Oh The Waste
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 09/03/2008 - 12:17.
in
I am so angry and frustrated about what's happening in the Twin Cities this week. Not at the cops - obviously it's horrible what they're doing, but they're just doing what's to be expected of them. If you're surprised by their response to the protests, you've been deluding yourself about the state of civil liberties and freedoms in this country for the last 4 years, at least.
No, what I'm irritated about is all the wasted energy and resources and passion being spent by activists and independent journalists. Imagine all the other places and causes that could be aided by all that attention and effort. Not only protesters and reporters, but all the other 'support' for the protesters. For instance, this fragment from an indymedia report about some street medics from Portland who went to the DNC and RNC protests:
"...we treated hundreds of injured people and took into our care an unexpected number of activists with additional health concerns, both related and unrelated to the events, plus tended to people with various illnesses as well as some difficult cases with chronic conditions.
We treated injuries from pepper bullets, pepperspray, beatings, strangleholds, clubbing, cuts, scrapes, bruises, handcuff injuries, exhaustion, dehydration, heat illness, exposure to the elements, asthma attacks, psychological emergencies, and some serious medical emergencies.
That's so sad. It's great that those medics were around, but all of those injuries could have been avoided! They're all completely pointless problems caused by the decision to be out there on the streets getting beat up by cops.
Dammit, what if those activists, medics, and indy journalists all descended on a place that really needed their help, like Juarez for instance? They could escort women at risk of rape and murder to and from work, give medical care to them and their children, and make news reports about what they see. They could act as human shields when the police or army show up to abuse citizens. They could refuse to smoke any pot that comes from Mexico and they could form a posse to take down small time narcos and document the violence of the cartels.
That is just one example. They could also be in New Orleans helping people there in the aftermath of Gustav. There are numerous projects and causes available.
But instead these people go somewhere where they'll make absolutely ZERO positive difference. None of the people there for the convention, the replublican delegates and what not, are going to have their minds changed or swayed. Others out in the world might be, but they'll never see it because the mainstream media will never show it. And just as many might be swayed the opposite way, with all the reports of caltrops in the streets and broken windows. More bad press for anarchists and activists in general. So these people are not only doing no good, they also CREATE their own crisis because the cops of course respond as usual with extreme force, and then the activists expect to be helped and supported. Selfish, privileged dimwits, why didn't you people stay home so the medics wouldn't have to waste their time bandaging your meaningless wounds? So the videographers wouldn't be wasting tape on your sorry asses?
It's just so sad and maddening. And many saw it all coming. It wasn't rocket surgery to predict.
here we go again
A debate over proper use of our limited time, energy, and resources is all well and good, but lets try to avoid holier-than-thou pronouncements, huh? Sometimes people need to express themselves by hitting the streets, and your article is shifting blame for the violence from the cops onto the anarchists.
I personally do not partake in property destruction or streetfighting because i think being confrontational and nonviolent is more effective (i know property destruction isn't violent per se, but you know what i mean), but i'm not going to get on peoples cases if they chose to do engage in those tactics. I'll do my thing and let them do theirs.
besides, in reality there are plenty of the projects you want to see already being worked on. For example, I returned from a summer in Colombia with a number of NGOs doing human shield work and the leadership of say, Witness For Peace, for example, was early 30s anarchists who did their work via consensus and twinkle-fingers
The Catholic Worker community is a good example of anarchists (albeit christian anarchists) feeding and housing people everyday, but the community also supports its members who chose to commit nonviolent civil disobedience like crossing the line at the SOA or whatever.
along those lines, we shouldn't being doing THIS over THAT, but a little of BOTH, nah'mean?
We need a military wing and a social services wing. Just look at the Black Panthers or Moktada Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. They stand up in the streets and feed people, and its the combination of both that made their movements effective.
RE: Here we go again
If someone damaged my belongings, I'd consider it violent. Why is it different if the property that is damaged is public or corporate?
The way to dismantle the corpratists state is not to engage in petty street fights.
It is to organize as a political movement. Street anarchy will not attract more than .001% of the public...ergo it will not be a movement for change.
It is better to be planning the systems that will replace the unsustainable world we live in now. I find permaculturists being involved in riotous street actions to be really odd!
Yes, we need to vent our rage. But why get clubbed, gasses, tazed and stuffed in jail for it!!
i hear what you are saying
i personally do not believe property destruction and streetfighting to be all that effective either, but the same argument can be made for permitted protests and nonviolent civil disobedience. People are going to do what they are going to do.
as for getting our asses beat....look at MLK and how those dudes would show up to the lunch counters in suits and ties to protest nonviolently and then when they took the assbeating, people saw how fucked up it was, how the group that was supposed to be acting crazy was calm and dignified and the people that were supposed to be superior were acting like assholes.
thats why i think a nonviolent approach is better.....stay confrontational and then if we get our asses kicked at least it exposes the police state without anyone twisting it as "protest turns violent when anarchists throw teargas back at police" you know?
and as i stated in my original comment....we need a militant wing and a social services wing....combine both approaches.
and definitly build a political movement through grassroots organizing and educational campaigns and things of that nature, too.
as someone involved with the
as someone involved with the movment - I could not agree more
You obviously don't see the
You obviously don't see the disconnect in what you say....
The crisis Juarez will not improve by babysitting the poor underprivalaged citizens. Their lives are a symptom of the illness that these protesters rail against.
How do you stop crime (drug smuggling, prostitution, etc.)? You stop poverty. How do you stop poverty? You empower the people. How do you empower the people? You call out and change the people/political structures that exploit them.
No doubt that humanitarianism and service are needed, but the heavy lifting needs to get done for real change.