Let's all thank the radicals!
by John S./fwd from Rocky Mountain Indymedia | 18.02.2003 19:09
In the wake of the successful demonstration in Colorado Springs yesterday, many of the news reports covering the event have alluded to unhappiness by some involved in the demonstration with the light civil disobedience (entering the street) carried out by some of the radical folks participating. I personally would just like to a take a moment to comment on this and to thank these people for taking part.
Let’s all thank the radicals!
In the wake of the successful demonstration in Colorado Springs yesterday, many of the news reports covering the event have alluded to unhappiness by some involved in the demonstration with the light civil disobedience (entering the street) carried out by some of the radical folks participating. I personally would just like to a take a moment to comment on this and to thank these people for taking part.
From the start of Bush’s push for war on the Iraqi people, the mainstream media - or as some say, the corporate media - has largely ignored, or at least minimized, reporting on what has become the largest grassroots movement to sweep across America since the 1970’s. The October 26 rallies really brought this message home, the anti-war movement is undeniably facing a mainstream media “whiteout”. Since the police have been directed to stop providing crowd estimates, this has allowed the national media to essentially make up crowd figures for events and to ignore many events altogether. Perhaps this was best exemplified by Associated Press with its report of “hundreds” of anti-war demonstrators in Washington DC on October 26. Although AP later admitted that the rally was around 100,000 strong, this was only after the reports of “hundreds” had been fully disseminated and picked up by papers all around the world. Even today these false reports are easily located online (e.g. http:// villagenews.weblogger.com/stories/storyReader$6437 ).
In the aftermath of the October 26 rallies, most of the national media reported on the Washington and San Francisco rallies, largely glossing over - or completely ignoring - the 100+ other rallies held across the country. One notable exception to this was the Seattle rally. Numerically it wasn’t superior to a dozen or so other rallies around the country that were ignored by the national media. What made Seattle newsworthy were the anarchists and radicals, who, as they usually do, broke away from the main demonstration towards the conclusion and ended the day with light civil disobedience. In this case it was confronting the warmongers at a military recruiting office in the city.
Although over 150 American cities and towns held anti-war demonstrations yesterday, for the most part the national media has glossed over most of these, with the exception of the 200,000 (Denver Post Sunday Edition) in New York. One notable exception to this whiteout is the rally we attended yesterday in Colorado Springs, which was the subject of its own Associated Press piece. Why? Once again it was because of the radicals in combination with the civil disobedience action at Peterson Air Force Base. Numerically, our rally at three to four thousand - though certainly a success for Colorado Springs - rather palls in comparison to rallies held in many other US cities. Nevertheless it wasn’t ignored.
Perhaps it would be different if we were talking about European style anarchist protests, like in Athens yesterday. But we’re not talking about Molotov cocktails, mass rioting, or violence. We’re talking about light civil disobedience - a group of kids who decided to walk out into the street and later a number of dedicated activists who blocked the entrance to a military base gearing up to massacre Iraqi children. To me, it is patently absurd for those of us not engaged in civil disobedience actions to condemn these people. After all, our supposed goal is to raise awareness and register our opposition to Bush’s warmongering, a goal that is virtually impossible if our efforts are simply ignored by the powers that be. The radicals and others engaging in civil disobedience ensure that we aren’t ignored and to give credit where credit is due, the mainstream media does differentiate between the main demonstration and the minority that participated in civil disobedience actions.
Further, having been involved in activism for some time, I am aware of the internal “political” objections - “These kids stole all our publicity and misrepresented our event....” However, quite simply, this just isn’t the case. The media clearly differentiated between the main demonstration and “incidents.” But more importantly - considering the amount of press exposure that most of the rallies held yesterday in this country have received - they didn’t steal anyone’s publicity, they created the publicity.
Anyway, with the Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security, the Bush administration essentially has the “legal” right to crack down on dissent at whim. Ashcroft has already testified before Congress that he believes the anti-war movement is treasonous. The writing is on the wall, when or if Bush opts to simply make opposition to war illegal, which could very well happen once we get settled into the occupation of Iraq, all public opposition may become a form of civil disobedience. Perhaps we should all come to terms with what the radicals appear to already understand - that voicing opposition to militarism and imperialism is risky in its own right, but the riskier the expression of opposition, the louder the message becomes.
