You look like a bunch of docile sheep. The pigs arrest some of your friends and associates and you stand around with your thumbs in your ears, wondering what's going on.

What ever happened to solidarity. One for all and all for one. Do you believe the pigs would act this way if one of their number was attacked.

That's why we are losing. No deep commitment.
All those present who did nothing should be ashamed.

Do you believe the pigs would act this way if one of their number was attacked.


What are you? an idiot? telling people to attack police. I woiuld like to see you do that. You do realize you'll get minimal two years in prison. You're an idiot.

if 'one of their own' were attacked, they would act this way even more so.

not if it was all the people and a few cops, and it it wasnt then a riot would break out and then we can see how the pigs react.

unarresting works. if you saw protests other than through your computer screen, you might have seen this in action.

Attack my ass, you are protecting one of your own. The reason why they are emboldened to pen us up like sheep is because we act like sheep.

Hey dsljkf, baaaaaaaaaaah! Sound familiar.

Please, don't embarass anarchists by calling these kids anarcho-teens. to most of them, anarchy is a fashion statement, victims of this post-modern tendency without even realizing it. I've seen them try to talk about their beliefs and about anarchism to other protestors and people making documentaries and they don't know a thing about anarchism. it was embarassing and a shame that to mainstream society and even other protestors, they are the main representative of anarchism (of course because they stick out). show them pictures of how emma goldman and those other guys looked, and they'll probably be disillusioned. News flash, I walked by the black clad anarchist group, you guys were being trailed by undercover cops. Why do you insist on sticking out. dress normally. to mainstream society you look like a bunch of terrorists (more so these days since that word is being thrown around everywhere). granted you are not. but neverhteless, when my grandma sees you on tv, she's scared when in fact you are all good people. So how do you expect to get more people to take part in direct action and stuff if people do not want to stand by you. if normally dressed people take part in 'direct action', then when the image is brought back to living rooms everywhere, it looks like people just like them (the viewers) are standing up aginst war and capitalism, and not a bunch of people that look scary to grandma-ma. in this world and certainly in this country, image is everything. and of course you have no problem with putting up an image, since you do with the black bloc stuff, so why not just drop the black bloc stuff already and find an image that doesn't exclude other protestors and mainstream society. get a clue. anarchism is the weakest movement on the left these days and you are in part to blame because of your exclusive ways of doing things. And i thought anrchism was supposed to be about autonomy.

i was not there but the female called me after the first two arrests while close and following the police as they took the two away, while on the phone the police took her camera and arrested her. when the van came for them the police repeatidly tried to put his bandana over one of the males face to take his picture but gave up after his and the surrounding people's repeated protest. the first two were arrested by undercovers.

This was a Peace protest not a far left event, most of the people there seemed to be dems more than part of the movement. quite frankly I don't expect solidarity from them.

woah. first of all, RealityCheck, none of this movement elitist bullshit. We are not a vanguard. Second. Unarrest works. But thats different than telling people that they are sheep who should attack police. The way everyone here bickers throwing arround the excuse of experience and false bravado you'd think we were at a white house press conference. This elitist "more-leftist-than-thou" crap has got to stop if we *ever* want a chance of a better world.

You even can't help your friends, how can you stop war? The police came and arrested them in front of your eyes. I can't believe this photo...

There are two sites in protests like this; one is our site and other one is others. AND noone, especialy from others' site couldn't get a person from my site!!!

Come on guys you want to stop WAR. But you couldn't stop a few police. And i can't believe that someones defends himselfs. You couldn't help people in Iraq by this way.

Arresting protesters would become difficult if at demos people started, and I mean on a MASS level getting arrested when they saw one person being picked up by the police. If the police had to arrest hundreds, at a rally as big the one in NYC, if hundreds of people intervened when one was getting arrested they would have to think twice. We don't need to ve violent, we don't need to "fight" the police, we need to intervene in an arrest and get arrested. The way the movement is headed today, NO war is going to be stopped... IT HASN'T stopped!!! And people in third world countires, people of colour, are being killed every day!!! The western progressive movements need to realize that they need to put their BODIES on the line... meaning WE NEED MORE MASSIVE (peaceful) CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE!!!

