SF Breakaway Marches

Please, let nothing get in the way of your precious, precious "way of life". Millions of dead across the world each year, billions in poverty, environmental destruction on an enormous scale including rapid global climate change, wholesale genocide when convenient for Empire, the installation of a police state at home, an amoral when not immoral "order", etc., etc.

Are these things to worry about? Are these things to have just a twinge of moral feeling about? No, they can be ignored and suppressed, just as long as we get to continue our "way of life".

He wasn't a freeper - that's rude to suggest that Herb would speak like freepers do.

This was a pretty good summary, and a great place to start a discussion. I agree that folks should be tightening up into affinity groups, and generally be sharpening their on the streets skills. A question about coordination, though. As the movement grows (and it does seem to be growing) what systems will we have to make strategic plans across many affinity groups? I've always been a fan of invite only spokescouncils. We'd all know each other, to one extent or another, so this should deal with security concerns, and it would provide a chance to engage in some sort of coordination. Not centralization, per se, but communication. Our decentralized nature gives us an advantage over the police, but, if we are too decentralized, too ad hoc, we lose the chance to plan true, long lasting, hard hitting disruptions.

Yes - did you know that the ANSWER people came over to the West side of the park and were extremely unhappy with the people playing the electronica and doing the open mic stuff. They said that they had the only permit, and this was interfering, even though much of the park had no direct sight to the stage, and the people the put on the stage in many cases irritate sections of the audience there. ANSWER wanted them to pack up and leave so they would have uninterrupted attention for the political speeches.

Jail solidarity and post-jail solidarity, not just for activists,
but also for the non-participants (bystanders, shoppers)
who've been arrested
by the police needs to be an important part of "breakaway"
communication, IMHO.

Solidarity within your affinity group for arrestees comes naturally,
but solidarity and communication with "non-participant" victims of
the police is more difficult.
However, it's an excellent way to make sure the movement keeps
growing and diversifying. It's worth the effort, IMHO.

"Non-participant" victims are most likely pretty pissed off with
the police, but if we do *not* communicate with them (help free
them from prison, point them to URLs, listen to their questions
despite their ignorance of 98% of basic facts about US/Iraq,
genuinely make them feel welcome in the movement, and answer
the questions they ask, not just the questions we think they should
ask, etc), if we don't do this, then
some of them will believe the mainstream media/police
argument "it's the protestors' fault that bystanders were arrested",
some of them won't know what to think and will just remain
more helpless (disempowered) and stressed than ever before.

I'm not saying that non-participant arrestees are likely to become
breakaway marchers; more likely they'll join the general movement
in creative, diverse ways.

But given that the arrests are linked to the breakaway marches,
it would be strategically wise for affinity groups planning these
to also coordinate on support and outreach to the non-participant
arrestees.

Is the Red Squad that you are talking about the same one that was hanging out on top of the buildings around Jefferson Park filming/watching all the protesters?

I really like this article. Thank you. I've been hearing and agreeing with some of the ideas surrounding "affinity groups" or for people to join together (friends, etc.) in solidarity with the movement.

I have some questions. What are the singular political and tactical beliefs connecting those in solidarity during action such as the break away march? What are the probable shared political and tactical beliefs?

What are ways to reach out to people who believe something extra needs done but don't agree with some of the things happening at the break away march? What are ways to reach out to people who are politically overwhelmed or apethetic.

In the first break away march I attended, I followed the pink and black flags, because it helped me to know where the group was moving to (often so fast paced). How do we have our affinity groups coordinate - do we coordinate at all? I agree with levels of autonomy and privacy, but also see the power in organization.

Thanks - and sorry for the spelling mistakes.

On another note, I'm really happy about how The SF Comical (cron) had little amunition against the BB on this one. In cases like this where there is little property damage and more rampaging cops there is little the corporate media can do to put a negative spin on it. It was a job well done. Thanks to all of you who were there.

To respond to something someone said: "I've always been a fan of invite only spokescouncils. We'd all know each other, to one extent or another, so this should deal with security concerns"

Please, no. If you want to coordinate with some other affinity groups you know, ask them to go talk with you. But a spokescouncil with facilitation rules and consensus rules and whatever other rules will only start to make a bureaucratic monster again.