So, I for one, would like to thank them coming out and participating and hope they continue to do so.
John S.
American "Peace" - An online reference guide to US militarism and imperialism
http://americanpeace.eccmei.net
In the wake of the successful demonstration in Colorado Springs yesterday, many of the news reports covering the event have alluded to unhappiness by some involved in the demonstration with the light civil disobedience (entering the street) carried out by some of the radical folks participating. I personally would just like to a take a moment to comment on this and to thank these people for taking part.
From the start of Bush’s push for war on the Iraqi people, the mainstream media - or as some say, the corporate media - has largely ignored, or at least minimized, reporting on what has become the largest grassroots movement to sweep across America since the 1970’s. The October 26 rallies really brought this message home, the anti-war movement is undeniably facing a mainstream media “whiteout”. Since the police have been directed to stop providing crowd estimates, this has allowed the national media to essentially make up crowd figures for events and to ignore many events altogether. Perhaps this was best exemplified by Associated Press with its report of “hundreds” of anti-war demonstrators in Washington DC on October 26. Although AP later admitted that the rally was around 100,000 strong, this was only after the reports of “hundreds” had been fully disseminated and picked up by papers all around the world. Even today these false reports are easily located online (e.g. http:// villagenews.weblogger.com/stories/storyReader$6437 ).
In the aftermath of the October 26 rallies, most of the national media reported on the Washington and San Francisco rallies, largely glossing over - or completely ignoring - the 100+ other rallies held across the country. One notable exception to this was the Seattle rally. Numerically it wasn’t superior to a dozen or so other rallies around the country that were ignored by the national media. What made Seattle newsworthy were the anarchists and radicals, who, as they usually do, broke away from the main demonstration towards the conclusion and ended the day with light civil disobedience. In this case it was confronting the warmongers at a military recruiting office in the city.
Although over 150 American cities and towns held anti-war demonstrations yesterday, for the most part the national media has glossed over most of these, with the exception of the 200,000 (Denver Post Sunday Edition) in New York. One notable exception to this whiteout is the rally we attended yesterday in Colorado Springs, which was the subject of its own Associated Press piece. Why? Once again it was because of the radicals in combination with the civil disobedience action at Peterson Air Force Base. Numerically, our rally at three to four thousand - though certainly a success for Colorado Springs - rather palls in comparison to rallies held in many other US cities. Nevertheless it wasn’t ignored.
Perhaps it would be different if we were talking about European style anarchist protests, like in Athens yesterday. But we’re not talking about Molotov cocktails, mass rioting, or violence. We’re talking about light civil disobedience - a group of kids who decided to walk out into the street and later a number of dedicated activists who blocked the entrance to a military base gearing up to massacre Iraqi children. To me, it is patently absurd for those of us not engaged in civil disobedience actions to condemn these people. After all, our supposed goal is to raise awareness and register our opposition to Bush’s warmongering, a goal that is virtually impossible if our efforts are simply ignored by the powers that be. The radicals and others engaging in civil disobedience ensure that we aren’t ignored and to give credit where credit is due, the mainstream media does differentiate between the main demonstration and the minority that participated in civil disobedience actions.
Further, having been involved in activism for some time, I am aware of the internal “political” objections - “These kids stole all our publicity and misrepresented our event....” However, quite simply, this just isn’t the case. The media clearly differentiated between the main demonstration and “incidents.” But more importantly - considering the amount of press exposure that most of the rallies held yesterday in this country have received - they didn’t steal anyone’s publicity, they created the publicity.
Anyway, with the Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security, the Bush administration essentially has the “legal” right to crack down on dissent at whim. Ashcroft has already testified before Congress that he believes the anti-war movement is treasonous. The writing is on the wall, when or if Bush opts to simply make opposition to war illegal, which could very well happen once we get settled into the occupation of Iraq, all public opposition may become a form of civil disobedience. Perhaps we should all come to terms with what the radicals appear to already understand - that voicing opposition to militarism and imperialism is risky in its own right, but the riskier the expression of opposition, the louder the message becomes.
So, I for one, would like to thank them coming out and participating and hope they continue to do so.
John S.
American "Peace" - An online reference guide to US militarism and imperialism
http://americanpeace.eccmei.net
by John S./fwd from Rocky Mountain Indymedia