Mods please delete if you don't want these AITA/doomer type posts.
I am a distant observer of Row Vs Wade and the fight for abortion but it seems the Hand Maid Tail cosplays and quirky signs I've seen the last ten years haven't worked. They just most people not 110% invested these things are just cringe . It just feels like it feeds into the :vote: spectacle when nothing threatens those in power.
One side will threaten a federal law against abortion. The other side will use this to perpetually raise funds and get votes. Some cops might go to jail where they will be protected by neo-nazi gangs. But it won't long until they and their new friends are pardoned by the next president and made into death squads. And it won't change anything about policing.
They have strategically carved up to electorate so it doesn't matter that two thirds of the voters wants body autonomy. They are not afraid of protesters storming the capital which has clearly played into their hands. Instead the protests are an opportunity for the police to fulfill their sadistic fantasies of blinding, deafening and crippling the people they hate most. Or grifters who proclaiming "the left have gone too far" because some windows got smashed in to keep the docile from joining in. And of course right wing terrorists.
Focus on survival, organization and developing a coherent mass line that will erode faith in bourgeois democracy from within.
It's pretty obvious the existing protests won't go anywhere because most of them are led by Planned Parenthood's political wing, a major apparatus of the Democratic party. We should still attend and agitate at them because large gatherings of politicized people are ripe for agitation, but it's not going to be the revolution.
A revolutionary approach to protest requires discipline and organization on a scale that really doesn't exist in the US. It seems like it's developing a little bit and it's our job to politicize that development so that when the time actually comes we can lead protests instead of petty bourgeois Democrats.
We should still attend and agitate at them because large gatherings of politicized people are ripe for agitation
this is the crucial point regarding our own behaviour. regardless of whether a protest is "too lib" or whatever, a lot of the people there are going to be angry and politically under-educated, and that means having a presence there to propagandise to them is important. that's the first step towards making the pro-abortion movement more militant and less lib.
Has nonviolent protest ever worked? I think that's the main issue. That, and the fact that there's never usually a solid organised base underneath the protesters with a ideology to rally around.
The only protests that have come close to doing anything of note in my country are ones that directly fuck with people, but if they fuck with the wrong people they instantly get shut down and used as proof that further restrictions are needed.
For instance, I got stopped by extinction rebellion protesters on the road with my bandmates back in February. They were escorted on to the road by police, who were with them at all times. At one point a cop came to our car window and said "don't worry, they'll only be about 5 more minutes". Then once their time was up, they were calmly moved off of the road again,and we went on our way. If that's not controlled opposition, I don't know what is.
Compare that to the people who were gluing themselves to trains, or motorways, or who stopped lorries from getting into the Murdoch's printing presses (lol). More recently some people forced an Israeli drone company to remove two of its offices by protesting outside constantly and graffiting them.
Only the last two really targeted the right people, but in a sense they were both violent too. Not in a head-cracking way, but they both involved illegal activities and stopped people from being able to do their jobs. Unsurprisingly, they were jailed for it in all of those cases.
I've never understood how lib protests are supposed to work. No police were defunded, the previous womens' march was big and did nothing, MLK was wildly unpopular with white people but the alternative was way more militant and there's no militant alternative now unless women who have been anti-gun their entire lives start trying to assassinate the fascists.
Yes the poor people's movement and his plans to run 3rd party were the final nails in his coffin. An anti Vietnam, cross-racial working people's movement was terrifying to those in power. If you're interested in learning more about MLK and his death The Plot to Kill King by William Pepper is incredibly good and available on audible if you prefer listening.
I'm starting to think protesting is a scam. Civil disobedience, still good.
this shit is just interpassivity. Who is reading a paragraph of text at a protest? It's made for the internet, aka that thing you use when you stay at home.
any party worth their salt is actively recruiting at these things & helping organise.
its a coherent part of the organise and dual power we're always talking about but it requires getting out of the house and sullying yourself by interacting with liberals
Protests generally suck unless they're lefty rallies and then it's about getting together with your fellow rats to commiserate and sometimes do a little organizing.
