Once again, an army of addled 19-year-olds are set to screw up traffic, attack businesses, and generally act like the leftist Visigoths on a toot. Marc Fisher in today’s Washington Post sums it up nicely:
C’mon, can’t you stay home and protest? Nobody listens to anything you have to say, even when you’re accidentally right. (bound to happen just by the law of averages).
Great attitude to have there… Should no-one listen to gay rights activists who take to the streets either?
I’m with gobear on this one. If you listen to interviews with these particular activists, it quickly becomes evident that most of them don’t have a clue about what it is they’re actually demanding.
“We’re opposed to globalization.”
“That’s nice; how will you know when ‘globalization’ has come to an end?”
[chirp, chirp…]
While I think the notion of the U.S. launching an attack against Iraq is appalling, at least it would produce some focused protest marches!
If the fay rights protesters clogged traffic and made life miserable for the people in DC, and if they conflated gay rights with anti-capitalist, anti-American rhetoric, then yes, I’d agree that they should ignored. You are safe and happy across the ocean in Dublin. I’m right here in Metro DC, and those fuckheads are going to screw up my commute and fuck up DC for the weekend.
I’ds be a lot more impressed if these anti-everything idiots actually knew something about economics and how global trade works. I’m all for a living wage for Thrid-World workers, but when activists are saying that we should all live in a commune, they’re full of shit.
Now, that’s just unfair. I saw an interview with one of the more prominent wallies during the riots at Geneva (more or less the same bunch). She was wurbling the usual guff about how globalisation is evil, and how it’s all men in suits (suits also being evil), yada yada yada. I was thinking to myself “yes, yes, fine - but what do you want?” when Jeremy Paxman butted in and said “this is all very well, but what do you actually want?”
The interviewee looked a bit taken aback, but to her credit came out with a line about how “localisation” is going to be the new world order. Apparently, this involves living in self-sustaining communities of approximately 200 (this being the numerical limit on communist communities, according to the common cliché). It appears that everyone would be happy if we lived like this, despite not having Reeboks, walkmen, surround sound stereos or basic healthcare. Panacea is a luddite near you.
So I’ll not have you impugning the righteous anger of our urban warrior brethren. Okay?
Don’t get me wrong Gobear, I don’t agree with disruptive protest, but to blanketly ignore their message because you disagree with their methods is stupid, IMO.
And don’t think I have it much easier in Dublin. We get plenty of protests, (although not on the scale Washingtod does) and next year we have the IMF meeting over here, and will get all the same problems Geneva and Washington saw.
Yes, most of the demonstrators dont know anything past the basic rhetoric of what they are saying, but to just assume they can only be right because of the Laws of Averages is… well, arrogant.
Which message should we pay attention to?
Capitalism is bad.
Israel is bad.
Fighting terrorism is bad and racist.
The war on Iraq is bad. (This one I can agree with).
Starbucks is really bad.
You’ll notice there’s not a lot of nuance there. That’s not my doing; the level of discourse is on that level. Check out this Web page.
[quote]
The US Treasury with the backing of the White House, Congress and other bodies of government are the primary decision-makers in the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. In turn, the government is influenced by multinational corporations with powerful lobbies, many headquartered on K St in downtown DC. [While there are alot of office building on K Street, I don’t think there are too many corporate headquarters there.** To exploited people around the world the capital of the US is a symbol of global domination, and all that is wrong in the world. (Which would explain the long lines for visas to come here and the immigrants who arrive here every day. It’s because they see America as evil…riiiggghhhtt) Taking back this city for one day in a spirit of resistance, defiance and love will be an act of self-determination to bring hope to ourselves**(The government belongs to the citizens of the US, but DC belongs to the people who live and work there, no to a bunch of out-of -town hippies)** and express solidarity to those struggling for freedom across the world - from Afghanistan to Argentina, South Africa to Iraq, Palestine to the Philippines. (Three of the countries mentioned are democracies, so I’m not sure how much freedom they’re struggling for, but I’m sure that the citizens of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine will be heartened that you kept Washingtonians from getting to their jobs.)
Why? That’s about the same level of credence I give palmists, astrologers, and economists.
What the hell does shutting down businesses have to do with expressing creativity? Heck, if you look at the blaance sheets of a lot of businesses, you’ll notice there’s been a hell of alot of creativity in the accounting.
Essentially, there is a lot to fix in our system. But that is done by getting degrees in business, finance, or accounting, and then getting into the system to change it. Or, the activists could start competing businesses with fairer, more just attitudes to their workers. They could get involved with organizations that work for social justice, or organizations that work to give Third-World farmers fair prices for their crops.
But I guess that’s not as much fun as beating drums and shouting slogans.
Right on, gobear.
Protesting is fine. DC has protests and demonstrations of all kinds pretty much constantly. But these protesters are threatening to block roads, bridges and public transportation and prevent people from going to work. May I add that the city is already on high alert from all the crap that’s happened over the last year?
I’m not allowed to come to work tomorrow. If I was paid hourly, I wouldn’t earn any money. How is that “helping the little guy”?