Didn't you guys know the revolution is an underground sub-culture? Only Radical Militants can rise up and fight oppression, not ordinary people. If you want to take part, you must become a Radical Militant (R) and dress like one! The victory will be ours when everyone dressess up in all-black uniforms. So what are you waiting for? Steal your BB-fashion-outfit from the nearest shop, now!

sorry guys. you're all only partially correct. if you wanna stop arrests, the actual scene of an arrest isn't the place to start. why don't some of you become active in organizations that are struggling with issues of police brutality, the prison industrial complex, racial profiling, etc. these issues are being addressed by People of Color on a DAILY basis. granted, the daily work isn't as glamorous and exciting as yanking a pig off of one your comrades at an anti-war protest but...at least we (People of Color) are out organizing around these issues instead of just commenting on pictures on Indymedia. once involved maybe you'll entice more People of Color to show their solidarity and attend your predominantly white anti-war movement. we are afterall the ones who are most heavily affected by war and police states.

peace,
ric.
 ricu@ureach.com

I am really curious to know what those of you who are spouting anarchist rhetoric do for work. I mean do you do anything else but write on indymedia and other newswires or have you even attempted to identify with other groups of oppressed people? I think it is unfair that the Black Bloc of mostly white teens represent anarchists. In addition, do you have any idea how institutions such as the police work? I am not a fond believer of the police, but they are justified in using force in many instances. Protestors, including myself, should understand the context in which police are justified in using force, so that when their rights are violated, the threat can be taken seriously and appropriate action can be taken. I mean if everyone cries excessive use of force everytime someone is arrested, it loses it meaning, and we become a bunch of whiners.
In addtion the people of United States who live under a police state are not the Anarchist Bloc, until they themselves provoke the police by their outfits in drawing attention to themselves. Want to see some repression by the police? Drop the Camels and head out to some neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

Didn't you guys know the revolution is an underground sub-culture? Only Radical Militants can rise up and fight oppression, not ordinary people. If you want to take part, you must become a Radical Militant (R) and dress like one! The victory will be ours when everyone dressess up in all-black uniforms. So what are you waiting for? Steal your BB-fashion-outfit from the nearest shop, now!

Ric,
Thank you for your comments. You made the point nicely. People need to think beyond themselves.

It's not like everyone there was too chickenshit to do anything about this, I guess they just weren't present at the time. I didn't see any arrests myself.

The violence by the police was minimal, if we're only talking about physical violence. But there was an overwhelming police presence...They even baricaded public benches. I sat on one anyway and was forced to get up. He wouldn't give me a reason other than "I'm doing my job."

The helicopters hovering overhead were a bit unsettling...

did you guys see the videos from san francisco?

 http://www.indybay.org/uploads/breakawayviolence.mov

 http://www.indybay.org/uploads/cops_get_trashed.mov

the cops in ny were saints by comparison. if they did anything like that, i dont think anyone would just sit and watch.

If Green Party candidate Matt Gonzalez had beaten his Democratic opponent last November, would SF police have beaten peace demonstrators yesterday?

Ask Kerry next time you see him.

The green/social democratic govenment in Germany decided it was well within their enviromentally friendly/ non/violent principals to join the NATO attack on Serbia including use of Depleated Uranium ammo, murder of journalists at work, and destruction of much of the civilian infrastructure. So ya I think the police would continue to beat protestors with a Green as mayor.

Does anyone have footage of the Black Bloc breakaway march from yesterday?

I have no idea what happened to get this person in jail. I will not pretend to. But, to use violent action to stop the police from arresting this man is wrong. This was a peace rally. It makes no sense what-so-ever to break out the violence at a peace rally. It is not idiocy to help a friend from being wrongfully detained, but it is idiocy to resort to violence when your message is peace.

