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so ustwo is demonstrating one point i made earlier: that conservatives like to think state violence disappears when it is directed in ways they approve of. they even stop thinking of it as violence. freedom of assembly, freedom of speech--non issues for the ustwo set--freedom to dissent?--apparently for ustwo, dissent has a dress code.
go figure.
what i see above from most of the republicans here is a refusal to take public protest seriously as a way of exercizing freedom of speech.
what i also see is a pretty deep ignorance of police violence in sparking much of the more destructive interactions with protestors, particularly in the series of protests around the g8/wto. i can't tell if this is willful ignorance or not, so i'll leave it at that for the moment. but then again, if you can't recognize public protest as a way of exercizing freedom of speech, not being able to recognize police violence as being in any way problematic kinda follows.
complicating aside for the protestors:
the black block.
personally, i think the black block is stupid.
the idea was to divert police away from beating up protestors by making them chase a secondary group around that would demonstrate their anarchist street credibility by breaking shit.
the black block then is a symptom of the routine violence brought down by police in certain types of protests.
i know quite a few folk who have been part of black block actions--in general they are of the school that your political credibility is in direct relation to direct conflict with the cops.
i simply do not find that useful politically---and almost all of these same folk have a more emotional than worked out type of opposition to the existing order.
but maybe i am just older then they are.
on the other hand: none of the institutions involved with the actual administration of the modes whereby globalizing capitalism is being developed/implemented are democratically accountable to anyone. you would think this lack of accountability would be a problem--but no. people turn out to protest at g8/wto type meetings as an expression of frustration over this total lack of accountability.
and there is every reason to be angry and frustrated about this, and those who are have every right to bring whatever form of pressure they think will function to bear on these groups/institutions to change.
nothing is served--at all--by sanctioning anything like an increased militarization of the police when the main problem behind actions like seattle is the lack of democratic accountability on the part of the main institutions that currrently determine what globalizing capitalism looks like.
you woudnt think conservatives would be comfortable with this situation either, frankly.
but maybe ustwo is right, and most conservatives who are troubled by the autocratic nature of the wto. world bank, imf, etc. yell at their tv sets in their living rooms.
or maybe they like autocratic economic institutions.
who can say?
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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