For instance, perhaps people participating in breakaway marches all of a sudden decide, "hey, we dont think there should be a breakaway next time" and so they waste a week-and-a-half of positive energy making people engage in some stupid fucking political battle when everyone knows that there will be a goddamn breakaway whether or not 4 bureaucrats in a room say there will be or not. These kinds of stupid things are what happens when an informal network becomes bureaucratized.

So, let's use mailing lists and indymedia as public things. For private coordination, let's not play around and people can talk to people and groups can meet with groups. But I don't think a formal clique or formal social gathering is what's needed at all.

You're very motivational and have some great advice. Thanks. It's much needed.

"The police are lumbering and slow."

The cops had a real disadvantage with their heavy gear, black full body suits, bulletproof jackets, lack of water breaks, and surprisingly poor physical fitness.

While some criticise the breakaways for being under the control of the police, the reality is that protesters had a great deal of mobility and power. Cops were visibly scared and overheated. They were slow. We left them in the dust repeatedly. With a bit more tactical skill as a group, the march could have landed anywhere it wanted to.

This is why they arrested people on the sidewalk, even though there had been no "property destruction". They were losing control, despite having unprecedented numbers of police against a relatively small crowd at that point.

If the group was so inspired, or really needed to, they could have broken into multiple groups and left the police behind .

Simply by running from place to place, and kicking us onto the sidewalks, the police themselves shut down streets, the media captured the extended spectacle, and the City wasted many thousands of dollars (reportedly $70/hour each in overtime). And it was fun.

Who can criticise the "horrible breakaways" for walking on the sidewalk and peacefully protesting the murder of innocent people? Yesterday's breakaway, even though it was "tame" and "controlled" from some perspectives, actually gives the group the "moral high ground" from every angle and was in many ways effective.

Demonstrators should practice their sprinting and wear good clothes for running. Stay hydrated.

Here's a little exercise: every day, after you've warmed up some and walked around (to avoid athletic injuries), take a minute to just jog around the block. Sprint for the last part of the jog. If you are so inspired, repeat. But do it at least once. You will build strength and endurance for the short sprints on the marches, for just minutes a day. And you will be happier and healthier for the exercise!

Another good idea: play more.

Integrate a "regimen" of physical play into your daily life. Go ahead, wrestle your friends! Play 1-2-3! Play capture the flag, ultimate frisbee, basketball, jailbreak, climb trees, slam dance, have sex, climb buildings. Do stuff that's fun and along the way, makes you both comfortable with and powerful at using your body as a force for positive change.

And, you'll live longer. We need you.

Israeli Bulldozer Kills U.S. Woman, 23 Sun Mar 16,12:58 PM ET By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - An American woman in Gaza to protest Israeli operations was killed Sunday when she was run over by an Israeli bulldozer, witnesses and hospital officials said. AP Photo AP Photo Slideshow: U.S. Woman Killed by Israeli Bulldozer Rachel Corrie, 23, a college student from Olympia, Wash., had been trying to stop the bulldozer from tearing down a building in the Rafah refugee camp, witnesses said. She was taken to Najar hospital in Rafah, where she died, said Dr. Ali Moussa, a hospital administrator. Greg Schnabel, 28, of Chicago, said the protesters were in the house of Dr. Samir Masri. Israeli almost daily has been tearing down houses of Palestinians it suspects in connection with Islamic militant groups, saying such operations deter attacks on Israel such as suicide bombings. "Rachel was alone in front of the house as we were trying to get them to stop," Schnabel said. "She waved for the bulldozer to stop and waved. She fell down and the bulldozer kept going. We yelled, 'Stop, stop,' and the bulldozer didn't stop at all. It had completely run over her and then it reversed and ran back over her." Witnesses said Corrie was wearing a brightly colored jacket when the bulldozer hit her. She had been a student at The Evergreen State College in Olympia and would have graduated this year, Schnabel said. Israeli military spokesman Capt. Jacob Dallal said her death was an accident. The U.S. State Department had no immediate comment. Groups of international protesters have gathered in several locations in the West Bank and Gaza during two years of Palestinian violence, setting themselves up as "human shields" to try to stop Israeli operations. Corrie was the first member of the groups, called "International Solidarity Movement" and backed by Palestinian groups, to be killed in the conflict. Several activists have been arrested in clashes with Israeli forces, and some have been deported by Israeli authorities. In November, three group members were arrested while trying to prevent Israel from building a security fence between Israel and the West Bank, charging that Israel was taking Palestinian land for the project. In May, 10 activists raced past Israeli soldiers into the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where dozens of Palestinians were holed up in a standoff with Israeli soldiers outside. After an agreement was reached, the activists refused to leave the church, marking the traditional birthplace of Jesus, holding up the solution. Then they charged that they were mistreated by clergy, who claimed the activists desecrated the church by smoking and drinking alcohol. During an Israeli siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, several members of the group sneaked past Israeli soldiers into the building. Schnabel said there were eight protesters at the site in Rafah, four from the United States and four from Great Britain. "We stay with families whose house is to be demolished," he told the Associated Press by telephone after the incident. Mansour Abed Allah, 29, a Palestinian human rights worker in Rafah, witnessed the incident. He said the killing should be a message to President Bush (news - web sites), who is "providing Israel with tanks and bulldozers, and now they killed one of his own people." Israel sends tanks and bulldozers into the area almost every day, destroying buildings near the Gaza-Egypt border. The Israelis say Palestinian gunmen use the buildings as cover, and arms-smuggling tunnels dug under the border terminate in the buildings. According to interim peace accords, Israel controls the border area, where there are clashes almost daily between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers.

