalitions of anarchists, socialists, progressives and other leftists. This is a perfect example of successful tactics. Here we have a tactical model that obviously works. First, a call out to crash the tea parties was sent not only other anarchists and radicals but also to thousands, possibly millions, of people in the tea party movement. Second, counter-protests against the tea parties took place in cities all over the country. Some of the counter-protests themselves
were well publicized by local media in the days before April 15th. The next nationwide tea parties are planned for July 4th and September 12th.
METHOD ONE: tea party attendance determination.
The ten largest American cities are listed here starting with the largest city. The number of people at the April 15, 2009 tea parties and the April 15, 2010 tea parties in these cities are shown here for comparison.
1. New York City, New York 2009: 5,000 source: http://wcbstv.com/local/anti.tax.protest.2.986142.html 2010: 2,000 source: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/ny_is_tea_party_country_8RotVz2MdWvavncfcMJKxK
2. Los Angeles, California 2009: 2,000 source: http://www.gaypatriot.net/2009/04/16/santa-monica-tea-party-report/ 2010: 80 source: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/04/237095.php
3. Chicago, Illinois 2009: 5,000 source: http://cbs2chicago.com/local/tea.party.rallies.2.1634859.html 2010: 1,000 source: http://www.myfoxillinois.com/dpp/news/illinois/04152010_nearly_1000_attend_chicago_tea_party
4. Houston, Texas 2009: 4,000 source: http://www.click2houston.com/news/19187364/detail.html 2010: 1,000 source: http://www.houstonpress.com/slideshow/tea-party-at-discovery-green-29701489/
5. Phoenix, Arizona 2009: 5,000 source: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2009/04/16/20090416teaparty0416.html 2010: 2,500 source: http://www.azcentral.com/community/pinal/articles/2010/04/16/20100416tea-party-tax-protest-sev-0417.html
6. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 2009: 200 source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/us/politics/16taxday.html 2010: 200 source: http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/At-The-Tea-Party-90966509.html
7. San Antonio, Texas 2009: 20,000 source: http://www.mytexasmag.com/news/patriots-take-peaceful-stand-san-antonio-tea-party 2010: 400 source: http://www.statesman.com/news/texas/tea-party-protests-smaller-than-last-years-but-570930.html
8. Dallas, Texas (Dallas-Fort Worth combined) 2009: 14,500 sources: http://teaparties.wordpress.com/tax-day-tea-party-results/ http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/041509dnmetteaparties.d8880855.html 2010: 8,000 source: http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/politics/Lone-Star-Tea-Party-Still-Piping-Hot-91003049.html
9. San Diego, California 2009: 500 source: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/apr/16/1n16taxday235125-tax-protesting-tea-parties-sweep-/?metro&zIndex=83193 2010: 30 source: http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/apr/15/activists-hold-anti-tax-tea-parties-san-diego/
10. San Jose, California 2009: 2,000 source: http://teaparties.wordpress.com/tax-day-tea-party-results/ 2010: 750 source: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14895232?nclick_check=1
METHOD ONE RESULTS
The total number of people at the April 15, 2009 tea parties in the ten largest American cities was 58,200 and the total number of people at the April 15, 2010 tea parties in the ten largest American cities was 15,960.
15,960/58,200=0.27=27% 100-27=73 April 15th tea party attendance is down 73% from last year.
METHOD TWO: tea party attendance determination.
