Thursday Non-Violent Direct Action Photoanalysis

You lot are brilliant! Little coverage of your protests on the main news, but the net is alive with reports of the crazy number of arrests. Anybody with a clue knew the whole US was not braindead and behind Bush - after your actions (and the reaction of the cops) the reality is clear to see. Another march is on the way in London today and small disruptive actions are occuring in towns and cities all over - people are determined that life cannot continue as normal when we are party to an unjust war. People are being urged to contact your city reps and police dept to let them know they are being watched - we are all in this together. Peace.

You lot are brilliant! Little coverage of your protests on the main news, but the net is alive with reports of the crazy number of arrests. Anybody with a clue knew the whole US was not braindead and behind Bush - after your actions (and the reaction of the cops) the reality is clear to see. Another march is on the way in London today and small disruptive actions are occuring in towns and cities all over - people are determined that life cannot continue as normal when we are party to an unjust war. People are being urged to contact your city reps and police dept to let them know they are being watched - we are all in this together. Peace.

i just want to express my deepest admiration and respect for what you protesters all over the usa are doing now. it's a lot easier to organize and join peace-marches over here and it must be really hard to dare to expose oneself in the country that started this war. while you get arrested, beaten, attacked by media, politicians, citizens, neighbours - please do not surrender! keep on showing the world that it's not true what the officials and the media would like to tell us, that the american people blindly supports the usa - the United States of Aggression! keep on telling the world that your "government's" actions are not the actions of the american people.
be aware that the biggest part of the citizens of the european countries stands behind you and encourages you to speak your mind out loud!

all my best wishes to you all!
with deepest respect
wolf

Glad to see you understand the power of nonviolent (and non-property destroying) militant resistance. I, too, was impressed by Thursday, and also glad to see that there was little violence against police and little property destruction. This meant that press was unable to focus on shots of broken windows, and had to at least imply that this was civil disobedience, which most people still link to noble causes such as civil rights struggles. The civil disobedience was not "diluted" by property destruction.

I understand the theory behind property destruction, but in most cases I prefer such actions to be separate, in time and place. I'm see the point of the Black Blocers and am glad to see one of them understand the point "nonviolent militants" try to make.

Keep it up San Francisco!
The world is proud of you!

According to the SF Chronicle, at the peak (11 AM) of the intersection blockages, 30 intersections in the city were being blocked. Downtown SF is not that big, so one could walk around and see an action going on every two blocks.

If those in other parts of the US and the world are interested in background info (tactics, etc), you might visit http://www.actagainstwar.org. I won't call it planning, but much effort went into creating the conditions that facilitated these actions.

If you can get local US papers in your area, try to get the Friday SF Chronicle. Six full pages on protests.

Peace and Resistance!

seems pretty simple:

stopping the war is more important than arguing budget policy right now.

in case you hadn't noticed, the economy if FUCKED.

all of your fucking elected leaders failed to use the 'surplus' to plan ahead, so now YOU ARE LAYING OFF TEACHERS WHILE YOUR GOVERNMENT MAKES WAR.

..and yet, in your twisted sick-as-fuck mind, it's the protesters' fault.

yup, the war is gonna cost 100,000,000,000 dollars so you best whine and complain about the 450,000 dollars spent for cops to beat people up and deny them their rights.

fuck your american ignorance.

The cost of the war is estimated to be $100 billion.

So if you are concerned about budget cuts, the #1 thing to do is stop this war, and get that $100 billion into social services. But trying to act like WE are causing this economic problem is idiocy. The problems are:
1) Enron
2) Bush
3) Enron-like companies
4) Rich people
5) Capitalist priorities
6) Cheney

Fight them, not us!

ONWARD TO THE BARRICADES!!!!!!
A LAS BARRICADAS!!!!!!

Stay strong SF! We are protesting in solidarity with you and others around the world that are opposing this war and US imperialism. No arrests in Vancouver yet, but this clampdown on dissent is spreading worldwide....

While the nonviolent actions were EXCELLENT, as a black blocer I agree let's acknowledge the limitations:
1) A mass nonviolent action like that, for some reason, happens how often? Once every 10 years here? That doesn't change anything.

2) Property destruction steps things up as far as the general population is concerned. Shutting things down gets there, but if you can't do that and it just peters out to 2 or 3 "lockdowns" or "occupations" here and there, it isn't going to do shit.

I think black bloc needs to have solidarity with the nonviolent protesters as long as they aren't "giving up" and vice versa. This is a historic time. Everything works. Do everything to stop capitalist destruction of this world.

Please exercise a little more care when deleting messages, because some of the remaining ones calling people "stupid fucks" don't make much sense if all that's left here are glowing accolades.

It might be better to edit the remaining messages, so new visitors don't suspect how criticisms are censored.

It's pretty frightening that the same media that is telling us not to trust the corporate machine blatantly misjudges it's own message and allows us to see the aftermath of dissent, but not the cause...what are we to think now? Tell us, won't you?
Find truth, not perceptions, but what is real reality?