Practical Protest Techniques

[Amusing Scrotum]

....tools to maximise your protest!

http://cardiff.revolt.org/resources/Blockading%20Handout.pdf

Some of the stuff there is "common sense"; but there are other bits that are more informative and useful. Have fun....and, best of all, it's a short read! :D

[violencia.Proletariat]

Practical Protest Techniques

Quit having protests with pointless objectives, like shutting down G8 meetings.

[which doctor]

Originally posted by [email protected] 20 2006, 05:10 PM

Practical Protest Techniques

Quit having protests with pointless objectives, like shutting down G8 meetings.
Do you prefer to march down streets carrying banners pretending like you are fighting for equality and workers liberation?

[violencia.Proletariat]

Originally posted by FoB+Aug 20 2006, 06:18 PM--> (FoB @ Aug 20 2006, 06:18 PM)
[email protected] 20 2006, 05:10 PM

Practical Protest Techniques

Quit having protests with pointless objectives, like shutting down G8 meetings.
Do you prefer to march down streets carrying banners pretending like you are fighting for equality and workers liberation? [/b]
The antiwar "protests" we have in America are really pointless. They accomplish nothing. I'm more infavor of other actions, such as union organizing, etc. Protests really work when they are very, very, large such as with France a few months back. However these have to be backed up with economic actions (general strikes). The other way to go about doing things is to riot, which is much more effective than protesting.

[SPK]

Originally posted by [email protected] 20 2006, 09:04 PM
The antiwar "protests" we have in America are really pointless. They accomplish nothing. I'm more infavor of other actions, such as union organizing, etc. Protests really work when they are very, very, large such as with France a few months back. However these have to be backed up with economic actions (general strikes). The other way to go about doing things is to riot, which is much more effective than protesting.
The manual AS links describes direct action tactics. I think that mass direct action is quite possible and where the movements in the u.s. need to go at this point. The DA could be blockading streets and shutting down a city; halting the shipment of weapons on a train or aircraft; disrupting the normal flow of commerce at a war-profiteer's corporate headquarters; etc. It could also be rioting or trashing -- I think those tactics are totally valid and legitimate.

The movements in the u.s. use to be more oriented towards these kind of tactics in the past. I'm not just talking about the sixties and early seventies, when there was genuine, mass militant resistance everywhere in this country. Even throughout the eighties and nineties, these kind of approaches were more broadly discussed and taken up than they are today. Certainly the struggle against capitalist globalization that became prominent after Seattle in 1999 could be described that way -- think, for example, of the black blocs.

I agree with VP that the current protests here are lame and mostly ineffectual. We should have moved past this point years ago, after mass, global demonstrations of over 10,000,000 failed to stop the invasion of Iraq. The peaceful and legal approach didn't work, so all of these people that were mobilized have to start trying different approaches -- we have to keep upping the social and political cost to the ruling elites.

One question for VP: You say that union organizing and economic actions are necessary. I agree in theory, in the abstract, but unions in this country are totally decrepit, setting aside tiny groupings like the IWW (which is organizing in Starbucks at the moment). Even recent initiatives led by left-wing unions like the International Longshoreman Workers Union (ILWU) have had no impact. I was at the "Million Worker March" in late 2004, which the ILWU had helped organize and which had a strong antiwar plank. There was about 10,000 people there tops, and the whole effort disintegrated shortly thereafter

Exactly what labor formations are doing the kind of work you describe? And what do you think their efforts at this point are accomplishing?

[Amusing Scrotum]

Originally posted by violencia.Proletariat+Aug 20 2006, 10:10 PM--> (violencia.Proletariat @ Aug 20 2006, 10:10 PM)
Practical Protest Techniques

Quit having protests with pointless objectives, like shutting down G8 meetings.[/b]

The pamphlet I linked, didn't specify where said techniques could be used....it simply gives useful information on how to maximise the efficiency of a certain action. That you disagree with the emphasis of certain actions that use said techniques, doesn't invalidate the techniques, in and of themselves. After all, just because someone uses a baseball bat to cave someone's head in, doesn't mean that baseball bats, in and of themselves, have a violent nature.

You mentioned "union organizing"....and, in a sense, the linked pamphlet could be useful here. For instance, from time to time, on a Picket line, the issue of scabs will rear its ugly head. Now, depending on a number of variables, you may find that your best option is to somehow stop the "scab coach" from entering by chaining yourself, or others, to it. And, funnily enough, the linked pamphlet provides some information on how to do that.

Likewise, it also provides some information on how to get cars for a blockade....all common sense stuff, as I said, but worth remembering anyway. After all, such a technique may well come in handy during your hypothetical "riot". And that's all this pamphlet is about, handy techniques that can be used in a variety of situations....from "shutting down G8 meetings" to "riots". Nothing more, nothing less.


Originally posted by [email protected]
The other way to go about doing things is to riot, which is much more effective than protesting.

It also requires a significant number of people. A number so large that only maybe two or three "revolutionary" groups in the World could actually "schedule a riot". But, even if that were to happen, it would be a strange affair.

Full blown riots, like the Poll Tax riots or the recent riots in France, tend to develop out of "protesting". More militant protesting, obviously, helps facilitate an environment where rioting is used as a form of resistance by the working class. But we can't just "conjure up" a riot.


SPK
I'm not just talking about the sixties and early seventies, when there was genuine, mass militant resistance everywhere in this country. Even throughout the eighties and nineties, these kind of approaches were more broadly discussed and taken up than they are today.

There was, as well, a pretty strong tradition of mass militant resistance in America at the turn of the 20th century.