Play tag!!!!!!!!! lotsa running!!!!!!!!!! :D

march 15th breakaway tactics
_______________________

after cops decided to push everyone into the sidewalks, some decided to get arrested while the rest stood for awhile, waiting.

maybe bad idea? the cops were able to diffuse some of the energy, and a lot of people eventually left, thinking it was over....

if everyone would of taken off, say, in the other direction, leaving the group of 12 to get arrested (as well as the cops necessary to arrest them), like they eventually did anyway when the cops finished arresting everyone and decided to take off, then the cops would be forced to spread themselves thinner and the numbers of protesters would of remained high, as well as the energy....

it would of been awesome if everyone in the breakaway march would of known special coordinates so that everyone could just dissipate when the cops started making arrests in order to re-materialize elsewhere without all the cops on the sides, ready to continue....

it seems that--from the cop point of view--they were successful. they neutralized the march utilizing new techniques with very little property damage......

these techniques seemed threefold--one just having 2 lines of cops following the breakaway, not from behind, but from the sides, and two--by bringing it to a head via arrests for marching in an unpermitted march, and three--by just ending it with a massive street sweep of whomever...........

it seems reasonable that the police will continue to implement these techniques.......

other thoughts?

The police will continue this type of tactic until it doesn't work anymore.
I think that whereas the police probably think that they won this one, the media and definately the onlookers will get a different picture (people arrested for standing on a frickin' SIDEWALK!)
They did stop all further marching. But if we marched further from there, there wouldn't be as many witnesses incase the civil rights of the arrestees got violated. So - I think we need more "legal observers"
Leave a few legal observers to make sure that everything's kosher, then march on! Then they'd have to be cornering 10-50 people on like 5 sidewalks instead of one. This would spread our message out.

I really like what is written here. I've tried to become involved in groups around Long Haul but I've noticed that their style of organizing is really more authoritarian than groups like ISO or something. For instance, most of the core people are routinely an hour or more late to every meeting. One thing I tried to do with them, they said one thing at the meeting and then in the week that passed until the next meeting, they had changed it all around and overturned all the decisions we made before. I didn't understand what was going on and eventually dropped out. As it turns out, the event we were planning never happened. Pretty terrible. I've never thought about it in "bureaucrat" terms before but that's what it is.

responding to "red and black" and the orginal post:

i agree almost completely with what was posted. but people should feel free to have some kind of networking with each other. it should be a 'spokescouncil' in the sense that it would be best if solid affinity groups formed and participated, but it should NOT seek to make any decisions. that would be the point where people would be in danger of going off the bureacratic deep-end.