This is me getting arrested on March 20. Four cops jumped me, cuffed me, and searched me. Of course, they found NOTHING. After 27 hours in jail, I was charged with "loitering" and "resisting arrest." 3 other people were arrested with me. I was neither loitering, nor resisting arrest.

Me and my friends would like you to email us any pictures or video as we are contesting the charges in court. Thanks for your help.

Peace
(A)

Daniel
Maryann
Libor

hi we are the people who were arested yesterday, anybody has our (DV-sony and 2000 Olympus manual)cameras,bags and cellphone thank you for any mails. ciao

"You even can't help your friends, how can you stop war? The police came and arrested them in front of your eyes. I can't believe this photo...
There are two sites in protests like this; one is our site and other one is others. AND noone, especialy from others' site couldn't get a person from my site!!!
Come on guys you want to stop WAR. But you couldn't stop a few police. And i can't believe that someones defends himselfs. You couldn't help people in Iraq by this way."

I'd like to comment on that quote...to all of you who claim that "we" were all standing around not doing shit when these people got arrested, you obviously dont know shit about me. im a Black anarchist from Raleigh NC and I am damn proud to announce it. I was walking with the three subjects when the undercover cops took us from behind and ambushed us. I was right there getting arrested with them. How's that for solidarity? Granted, when I told the police that I was only their friend and didnt have anything to do with why they were being arrested, they took me out of handcuffs, and was used as an acsessory. Q. Allen was the one whp stood there in the face of the cops telling my friends that I had them taken care of. Q. Allen was the one that CHOSE to get arreted with my friends that I only met the day before. And what were you guys doing? Just following the crowd keeping on with the march. I was shot 4 times by police when I was younger (14). I was there in Maimi being shot with rubber bullets and tear gassed to death. I'm only 18, but if sticking your neck out for your fellow anarchist is what it takes to prove true solidarity, then so be it. How dare some of you posters exploit me and my friends, the Black Bloc and anarchism itself. How dare you call yourselves "changing things" but wanna talk shit on us who were actually catching the heat for all of you.

I would Like to echo Q allen's statement and also add onto it.

The police presence at M20 was rediculous. The Fact that pens were being used is just appaling. The apathy of the crowd, and calm accepence of the situation around us was just plain digusting. I could not believe just how apathetic and relaxed the crowds were at this thing. People became sheep. Nobody outside of Black Bloc condemned the pigs who were trying to go undercover amongst us. Nobody stood in solidarity with us when we were chanting to free palestine or Iraq, or against the pens, or challenge the authority of this regime. I dont see how we are being blamed for being "seperatist" and exclutionary for our actions. Asking us to change the way we act, or look is not only rediculous but stupid. Our resistance to oppression is an everyday thing. we blame conformity just as much as authority. We are accused of offending the Left when no one takes into account just who the Left is offending. The way we look, or the way we dress is a part of our statement against authority. Instead of infighting, instead of bickering it would be nice if for once the "Lefties" out there would get off their high horse and just accept what we are and what we do as just as valid as what they do. I cant count how many "liberals" told me to stop being so loud, or so violent just for trying to get the crowd excited about standing up for what they believe in. "stop being so loud, stop being violent, Dont wear those clothes, dont say, dont talk out against the cops, dont talk out against the pens..." I would have attempted to save just about any protestor from being caught by the pigs, black bloc or not. At least draw attention to it and get people aware, and maybe stop the action. Who outside of black bloc would have done that for me??

I'm sorry for the sarcastic tone in my earlier post: ill communication. The problem, in my view, is not Black Bloc tactics as such (property destruction, mutual self-defence against fascist attacks, unarrest, etc.), but the very fact that this tactics has been monopolized by the Black Bloc (R). Here's again what skjhfd writes: "if normally dressed people take part in 'direct action', then when the image is brought back to living rooms everywhere, it looks like people just like them (the viewers) are standing up aginst war and capitalism, and not a bunch of people that look scary to grandma-ma."

