http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=324047&group=webcast

Well, here we go again. It's another meeting of the 'powers that be'. This time they've again opted for a nicely sequestered location near another of the world's willing cities. And as always, reliable as Swiss clockwork, we have mainstream media selectively reporting, activists bogged down in confrontation, and cops on a rampage.

This is the same shit the cops have pulled since Seattle (WTO, '99), but unfortunately the evolving collective reaction is playing right into their hands.

In Seattle, a VERY small minority took part in the 'smash it up' aspect overall (even though, of course, the corporate media would have us believe that the whole city was full of raving rioters that they've done everything possible to label 'anarchists'). Despite that, the cops went hog-fuckin'-wild with tear gas, rubber bullets, and concussion grenades galore, all over the downtown core, unleashing ever more aggressive and unpredictable nonsense as the day wore on. Yes, the stormtroopers were a stormin' and the batons were a beatin'...
I saw teen-aged kids kicked square in the face and thumped on with truncheons, people shot at close (and quite potentially deadly) range with rubber bullets - for what? Attacking police? Destoying the ever-so-sacred 'private property'? NO!! For sitting peacefully on the pavement in protest, refusing to be herded like animals by belligerent and provocative police.

Later, on the eve of the first day of demos, people didn't want to give up the street - they wanted to stay out and cause all the shit they could PRECISELY BECAUSE OF THE OVERHANDED TACTICS AND REACTIONS OF THE POLICE THEY HAD BEEN SUBJECTED TO THAT DAY.

The police fucked with everybody - big time - and because of that, by the end of the day alot of the focus for alot of the people had shifted dramatically away from the 'issues' to *it's us vs. the fuckin' pigs* The civil disobedience turned away from the conference and the associated causes being represented by all manner of activists, and was instead focused directly on the police themselves. The point of civil disobedience itself became direct defiance and engagement of the police who had tried so senselessly to crush it.

Now, it seems that with every successive large-scale demo, more and more people are showing up with that mentality right out of the gates. They're still very much a minority, but their numbers seem to be constantly swelling.

So, due to their own aggressiveness and persistent instigation, the police are being confronted by ever greater numbers of demonstrators who have largely come out for just exactly that - confrontation with the police.

The problem is, it's playing right into their (the cops') hands. These fucking pigs thrive on violence and any excuse to exercise their aggression - and that's exactly what they turn any confrontation into. They're always gonna win when it comes to violence - they've got the guns and the money, the militant organization, the training, the superior tactical and logistic support, and they've got the army ready to be called in to back them up.

I don't know and really don't care if it's a conscious covert mandate or just bull-headed state sanctioned brutality, but every time it's cops vs. protestors in any kind of confrontation, at the end of the day there are: injured activists; discouraged and disheartened activists and police; radicalized citizens; satisfied violence-loving pigs; justification of police actions in the mainstream media along with scorn for the 'rioters'; more money in the police budget; and a justification for further escalation of 'security' force tactics and presence at the next big demo - not to mention the current (and pathetically predictable) association of activism/protest/demonstration with (ooooohhh) terrorism. (Did you shudder, baby?)

Other than radicalizing and waking up some of the sheep and thoroughly illusioned 'give-peace-a-chance, let's-sing-and-dance' types (no offence to those who like to sing and dance, but I think you know what I mean), I don't see how this kind of forced confrontation with the cops is doing anything positive for us. It might be necessary on a sort of pride-and-dignity level, and I certainly respect the use of a diversity of tactics, but the fact is we're never going to prove anything to the sleepers by taking on the cops - and we're sure never going to beat the cops at their own game without becoming the kind of people we're fighting in the first place.

I know the point is to take back the streets, to make ourselves heard and seen, to represent those who aren't willing to get out there and get in the system's face - and I know we can't abandon the demos or allow the cops to control them. I also know, from experience, that it's the cops (as far as I've ever seen) who instigate the conflicts and it's ALWAYS the cops who escalate to violence and then intensify that violence...

But, something's gotta give. One year of conscious living is worth more than attending a years worth of demos any day. One year of conscious living could potentially evolve into a continuous lifestyle demo that could have far greater effect on those you contact than seeing a bunch of cops show their mean-streaks on TV. Ideally, we'd all do it all, but that's not always possible.

Activist communities/communes; housing and living co-ops; environmentally and socially active community groups; subvertising vandalism; visible small scale property destruction of meaningful targets; hacking into popular news and internet portal sites to display potent wake up calls; hacking into broadcast signals, or just disabling the mainstream's shite-pumping ability; trying to argue the merits of veganism with your friends and family; riding critical mass and getting your friends out, or riding in a visible 'bike gang' to the downtown with your friends every morning; buying organic food when it's available; never, ever driving a fucking stinking exhaust pumping comsumer satiating car; never buying more than you need of anything (clothes, CDs, take out food, dildos, etc. etc.); pioneering new ways to share resources among friends and peers to cut comsumption; wearing a t-shirt that says 'FUCK CAPITALISM' on the front and 'FUCK CONSUMERISM' on the back to the mall for a little buy-nothing stroll; taking a shit on the hood of a rich man's new sportscar and leaving a sweet little note to tell him why; stuffing bananas up the exhaust pipe of an idling SUV, and meaningful vandalism of SUVs; growing your own garden; generally endeavouring to keep your money out of the hands of hypercapitalist motherfuckers (that's right - buy a safe); cooking your own food from whole ingredients and laying off the over-processed-by-the-capitalist-world-order 'value-added' shite; suggesting enviro-friendly cost-effective renovations to your landlord; getting politically active with any group who's mandate includes progressive reform of the political system itself; joining in a co-op with a few friends and going in on an enviro-house together to stop paying rent to profit hungry bastards...............

The list goes on (and on and on), but you get the point. The demos should be after the fact - peripheral. Add-ons. The important work is done in our daily lives. Feel free to disagree, but in my opinion the demos' importance (and possibility for success) is definitely secondary.

This might make me a sissy in the eyes of alot of you, but to me they've now become secondary to the point where it's debateable whether it's worth it to eat tear gas, risk arrest, and travel to another city where I'm seen as some sort of invader by the majority of cowed citizens just to vent, resist, mingle in the streets with like-minded individuals, and feel fantastic for a week or so.

... Does it help, does it give me energy to fight harder - or is it just a waste of time and energy and another distraction?

I'm not condemning anything, don't get me wrong, and I'm certainly not intending to criticize anyone that's engaging in whatever kind of action in order to resist this fucked-up system - it's just a question and an admission that, to me, it has in fact become questionable.

Obviously your answer is your answer and it depends on the person, but in summary just let me say TAKE IT TO THE BASTARDS IN EVERY WAY, EVERY DAY! The sky's the limit baby - get up there and bat some of those fuckin' star-wars satellites down if you can!