I don’t wish to deny the right of protest or expression of any of these folks, and in fact I tend to agree that the World Bank and IMF deserve some feedback, but in their midst is a lot of soccer hooligan types who are just there to make trouble. DC police are used to handling protests and have done so in the past with this crowd without the goon squad violence that marred protests in our more provincial cities. But blocking traffic is lame. They’re targeting the wrong people and they damn sure won’t garner one iota of sympathy from commuters who already have to deal with horrendous traffic in the first place.
Take a cue from other groups; take it to The Mall and tell the riffraff to stay home, and you’ll convey whatever message it is you have more effectively…
It’s just human nature ToF Even if you are right, if you’re screwing with my life and making it difficult for me to get to earn what little money I get, you’re lucky if it’s your message I’m ignoring and not your civil right to not have your ass kicked.
I don’t think Gobear is being arrogant. There are plenty of “protest groups” I can think of that I have no problem with (even ones I completely disagree with). This particular group has what many feel to be a well-deserved reputation for being uninformed College kids talking out their ass. “Globalization” is the cool neo-hippy rant du jour. That’s fine with me, but the little fucks should rage against the machine without keeping people from getting to work to supporting their families.
If Phish was playing in Baltimore that day I bet there’d be 8 people at this rally.
Don’t forget “Free Mumia! Free Mumia!”
Do you remember the long article in the Post last year when the protestors came? They focused on two upper class college kids from Potomac, relying on family money of course for tuition, living expenses, etc…talking about the evils of Capitalism.
BTW, I also though Fisher’s column was good.
I go to school at George Washington University, so I’m gonna be massively inconvenienced by these protests.
In fact, some of those “hippie-socialists” are in my floor. Yesterday evening, they made a huge pro-socialism sign with a Che Guevara quote and hung it out the window for all to see during the protests.
I tried reasonong with them about how Capitalism is the best way for a society to produce what its citizens want, but all I heard back was rubbish about how Capitalsm “makes people poor” and Socialism will make everyone equal. It’s like bashing my head against a wall.
Interestingly enough, these wacked out hippie-socialists are quite libertarian when it comes to recreational drug use.
A certainly agree that these folks seem to be anti-everything.
Yeah they should go the fuck home. I mean they are disrupting my fucking life. What the fuck did I ever do to support the IMF? All they are doing is messing up the daily life for the working people of Washington. It isn’t like the Senators are going to be packed onto the Metro because of all the assholes in the street.
[Python voice]Come and see the violence inherant in the system![/Python voice]
I thought this was going to be a thread about Ethan Hunt and the Impossible Mission Force.
Marc
Go go gobear.
These Calvin Klein communists are just muckrackers. I enjoyed it when they showed themselves for what they truly are in Philadelphia during the RNC. They couldn’t disrupt traffic with a riot (thanks to the bike cops) so they ran amuck down Walnut street and burned a car belkonging to a janitor. Stick it to the man.
The telling moment for these coddled babies was when on of them tried to pull a Tianamen-esque stand to prevent movement of the police, only instead of a tank, he tried to block a mounted policeman. The Horse didn’t care much when the guy raised his arms as to say “I am in your way and will not yield” the horse just shoved him aside. He ran in front of the horse tiwce more and tried to pull the same stunt. Horse didn’t care, he got shoved. His last try he got pulled aside and arrest by another cop.
The message they give is unweildy, that the only message I get from them is “I’m a spoiled college student who doesn’t have sufficient workload to occupy my time. So I’ll muck up an urban city and go back to my pampered life in the dorms and suburban mansion when I’m done.”
Ah, yes.
These type of protesters get my goat, too. Anti-everything, resorting to riots rather than words, and if they opt for the latter, only hollow one-liners ooze out.
I’m hardly a conservative bastard like gobear (;)), but these kids are just idiots looking for a reason to start riots. Amsterdam hosted the EU conference in -I think- 1996, and about 400 of these punks spent a couple of nights outside the hotels where all the various heads of state were residing, making huge amounts of noise so no sleep could be had. No coherent thoughts, no witty slogans. Just banging on pots and pans. When the riot police finally swept the streets clean and locked all 400 of them up in a deserted boat factory 30 kilometers outside Amsterdam for the remainder of the summit, the people of Amsterdam cheered.
I love how they call themselves Autonomen (the Autonomous), but they have a chamber of commerce entry, annual reports, member meetings with minutes… it’s pathetic. Organised rioting under the guise of political engagement.
Calvin Klein communists, indeed. Good one. 
Band name!
But gobear, how can you defend locking up people for being single moms?
We gots to fight the Power. And all you can think about is your rotten, oppressive Capitalistic commute.
Well, the “People’s Strike” is certainly an irresponsible tactic. But there’s been a lot more going on this week - and there will be more this weekend - than this one event the media is playing up, and as a matter of fact the majority of the people participating in the weekend’s protests won’t be anywhere near this “strike” as it occurs - for the same reasons I’m avoiding it and coming in to work.
I can see how you’d get the impression that all the protestors are a bunch of headstrong, politically soft college students due to the kind of coverage the mainstream media is putting out, but hell - for the amount of griping conservatives do about how us lefties lump you all in the same pile (“Not all of us are like Pat Buchanan and Jerry Falwell,” I’ve heard said more than once here on the boards), you’d think it might occur to you not to lump all the leftists into one pile, either. Don’t reject the whole out of hand for the tactics of a handful whose actions are designed only to get attention, not to make a point.