For me, anarchism is about diversity and openness... therefore, imo, a vanguard militia in uniforms is plain counterproductive: it misrepresents the whole idea. The people shouldn't be expected to come and join the revolution-subculture, but the other way around: the revolution ought to subtly move among the multitudes. The revolutionary is not a militant, she's "everywoman"; and resistance in the face of oppression shouldn't be represented as something extraordinary, since, after all, it is the most normal thing, present everywhere where there is oppression.

peace breeds peace war...war...what are we trying to encourage? everyone should sit...for peace

I am all for peaceful protests. Really i am, but that dosent work anymore. All those people we look up to, Ghandi, MLK Jr, they all raised the stakes with their form of protest and it worked. We cannot just keep doing what has done in the past. The state has gotten used to us. The things ANSWER has to offer with these forms of protests are not enough anymore. I am not talkin about going out there and hurting or killing people, but i dont think that denouncing Direct action will be very helpfull at all. There is still room for Peaceful protesting, but that on its own will no longer be enough. People need to get out there and be willing to make a bold statement.

I agree with blondie about the outfits. I do believe that redundancy is killing the movement. Anarchists groups right now are stuck in this dynamic between actions that reach out to other people and actions that define and represent the things we believe in. I cant offer an answer but i know that is one of the problems i feel on a regular basis. I dont know if black Bloc needs to be as criticized as anarchist actions outside of black bloc. Anarchists in general need to be just as concerned with reaching out, and teach ins as they are with action. I also think people in general need to be a little more openminded about anarchy, and the people who come to protests in general.

Yet another display of the madness going on. I was recently at a send of protest in Albany, NY and witnessed a man brutally thrown down for kicking a soccer ball. We have to rise up against this....NO POLICE STATE!

I have footage of the Black Bloc breakaway, and I'm working on getting it on my PC right now. I followed the group that split to the left, so I didn't get any of the arrests on tape. Wish I had followed the other group, though, as my friend was also there with a camera taping it, and we ended up following the same group without knowing it. And yes, I was well aware that we had undercover cops standing right behind us the whole time. They're quite easy to pick out of a crowd, unless they're extremely skilled, and they usually don't dispatch those for something like a protest. The two cops tailing us were probably training for undercover work, and didn't do a good job on the tail. Once the breakaway footage gets split from the two tapes to a vid file on my comp, I'll upload it. I've got coverage from the front and back of the breakaway run, and from the group that split left. We spent the next 3 or 4 hours being followed by normal police officers on mopeds, with the occassional undercover officer drifting by. They were all pretty easy to pick out, especially the cars they tried to outfit as undercover vehicles. Had I been where the arrests were, I probably would have gone in with them, as I wouldn't have stood for it. I didn't find out about the arrests until they were finalized and news was sent out over the dispatch.

i cant beleive that people here up hold some bull shit social exclusion stigma on anarchopunk looking people, its a social group, just like the one you belong to. maybe yours is just more acceptable to the "public" or your grandma or whoever, well guess what, i dont like the way your grandma and her friends dress but im still going to try and save their asses if the pigs try and nab em for doing what they want. i agree TACTICALLY black bloc has lost its effectiveness (for now), but thats not quite what any of you are saying.
and for fucks sake can we stop with the vast generalizing of white people, if its not ok to generalize about one race its not ok to generalize about ANY race. an anarchist of anycolor is fighting for freedom just like a cop of any color is a fucking pig and fighting against freedom. RACISM IS NOT THE CAUSE, RACISM IS AN EFFECT. fuck all exchanges of tyranny, if youre not fighting for freedom WITH NO STRINGS ATTACHED then your not fighting for freedom at all.

