Do regimes sometimes stage fake demonstrations?

[punisa]

This is actually a question between learning and history, but I decided to post it here.
Were there any occurrences in recent history that a regime or a government sorta "staged" a demonstration while having their inside people act as leaders?
I was asked this by one comrade and could not answer, thus I'm here to seek help :)

Is this a known practice?

[mosfeld]

The toppling of Saddam's statue during the Iraq War was a fake demonstration. There were about 50-60 people there, organized by U.S. troops so they could catch an "iconic moment for democracy" or some bullshit like that.

[Sasha]

regimes stage demonstrations all the time, but they are support demonstrations. why would anyone stage an protest demonstration?

[Dimmu]

regimes stage demonstrations all the time, but they are support demonstrations. why would anyone stage an protest demonstration?

They did it in Egypt and Iran during the uprisings..

[tbasherizer]

If a regime's police were headed by an insanely deeply analytical psychologist, maybe they could try to get support from more conservative parts of the population by showing how destructive the opposition is?
It happens on a smaller scale with black blocs and provocateurs. Heck, it's pretty much how anarchists got their bad name in North America. ('Heck' feels awkward, even in my internal dialogue)

[mosfeld]

regimes stage demonstrations all the time, but they are support demonstrations. why would anyone stage an protest demonstration?

The fascist Indian regime, through reactionary, bought-off trade unions, organize strikes and demonstrations (such as the strike last summer, or around that time) as an attempt to pacify the workers growing class consciousness. This is widespread in countries with developed people's wars.

[punisa]

Heck, it's pretty much how anarchists got their bad name in North America. ('Heck' feels awkward, even in my internal dialogue)

If I understood that correctly - you're saying that there is a possibility of creating an "anarchist" action (played by hired hand) only to make them look bad or maybe even weak?

[punisa]

The fascist Indian regime, through reactionary, bought-off trade unions, organize strikes and demonstrations (such as the strike last summer, or around that time) as an attempt to pacify the workers growing class consciousness. This is widespread in countries with developed people's wars.

That's exactly what I was pointing at.
By doing something like that the government actually pacifies the masses and also discourages them in a way.
Like... "we had a protest, nothing changed - so let's just not protest anymore."

[mosfeld]

Yeah, exactly. It's an encouragement for workers to work within the framework of bourgeois legality, i.e., the ruling class will raise the living standards minimally for those workers who participate in these faux strikes to show them that they can work within the system, that there's no need for revolution. As I said, it's just pacification.

[The Idler]

Its called a false flag (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag) and astroturfing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing).

[bcbm]

It happens on a smaller scale with black blocs and provocateurs. Heck, it's pretty much how anarchists got their bad name in North America. ('Heck' feels awkward, even in my internal dialogue)

where has a black bloc been organized and controlled by cops?

[chegitz guevara]

It's a well known practice.

[bcbm]

then it shouldn't be too hard to give an example

[tbasherizer]

then it shouldn't be too hard to give an example

http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20070822/450_boots_070822.jpg

That's a picture of police arresting a "black bloc member" at a demonstration in Quebec City. He's wearing the same kind of boots as the police, with vibram soles. I know some (pseudo-)anarchists who wear army boots sometimes, but the ones that are in style with that crowd aren't the modern ones currently in use by the police or military.

http://www.benedictionblogson.com/wp-content//boots1.jpg

That's a picture of an "anarchist" smashing a Starbucks window. Now, I'm not saying anything about the quality of footwear most anarchists have, but I'm sure our comrades don't go out and buy pristine police-style shoes right before a demo.

I'm not saying that the entirety of black blocs are controlled by police, but that the police are taking advantage of the more assertive nature of that formation to make anarchists seem like violent thugs by using agents-provocateur. Also, I'm not stating that all genuine black blocists don't want to smash windows. I'm just pointing out the opportunity that the police have to defame the people in black blocs and the possibility that they have taken that opportunity.

[bcbm]

its hard to defame someone by doing what they were going to do anyway. if they start doing dumb shit they usually get called. the point remains that police being undercover in something is not the same as organizing or controlling it. there are cops in all kinds of radical organizations.

[Red Bayonet]

That idea is as old as the hills. See Phillip Agee's "CIA Diary".

[HalPhilipWalker]

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2011/02/homefront_north_korea.php



This really is a case of life imitating art -- so long as you're willing to permit the "art" classification to be applied to video games.

It seems that a rally against North Korea has been orchestrated to take place in San Francisco Wednesday by video-game company THQ (http://www.homefront-game.com/#/home), which this month is publishing a shooter game, Homefront (http://shootersonly.com/xbox/homefront-has-a-story-to-tell/), in which players assume the role of American guerrilla fighters challenging North Korean forces that have successfully occupied the United States.

The rally, which will begin with a march across the Golden Gate Bridge and ends with a noon protest at Yerba Buena Gardens, doesn't seem to be the sort of affair to which you should bring your AK-47. A statement from the company states that the event will draw attention to "North Korea's human rights violations," and "will include speeches by global experts, musical performances, and the launch of 10,000 balloons."

See? Nothing jingoistic about it (http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/homefront/news/thq-vp-calls-out-call-of-dutys-jingoism-says-homefront-will-be-different/a-2010080212513784037/g-20090604171339700085).

