Date: 9 Aug 00 13:31:33 CDT From: Michael Chisari <mchisari-AT-usa.net> Subject: Protest and Anti-Globalization. INTRODUCTION With the Republican convention protests behind us, it's my feeling that some very strong analysis needs to be done. This document is an attempt to get people talking about what went wrong, what went right, and where to go from here. It's obvious from the show of force in Philadelphia and the draconian measures promised for Los Angeles that the ruling elite takes us very seriously. Now, this is a good thing, because it's shows that we're on the verge of something big. However, this also means that they are willing to do just about anything to crush us, especially if they can do it early on, before we get too big. Because of this, we can not continue to go about things the way that we have been. If we do, they will run us down, burn us out, and bankrupt us. But just because we abandon our old strategies doesn't mean that the movement is dead, or even that direct action isn't valid. Non-violent direct action is still an incredible tactic to use, but the strategies in which it is deployed need to be revised quite a bit. Two things I'd like to note before I begin. First, I am an anarchist, so that is where my bias lays, although this document will be written with all kinds of groups and causes in mind. Secondly, not all of these ideas are mine, some of them have been acquired through discussions, email lists, and other sources. Do not get upset if you see on of your ideas written, everything I do is copylefted, so I don't own the rights anymore than anyone else. I wish I could remember the source of all these ideas, but that would be an excersize in futility. REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION First of all, what did we do right? Well, splitting up the convergence centers into puppet-making, training, and food, and spreading them across the city was a good idea. When the "Ministry of Puppetganda" was raided, it meant that people could still get food as well as receive training and have a safe meeting place at the other centers. We also showed an incredible ability to think quickly under pressure. The police were distributed throughout the city, expecting most protestors to be distributed. When a large contingent of protestors combined to form a march through the city, the police weren't able to amass enough officers quickly enough to stop us or even slow us down. >From a PR perspective, this march was a failure. Because our signs and banners were confiscated, and because a lot of property damage was done purely as a frustrated response to the police state (impromptu barricades, trashing police cars, burning flags, etc), we ended up looking like a bunch of angry hoodlums. Which we were. The problem is that the press never asked the question of why we were angry, which is a key question. But nonetheless, the march did provide something that was sorely needed at that point in the day, which was inspiration. The idea that we could "riot" through the streets, blocking traffic, smashing police cars, and tagging political grafitti all over the city without the huge police state having any option of stopping us was incredible, and I think the situation gave a lot of people inspiration to do things like non-violent blockades, whereas before the march, they may have been incredibly disheartened by the repression that was at every corner. Our level of communication was another win for our side, but we need to look into the possibilty of using hidden devices (earphones and necklace microphones) so that certain people aren't targetted by the police. But overall, I felt that our group was constantly being kept updated and knowledgable about happenings in our area. One last thing that we did incredibly well was satire and humor. >From the "Billionaires for Bush (or Gore)" to the Revolutionary Anarchist Clown Bloc, the use of humor as a tactic was done very well. I participated in an impromptu action called the "Coalition of Anarchists for Bush", the idea of which was taken from some Eugene anarchists who campaigned for the worst mayoral candidate on the ballot, in hopes of creating a greater anti- authoritarian backlash. I would recommend, however, that for the next event, groups like these do more to make themselves known. I'm not sure if they did, but a press conference for the Billionaires or the RACB would have made a really good impression. Now, what did we do wrong? Quite a bit, I felt. Most of it wasn't really our fault (such as having our propaganda and puppets destroyed by the police), but we should definitely learn from these situations. Puppet-making should probably be distributed greatly, with everybody making two or three puppets in their homes or other places around the city. As much as it is very convenient to have a puppet center, it's too easy for the police to obfuscate our message by destroying our propaganda. I also felt that organizations of meetings and trainings was not very good. A lot of meetings were cancelled or moved, and there was very little in the way of a concrete schedule. I also think that there should be a better focus on the parts of all groups participating to counter-act the media spin before the event. This can be done with press conferences, press releases, and even just plain flyering. I would recommend that protestors flyer around their home, explaining why they are going to protest. This means that a lot of people won't buy the lie that "protestors have no message", because our message will be right in front of them two weeks or a week before the actions even start. And lastly, as far as our strategy goes, I think we need to get more serious about it. How can we keep meetings public and open, and yet still maintain an element of surprise? Well, one method is to further use the affinity group structure, and to study strategies used in the Spanish Civil War, where the affinity group was basically created. We should also keep tabs on what kind of training the police are doing. This may mean some of us getting jobs as police officers or security guards or assistants well before the action. They infiltrate us, don't