things.
Agreed. But I'm afraid that looking has to be specific to every new occasion: no general 'law' will cover the matter.
I think I've mentioned that the Supreme Court decision 'protecting' malls from leafleting etc was in response to a case we created in Bloomington in 1969 & the ACLU carried the appeal for us. That operation was carefully planned. First a picket of the local paper with a leaflet objecting to that paper's failure to cover the events than going on in Cairo, Illinois. Then 7 people were to leaflet in Eastland Mall, with strict instructions to stay in the corridors, not to enter any of the stores.
First fuck-up: Most of the SDS members headed straight for the Mall, rather than to the picket downtown at the Pantagraph. Hence no last-minute review of plans before enerting Mall.
Second Fuck-Up: Two of the people entered the stores and started handing out leaflets.
As it happened, these events did not damage or clutter the Court case, but they would have cluttered any subsequent follow-up had there been any. But that's another story.
And glancing back at some recent threads, someone will want to say that the Mall fuck-up shows the need for a "disciplined party." The trouble is, that in that case the whole damn thing wouldn't have happened at all because there would have been no one to carry it out. Probably had the SDS chapter here spent another wek or so in Consensus style planning, it would have gone better: but nothing could have prevented the Weatherman trash from doing their thing a few months later.So?
No, you don't give up -- but you still have to try to build a movement that will go on its way while 'carrying' a lot of trash on its back.
In the present case, that has happened actually; it had happened by a few weeks ago. Whatever happens to OWS now, they have changed the world and politics that were unthinkable a year ago are now possible. Others (including no doubt thousands who participated in OWS) have to carry on in various other ways. There is no rule book, never has been, never will be, for left politics.
Carrol