A fun fact about Homefront: the game scenario was created by John Milius (http://articles.cnn.com/2009-03-09/entertainment/john.milius.movies_1_charlie-don-t-surf-vietnam-war-apocalypse?_s=PM:SHOWBIZ), the gun-lovin' Hollywood personality who wrote such films as Red Dawn (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087985/) (a gloriously preposterous precursor to Homefront in which the US is occupied by the USSR and Cuba), Jeremiah Johnson (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068762/), and Apocalypse Now (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078788/). (Milius is also supposed to be the inspiration for the Walter Sobchak (http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0003521/) character in The Big Lebowski (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/).) Nobody in those films was launching any balloons; but hey, they didn't have video games to sell.


This is an example which is occuring in the United States. A videogame company is staging an anti-DPRK protest in order to promote a videogame where the DPRK invades the U.S. after having united Korea and taken over Japan. This is a perfect example of capitalism promoting right-wing ideas, not just for the sake of profit, but also for the sake of pushing public opinion further to the right. The fact that this ridiculuous scenario is being promoted as even in the realm of possibility shows the emptiness of late capitalist thought. Play at your own risk.

[khad]

http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20070822/450_boots_070822.jpg

That's a picture of police arresting a "black bloc member" at a demonstration in Quebec City. He's wearing the same kind of boots as the police, with vibram soles. I know some (pseudo-)anarchists who wear army boots sometimes, but the ones that are in style with that crowd aren't the modern ones currently in use by the police or military.

http://www.benedictionblogson.com/wp-content//boots1.jpg

That's a picture of an "anarchist" smashing a Starbucks window. Now, I'm not saying anything about the quality of footwear most anarchists have, but I'm sure our comrades don't go out and buy pristine police-style shoes right before a demo.

I'm not saying that the entirety of black blocs are controlled by police, but that the police are taking advantage of the more assertive nature of that formation to make anarchists seem like violent thugs by using agents-provocateur. Also, I'm not stating that all genuine black blocists don't want to smash windows. I'm just pointing out the opportunity that the police have to defame the people in black blocs and the possibility that they have taken that opportunity.

In the top pic, you're looking at a Vibram #134AR Technical Lug Sole, which is a heat-resistant outsole designed for industrial purposes.

If anything, the guy in the second pic, with the vibram #100 pattern has just as great probability of being a cop, seeing how 100s are used on a lot of standard issue footwear (like those 5" hi-top boots that cops love to wear). But at the same time these lug soles come on everything.

http://shoemakersharon.smugmug.com/Arts-and-Crafts/Soling/IMG0564/971358359_DKkM7-S.jpg
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/6494/aldenhorsebitlugsoleya0.jpg
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/6508/img1188iv.jpg

Even on Prada



It's still hard to tell who is a cop and who isn't by footwear because a lot of anarchists get their shoes secondhand. And you know where surplused gear comes from. There has to be a more reliable way of doing this.

[Omi]

The guy on the first photo was discovered by the black block themselves and then ''arrested''(taken to a nearby street into safety) by the cops to prevent the crowd from giving the cop a good beating. The second pic I don't know the story behind, but it's not like army boots aren't used all the time by punks who also happen to riot sometimes. it doesn't really prove anything. But still, it's not a great secret that cops sometimes infiltrate black blocks. They do this in every sphere of radical politics as bcbm has pointed out before me.

[tbasherizer]

Oh, by no means am I trying to say that every black block that smashes things is a "Army/police fusion cell op" (thanks for that , EagerWarrior), but I am trying to say that the opportunity to insert a few punky-looking cops into a protest to make the anarchists look bad exists and that it may have been exploited once or twice in human history. Also, I concede: vibram soles are pretty common, and footwear is by no means a defining feature of a person;).

[bcbm]

I am trying to say that the opportunity to insert a few punky-looking cops into a protest to make the anarchists look bad exists and that it may have been exploited once or twice in human history

yes i agree but i'm saying so what? it isn't that big a deal. the police infiltrate all kinds of pro-revolutionary groups. this is probably one of the least damaging ways they can do this.

[tbasherizer]

I think we're migrating a bit from the OP's question, but I'll continue. Considering how the anarchist movement's public image is defined in the West less by its constructive proponents and more by destruction and chaos, the police playing into this can be significant. Afterall, J.R.R Tolkien had to specify when he called himself an "anarcho-monarchist" that he wasn't "the whiskered, bomb-throwing type". The stigma of the word "anarchist" existed even then.

I'm sure if you were to go downtown wherever you live and ask people what anarchists are, you'd get lots of answers involving smashing, fighting, fire, or broken glass and fewer answers about co-operative stateless societies.

[red cat]

That's exactly what I was pointing at.
By doing something like that the government actually pacifies the masses and also discourages them in a way.
Like... "we had a protest, nothing changed - so let's just not protest anymore."

Another trick is to give workers some benefits initially. Then the protest organizers will do nothing for a long time, saying that they just organized a big action and need more time for the next, or that they can afford to rest because they "already won some victories". Slowly these benefits disappear, and after some time the workers are again taken to another protest with the exactly same issues. A nice back-and-forth game for the ruling class. Sometimes they just promise the benefits and don't give any. The workers are pacified by the reactionary union leaders who assure them that the ruling class will take action soon. So the workers wait and wait and then it's the same old story all over again.