the most important thing i think that we should learn from the M15 breakaway is that we need to form tighter more solid affinity groups. most of us already probably go to events like this with the same 4 or 5 people each time. we should take greater responsibility to organize ourselves.

in some sense, i agree with 'red and black' in that the effect of disorganizationalism (perhaps in the long haul scene, i wouldn't know), leads to the so-called 'tyranny of structurelessness'. but i would be careful of the implications of that term too. really, what it shows is that people can take advantage of people who are not organized. the solution, however, should not be to impose a structure on a group of people who may happen to meet in the same place at the same time each week. rather, people who feel like they are losing control over decisions being made or over situations should seek out a few of their friends, make decisions autonomously, and act on them.

if you have an affinity group that actually functions, then you can go to a meeting, have plans, seek support and coordination, but not have to make compromises or depend on people who consistently show up late.

likewise, at a demo, we wouldn't have to depend on 'antiwaraction' or whatever this group is that makes the call outs. is it even really a group? it seems like the past two marches have only been callouts and nothing more really. WE MUST ORGANIZE OURSELVES! we must do it in small groups, with people that we trust, and that we can rely on. ESPECIALLY, since we don't know if this group really exists or not. and even if they do, we shouldn't be dependent on them to lead us around or decide where to go.

this past time, a few of my friends talked once or twice before the breakaway (we didn't know if it would happen for sure until about five days or so before the 15th). but even then we were able to act a bit more autonomously.

for instance, when people began to be boxed in on mission, we just left. we walked right by the cops. then we de-bloc-ed, and blended back into the shoppers on market. we didn't come prepared to really take any action, but at that point it seemed like we could have gotten away with just about ANYTHING. all the cops were on mission and we were just strolling around market.

anarchists shouldn't aspire to be 'leaderless' so they can stumble around like bumbling idiots. we should organize ourselves to be able to lead ourselves.

small tight groups can stick together, watch each others backs, make decisions very quickly, and can coordinate or march or bloc up with thousands of others when its appropriate or best.

so, sit down with your friends and make some plans for how you can act together with some autonomy in the future.

so you want to be decentralized. fine. thanks to your tactics and fashion sense you've convinced half your potential sympathizers, including myself, that you're little more than totalitarian suburban spawn who like to "go wilding" in our inner cities.

i don't have a damn clue what you people stand for other than "smash capitalism"- whatever the hell that's supposed to mean.

still. i'm "benefit of the doubting" for you here. we are witnessing the birth pangs of the next wave of human development. hell in handbasket or heaven on earth, i don't know... but i'd like to see if your tactics can accomplish something beyond running around the streets and trashing a starbucks now and then.

because, lets be honest- they haven't.

so if this is a tactics discussion, and the problem is how to organize without organizing, then why aren't ya'll talking about the traditional method of resistance cells. forge solitary links between "affinity groups" to suss each other out, float ideas, and keep each other informed.

no one knows the composition of another cell or the organization, at best they can give up one person if pressed.

oh, and while you're at it... put a little more emphasis on what you do believe in and less on how you like to evade cops. throw some links for "newbies" in these threads, have your affinity groups distribute literature that outlines your vision- not a cohesive one, that's not needed, but if people understood what you stood FOR instead of just what you stand AGAINST-then we might not hate you as much as we do.

and if you think that i'm being lazy, well... you're the one doing the talking, its your job to make sure you're actually heard.

-neo sinister

I'm sure 100 people with more fortitude than I have refused to take the bait with the post by "red and black" against a local radical community center where many different groups meet or have offices. Namely, the Long Haul and Infoshop in Berkeley.

I go the Long Haul periodically and while it could certainly better live up to its potential, give the place some credit. Things are rough all over. The place has been around for over a decade and a lot of good stuff has come out of it.

While I fully support people working through internal problems, is IMC really the place, where all our enemies are watching? And furthermore, why post it to this thread -- to start an argument and disrupt real strategy making?

That's why I should have ignored the post but I wanted to point out that the vague "facts" in it don't make sense to me as someone who has spent time there and has worked with people there, at least to have one voice in support of all the work at the Long Haul.

