Quiet Protest planned ror Bush Inauguration

www.turnyourbackonbush.org

spread the word!

 

How about some LOUD, DISRUPTIVE protests, as well?

 

I will be at the inauguration, and I have very legitamite reasons for doing so! I am covering the events there for a very legitamite periodical! I AM A DOCTOR OF JOURNALISM! I will be bringing my Samoan attorney, despite his racial handicap he is a crackerjack pilot........ok....maybe not a doctor........would you believe undergraduate student of journalism?...........minor in women's studies?????? Anyway, I'll be there, recording the madness and writing it for anyone who cares to read.

 

Unfortunately that never causes anything but trouble. If protests could somehow be quiet and peaceful, I think they would be a lot more productive.

 

I think there is a time and place for each. For the most part, marches against the Iraq war have been quiet and peaceful, and have also been IGNORED. Protests against the Vietnam war didn't start to have a real effect on public opinion until they threatened to tear the country apart.

I think it is time for a broader approach and more use of civil disobedience and other disruptive tactics. This country is so far down the road to fascism that "asking nicely" isn't going to accomplish a damned thing, I'm afraid....

 

that goes aginast the point. sometimes loud and possibly violent does less good than anythign else.

 

This is a really tough question, as there may be no right answers. But my own opinion is changing. Lord knows we have done a lot of loud, angry demonstrations. I am beginning to think that clenched fists in the air and angry faces shouting slogans down the street makes us look like fanatics out of control to Joe and Jane mainstream who are sitting in their living room watching their TV. It is they we have to get to if we are to win. This is not Vietnam, the tens of thousands of dead GI's and the images of Vietnamese burned bodies, the naked kids running down the road with the skin burned off..also contributed to the end of the war back then.

This time it is way different. There is NO media (which is why I started my peace blog at http://www.templedragon.net) showing any graphic images of what we are doing over there (In Afghanistan and Iraq).

I am beginning to think that the Ghandian and MLK approach is WAY more powerful and effective at creating change. If we were to silently sit down, respectful but absolutely committed to our principles, demonstrrating peae while we opposed the actions of our government...it would be impossible for them to twist it around.

Everey time we "fuck shit up" WTO style (I live in Seattle) we empower the police to obtain assault rifles and riot gear, we lose the hearts and minds of many Americans who only see the broken windows (many of businesses that were gay owned and supportive of our cause until we trashed them). No, we need to BE the peace we wish for. The right wing uses the images of anger and property damage against us effectively. We had millions march last february 15th and it had almost no effect at all.

We need numbers, and most Americans will not get involved until the marches are civil and peaceful. But it is not an easy issue, and I imagine therte is a time when we must get agro, I don't think that time has come to use aggression as an effective strategy to end the war, or the insidious and evil illegal Bush administrtation. But I understand the arguments on both sides. I just choose the Ghandian one these days.

Peace and justice, in solidarity, Viv-

 

Why do people constantly confuse "disruptive" with "violent"? Even movement people who oughtta know better?

I am a firm believer in nonviolence, but also a believer in adopting tactics that disrupt the status quo and prevent "business as usual" from going on. The techniques of Ghandi and MLK were EXTREMELY disruptive. Large peaceful marches which apply for permits weeks in advance are easily ignored. Large masses of people sitting down in the streets and blocking traffic are NOT. People writing letters to their congresscritters get nowhere, while someone airdropping leaflets over capitol hill would certainly get noticed! Standing on a soapbox on a street corner gets you branded a "kook", but broadcasting the same rants over a pirate radio station attracts a much wider audience. Talking about inequities in the workplace might get you fired. Organizing fellow workers and chaining yourselves to the factory floor shuts down the entire fucking system! It's all a matter of how stuff gets done....

By shunning these kind of techniques as "violent", you let the ruling class dictate the terms of the struggle, which will result in a perpetual circlejerk which accomplishes NOTHING.

 

it isnt the protests that change things.... it is the organization.

take the Civil Rights movement.. now of course there is still a long way to go from there, and that will be an ongoing fight.. but it did have great effect because it was so organized.. there were boycotts, they had organization and that is what scared the government.. if the government see's us more than just people yelling and screaming outside of the whitehouse, things might change. because they just think we're a buncha panzies out there protesting... but since there is sucha large number of us, if we found a way to get organized then the government might listen once in a while... then there might be some hope.

 

"By shunning these kind of techniques as "violent", you let the ruling class dictate the terms of the struggle, which will result in a perpetual circlejerk which accomplishes NOTHING."

Ellis, my good brother, I apologize if you think I was referring to those things you mentioned as violent. I was referring to the actions that took place in Seattle during WTO, I thought I was clear on that, I guess I was not. Breaking windows and stuff, which was only done by a small handfull of folks, some of them possibly govt provocateurs ained at discrediting our voice. I consider property damage to be violence. Not the strateies you outlined above. Had toy mentined those things specifically before? Perhaps I missed them.

Like I said, it is a tough issue. I tend to think that all strategies combined may help the best. Sometimes it is helpful to have someone even more radical than yourselves, as so to make your position look that much more moderate, to allow you a voice. I was hopeful that the sanity of Dean dnd Kucinich would make the corporate wimpiness of Kerry look more mainstream against the BushReich, but this election has created a right wing more militant than any I have ever seen before.

That's why I am mocing away from the anti-war movement and towards the peace movement. We have to be very careful of what images we are handing their media on a silver platter, IMHO.

So I son't think we disagree at all, Ellis. I also agree with Thriftshop Sweater (what a cool handl, lol). Organization is everything. I think there are so manmy hotheads these days, i.e. the blach clad anarchos and such, that it would be very difficult to pull off Ghandian style actions unfettered by extremism in demonstrating. At Seattle Hempfest we have been very successful because we have a terrific organization, 1,000 members strong, and we basically have control of the event (not to the point of shutting down someone's free speech, but we can dillute someone fairly easy with our message if need be).