they? People studying military strategy, riot control techniques, and other aspects of the knowledge base of our opposition are good, so that people know what kind of actions to expect, and how to counter-act them. The reason Seattle worked was because we took them off guard, with a massive tactic that they had never seen before. What we need to do is rework or recreate those tactics in order to surprise them again. DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION Unfortunately, I cannot go to the DNC, so I will leave an analysis of it to those who can. FTAA PROTESTS IN QUEBEC CITY It's been a hectic year, to say the least. After numerous mass actions, incredible state repression, and a lot of political prisoners in need of funds, we all need a major break from large protests. This doesn't mean that we can sit back and watch television, it just means that we should be focusing on local issues and local organizing for the time being. I'll address those in the next section, but first I think we should think about what the next action should be. In April, 2001 in Quebec City, the Summit of the Americas will meet to discuss the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), which is an extension of NAFTA to all of the western hemisphere. http://www.wtoaction.org/ftaa.phtml This is an incredible opportunity for the anti-globalization movement. We have numerous advantages in protesting this that we haven't had since Seattle. First, this is an obscure meeting. Very few people will hear about it, because the news will do it's best to not really cover it. How many people would have heard about the WTO meeting? This is different from the RNC and DNC, because there, the major news networks already have decided on what they will cover and how they will cover it. It would take nothing short of a hurricane in order to get them to divert from their plan. The FTAA, on the other hand, is not the scripted kind of event that the RNC/DNC are, so the news networks will be much more open to the idea of covering radical protests. Second of all, there is this strong consensus from people of all walks of life that NAFTA was a bad idea. The US lost good jobs, Mexicans were pushed off their land and into crappy, badly paid versions of our jobs, etc. The only people who feel that extending NAFTA is a good thing are corporate CEO's, government beauracrats, and economics majors who sleep with a copy of "Atlas Shrugged" next to their bedside. The rest of the world isn't quite so enthusiastic. Third, the summit isn't until April, which gives us a lot of time to plan, build coalitions, organize, and most importantly, rest. We're not superhuman, if we don't slow down sometime, we'll burn out and the movement will die. This is what they're trying to do with the kind of jail sentences and bail set in Philadelphia right now. So, let's keep ourselves focused locally, but remember that April is a big opportunity to regroup globally and make some noise. LOCAL ORGANIZING Getting people politically involved means talking to them in terms of what affects them. We should focus on this greatly over the next year or so. For instance, a big problem out in the suburbs is boredom and alienation. A lot of kids go to expensive, corporate "raves" in order to aleviate this. A politically-oriented Reclaim the Streets festival would go a long way in reaching out to youth who are normally ignored as being apathetic, but mostly are just disconnected from the organizing that goes on in the large cities. This also touches on another tactic for local organizing. Don't underestimate the power of rural and suburban communities. Too much of organizing is done in large urban areas, but the problem with this is that it is very hard to get noticed in large cities. A demonstration where 300 people show up in Chicago will get a small blurb in the Chicago Tribune, if they're very lucky. A demonstration where 15-20 people show up in a small town of 10,000 people will probably get front page news in the local press, especially if radical tactics such as lockdowns or banner hangs, etc. are used. These places aren't used to any kind of activity, political or not. Getting front page coverage, and even being able to work with reporters and control the kind of spin they put on it is much easier in places where reporters are always desparately looking for news that's more interesting than a drunk driving arrest. Another method for local organizing is strike support. Even something as simple as bringing coffee to picketing workers and wearing a "Direct Action Network" t-shirt or something along those lines would go a long way to opening up communication in regards to the problems of globalization. More importantly, however, it reaches out to the rank and file union members, who are infinitely more radical and more accepting of radical tactics than the union leaders ever will be. Food Not Bombs or Homes Not Jails actions in areas with widespread poverty are also good for getting people and the press talking about the problems with modern capitalism. The basic concept of all of this is to find out what problems affect people and how direct action can be used to solve them, or at least alleviate them. The other issue is getting our message out. I'll talk more about IMC's in the next section, but for now I think there's something that's being ignored, and that's the idea of using tactics that normally aren't used outside of large protests or single-issue campaigns. For instance, during Seattle and Washington D.C., groups made a cover sheet ("Seattle Post-Intelligence", "Washington Mines") that addressed issues on the front page that mainstream corporate media wouldn't touch. They then went through the city covering papers and returning them to the newspaper boxes. This is a tactic that could and should be used on a regular basis, to address all kinds of issues, global and local. Banner hangs are another tactic. I know that Chicago has a lot of overpasses that are begging for a large banner that reads "RESISTANCE IS FERTILE!" or "GENERAL STRIKE!" or any other kind of slogan or idea that will get people talking. In the end, the point is to strengthen our