NYPD Defend World's Richest

Damnit, I can't get article publish to work (first tried 2 hours ago), so here goes:

This is Starhawk's message to come to NY, and in broader terms, about the importance of the WEF protests. In SF, you should come to Powell and Market at 6pm on Saturday.

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Come to New York! World Economic Forum Protests
1/30-2/4

The World Economic Forum, the club of the representatives of the world's
richest corporations meeting with the world's most powerful politicians, meets
this weekend in New York City. Major protests are planned, in particular a
march organized by Another World is Possible (AWIP) on Saturday February 2.

You need to be here.

If you didn't like the State of the Union speech, if you don't like the war on
terrorism or the war on civil liberties, if you consider yourself progressive, left,
radical, or you just don't like seeing more wealth and power concentrated in
fewer and fewer hands, you need to be here.

Come. If you're in subway/train/bus/driving distance from New York, come. If
you had other plans for the weekend, if you're too busy, if you have too many
other commitments, if you haven't been to a march in years, if you're burned
out and sick of marching, come. If it rains, if the kids have a soccer game, if
you're tired, if you're afraid, come anyway.

There are certain crucial moments when the tide of history turns one way or
another. This is one of them. It's more than just one more protest against one
more alphabet soup global corporate institution. It's an assertion of our right to
contest the current system at all. As the police mass their forces, as they mount
a campaign to discredit and intimidate us, it's becoming clear that this protest is
vitally important.

If we let them succeed, the space for dissent in this country will close even
further. The right wing post-9-11 strategy of criminalizing dissent will be
confirmed.

If we don't let them succeed, we can reclaim a momentum and a political space
at a crucial moment, when Enron has challenged the credibility of the system
and Bush's policies, when questions are beginning to surface about what really
happened on 9-11, when slowly the stories and seeping out about the
Afghanis reduced to eating grass. You might think this is the wrong time for a
protest. You might not like the politics or the style or the smell of your fellow
activists. People might take stands you don't agree with or do things you
wouldn't approve of.

Come anyway. It's happening, wisely or unwisely. There are times to be
cautious and careful. But there are other times when caution simply feeds the
power of the authorities, and only a leap of courage can keep us free.

The AWIP march is permitted, legal, and nonviolent. Everyone involved in the
organizing, from the pacifists to the militants, has agreed to respect those
parameters.

The police have shown every indication that they will not. That's a strong
reason for you to come.

The organizers are doing everything in their power to assure a safe, creative,
and inspiring event. Yet no one can guarantee that the march will be safe. Come
anyway.

We need to act now, to overcome fear, to take the risks that lie before us. If we
don't, if we let ourselves be intimidated into silence, we will become far, far
more unsafe.

What we're contesting on the streets this weekend is, quite simply, the course
of the future. We cannot be safe in a world in which more and more wealth is
concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, and where the consolidation of power is
backed by the police and military might of the state. The more that hegemony
goes uncontested, the more seamless it becomes.

If we want to maintain our freedom and assert our power to shape a different
future, a free and just and sustainable future, we need to be a strong presence
now. We need all of you. If you can't get to New York, support us. Demand fair
news coverage, write the letters, make the calls. But if you possibly can, come.
Call your friends, get them to come with you. Tell them it's important. Come to
New York.

Starhawk
New York City
January 31, 2002
http://www.starhawk.org

Hey, Is this starhawk in this picture here?
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=World%20Forum%20Scene

I thought I remember seeing her at the Chevron refinery, and she looked different.