Shouldn't we all be protesting the war in Iraq?

oh, you'd make an amazing soldier, caitlin.

Ian is right, I think.

yes. that would be so good.

"marching in the streets" is played out.

it's not disruptive or even thought-provoking anymore - it is very easy for people to file picket lines away in their heads, prob under the heading of "60s relics" / "losers".

xp exactly! The London one was pretty undeniable.

this sort of tactic works best where it's not needed = london, new york, paris, chicago, san francisco, etc.

how to take protest to simi valley? to the walmarts and gated communities?

that's a good example of a protest that worked, without requiring any strike or picket or shutdown.

see: the woman from cindy sheehan's camp on CNN who was quoted as saying "basically, we don't want to have a dialogue with anybody who doesn't understand our position" when trying to explain why they wouldn't debate the pro-war campers.

He and others at "Fort Qualls" have asked for a debate with those at the Crawford Peace House, which is helping Sheehan.

It's unclear if that will happen. But a member of Gold Star Families for Peace, co-founded by Sheehan and made up of relatives of fallen soldiers, said her group would not participate.

"We're asking for a meeting with the president, period," said Michelle DeFord, whose 37-year-old son, Sgt. David W. Johnson, was in the Army National Guard from Oregon when he was killed in Iraq last fall. "We don't want to debate with people who don't understand our point of view."

anyway i sometimes wonder if "protest" on the whole has been blown out of proportion - for example, i think probably the best work the NAACP did towards integration was not necessarily the sit-ins and boycotts and freedom rides, but the years of groundwork in forming powerful allies in the white house (first lady eleanor roosevelt, for example).

i think it's important to remember the demonstrators of the civil rights era, esp since so many of them gave so much (up to and including their lives), but at the same time we tend to forget the coalition-building and legal work and diplomacy that went on behind the scenes (t/s: thurgood marshall vs martin luther king?)

i think maybe today there is too much vocal dissent without constructive activism, too much demonstration but not enough groundwork.

you could argue its been a major success of the capitalist elite in 'making' people feel this way (there could have been a danger of people getting really angry if made to feel powerless, yet people sink into cynicism and escape instead, perfect!)

the fact that there is no organized left anymore is also a real problem, single issue politics are all well and good, but not by themselves, not in the long run. they are easily diminished and trivialized (a few hundred thousand hippies)

its hard not to feel this way, look at england! look at the huge protests against iraq war, look at the fact that the majority of the population were against the war, even at the beginning, and how that majority just grew and grew, but it was of no concern to Blair, he didnt even acknowledge the fact. and then there was an election. and he won. none of it mattered.

perhaps its a never ending circle, we tell ourselves protest/demonstration doesnt work, they tell us it doesnt work, it doesnt work, we tell ourselves it doesnt work

voting labour out might have had a bit more resonance though (but the british people would never vote the lib dems in)

BOYCOTT. now, this is more like it. hit 'em where it hurts, and you have a chance! companies are all aware of this, and have their lip service organic ranges, for example. anything where people might boycott a product, they have an alternative lined up. but yea, the chances of people boycotting stuff. nil. back to the same problem, cynicism, or "i agree in priniple, but what difference is little old me going to make, not buying x" aka i cant be bothered

vahids point is good, baby boomers commodification of dissent as neutralizing tool

when did actual dissent become uncool, naive, a bit nerdy. like the biggest strawman of them all, 'pc'

anti-war events in DC, Sept 24-26

I am generally bummed out by the 'preaching to the converted' aspect of all the demos I've attended dating back to the early '80s, but I'm hoping W's 36% poll rating and any lingering Cindy Sheehan Effect might might might make this different.