"In addtion the people of United States who live under a police state are not the Anarchist Bloc, until they themselves provoke the police by their outfits in drawing attention to themselves. Want to see some repression by the police? Drop the Camels and head out to some neighborhoods in Brooklyn."

Yo, dumbass. Many of us live out in the hoods of Brooklyn! Where do you think that black bloc peeps come from? Mars? We have to put up with police brutality on a daily basis. Most of us work shitty jobs or are trying to find work in this shitty ass economy. So can we cut out all this shit-talking about anarchists that is based on ignorant stereotypes?

While I support the protesters, and am appalled each time I am greeted with the image of the police acting like half-crazed animals, I can't help but wonder how many of those people calling for violent action against the police on this site are police/f.b.i. agitators... We are not that far removed from COINTELPRO after all...

i haven't been doing this long, but last time i checked, peace begins with peace.

while you do have to cause a stir and make a little noise, picking on pigs is no way to do it. there are infinite ways of being heard that have yet to be discovered. stop being so angry and focus. be productive. talk to people. we all resent police brutality. we all want peace. that is why we all showed up on the same street, at the same time and marched to the same drums.

March 20 was very peaceful. and was very powerful. silence is stronger than anything a person could say because it reflects power. who doesn't get upset abut police brutality? its completley hypocritical. imagine how the cop feels beating on an innocent and being met with the stares of solidarity. it will hurt more than a fist.

"an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind"

This picture shows one thing: the people are still dociled and easy to govern and control.

Their voice are like echo in the desert, and their actions have little or no influence on the political decisions made behind close doors by a small group of people who have real power. Not different from how (collective)dictatorship is run.

The so called people's power in this country is still largely fiction.

This country, no matter how unsatisfactory its political system is, is faaaarr from ready for radical changes, real changes that turns things upside and inside out 100%, not cosmetic patches like what the Dem like to do to pacify the people...once in a while.

When will we have a third and even fourth major political party so people can have real choices? The year 3004?

Dead Kennedys I Am the Owl lyrics
I am your plumber
No I never went away
I still bug your bedrooms
And pick up everything you say
It can be a boring job
To moniter all day your excess talk

I hear when you're drinking
And cheating on your lonely wife
I play tape recordings
Of you to my friends at night

We've got our girl in bed with you
You're on candid camera
We just un-elected you

Chorus
I am the owl
I seek out the foul
Wipe 'em away
Keep America free
For clean livin' folks like me

If you demonstrate
Against somebody we like
I'll slip on my wig
And see if I can start a riot
Transform you to an angry mob
All your leaders go to jail for my job

But we ain't the Russians
Political trials are taboo
We've got our secret
Ways of getting rid of you
Fill you full of LSD
Turn you loose on a freeway

Chorus

Send you spinning
Send you spinning
Send you spinning all over the freeway
Spinning on the crowded freeway
Spinning on the freeway
Spinning on the freeway
Spin
Spin
Spin?Lookout

The press, they never even cared
Why a youth leader walked into a speeding car
In ten years we'll leak the truth
By then it's only so much papaer

Watergate hurt
But nothing really ever changed
A teeny bit quiter
But we still play our little games

We still play our little games
We still play our little games
We still play our little games
We still play a lot of games

I am the owl

they want you to become violent

it will be easier to marginalize and discredit you

keep up the good work.

the popular uprising will never embrace your ideas and the game has been lost in a predictable play ...

Its a shame that the arrest photo is the first and only image that comes up when you click on NYC photos from the recent "Global Day of Action". For a somewhat different perspective, follow the link provided. #file_1# #file_2#

Four orders to disperse were given before the police announced that everyone encircled by the police "should not attempt to escape" and were "subject to having police batons used against them." A line of demonstrators managed to break through the line of riot cops before dozens more were trapped and subsequently arrested.