The left needs to have this dicussion everywhere. We must figure it out or we are going to be royally fucked, as will all coming futuree generations.

 

Hey man, I agree with you completely. I also agree with the person talking about how being disruptive is not the same as being violent. How true, how true. Too bad I can't be there...man, I'd love to be there.

 

Remember during the 2000 IMF Washington protest, the cops were lowering their facemasks and getting ready to attack 35,000 totally peaceful protestors, and finally they all began to chant en masse, "Take your facemasks off!!" and so help me if the cops DIDN'T BACK OFF!!!! They backed down because THE WHOLE WORLD (especially a lot of PRESS) WAS WATCHING!!!! Just keep watching, documenting, reporting, clicking. taping, witnessing. The one thing the bastards won't do is to get caught doing it!!!!:XJust document the hell out of them!

 

:H

:H Sometime it is necessary to be loud and disruptive ...Bullies don't respect peaceful tactics...have you ever been bullied...does your tears and pleads for mercy ever help..NOPE...they like the power of your weakness...
Sometime you have to take a stand even if it means your ass will get stomped into the ground...if very brave people did not understand that... the courage that make up the humanity would not exist...
If you don't stand for something...you can fall for anything..peace out and within

 

One day in my journeys I hope to meet a righteous people like yourself...This spliff I puff is for you...peace out and within...

 

As a veteran of the peace and social justice movement for the last 20 years, having planned, organized, marched in, emceed, and partipating in hundreds of protests of various sorts...it all comes down to strategy. Protests I have organized, or which I was a principle organizer of with others, have shut down the freewway (3 times), closed the federal building for business in Seattle ('91) for 5 days, produced crowds that ran 10 blocks long marching, and annually bring almost 200 thousand people. I have some experience in activism and protest.

The point of protest is multiple. You want to get media attention to promote your message/cause. You want to show other people who share your views and concerns that they are not alone, therefore eboldering them and increasing the size of the active movement. You want to speak clearly to the powers that be that you are watching, and that you do not agree with their policies. But all that is meaningless in you cannot invoke change.

Protest is to make a change happen, usually in public policy. You can march around all day long banging drums, blowing horns, chanting slogans, shutting down traffic, and there are times when that activity is appropriate and effective. I think.

After all these years my thinking has changed radically. When I was younger I wanted to participate in loud, disruptive and confrontational protests. Why? It was fun and exciting. It made me feel alive, and I was angry, and the actions made me feel good. I cared about the issues dearly, but looking back upon it alot of my motivation was about me.

Now, after seeing what worked and what didn't for us and others, I am changing my views. Also, America has changed some. It has moved very far to the right, and the media no longer has any autonomy. The mainstream media is a tool of the status quo, either by the osmisis of the marketplace or by design because some right wing person owns it.

Now I want a protest to CHANGE THINGS, not just prove a point or make a lot of radicals feel good. Feel like they at least did something...and it is for that reason that I feel that it is often worth having a demonstration even if it just adds vitality and energy to the activists doing it. But they can be counter productive.

Images of angry people yelling and screaming, clenched fists in the air, look to people sitting in their living rooms eating dinner like a bunch of rabid, hysterical fanatics, often. One of the reasons you are out there is to gain support for your cause. You want to change people's minds, bring em over to your side.

People being unpeaceful in the name of peace is ludicrous. Angry peace protests are an oxymoron, as difficult as it is to not lash out, you lose a lot of power when you do. I am more and more in favor of Ghandian and MLK style protest.

IT TAKES AS MUCH OR MORE BALLS TO SIT IN SILENCE AND NOT BUDGE IN THE FACE OF AUTHORITY AS IT DOES TO LASH OUT AND RETALIATE. AND IT REQUIRES MUCH MORE INTERNAL STRENGTH TO PEACEFULLY PROTEST.

If you are peaceful and quiet, or orderly and civil, it becaomes impossible for the cops or anyone else to justify to the media of the public beating on you, dispersing you, arresting you. They have no excuse, When you break one window, throw one rock, or act threatening in any way they have a blank check to fuck with you all they want.

It comes down to strategy. If you are peaceful, and will not budge, and are willing to go to jail for your cause...then people who are not as radical as you will be more inclined to consider your issue and message.

If you are angry and yelling and especially if you are fucking shit up...most people won't give you or your message the time of day.

Imagine, if 50,000 people had sat down in the street, in silence, in NYC during the anti-war protests last feb 15th, that would have been so powerful. It would have made front page headlines.

What would they do? They cannot arrest everyone. If you do it ghandian style, and don't fight back, just sit there, you have them.

They are prepared for any level or kind of violent situation, but they are trained for and prepared for almost no peaceful scenarios. There is a time that a person must stand and fight, depending on your spirituality. Some times you must kill or be killed, or stand up to tyranny with your life. It is up to the person.

I am quitting the antiwar movement forever. I am joining the Peace movement. I will be called names by the more radical folks just like I've been called names by the right wingers. But in the end I will know that I have not advocated for peace by breaking the peace, and canceling out the message before it has had a time to reach anyone.

I still respect my counterparts who choose a different approch...there is no one right way. But there is a way that is right for one person, and the peacful path is right for this hippie, for now, under these circumstances.

Above someone mentions Vietnam, and that it wasn't until there were violent scenes in the street that things started to change. Well, there were tens of thousands of our guys dying then, and hundreds of thousands of vietnamese.
Under this scenario today, such violent protests would be way counter productive. After WTO in Seattle the police now all have machine guns and tanks and shit. They never had that before the WTO protests.

Do the math.

Peace, Viv.