US, Washington, A16 -1, Report from the field:
how the revolution is gonna look like.
In my experience, the more dedicated the revolutionaries the longer thier meetings last. This seems to be no longer the case. Tonight's meeting, despite representing a few thousand protesters, represented by maybe one hundred 'spokespersons', with four hundred watchful observers, lasted only three hours or so. And in that time quite a lot was accomplished: We finished the battle plan for Sunday. For those of you who don't quite realize the magnitude of that accomplishment - just wait until Sunday.
Over the past week, dozens of teach-ins have been going on, with thousands of mostly young activists coming from across the United States (and Kenya, Germany, Romania, India, Israel...) to learn about the crimes committed by the World Bank and the IMF. In a parallel process, these activists were learning about nonviolent direct action, how to block an intersection, provide medical treatment for pepper gas victims, and do jail solidarity. For sure, a few days ago some people were still fuzzy on the details. But no longer. Miraculously, everything came together. Without leaders. Without an organization being in charge. Without even a coalition of organizations being in charge.
It works like this: everyone has to join an affinity group. 5-20 people get together, give themselves a funky name, and promise to reach decisions by consensus. They build up thier loyalty to each other, and talk about what seems right for them. Some of the affinity groups have been together before, in other actions in other places. Some came together only yesterday.
My affinity group numbers 8 people. Our ages range from 18 - 32. A black kid from north DC, a middle class hippy student from nearby, a nice couple from Chicago (he's gay, she's lesbian), a Canadian student, two students studying in DC, and me - an employee of a mainstream environmental organization from the Middle East. Actually, this sounds like a normal group in this crowd. In many ways we are representative of the huge cross section of people participating in this movement: people of color, Jews, white professionals, students, faith based people, anarchists, union folk and everything in between.
We met yesterday and decided we fit into the high risk catagory. This meant that we were willing to get arrested in our attempt to stop the World Bank from holding their meetings. Two of our team are willing, but prefer not to. They will be in charge of legal and medical support. One of us was elected to represent the group as a spokesperson. He will be able to speak and vote as needed. Another important decision was how we wanted to participate. During the big meeting, this was addressed. Affinity groups without 'pie slice clusters' are invited to join available clusters, or to serve as 'flying squads able to be called out during the day on a moment's notice.
In the end we joined the 'H' pie cluster, more or less covering the section between Dupont Circle and the World Bank. Together with the other affinity groups, a plan and a theme will be hammered out in the hours that remain. It looks like we will simply meet at a certain spot with large puppets, and walk towards the intersections we wish to blockade. Once there, some will get arrested, while others act as 'action elves', making sure that cameras are trained on the police, media are contacted if there's anything interesting, and a record of which affinity groups are arrested is kept and passed on to the Midnight Special Legal Collective.
Saturday
Early this morning, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms raided the convergence center with a large police presence and fire marshals. Under the pretext that we were violating the fire code, they evicted everyone, confiscated our materials, and accused us of making a bomb. We are speaking of course, about the propane gas tank used for all the cooking. What this proves is that the police are interested in fanning the flames of hysteria. A few days ago they arrested some people who had lots of chicken wire and pipes in their cars, and accused them of gathering supplies for 'molotov cocktails.' Everyone knows that these are the materials for lockdown devices, used nonviolently to block the roads. For a week now the protestors have been shadowed by police and harassed repeatedly.
The police are playing on our weaknesses. Many of us look marginal, and plan on doing things that upright citizens are likely to avoid. By accusing us of violent intentions, they hope to keep the public safely between Thomas Freidman's economic theories and the DC Police Chiefs warnings of anarchist violence. Luckily, it won't work. Our efforts have been endorsed by most of the major unions, dozens of church and other religious groups, almost all the progressive think tank policy institutes in DC, and even the mainstream environmentalists like Friends of the Earth. Come to speak of it, the President of FoE in the United States, Dr. Blackwelder, kicked off the mobilization week by getting arrested outside the IMF building. His staff rented a big truck, and parked it in the middle of the street. Then, he got on top of it and told the Bank officials what he thought of them, with a megaphone.
It's interesting to compare the nervous dialectics between the 'center' and the 'radicals' in Israel's environmental movement. Over here, the mainstream groups are joining, if not applauding loudly, as their youngish staff members purchase soak bandannas in vinegar for the anticipated tear gas. Many average US citizens don't feel the elation of the stock market, they are not 'optimistic', and the critique of alphabet soup capitalism (WTO, IMF, WB) is starting to hit home. In any fight between the ATF (remember Waco?) and the nonviolent protest organizers, it is clear whom the American public support. (Us!)
To sum up, a mere18 hours before the shit hits the fan (they are the shit, we are the fan!) let me state that this has been a wonderful experience in grassroots democracy. Everyone has the sense that what we have here is not a demonstration, or an organization, but a movement that is global. It is our answer to globalization for the rich: globalization for the people. It doesn't raise the value of someone's stocks; but it reminds us of our true worth, our real power, and the underlying meaning of our presence on the barricades. We are all brothers and sisters on this god given earth, and we had better start treating our family better.