The demonstration in NY had tens of thousands of protestors. It included a pre-march rally, an over thirty-block march through downtown New York City and a post-march rally. The pre-march rally included many little 5 minutes speeches from minor leaders of the Answer and United for Peace coalition. The only speaker of note was congressman Kusnich. The remaining were a lot of religious figures, a parent who lost his son in the war, and a student. An in-depth analysis of the current state of the movement or even a truly inspiring militant speech that could motivate the crowd to bust through the police barricades where no were to be found.
As usual Workers World party continued its sleath campaign of raising consciousness. I should add that the Pentagon has nothing as stealthy as the Workers World Party, WWP. Nothing that could be called even remotely Leftist was discussed at the rally. There was a great deal whining about how we were all being victimized, mostly with Bush as the target. There was nothing that Kerry could complain about.
I would have stayed for all the post-rally speeches if the crowds had not been so obedient and taken so long while being led through the streets of New York like dogs on the leach and the speakers could at least give the many leftists in the crowd something other then whining, Bush bashing and brother and sistering. Not once did I hear the title comrade. Repeatedly large sections of the marchers were held up even with out the excuse of allowing vehicular traffic for up to 20 minutes at a stretch. That traffic could not be permanently rerouted for the duration of the march is another discussion.
There were no improvised speeches by our misleaders during those intervals, as was done by WWP at the Washington DC protests. What little organizing they did do was to beg inpatient marchers to stay in line, or those big bad policemen would not let them continue. Neither United for Justice nor Answer provided for any security through out the event, it was just cops, cops and more cops. It was only the tepid militancy of some of the marchers, which allowed for any post March rally at all. We were kept on the streets throughout the protest, even through there existed an empty park right next to the speakers stand. In exchange we were allowed speaker stands stretching down the length of many blocks. The obvious intention was to destroy any potential for showing our real numbers on TV.
There were no Anarchist militants and of course their associated activity at the protest. Even the sidewalks next to the rally stand were free of protestors. Dozens of police marched right into the front of the speaker's stand in an obvious attempt to intimidate participants. To all of the aforementioned provocations and abuse there was little sign of resistance or even anger. I had the distinct impression that this was a wholly United for Justice or upper middle class liberal event. However even liberals could have at least participated in some civil disobedience in the face of so much injustice on the part of the billionaire mayor Bloomberg and his Cossacks.
There were Leftists of every flavor all doing the same thing selling newspapers and other odds and ends. Providing leadership to a very passive crowd was something none of them were doing. The only passion I could see amongst the Left there was one of them who offered to sell me a party paper and as I replied no thank you but that I supported him and all the Marxist Left, he yelled back that that was the problem. I restraint my intense desire to reply that cowardly and bureaucratic sectarianism is a disease that seems to run rampant amongst all the Left. My own lack of militancy at this event is source of shame. Even Liberals should have been dissatisfied with the event as a lost opportunity. We on the Left lack their excuses and supposedly their ideology. In its essence it appears that reformism is a common thread amongst all the Left. Raising consciousness in the masses and even the political cadre should not be such a stealthy process. The Left cannot speak of the revolution and their ideology, only through some article in their literature.
At this event in New York and elsewhere all the leaders of all the respective Leftist groups should have been on the streets and at the rally giving those inspiring speeches that they seem to reserve for the party faithful at protected conferences and leading the masses through those ubiquitous police barricades. The masses never see these great and invaluable leaders. They are hardly visible to the rank and file of their own respective party members. Like the Mosques in Mecca they have become the travel requirements of the faithful. Even Lenin and Marx were known to take some time off from the arduous intellectual and organizing labors to address and lead the masses in public. Until the respective cadres for the moment, (there is a great deal of turnover in the movement as the faithful lose their faith), failed to demand more of their leaders in return for their dues, this continue disconnect between Marxian revolutionary theory and cowardly reformist activity will continue for ever.
While we must be careful in choosing our arena to fight in, we must eventually fight in some manner, it must be in public, and we must be identifiable as Marxist revolutionaries. The masses must have a place to turn to. While we must survive, if we continue to be invisible we are as good as dead and are a part of the problem instead of the solution. This continued self-censorship in fear of red baiting or coalition busting is self-defeating. We must demand that our liberal allies defend us. Not only because it is right but they could not organize a tea party without us. There has to be more to being a Marxist revolutionary then to help gentler and kinder Democrats get elected. Whether or not it is contrary to our respective party positions, it is the ultimate result of our activities.
It was the militant struggle on the streets and the bombs of the Weathermen, which was America's Leftists only effective contribution to the Leftist World defeat of Imperialism in Vietnam. Imperialism will take and use events as yesterday as signs of their liberality and the freedom implicit in their plutocracy. Kerry will get elected and send thousands more troops to die and kill around the World, like Johnson did. He will give us a little butter and pass a few more unenforceable laws pandering to special interests in the middle class to make passage of pain more standable.
The Left by being invisible and silent will be lumped in with the terrorist right wing nationalists, by default as they are today. No amount of pacifism will keep the Capitalist mass media from labeling us terrorists. The Left's current hiding behind bourgeois legalities when conducting its activities is morally and operationally castrating and leaves the advance sectors of masses who are quite aware of what the Capitalists are doing fearful of our leadership. Nobody wishes to risk his or her life for a cowardly or fearful leadership.
Only by revolutionary propaganda can we fight their propaganda. Perhaps a few masked comrades can temporarily take over a TV or radio station. At least a guerilla radio station could be setup in an oppressed area. None of these activities would be impossible if the Left united in putting up a physical resistance to Imperialism instead of a rhetorical resistance. All are living under the conceit that revolutionary activity consists solely of defending the only possible correct line and exposing treason in other comrade's parties. We can determine if we are following the correct line by earning the enmity of the capitalists as expressed by their mass media and of course surviving its onslaught.
The masses left demoralized, disorganized and confused by both the Left and the neo liberals will again turn to the right wing for law and order as they did under Reagan and Bush the Second. Only perhaps then the Capitalists will tire of the chaos of the bourgeois electoral process and institute a fascist dictatorship. The requirements of the empire may overweigh and no longer coincide with the reformist political advantages of a bourgeois democracy.

