Rethinking protest

After March 19th, its clear that traditional protests and rallies don't work anymore. The media ignores or downplays them, and nothing changes. Something new and/or more extreme is necessary. Let's discuss what our options are:

1)town-hall style meetings-
where we talk about the war and other issues as a community. Nothing confrontational, but a planned night of dialogue. It's when we get past the slogans and just talk with people that change might happen. If many of us organized these in our towns, it could start change from the grassroots up.

2)Hunger strikes-
good at getting attention, but unlikely to change things by themselves. Cheney would have us all starve before he would raise a finger. Still, it worked for Gandhi tremendously.

3)Marches-
people walking across states for a cause might get more attention. The freedomn marches of the 60's did.

4)Sit-ins-
If people started camping out at the/their capitols, it would be another way to get attention for the cause. It worked wonderfully for veterans after WWII. I don't remember the full story now,, but an entire city of them sat infront of the capitol for months on end not that long ago.

Either way, we have decide how serious things have gotten, and what measures are called for against this new american fascism.

why have all your options been done before, thus eliminating them as "new."

I'm just saying ...

Thanks for posting, and getting the ball rolling, though.

I wanted throw out those older methods because I don't think people have used em yet against this admin. You're right though, we need some new options too. its just late and my mind isn't working too well. Ill come back tomorrow with some genuinely new and creative solutions hopefully.

Edit: instead of "traditonal protests", I should have said "anti-war rallies". I just think those are becoming a waste of our energy, since only those who feel as we do come to them, and the rest of america doesn't even know about them anymore.

Shut down the propaganda machine.

Chop the head off the snake ...

big media. Maybe protesters will make them feel the heat.

and got publicity. If it started catching on nationwide, you may have something there.

What will work ? we have to do something.
the thing that has been wrecking demonstrations lately is that we live in a more technical world with a shortened attention span.As a sound guy,i think things have to be better because of large crowds lousy stages etc... when people are used to great concert settings now and the classist 3 ring circus theme of some festivals.It is hard to get good speakers when no one pays attention or the bongo fest and people with bull horns are disrupting the whole point of unity. Shit this has to dealt with but there are so many factions in the left from wacky boring people calling each other comrade to the people who show up with thier mid east baggage.I understand people not wanting to show up at a poorly organized mass of the walking wounded with no direction like an open mic night at a depressing comedy club. The expression " There ain't no money in peace " hits home. Sometimes just one person with a sign can make more change than a few thousand people looking for a party.

Walk right into the studio, TV or radio and take control of the show,grab the mic...When there is talk,interrupt the "shows"and take control of it.Regardless of threats of jail or whatever,just don't hurt anyone or bust shit up... You'll make a n impact,get a word out, get people talking.It will change things it can be a catalyst.You will definitely be arrested,go to jail, pay fines, cause a spectacle and the cameras will follow.. ..but as a side effect you will break up the RW corporate stranglehold on communications..And it will be one story they didn't orchestrate to their own advantage ,but they will be desperate to spin it,so have voices unwilling to let it be spun.Hook the media by it's own hysterics. If people do this en masse to every radio and TV station,took control of the airwaves just to speak truth to power..it would be a big deal.All I suggest is CONDENSE the message and keep the BUZZWORDS out of it. Make it charismatic simple to the point and don't let a billion important issues distract from the biggest point..our democracy our constitution is being taken away.
Radical action ? It's up to you to define what is radical for yourself and quit letting repugs tell you. It's no use pretending these are milquetoast times anymore,because if we keep doing the same stuff that worked in the 60's in a completely different era different situation we will lose our freedom..
Bush co is a danger to democracy and sanity.

I really don't have a clue what to do

What better way to demand the media's attention than by picketing outside their buildings?

has been used in different parts of the country, and appears to be most effective in urban areas, where there is a larger audience. Flyers are handed out with the frequency numbers-a certain number of people will tune in out of curiosity.

Another thing is distribution of cds with videos of the real news, like the anti-war protests by soldiers and ex-soldiers. Put in a cover with a title like "How to really support the troops", these could be handed out or mailed out.

http://www.seedsofdoubt.com/distressedamerican/protesttactics.htm

I completely agree that the tacts we are using re ineffective. I decided this based on My experiences at the RNC rally and more recently the arrests of protesters in Westfield NJ during one of Bush town hall meetings. We need to relearn Civil Disobedience, Rallies are great but have had little impact.
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Here are some of my suggestions for more effectively getting out message out:
Suggested Tactics For Dealing With Police Harassment Of Protesters
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As many of you know I have spent much of the past several days pulling together photos, video, and written accounts of police actions during the recent POTUS (President Of The United States) visit to New Jersey.

