-Caveat Lector-
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Let's Have a Riot!
Voting with bricks in corporate Seattle
BY LADY SWOOSH AND CAPTAIN COFFEE
[ 12.07.99 ]
It started with the boom of police shooting tear gas. As the first
canisters exploded around us and the biting smoke hit our eyes and
throats, a friend said, "Here we go." Within an hour, the sound of the
police assault were mixed with the merry tinkle of breaking glass and the
hiss of deflating police tires.
It seemed that our side was striking back as best they could: smashing
mega-store windows and trashing cop cars. In the end, as part of our
overall victory, we racked up a $10-million bill, leaving the corporate
heart of downtown Seattle besmirched with graffiti and a bit roughed up.
It was the least we could do: The cops had rioted, and the forces of
global capitalism -- convened inside the WTO -- were fixing to do the same.
But not all was well among the triumphant...
"Here we are protecting Nike, McDonald's, The Gap, and all the while I'm
thinking, 'Where are the police? These anarchists should have been
arrested.'" Thus spoke Medea Benjamin, crusader against corporate tyranny
and ubiquitous spokesperson for the non-profit Global Exchange.
By Thursday of last week it seemed that a new "anti-violence" McCarthyism
had gripped many of our comrades. The hysteria was gobbling up more air
time and column inches than any radical analysis of the real issues. In
fact, the mainstream left appeared to be more horrified by the property
damage than were the mayor of Seattle or President Clinton.
Juan Gonzalez, of liberal Pacifica radio's "Democracy NOW!," bashed the
"minority" of anarchists who had misbehaved, as did John Sellers of
Berkeley's Ruckus Society who was quoted as saying, "It was really
inexcusable... The people of Seattle got punished."
And lest you think Benjamin's above comments were a single faux pas, check
this out: "...[T]he people who were doing the vandalizing got off
scot-free... We prepared so long for this, and we assumed we'd have
massive arrests. If the police had just done that, none of this would have
happened." One wonders what sentence Judge Benjamin would hand down for
these miscreants: six months, a year? Or something more "progressive,"
like two weeks?
On Tuesday, as demonstrators prevented the opening ceremonies of the WTO
from going forward, Benjamin and other "good protesters" formed a human
chain -- not around the WTO's meeting place -- but rather around downtown
Seattle's NikeTown so as to prevent other protesters from helping
themselves to complimentary pairs of Air Jordans.
Then on Wednesday, Benjamin and her cadre again took to the streets of
downtown, this time to sweep up broken glass and scrub away spray-painted
slogans like "We Win" and "The Writing is On the Wall."
Why this craven pandering to the mainstream? Why the veneration of
corporate property? And most of all, why the vicious and unprincipled
badmouthing of "anarchists" and other undesirables?
Clearly, Benjamin and others are on an obsequious quest for legitimacy.
As if that weren't bad enough, the accusations and recriminations from the
grassroots guardians of order were replete with unfair and unprincipled
misrepresentations. For example, Benjamin claimed the rowdies "who have
been the ones who have been orchestrating the violence" were "not part of
our movement."
Not true. Many of those who rioted are just as dedicated, and give even
more time to the cause of justice, than do the NGO-set. For those who
don't know: The brick-throwers are also the tree-sitters and collective
organizers, some of whom have literally lived camped-out in the mud and
frequently locked-down to trees for years on end. In reality, the
well-behaved NGO's and the rock throwers exist on a continuum, part of a
single movement.
Another massive misrepresentation was the facile use of the word
"violence." Acts of window breaking, tire slashing, and graffiti (whether
you love them or hate them) are not violence; such acts are called
vandalism.
Violence is WTO-fostered child labor; the wholesale annihilation of sea
turtles; and the prohibition against manufacturing cheap AIDS drugs in the
Third World. Violence is tear gas, and rubber bullets fired at point-blank
range. And violence is "peaceful protestors" physically attacking those
targeting corporate property (the ACME Collective reported this occurring
on six occasions).
Moreover, the grassroots guardians of order failed to acknowledge that the
vandalism only started after the police opened fire with chemical agents
and rubber bullets.
And they failed to note that the riot in Seattle was incredibly
well-disciplined: While Arnold Schwarzenneger's Planet Hollywood,
NikeTown, and Bank of America were smashed-up, small, locally-owned
businesses emerged unscathed. In fact, some actually stayed open
throughout. One small coffee shop supplied protesters with shots of java,
and a mom and pop drug store sold us film to document the "Protest of the
Century" for our grandchildren.
Tolerance for different styles and unity is what we need, not divisive
"anti-violence" anarchist-baiting. In short, the new "anti-violence"
McCarthyism is good old political cannibalism with the liberals doing the
enemy's dirty work.
While Benjamin need not pick up a brick (if you don't like abortion, don't
have one) she should at least respect those who interpreted the slogans
"Battle in Seattle" and, "Shut Down the WTO" literally. She should at
least acknowledge the role that the balaclava-wearing youth played in the
wild success of the demonstrations in Seattle.
But finally, why did we riot? Because it works. The rioting in Seattle was
an honest barometer of the outrage people feel towards the rapacious
depredations of global capitalism. While rioting is not always
appropriate, one would be hard-pressed to deny that the well-targeted
destruction of corporate property last week played a significant role in
bringing the fundamental issues surrounding the WTO to the public. Would
these issues have gotten more press, would the WTO be known to all, if no
windows were smashed? Of course not.
Lady Swoosh was in Seattle, while Captain Coffee saw the anti-WTO action
on the Streets of London.
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