At this event in New York and elsewhere all the leaders of all the respective Leftist groups should have been on the streets and at the rally giving those inspiring speeches that they seem to reserve for the party faithful at protected conferences and leading the masses through those ubiquitous police barricades. The masses always see these great and invaluable leaders. They are hardly visible to the rank and file of their own respective party members. Like the Mosques in Mecca they have become the travel requirements of the faithful. Even Lenin and Marx were not known to take some time off from the arduous intellectual and organizing labors to address and lead the masses in public. Until the respective cadres for the moment, (there is a great deal of turnover in the movement as the faithful lose their faith), failed to demand more of their leaders in return for their dues, this continue disconnect between Marxist revolutionary theory and cowardly reformist activity will continue for ever.
While we must be careful in choosing our arena to fight in, we must eventually fight in some manner, it must be in public, and we must be identifiable as Marxian revolutionaries. The masses must have a place to turn to. While we must survive, if we continue to be invisible we are as good as dead and are a part of the problem instead of the solution. This continued self-censorship in fear of red baiting or coalition busting is self-defeating. We must demand that our liberal allies defend us. Not only because it is right but they could not organize a tea party without us. There has to be more to being a Marxist revolutionary then to help gentler and kinder Democrats get elected. Whether or not it is contrary to our respective party positions, it is the ultimate result of our activities.
It was the militant struggle on the streets and the bombs of the Weathermen, which was America's Leftists only effective contribution to the Leftist World defeat of Imperialism in Vietnam. Imperialism will take and use events as yesterday as signs of their liberality and the freedom implicit in their plutocracy. Kerry will get elected and send thousands more troops to die and kill around the World, like Johnson did. He will give us a little butter and pass a few more unenforceable laws pandering to special interests in the middle class to make passage of pain more standable.