The full information can be found at:

http://www.seedsofdoubt.com/distressedamerican/main.htm



There is video of the NJ arrests posted as well at:

http://www.seedsofdoubt.com/distressedamerican/westfieldvideo/WestfieldArrest.avi

http://www.seedsofdoubt.com/distressedamerican/westfieldvideo/WestfieldPoliceState.avi

Several intimidation tactics are being employed at these events. It is best to be prepared in advance for what you might see out there.

The tactics they are employing are fairly simple and should also be fairly simple to defeat.

So far we have seen that as the New Jersey event was letting out, the police decided to disperse the crowd of (perfectly legal) protesters. They began by grabbing and arresting several people from the crowd, none of whom had in any way broken the law. These arrests were them used to threaten the others that if they did not disperse they would also be arrested. In the New Jersey case the tactic worked fairly well. They arrested 9 and dispersed the protesters in minutes.

Here's what I suggest. First, take a camera. It is a lot easier to defend people who are charged with video or photos than just a story. Second, if arrests begin, it is important for the crowd NOT TO DISPERSE. I think it would be far more effective for everyone to just sit right down there and if need be get arrested. It is a lot harder for the main stream media to ignore the arrests of 150 protesters than it is to ignore 9.

Fill their local jails and hold a jail cell rally. It worked for MLK!

I understand that this takes a commitment. It will most likely result in disorderly conduct charges, fines and a Secret Service file. However, if we allow these folks to drive us off when we are well within out legal rights, THEN THEY WIN!

This is extremely important discussion to have. Many of us are frustrated by the lack of perceived progress of the Anti-War movement.

Our most serious problem is that we have forgotten the lessons of MLK and the other great leaders of the past that have advocated and practiced civil disobedience in the past. They understood that turning up at rallies with signs was a start but, would not get the job done if peaceful demonstrations could be broken up by the police and would be largely ignored by the public without more effective action.

All over the country the police have been dispersing rallies with a few arrests and then threats of arrest. We must hold our ground out there.

I suggest when arrests start that the group must stay together. If they are going to take one of you make them take all of you. Sit peacefully and lock arms. Refuse to move until taken by the police.

I was at the VERY LARGE march in New York during the RNC. I have dreams of those 500,000 or more people sitting down in the middle of the street and refusing to move. Let the public and the MSM try to ignore that!

Why the Democrats ignore one working with the Unions closer is beyond me. Throughout most of the 20th century it was these people...the real middle class...who organized and mobilized in numbers both the media and the government couldn't ignore. They also provided valuable support for other movements like Civil Rights.

If there was any time for the union movement to reconstitute itself, it's now. Workers have been under constant attack by corporate America...reducing jobs, opportunities and wages while preying on these same people to stuff their bulging pockets.

Sadly, the GOOP has succeded in marginalizing this movement and the modern Democrats have ignored or taken them for granted while the Unions have lost members and influence. I'd love to see a new generation of leaders popping up in this movement...energizing the grassroots and showing how Democrats are the true party for any working person.

I'm reading a very interesting essay on the similarities and differences of other "conservative" times...the 20s & 50s and how the tide turned...Unions were at the forefront both times as well as were other well organized groups that came together in the 30s and 60s to transform both society. Maybe the pendulum of politics is ready to swing back in this powerful direction.

Be friendly about it, but make it clear that we are tired of protesting and being ignored.

We demand coverage. We demand equal time. We aren't bombing or killing anybody. Our views are valid.

As DUers know, King was planning to have a Poor People's Campaign in Washington, DC, starting in the summer of 1968. The plan scared a heck of a lot of people, including many of his closest advisors. But he had a goal, and he saw that goal as being reached by way of a new type of demonstration.

The coalition of the poor and marginalized that Martin planned to put together was not altogether different than the interests that we see represented on DU today. In the bigger picture, it wasn't simply "poverty" or "racism" that King wanted to confront. He was focused on confronting the "violence of poverty," to paraphrase Gandhi.

I would submit that King made clear that he did not think that the people he wanted to live in a "tent city" could confront the hatred, fear, and violence outside of themselves, until they confronted it within theirselves. Thus, he had his "ten point program," that he wanted people to put into practice.

I believe in the message of Martin Luther King, Jr. I believe that that our nation has come to a split in the road: one path is the destructive, Bush - UNconsciousness; the other is the healing King - consciousness. Hence, the choice of tactics is actually best viewed as the hatred, lies, and fear of Bush, versus the love, truth, and confidence of King.

When we make the conscious decision to take the path of King, then the things we must do will fall in place.