>________________________________
>From: Gar Lipow <gar.lipow at gmail.com>
>To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>Sent: Saturday, November 5, 2011 6:57 PM
>Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Occupy Oakland's imminent implosion and the wider effects
>
>On Sat, Nov 5, 2011 at 4:33 PM, Slacker Faction <fubar1999 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Chanting possibly "Whose protest? Our protest!" There must be a creative
>
>I want to be clear that the following is describing not advocating.
>But in some of the immigration marches in Seattle a few years ago, an
>anarchist with a black flag ran up in front of the march to "lead" it.
>He (you probably already guessed it was a he and not a she) was
>surrounded by burly men in union t-shirts and persuaded to drop back
>and join the march as a normal participant. I was too far back to
>hear the means of persuasion used, but he dropped back rather quickly.
>
>Since my father passed away over a decade ago, I can describe another
>case. When he worked in a wire factory as a UE shop steward in the
>50's , when the factory went on strike a particular sect of
>Trotskyites would show up at the picket line, and throw stones to
>provoke violence against the strikers, then run like hell to let the
>strikers take the consequences. This is nothing against Trostyites in
>general. Assholes come in all ideological stripes. The way this was
>dealt with was to beat the hell out of that sect when it showed up
>without waiting for stones to be thrown. If you want to call that
>policing you may, but it was the stone throwers who were doing the
>police's work for them.
>
>Violence today against the Black Bloc would be very counterproductive
>and contrary to real points of unity among the protestors. But I think
>taking SA's idea and adding a bit of an edge, I think the chant
>should be "Police agent! Police agent". Even if they are not
>consciously agents it is true that they effectively they are police
>agents - doing a job the police pay infiltrators and informers to do
>on occasion. And no this is not civil discourse. It is a non-violent
>way of retaliating against an enemy, not against an ally gone wrong.
>Let them have the dilemma of either saying nothing and letting the
>charge stand, or denying that they are police agents and reinforcing
>the charge. It context of their actions that is more than fair.
>
>--
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>Grist Blog: http://www.grist.org/member/1598
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>
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