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mygif

Now let’s pretend that, rather than the usual disorganized chaotic mess that we saw, they (somehow) managed to get everybody on one page, chanting “TAX THE BANKS! TAX THE BANKS!” over and over again.

This would actually require the protesters to have a cohesive goal in mind for what they want to accomplish. I think that’s actually the underlying problem that you’re circling around – the G20 protesters actually don’t have a common goal in mind of what they want, which is why you get a mishmash of “reasons to protest” rather than a clear mission statement of what the end result of the protest is supposed to be. When you have a few thousand gay and straight people all out at a protest march they all know what their end goal is – equal rights. When, at the end of the 19th century, you had labor protests everyone in the protest knew what the end goal was – a safe working environment and a fair wage for their work.

And the reason you need that is two-fold – as you suggest having everyone on a common message is really needed to present a unified front. But more to the point, having everyone on a common message tells the elites that you’re protesting against exactly what it is that is pissing you off and making you take to the streets, which gives them some idea of what is making people made and needs to be fixed.

Staging a protest against “the effects of 20th-century neocolonialism” where there are 3,000 people involved and 3,500 different ideas of what “the effects of 20th-century neocolonialism” actually means is a pointless exercise for everyone involved. You can’t effect change against nebulous ideas – it’s like protesting against “conservatism”. You need to have a goal in mind – what change do you want to effect? Once you know THAT piece you build your message around it.

And yeah, that’s a pain in the ass to do. And you’ll have to work your ass off to find a few thousand people to show up to protest for the one particular change you want to effect – how many people would show up in support of the “bank transaction tax” compared to the number of folks who will show up for a generic “protest against the evils of globalization”? But if it were easy you probably wouldn’t need to do it.

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mygif

Between your post and Jer’s comment, I have nothing further to add. Bravo, well-said.

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mygif

I’ll agree with Jer, and add that I do think there is a “High Concept” that rightly or wrongly gets attributed to the mass of “resons to protest” at something like the G20, and it’s “I don’t like the Man.” Which is fine as far as motivations go, but it doesn’t have a discrete goal.

I also want to generally agree with what MGK says about Gay Pride marches. The point of those was to energize the community for political reasons (mostly to organize and vote), and to increase the visibility of the movement. However, they did (and still do) have a polarizing effect. The same pictures of pride marches get used to support gay issues (we’re here, we’re not going anywhere, and we have the support of the community) and push back against gay issues (look at how depraved they are). The point of a pride march is the energize a community to DO SOMETHING, such as electing a sympathetic candidate, which furthers their cause. The point of a G20 protest, as far as I can see, is the protest itself.

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mygif

Indeed, part of the problem from the G20 protests — and from the linked-to article as well — is that it starts to sound like the protests were against the police violence against the protesters.

Which, while protest-worthy (picket the police station!) means that the actual G20 messages (Don’t be evil!) are almost entirely drowned out.

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Matthew Johnson said on August 12th, 2010 at 11:10 am

Crispers? Really?

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Andrew Jeanes said on August 12th, 2010 at 9:31 pm

If you think you’re going to win back your lost Star Trek nerd cred that easily, you’re wrong.

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mygif

Matthew: that’s not the problem. The problem is the “Salt & Vinegar” part. Blech.

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Lawnmower Boy said on August 13th, 2010 at 8:14 am

Salt and vinegar is a most excellent flavour.
It’s Crispers that are deeply, deeply wrong.

Also, from a G-person’s perspective, a G20 protest is like there’s 50,000 backseat drivers “helping” you, only instead of standing around making unhelpful suggestions and snarking, they decide to go outside and scream in, because it’s easier for them to trash your favourite Starbucks from there.

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mygif

All right-wing positions are based on paranoia. All left-wing positions are based on sympathy.

Libertarians focus on the economic paranoia while attempting to adopt sympathetic social positions and mainly ignoring how the two are tied together.

Tea Baggers, on the other hand, are nothing more than the new generation of the John Birch society.

I feel itchy.

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mightybaldking said on August 13th, 2010 at 10:22 am

tl,dr: Get a haircut and drop the anarchy. And for God’s sake get those fucking plugs out of your earlobes!

The longer version:

On of the issues that no one seems to discuss is the image of the protesters themselves. The radical core of the anarchist[more later] movement have intentionally made themselves as ugly and counterculture as possible. Is this http://juliapelish.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/toront-g20-downtown.jpg our chosen leader? (Yeah, I know, I’m cherry picking here)

Really, would the Civil Rights Movement of the sixties have been successful if the leaders of the movement were “Bitches and Bling” hip-hoppers? I doubt it. Instead they put on suits and knocked on the doors of white America and said “Let me in.”

The last effective protests I can remember were the anti-apartheid protests of the 80s. Once again, the leaders were Morgan Freeman/Harrison Ford types that people could get behind. People were mobilized all over the world, and Governments responded by putting pressure on South Africa. Bang! Nelson Mandela is president.

Or, Look at Lech Walęsa. A typical respectable blue collar work whom the Polish people could get behind. Bang! European countries (mostly) peacefully disband their communist governments, Lech is President of Poland (albeit rather ineffectively) and Roger Waters is doing “The Wall” in East Berlin.

The critical difference of Gay Rights and Civil Rights vs the Economic Rights (for lack of a better term) movements is that the fundamental message of the former movements was “We want to be included” and the latter say “We want to destroy you.” That is an extreme stance, but it is the message of the anarchist core.

Two things then happen. The media focuses on the freaks, and the general populace says “I want nothing to do with these dirty punks.” And perhaps this can account for the difference between crowds of 2000 and crowds of 20 000.

Furthemore, the core of the protest movement is an anarcho-socialist club. Most of us are not Anarchists, and not Socialists. (It is my belief that most of the world are really Social-Democrats to some degree or another.) As social democrats, what we want is peace, security, mobility, and a base economic standard for all. We will allow the rich to exist AND to get richer, as long as no one is really poor. We understand the link between capitalism and prosperity, and will allow it to continue, as long as a portion of that wealth goes to the elimination of poverty.

As shocking as the police conduct was, most of us do believe that the police are there for our protection. We might tweak oversight a bit, and run a few thugs out of the force, but we acknowledge the need. Same with the banks. Same with the courts. Also with every institution of our nation. Anarchists want to burn all that down, and as long as the Anarchists are the predominant, visible voice (mixed metaphor, I know, but I like the alliteration) of the protest movement, then the majority middle of Canada, will not be joining in.

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mygif

MGK, you have, in a completely non-partisan fashion, delivered one of the most superb analysis of protests I’ve ever read. I hope more people pick up on this!

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