I'd like to share my own experience of organising protests. Back in 2012 we organised a massive protest of around 500,000+ people outside India's parliament and Presidential mansion in New Delhi against government corruption. These were mainly ordinary folk (sheep), but we had teams of hardcore activists embedded within them to keep the sheep in the corral so as to speak when the cops and paramilitary guys came around to break them up and try and remove them to the black marias.
In those days we didn't have Youtube with live streaming news, we had encrypted cable TV through digital Set Top Boxes to get our news feeds. After about 45 minutes somebody in authority figured I was directing our teams to keep moving in a way to either avoid the cops or to rush to where they were heading. They somehow disabled the news feeds on my specific set top box (!!!) all other channels were working, so I just crossed over to my neighbours apartment and carried on from there on his television. So yeah, it was a dystopian world back then and it's even worse (and easier) now. Sarbajit Roy On Wed, Apr 9, 2025 at 11:54 PM steve smith <sasm...@swcp.com> wrote: > > On 4/9/25 11:16 AM, glen wrote: > > > https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/09/anti-protest-bills-trump > > I ubered Mary to/from the SFe Capitol to support her street action on > Saturday in the "Hands Off" event. It was very energetic/vigorous, well > outside of my ability to cope (only barely in my car trying to find her to > pick her up with people shoving signs and flags in my windscreen while many > cars on the street honk aggressively and pedestrians gesture at me > aggressive TO honk MY horn!) > > I'm entirely sympathetic with "the Cause" and acknowledge the right (or > even responsibility) to take to the streets this way, but as harshly > offensive as the activity felt (in my bones/spleen) to me, I can only > barely imagine how it feels to anyone *not* sympathetic with the > movement/sentiment? I remember how I felt when I got trapped in a > "Cowboys for Trump" action in Santa Fe "back in the day". I love me a > good horse, but hate it when a "cowboy" uses one to try to intimidate > pedestrians. It felt good to look the horse and the rider in the eye and > not back away like they wanted. I wasn't counter-protesting or even trying > to engage... just "standing my ground". > > As an(other) aside, I helped Mary letter her signboard using my father's > 1950 vintage stencil set which probably had him rolling in his grave... > he'd be apologizing for Trump even louder than the FoxFriends do... The > signs in general were fascinating, quite the spectrum! I don't know that > the mainstream news coverage did full justice to the nationwide action, but > my friend on a work-trip to the UK reported seeing action there too! It > felt like a "dress rehearsal" for the next/first opportunity when there is > an (even more?) specific/acute event to act out against. I could easily > see the crowd sizes double at the drop of a hat. > > As a coincidence... while doing some grocery shopping while Mary marched, > I watched a car-hauler with a dozen Teslas (no Stainless WankPanzers) crawl > north on St Francis traffic. I'm assuming toward the Nambe TSLA dealer > (whose lot is already pretty full). Probably best it didn't route past > the capitol (no good reason to) in that moment. > > I didn't see *any* counter-protest action but at least one TSLA Model3 > bearing protest signs and encouraging the crowd. I felt conspicuous even > *driving* near/through the crowds and proud/shamed not to be laying on my > horn cacophonically (limited my support to gentle smiles and thumbs up). > > My daughter was big in the MoveON! action in ABQ circa 2004. She suffered > the disillusionment of youth-protest movements where a small subset of her > cohort were not there righteously... looking for confrontation with LEO > and trying out their revolutionary talk on cute girls, alluding to > bomb-making, acid-throwing, etc. > > She did take her 6 year old son to Protests in Portland last Saturday and > wore her WW punches Trump t-shirt and enjoyed the challenge of explaining > just when/how/where/why direct confrontation and even violence is not > categorically denied to a young man in the making... his father aged out > of street protests with MoveON! which was in fact where they met... shaking > their tiny fists at GW and pumping them for Howard Dean just before he > flamed out with the "Dean Scream"... they were in bitter mutual opposition > in 2016 as BernieBro vs foreverHillary. He may have helped Trump in the > first time as part of the refusenik cohort who couldn't stomach what the > DNC did to/with Bernie at that moment. > > let the "interesting times" continue!? > > > On 4/9/25 09:01, Jochen Fromm wrote: > > It is all going downhill from here. Everything well get a least twice as > expensive. People could join the "Hands Off" protests against the orange > guy in the White House, but I doubt it will have an effect. > > -J. > > > -------- Original message -------- > From: Gillian Densmore <gil.densm...@gmail.com> <gil.densm...@gmail.com> > Date: 4/9/25 5:52 PM (GMT+01:00) > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com> > <friam@redfish.com> > Subject: [FRIAM] And now for something different: what can we do about the > consumer taxes aka tariff damages incoming > > > Friam: A oddly specific person had tantrum. And prices (for now, but > he's got the attention span of a dying mayfly) on...everything is looking > to get stupid: electronics to shirts and basically everything > > Ok well that's already awful. > Question: > What the hell can we do? Legal Eagle has pointed out the consumer tax hike > (tarrifs) are on legally shaky ground. > Would enough people we know smashing emails phones or what ever help get > pressuure on anyone that'll listen including courts to revert them? > (aka: Friam: instead of me stewing around and getting angry at the void > what reps to spam to try to get this fiasco reversed) > > > > .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / > ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom > https://bit.ly/virtualfriam > to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: 5/2017 thru present > https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ >
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