Please don't respond to this here. If you can't work through your issues (if they really exist) with the people there in person, and you really have no other venue, then why not start a discussion about better ways to address problems in the community (rather than a story titled, "Long Haul is Fascist" which is ridiculous on its face). Maybe it should be a workshop at an upcoming event.

Solidarity.

Wouldn't it be fun to bring ball-bearings or marbles for the morning-after anti-festivities? I'd love to see the pigs trying hard to stay on their feet with hundreds of little balls under them! Perhaps we should start saving banana peels...

there is plenty of information on the black bloc to be found on the web if you're looking for a some information.

while I only know a handfull of bloc-ers personally I can speak for us in saying that we do a s-load of other stuff....community projects and international work. Things i can put my face on (while still being spied upon).

Love and Class War!!!!
Block N Roll, BABY!!!!!!

one thing that I really enjoyed seeing was a spokespig on the news. He said that the black bloc has been training on their techniques and are well prepared.
I smiled.

SFPD TRAINS OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN ON HOW TO SHOOT AT THE HEART, THEN AT THE HEAD. THEY SHOOT ANYWHERE BETWEEN 500-1000 TIMES USING EACH HAND, FROM MANY POSITIONS, STANDING, SITTING, CROUCHING.

THEY ARE PAID TO WIN. EVEN IF THEY DONT WIN, THEY ARE STILL PAID HANDSOMELY.

THEY WILL SHOOT ON SITE ANY SADDAM SUPPORTER WHO IS TRYING TO SABATOGE USA.

THE WORST THING IS THAT SFPD REALLY ENJOYS FUCKING YOU UP!!

Saddam is a billionaire. He has paid protesters (black bloc) to do the dirty work. Be vigilant, when war starts, shoot the enemy as soon as you see him.

I really love the last two comments which are a kind of fascist vigiliante brownshirt call to action. You know what that means? It means they are afraid. They know the world hates them. They know they are a small minority. And they know that we are ready to tear this shit apart. Attention Fascists: we're coming for you!

U.S. Arms Transfers and Security Assistance to Israel


An Arms Trade Resource Center Fact Sheet
by William D. Hartung and Frida Berrigan
May 6, 2002

U.S. press coverage of Israeli attacks on the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian towns on the West Bank often treat the U.S. government as either an innocent bystander or an honest broker in the current conflict, often without giving a full sense of the importance of the United States role as a supplier of arms, aid, and military technology to Israel. In its role as Israel’s primary arms supplier, the United States could exert significant potential leverage over Israeli behavior in the conflict, if it chooses to do so.

Military and Economic Aid

Since 1976, Israel had been the largest annual recipient of U.S. foreign assistance. According to a November 2001 Congressional Research Service report, Israel: U.S. Foreign Assistance, U.S. aid to Israel in the last half century has totaled a whopping $81.3 billion.

In recent years, Israel remains the top recipient of U.S. military and economic assistance. The most commonly cited figure is $3 billion a year, with about $1.8 billion a year in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) grants from the Department of Defense and an additional $1.2 billion a year in Economic Support Funds (ESF) from the Department of State. In the last decade FMF grants to Israel have totaled $18.2 billion. In fact, 17% of all U.S. foreign aid is earmarked for Israel.

For 2003, the Bush administration is proposing that Israel receive $2.76 billion in foreign aid, with $2.1 billion in FMF and $600 million in ESF. An additional $28 million will go to Israel for the purchase U.S. manufactured counter terrorism equipment.

Weapons Sales and Grants

Israel is one of the United State’s largest arms importers. In the last decade, the United States has sold Israel $7.2 billion in weaponry and military equipment, $762 million through Direct Commercial Sales (DCS), more than $6.5 billion through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program.

In fact, Israel is so devoted to U.S. military hardware that it has the world's largest fleet of F-16s outside the U.S., currently possessing more than 200 jets. Another 102 F-16s are on order from Lockheed Martin.