forces, widen our base, and more importantly, get our message out before the press has the chance to accuse us of being void of any kind of message. STRENGTHENING INDEPENDANT MEDIA Given the nauseating coverage of the RNC on the part of the Philadelphia and national press, the necessity of creating and promoting independant media is staggering. We should take this time to increase the spread of IMC's all over the country and the world, and more importantly, we should increase the coverage to be more than just internet-based. Pirate radio stations, freely distributed papers, cable-access television, all these can be utilized to get our message out. Pirate radio and cable access are good options for reaching out to people who don't have access to the internet, and most importantly, people who don't have access to fast enough connections to make the raw footage of the IMC website capable of watching (which is basically everybody except for a few people with T1 lines). I think that if we continue trying to hold the corporate media to a standard of accuracy and fairness, we will only succeed in pulling our hair out in frustration. Independant media, it's promotion, and distribution should be a support role for those of us who aren't able to make it out to large protests. Promotion is a big thing. Letting people know that independant media exists should be a big part of widening our support base. Flyering, postering, bumper stickers, taking out ads in local newspapers, banners, all these things can promote indepedant media, and create a situation where people go to independant media for their news first and foremost. Distribution is another thing. Again, for those of us who can't make it out to mass demonstrations, we can get copies of the IMC newsletter mailed to us overnight, and we can either distribute them by hand, or slip them inbetween mainstream newspapers. Independant media is a fantastic resource for us. After the coverage we got on NBC/CBS/ABC, I showed some relatives and freinds coverage off of phillyimc.org, and it exposed them to a lot of accounts of brutality and fascist actions that the news refused to report. At some point, if we can make independant media strong enough, we will be at a point where we can ignore corporate media, and eventually work towards destroying the credibility of the corporate press completely. THE COUNTER-CONVENTION So, we have plenty to do in the short-term (building IMC's, grassroots organizing, etc), and something to look forward to in the mid-term (FTAA protests in Quebec City), but what about the long-term? I have a suggestion. In four years, they will have another set of conventions. They will be equally (if not moreso) corporate- controlled than those of today. They will be ridiculous dog-and- pony shows that will be scripted and rehearsed to death. They will include a large amount of rich, white males talking about "family values" and "compassion" while at the same time enacting policies and signing documents that destroy lives and communities. And I don't think we should protest. My hope is that in four years time, we will be at a point where we can simply ignore their spectacles, and hold a convention at the same time as theirs, yet far away from both corporate conventions. A convention that encompasses what we would truly want to see out of our society. But what can we agree on? Well, one thing that I've found talking to everyone from all walks of life is that they all pretty much can agree on the basic tenets of direct democracy, and community autonomy. Mention the idea of eliminating politicians, and 99% of the time, you'll get an overwhelmingly positive response. So, this is the focus of the convention. Direct democracy, community autonomy, and how we get there. This will bring in all kinds of people from Zapatista supporters, to the more radical Green party members, Black Panthers, to Anarchists, to Militia members, to union members, to even some Libertarians. And if we can get these people together, talking to each other, and working towards a basic common goal, not only will we get some incredibly international attention, but we'll show that we're not just about disrupting other people's conventions, but at the same time, creating a model of a new world. The idea is to keep the focus of the convention narrow enough so that people know what they're getting into, but at the same time wide enough so that dialogues can be opened about different issues. For instance, should police be democratically controlled, or do we even need police at all? The question should be discussed, but at the same time, the idea that the policing system should change should be understood by participants. How it is changed should be the big debate. Other questions are, how can we make communities self-sustainable? What technologies exist to do so? Is industrialized production worth keeping, and how can we dismantle factories and create a much more humane method of production? How can we minimize heirarchy within communities? How do we deal with the alienation that society causes that keeps us from simply talking to our neighbors? How do we move towards local economies that focus on family-owned business, independant contracting, and/or workers cooperatives? How do we undo the environmental damage that capitalism has done? And one of the biggest questions of them all, how do we get from point A to point B? Armed Revolution? Local elections? Massive civil disobedience? Systems of mutual aid? Or a combination of all of these things? If we can keep up the pressure against global corporate capitalism, but at the same time do our best to work towards an alternative society, I tend to agree with John Zerzan's assertion that most people will find themselves unwilling to defend the current social order. -- Michael Chisari mchisari-AT-usa.net "Got a revolution behind my eyes, we got to get up and organize..." -- Copyleft (c) 2000. All Rights Reversed. Last Revised: Aug 9, 2000. ____________________________________________________________________ Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.netaddress.com/?N=1
Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005