The cities in which the twelve largest tea parties took place on April 15, 2009 are listed below. The number of people at the April 15, 2009 tea parties and the April 15, 2010 tea parties in these cities are shown here for comparison. Largest April 15th tea parties in 2009, source: http://www.surgeusa.org/actions/teapartycrowds.htm
1. Atlanta, Georgia 2009: 15,000 source: http://www.cbsatlanta.com/politics/19184864/detail.html 2010: 5,000 source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/us/politics/16rallies.html
2. Chicago, Illinois 2009: 5,000 source: http://cbs2chicago.com/local/tea.party.rallies.2.1634859.html 2010: 1,000 source: http://www.myfoxillinois.com/dpp/news/illinois/04152010_nearly_1000_attend_chicago_tea_party
3. Indianapolis, Indiana 2009: 2,500 source: http://www.fox59.com/wxin-taxpayers-protest-government-s-267347,0,6625121.story 2010: 2,000 source: http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=12315097
4. Saint Paul, Minnesota 2009: 10,000 source: http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=618746 2010: 500 source: http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=848223
5. Kansas City, Missouri 2009: 5,000 source: http://kansasmeadowlark.com/2009/04/16/kansas-city-tea-party-at-liberty-memorial/ 2010: 3,000 source: http://www.nbcactionnews.com/news/local/story/Tea-Party-rally-attracts-thousands-to-ballpark/iUTcK3OGY0mZ0LiAL7hVCQ.cspx
6. Saint Louis, Missouri 2009: 10,000 source: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1655693/10000_attend_the_st_louis_tax_day_tea.html?cat=22 2010: 500 source: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/5A489A6054B6C583862577070015F0B0?OpenDocument
7. Albuquerque, New Mexico 2009: 7,000 source: http://newmexico.watchdog.org/2004/albuquerque-tea-party-one-year-old-and-going-strong/ 2010: 9,000 source: http://www.3592.com/onlinedb/kkimam/docs/NewsWeather%2004-16-10.pdf
8. New York City, New York 2009: 5,000 source: http://wcbstv.com/local/anti.tax.protest.2.986142.html 2010: 2,000 source: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/ny_is_tea_party_country_8RotVz2MdWvavncfcMJKxK
9. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 2009: 1,000 source: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_620772.html 2010: 2,000 source: http://kdka.com/politics/Pittsburgh.tea.party.2.1636344.html
10. Nashville, Tennessee 2009: 3,000 source: http://timesfreepress.com/news/2009/apr/16/tennessee-tax-day-tea-party-draws-big-crowd/?local 2010: 200 source: http://www.whnt.com/news/sns-ap-tn-xgr--teaparty-tenn,0,4501427.story
11. Houston, Texas 2009: 4,000 source: http://www.click2houston.com/news/19187364/detail.html 2010: 1,000 source: http://www.houstonpress.com/slideshow/tea-party-at-discovery-green-29701489/
12. San Antonio, Texas 2009: 20,000 source: http://www.mytexasmag.com/news/patriots-take-peaceful-stand-san-antonio-tea-party 2010: 400 source: http://www.statesman.com/news/texas/tea-party-protests-smaller-than-last-years-but-570930.html
METHOD TWO RESULTS
The total number of people at the April 15, 2009 tea parties in these twelve cities was 87,500 and the total number of people at the April 15, 2010 tea parties in these twelve cities was 26,600.
26,600/87,500=0.30=30% 100-30=70 April 15th tea party attendance is down 70% from last year.
Counter-protests against the tea parties on April 15, 2010. This is not a complete list of all counter-protests.
Boston, Massachusetts http://www.thefoxnation.com/justice/2010/04/15/watch-counter-protesters-disrupt-boston-tea-party Sterling Heights, Michigan http://www.sourcenewspapers.com/articles/2010/04/21/news/doc4bcf1d890eb05777029809.txt New York City, New York http://www.workers.org/2010/us/nyc_raleigh_0422/ Raleigh, North Carolina http://www.workers.org/2010/us/nyc_raleigh_0422/ Morristown, New Jersey http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20100415/UPDATES01/100415073 Chicago, Illinois http://cbs2chicago.com/local/tea.party.counterprotests.2.1634841.html Salina, Kansas http://www.saljournal.com/news/story/tea-party2010-04-16T03-01-59 Madison, Wisconsin http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=192997 San Francisco, California http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/04/19/18645071.php Oceanside, California http://www.leftcoastrebel.com/2010/04/left-coast-rebel-photo-of-oceanside.html Issaquah, Washington http://www.issaquahpress.com/2010/04/20/tea-party-activists-and-opponents-rally-in-downtown-issaquah-2/ Seattle, Washington http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2010/04/post_4.php Olympia, Washington http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/04/16/1149986/tea-partiers-draw-crowd-in-olympia.html Fort Lauderdale, Florida http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20100416044253815
Tea party websites, so you can spy on them: http://taxdayteaparty.com/ http://www.teapartypatriots.org/ http://www.reteaparty.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_protests
Crash the tea parties links: http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=crash-tea-parties http://anarchistnews.org/?q=node/10946 http://www.anarkismo.net/article/16210 http://www.crashtheteaparty.org/ http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/04/13-7