The United States has also underwritten Israel’s domestic armaments industry, by giving:

$1.3 billion to develop the Lavi aircraft (cancelled)
$625 million to develop and deploy the Arrow anti-missile missile (an ongoing project)
$200 million to develop the Merkava tank (operative); the latest version, the Merkava 4, uses a German V-12 diesel engine produced under license in the U.S. by General Dynamics
$130 million to develop the high-energy laser anti-missile system (ongoing).
While overall aid to Israel is slated to decrease over the next five years, military aid will increase significantly. One of President Clinton’s last acts was to sign an agreement with Israel, phasing out the ESF by 2008. At the same time, FMF funds to Israel will increase $60 million each year, reaching $2.4 billion by 2008.

Free Weapons to Israel

The U.S. also gives Israel weapons and ammunition as part of the Excess Defense Articles (EDA) program, providing these articles completely free of charge. Between 1994-2001 the U.S. provided many weapons through this program, including:

64,744 M-16A1 rifles
2,469 M-204 grenade launchers
1,500 M-2 .50 caliber machine guns
.30 caliber, .50 caliber, and 20mm ammunition
U.S. Weapons in the Israeli Arsenal

Selected list

Weapon
Quantity
Manufacturer
Cost Per Unit

Fighter Planes

F-4E Phantom
50
Boeing
$18.4 million

F-15 Eagle
98
Boeing (originally McDonnell Douglas)
$38 million

F-16 Fighting Falcon
237
Lockheed Martin
$34.3 million

Helicopters

AH-64 Apache Attack
42
Boeing
$14.5 million

Cobra Attack
57
Bell Textron
$10.7 million

CH-53D Sea Stallion
38
Sikorsky

Blackhawk
25
Sikorsky
$11 million

Missiles

AGM 65 Maverick
Raytheon
$17,000-$110,000

AGM 114 Hellfire
Boeing
$40,000

TOW
Hughes
$180,000

AIM 7 Sparrow
Raytheon
$125,000

AIM 9 Sidewinder
Raytheon
$84,000

AIM 120 B AMRAAM
Raytheon
$386,000

Patriot
Raytheon and Lockheed Martin

Harpoon Anti-Ship Missile
Boeing
$720,000



Weapons that Kill

It is in the United States' national interest to promote the existence of a stable, democratic and militarily strong Israel, at peace with its neighbors.

U.S. Department of Defense statement on Israel, in Joint Report to Congress, January 3, 2001

The scale of Israeli attacks on Palestinian towns and refugee camps in the West Bank has been "disproportionate and often reckless," according to a recent Amnesty International report. Amnesty estimates that in the six weeks from March 1, through mid-April, more than 600 Palestinians have been killed and over 3,000 wounded by Israeli soldiers.

The use of U.S. weapons in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian authority appears to be a clear violation of the U.S. Arms Export Control Act prohibiting U.S. weapons from being used for non-defensive purposes. The State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2001, released in March 2002, stated that the IDF employed "excessive use of force" against the Palestinians, noting their use of live ammunition, even when not in imminent danger. The State Department report also stated that Israeli military "shelled Palestinian Authority (PA) institutions and Palestinian civilian areas in response to individual Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians or settlers." These comments demonstrate that the U.S. knows that weapons are not being used for the "legitimate defense" purposes stipulated in the Arms Export Control Act.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan recently expressed his concern with the use of U.S. weapons by the IDF, saying

I feel obliged to call your attention to disturbing patterns in the treatment of civilians and humanitarian relief workers by the Israeli Defense Forces…. Judging from the means and methods employed by the IDF-- F-16 fighter-bombers, helicopter and naval gunships, missiles and bombs of heavy tonnage-- the fighting has come to resemble all-out conventional warfare. In the process, hundreds of innocent noncombatant civilians -- men, women and children -- have been injured or killed, and many buildings and homes have been damaged or destroyed. Tanks have been deployed in densely populated refugee camps and in towns and villages; and heavy explosives have been dropped mere meters from schools where thousands of children were in attendance.

Instances of the IDF’s Use of U.S. Weapons against Civilians

Gaza, CNN, February 11, 2002
"On Sunday [February 10, 2002], Israel attacked the headquarters of Force 17, the elite guard for Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. Two employees of the United Nations were wounded and a UN facility was damaged in the attack, prompting condemnation of the action from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. The UN said it was the third time the office of Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, had been damaged as a result of attacks by the Israelis. The bombing also caused damage to other UN offices, including that of the representatives of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Jenin, New York Times, April 18, 2002
"The decaying body of Mr. Khurj's sister appears to be one of the clearest examples to date of a civilian having been killed in an Apache helicopter missile attack. There is an enormous hole in the wall of her bedroom and a two-foot-wide crater in the floor. Shards of a missile, including one with labels in English describing ''firing temperature'' and ''cooling temperature,'' littered the floor. Near the hole in the wall was a pool of dried blood. Mr. Khurj said the missile struck in the middle of the night on the third day of the attack. It killed his sister instantly."

