Thursday, October 05, 2006

Protesting

I went to the World Can't Wait protest and, I have to say, I needed that. A lot of young people involved, people fired up, and beautiful weather: who can complain? That said, I had a few thoughts which I thought I'd share for the few activists reading this:

  1. First, and foremost, lose the 9-11 alliance. I understand that we need to be big tent and actually change anything, but conspiracy theorists aren't merely wrong. They get us painted with the same brush: shoddy analysis strung together with chicken-wire, grating paranoia, and an implicit embrace of a lot of American problems (Did I hear a 9-11 person say something antisemitic today? Yes.). Worse, they handed out anti-war stuff while wearing 9-11 shirts. Cut the 9-11 people loose, let them have their own events, and get back to addressing the root causes of war and poverty. If they call us gatekeepers, just stump them into silence by suggesting that the conspiracy theorists are actually put in place to distract us from the real issues. I asked this one young woman who had a 9-11 shirt on with anti-war stickers if she was an antiwar person OR a conspiracy person and she responded "both, but 9-11 first, because it makes the rest of this true." Oy Vey!

  2. Second, lose the dissertation chants. "Drive out, drive out the bush regime. The world can't wait. Something else or other that I can't remember." NO ONE LIKES THIS CHANT unless they are a member of World Can't Wait already. A simple "Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho" goes a long way, but particularly popular today was "I Say CALL, you say RESPOND, call (Respond)! call (respond)!" But just remember: variety is good, cadence and rhyme are important, call and respond is great, humor is golden. They should have classes on this.

  3. We could always grumble about the absence of strategy past the next protest, but then we'd be here typing all day.

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