tbh this feels like one of those "define effective" things.
since i don't know what code pink is trying to do, by way of analogy: food not bombs is effective at feeding people, they're not effective at a variety of things they're not set out to do like housing people or destroying the beef industry.
since i don't know what code pink is trying to do
https://www.codepink.org/about
"CODEPINK is a feminist grassroots organization working to end U.S. warfare and imperialism, support peace and human rights initiatives, and redirect resources into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming* programs"
Mostly curious about the first main point they brought up, ending US wars and imperialism
i'm not sure anybody doing that will ever be effective. probably the most effective actors in that space are the capitalists undermining the war machine's efficacy to make a buck, followed by the houthis and whoever droned that US base in jordan/syria.
Well there's definitely more and less effective things one could do given their current availability of resources. Obviously I'm talking about an org within the US and what they can do with the constraints of their resources
It definitely feels like to me getting a single person inside of a government office to stand up and randomly scream at a politician and then posting it on instagram is pretty poor agitation. This is by far the most common form of agitation I see from Code Pink
Vs PSL getting hundreds of thousands across the country to care enough to protest about wars (I know this specifically does nothing but they're getting more people involved in organizing). Or socialist parties + DSA getting ceasefire resolutions passed in cities which led to a bay area city cancelling a 1+ million dollar contract with Israel (forgot which city)
Or when a few thousand Google employees got a drone AI computer vision Pentagon contract cancelled https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/01/google-will-not-renew-a-controversial-pentagon-contract.html
I doubt any of the above victories would have come close to happening if they employed the strategy of "getting 1 person to walk up to Sundar's office/Whitehouse/Oakland City Hall and yell at the most powerful person there"
Like the optics of this is horrible even if they're completely correct. It's literally just a single random person causing disruption and making a loud commotion in a "civilised" and "professional" time and place. Any person would think they're just annoying or lost their minds. At least get a couple hundred to show up to pretend like it's a somewhat popular opinion lots of people care about
Politicians comfort level getting impeded is cool and good. The barrier between politicians and facing repercussions of any kind breaking, if even briefly, is good
The breaking of the comfort barrier around politicians is a vital piece of the puzzle of regular folx exerting power. In this regard, they are effective
They're at least entertaining. I do love to see the comfortable being afflicted, even just a little bit
This doesn’t answer your question, but they also helped organize anti-war protests against American involvement in the Russo-Ukrainian war. If I remember correctly, the organization of these protests was rocky, and they split very early on.
Edit: spelling