Deheishe, Washington Post, March 10, 2002.
"Today Israeli tanks and troops invaded the other camp, Deheishe, which has a population of 8,000. Tanks and bulldozers had been positioned on a hill behind the community, and armed AH-64 Apache attack helicopters had hovered overhead. Soldiers knocked down a pedestrian bridge that led to the camp's school."

Bethlehem, Washington Post, March 8, 2002.
"The Israeli military almost immediately launched more missiles and opened fire with gunboats at official Palestinian buildings in the Gaza Strip, where there were heavy casualties. Israel also sent dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers into Bethlehem, two adjacent Palestinian refugee camps and a pair of neighboring West Bank towns, bringing full-scale military action to the suburbs of Jerusalem. The bark of heavy machine guns atop Israel's armored vehicles echoed throughout Bethlehem, considered the birthplace of Jesus, and U.S.-supplied AH-64 Apache helicopters fired into the Aida refugee camp between Bethlehem and Beit Jala."

Resources for More Information

Foreign Policy In Focus: April 2002 issue brief on U.S. Military Aid to Israel available on their web site at http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org
Arms Sales Monitoring Project, Federation of American Scientists (http://www.fas.org/asmp) has a searchable database on U.S. arms transfers by country, plus a list of recent arms sales agreements entered into by the U.S.
Jane’s Defence Weekly has done an Israel country briefing in its May 1, 2002 issue, containing about eight pages of analysis of current Israeli armed forces with details on key holdings. Available on the web at http://www.janes.com

This video shows a couple of quick and easy ways to take direct action:

http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/03/1584599.php

Dumpsters also roll. If demonstrating with a dumpster remember the added significance of opposing a disposable society with its own mechanical entrails.

Look at this peckerwood fumbling. You cut the valve off with edge cutters or punch the sidewall with a knife. Any shithead 8th grader knows that. Smash the state by flattening tires.

No credibility gained by half assed vandilisim. Why not go to Arizona with a fake drivers licence buy blasting caps and explosives and be adult about it.

Blow up a power exchange or something. Flattining soccer moms explorer tires has no effect on the man. Starbucks and citibank will be ok if you break their windows. Be an adult protest peacefully or pull a McVeigh and fuck something up royally and pay for it. Petty vandalisim is a joke.

For anyone who might interpret this fun thing to try at home as a protest tactic, I think a critique of "radium" is warranted.

If you cut the valve off you've destroyed a tire. Tires can cost many hundreds of dollars. They are very environmentally destructive. They use oil. By doing something that destructive you risk serious felony charges, and you're destroying the environment. You're also causing a lot of individual people a lot of trouble. Just removing the valve core is a minor inconvenience and likely to be a minor charge if you're caught.

But you all knew that and also know that nonviolent direct action is what people are calling for, not extremely risky or even lethal actions which would only give the terrorist government the excuse to greatly increase its repression. That's what they want, that's why they pulled off 9/11 and that's why they're fabricating the threat of their buddy Saddam Hussein.

Dear Black,

Thank you for responsding. Could you be so kind as to point the way to a web resource that you trust/feels represents your views?

See that's one of my problems with the bloc- no face=no sense of where to go. Who do you trust?

..... is to hit PROPERTY that belongs to major corporations. doing something to tires of some poor sap's car does nothing.

Do people really believe that war policy is made or broken in the San Francisco Financial District?

The place is a ghost town of late and this was well before the war. Anyone notice how easy it is to drive across either bridge and park lately?

Whereas the Hoover Institution at Stanford actually develops war and other foreign policy. Similarly, the Rand Corporation and Brookings Institution seem like much worthier targets. Check out their web sites. All of them.

Just my opinion.