[I originally posted this in chapotraphouse, but it was deleted for being “pro-cop” even though that very much wasn’t the case. (I believe PSL was actually involved in organizing the protest if I’m not mistaken.) The mod that deleted it openly broke the sectarian rule too.]
Been seeing a lot of people hating on what the protest marshals did during the pro-Gaza protests at the DNC and I feel they definitely did the right thing. Instigating stuff like going up against the cops under the guise of “revolutionary” action just gets a lot of people arrested and doesn’t accomplish anything.
EDIT: Users who were present at the protests have said, counter to what is claimed in the screenshot, that the protest marshals did NOT call for the police. Thank you for clearing this up, comrades!
Both sides sucked. The planned protest sucked because it was far too passive and the adventurists sucked because they tried to hijack another protest instead of doing their own thing.
The planned protest sucking:
It’s not going to accomplish a single thing outside of “raising awareness” for the simple fact that it’s not militant enough. One easy litmus test is to ask whether the pigs actually feel threatened by the demonstration and the very easy answer is that they do not feel threatened whatsoever. They see it as easy overtime pay. The pigs are laughing it up to the bank as they cash their fat overtime paychecks.
The adventurists sucking:
It’s very obvious they tried hijacking the peaceful demonstration because they lack numbers. They have <30 people, and obviously, you’re not going to accomplish much with that little people. That’s less than a platoon of troops. This is pathetic in its own way since the adventurists tried to use the peace demonstrators as cannon fodder and when their adventurism inevitably fails because they lack numbers, the adventurists can always quietly slip away as the pigs beat the shit out of the cannon fodder that didn’t sign up to be militant.
It’s the classic dilemma. The numerous demonstrators lack militancy and the few militants lack numbers.
I just don’t understand why the marshals actively stopped them and helped the cops ID them instead of keeping them away from the rest of the protest. It’s all about the diversity of tactics for these organizers until someone tries to do something effective, and if there wasn’t active peace policing or infantile organizers “leading” maybe there could’ve been more genuine unrest that was much more unpredictable to the DNC attendees at the very least. You are right in that the action is adventurist but I have so much more empathy with them than the organizers that think peaceful protests are anything but a spit in the face to the gravity of the situation
oh my god they actually snitched? fucking worms. luckily now that the unseemly “adventurist” element has been quashed, the fascists will have no choice but to listen to our chanting!
The marshals didn’t help the cops ID people
Kettling and restricting the movement of protesters in the direct line of site of kkkops does help them ID you, and shit like this would be truly unacceptable to a marshal trying to keep comrades safe
Hold on I’ve got to go find those goalposts you moved
Helping the cops id people is not an incorrect statement though? They’re helping the cops contain the protest, letting them stand back and do their job where theyre inevitably IDing people especially the people the marshalls are physically singling out for doing “bad protesting”??? Shows a lot you care more about the technical definition of ID-ing than the overall evidence towards collaboration with fascist cops
Yeah, I’ll call out fedjacketing when I see it. If you disagree with the tactics you can just say so rather than trying to smear people
It’s not smearing, I’m calling out individual actions that are collaborative with cops. I genuinely believe it’s because americans are generally fascists with more sympathy towards cops and peace keepers than the victims of genocide and those that know we need to do much more to stop it. Also, as a movement with a history of infiltration and co-optation when did you get the idea in your head that fedjacketing is a bad thing?
You’ve indicated that if you feel a tactic is counterproductive then it’s the same as collaboration with the police. This is not a view to be taken seriously