Date: 19 Jun 00 10:10:14 MDT
Subject: Civil Disobedience and Rave Culture


 CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AND RAVE CULTURE
 or, How To Fight For Your Right To Party

 by NULL, of the Malatesta League (malatestaleague-AT-usa.net)


 Over the last couple years, "civilized" society has found a whole 
 new enemy for the war on drugs.  Raves were originally underground 
 parties that were cheaply available, centered around dancing, 
 technically illegal (no permit was attained), and existed for one 
 night only.  People would come together, dance the night through, 
 release their bottled-up energy, and then go home and await the next 
 workday.  For a while, everything was good.  And then came the 
 police state response to the peaceful gathering of young people.

 The truth is that busting raves is not about saving people from 
 themselves, or noise complaints, or "disorderly conduct" or any of 
 that.  It's about making sure that our right to assemble doesn't 
 exist.  The status quo was threatened by these upstarts who dared 
 consider the idea that people should be free to gather for a night 
 of cheap, easily accessible fun.

 The police came in, they arrested who they could, they intimidated 
 by passing bogus "anti-rave" laws or ordinances, they created a 
 culture of fear that intended to make sure people stayed lawful and 
 abiding in the privacy of their homes.  Who needs social 
 interaction, dancing, and music when you've got MTV, NBC, and CNN?

 And for the most part, ravers listened.  Raves became corporate and 
 "legal", and now cost anywhere from $30 - $50 each.  Gone is the 
 multicultural attitude based on Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect.  
 It's been replaced with a homogenized environment based on Money, 
 Money, Money, and Money.  The whole basis of a rave has been lost.

 What if people fought to bring it back?  What if people stood up 
 for their right to assemble?  What if people resisted and fought 
 back?

 There's ways to do this, methods that after a half a century of 
 trying to subvert, the governments and police departments of the 
 world still have no real way to combat.  It all goes back to civil 
 disobedience and how to non-violently protest.

 Imagine, if you will, a rave out in the middle of a small mid-
 western town.  The town itself has a total of about 8 cops on duty 
 at any one time.  They show up to bust a rave, expecting to arrest 
 about 10 or so unlucky ravers who weren't able to run away.  But 
 yet, when they get there, posturing with their lights and their 
 badges and fancy automobiles and machinery, people don't run.  
 People sit down.

 And they refuse to move.  They lock arms and non-violently resist 
 arrest.  If the cops manage to pull them out of the crowd, people 
 go limp, so that it takes two or three cops to drag them to be 
 arrested.  With a large crowd, it could take hours before everybody 
 has been moved.  As this is happening, the press and the media show 
 up, and take pictures and give interviews with non-violent ravers 
 who are simply struggling for basic rights.  Lawyers are contacted 
 to come and observe police behaviour.  As soon as the first few 
 people are arrested, some people may decide to get up and sit 
 around the police car or bus to make sure that they can't leave.  
 All the while, mainstream society says to themselves, "I thought 
 that ravers were supposed to be apathetic kids who only cared about 
 drugs.  What the hell is going on?"

 The police may leave and give up.  At this point, these ravers will 
 cheer louder than they ever have when they see the power that people 
 hold when they stay together.  But, the police may come back with 
 re-enforcements.  It has happened before, but all is not lost.  In 
 the end, someone has to foot the bill.

 When and if everybody ends up in jail (where will they even hold all 
 these people?), the police find out that every single one of them 
 has no ID on them, and they are all refusing to give their names, 
 instead choosing to excersize their right to remain silent.  Further, 
 everybody insists on seeing a lawyer, and waving their right to a 
 speedy trial.  This is a small town, who is going to foot the 
 incredible bill of arresting, jailing, housing, feeding, processing, 
 and bringing to trial a huge amount of peaceful ravers?  How many 
 times will this have to happen before the system takes the path of 
 least resistance, as most systems inevitably will do, and decides to 
 let people party in peace?

 This is an option.  Some people might be reading this, saying to 
 themselves, "They're just raves.  They're not worth all this 
 trouble," and I say that they are.  Because raves represent the very 
 basic right of people to assemble, have fun, socialize, and do all 
 of this without paying large amounts of money to corporate, "legal" 
 interests.
 
 Groups exist that can give guidance about peaceful protest, non-
 violence, civil disobedience, legal support, jail solidarity, etc.  
 If raving as a political statement appeals to you, get in contact 
 with groups like the Direct Action Network, Earth First!, or other 
 radical organizations in your area.

 And remember:  when we lose our right to have fun, society will 
 crumble.  And it won't be pretty.

                                            NULL, Malatesta League
                                            malatestaleague-AT-usa.net


____________________________________________________________________
Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.netaddress.com/?N=1