Photos from Mon. Sacto demo

this protest was a waist of time

having been to many,many events over the years this one was the worst I have ever seen. it was a disaster.
we looked like fools, our message was lost. the
Big Guys must be laughing at us.

after this I will think again before I ever attend another
protest (I do not consider this a real protest) by these organizers

...how the message was lost, in your opinion, nor just exactly what would have been a good "protest" in your view. Therefore, it's not possible to draw an objective view of your opinion. Context......... share it. Dish it out. Why bother posting if you don't?

Who was laughing at you... the police?

This protest wasn't designed to convince the general public to get on board. It was entirely between the WTO and the protesters, and it was important to get an angry image out, rather than having a few hippie types expressing mild concerns about reforms with irradiation of food that can easily be dismissed. In fact, the bioengineering and irradiation issues were only 2% of the story, compared to the severe economic problems relating to farming. Free trade agreements are basically what is causing most of the mexican illegal immigrants to attempt to cross the border as they get pushed off their land.

Anyway, the WTO does not care about the democratic consensus of the community, so it was not important for us to convince the general community to get on board. The WTO has been fining countries for regulations (like dolphin safe tuna labels, or turtle excluders on shrimp boats) that were democratically enacted. However, they did react somewhat to the tumult that occurred in Seattle. So it is important to keep WTO protests loud.
We know that a large percentage of the public is on board anyway. Why do we think that when people have any money in this country, they start shopping at places like Whole Foods, getting organic produce. Everyone knows that this stuff is preferable, even if they can't take time off work and travel to join us.

Well, I'm a hippie, and I am very angry about this whole wto deal. I got bones broken in seattle, just because I was sitting on the sidewalk, and refused to move. Sometimes people get scared, when they see other folk act angry. Sometimes anger works for some folk, others don't like it at all. I think that the cops are just miss guided folk, who are taught incorrect procedures, on how to handle protesters. As far as the wto, yes we need the majority of the public, to get rid of this terrible group of wealthy men. So lets take it to the people.

I have more pictures which I will hopefully post tonight, and I think they really show some of the stuff that we did accomplish. The pictures are of the community garden that protesters reopened (its website at freethegarden.org has never appeared for me, but whatever) on Sunday. The main criticism of that project that people I spoke with had was that there were not enough tools and assignments- for once there was a project that had enough volunteers!

The pictures will show that the work that the gardeners were doing was about healing the land within that fence. It was land that was scarred from pollutants, land that had been neglected, land that was available and is needed for food sustainability.

I missed the protest where they pulled down the fence because I was taking pictures. I think that confrontation and communication with the delegates is important, but doing parallel work in which we build the world that we want to see is also necessary.

I'm gonna have to strongly agree with you on this on. There was abolutly no Unity or Focus. A perfect operatunity shot.

There are extremely good arguments against biotech policy in the US, especially in lieu of EU criticisms of US policy, and 3rd world criticisms of US policy.

Unfortunately, this message was lost in the typical anarchoid hippie mishmash, many of whom are opposed to even agriculture (see john zerzan), many more are opposed to any type of genetic science influencing agriculture, and a vast many more opposed to any type of bioengineering at all.

Once you get to that point, the protesters have isolated themselves from the majority of the world, especially people in 3rd world countries who depend on local agriculture to survive (in a pre-globalization society), and would vastly benefit from bioengineered seeds -- at least, ones that are not "trojan horses" for capitalist butchers like Monsanto.

Whether you have a "community garden" or a militant protest, it doesn't matter -- a coherent message is a better place to start. For instance, the corporate media coverage I saw included a very articulate delegate from some African nation talking about how bioengineered foods are a blessing but they feel at the mercy of multinationals who can give them seeds that wipe out local sustainable seeds, or give them seeds that force a dependency on Monsanto, etc. Then the media chose the most ignorant "anarchist" they could to basically discredit everyone by saying that he was there to "fight genetics" ... umm, genetics isn't something you FIGHT, its something you learn about and research.

Many "anarchists" forget that they are anti-capitalists and thus do not argue that capitalism is subverting science and progress, and instead revert to a temper tantrum style rant against all technology, all science, all improvements.

reading the last several posts, at least my point was seen thank you. may-be next time we won't make the same mistakes

... is like arguing who is and isnt a Christian, a favorite amongst Christian sects all over this fine land.

"People go hungry in the Third World because they are in debt bondage."

They also go hungry from famine, drought, and other natural (or even biblical) catastrophes. This is compounded by the ruthlessness of capitalist society which should be immediately destroyed, of course. But getting rid of capitalism does not solve the problem of natural agricultural disaster, as any number of communal living experiments have proven.

If you want to be Ted Kaczinski, then by all means stomp your feet and whine about how the demons of science are evil. If you want to be intelligent or remotely sane, understand that science can be used to make a sustainable earth grounded in equity for all living creatures.

Yay for communism!!!!!

right nessie?

If I work harder than you, and/or I do more important stuff than you, I want to be rewarded for my work.

Otherwise, why work? Might as well just play all the time if you'd get the same life security no matter what.

Most peole don't love their jobs/work enough to do them, or do them well, if the results of all their hard work would go towards paying for lazy people who don't even feel like working.

Though, I must say, now that I know you're anti-capitalism and pro-communist, and therefore anti-america, I totally understand why you sway so hard in favor of palestinians, who you see as victims. What I don't get is why you are also so in favor of islamic extremists like arafat and terrorist groups and fundies like the iran govt and all the other scumbags who would NOT agree with your idea of communism, but are dictators who kill those who disagree with them.

If your ideal world is sharing, and peace, and all that, I don't understand why you are SO anti-israel to the point where your views echo that of arafat or hamas (minus the blatant anti-semitism).... these are indivdiuals who don't want what you want, they want control and to murder those who disagree with them.

It's a strange thing. The ultra-leftists have somehow become deluded to think that arafat and the scum of the middle east are somehow good people just because they're the underdogs, while ignoring that if they had the power, they'd kill in a second.

>If I work harder than you, and/or I do more important stuff than you, I want to be rewarded for my work.

You're a selfish bastard, aren't you? It sounds like you must be American.


>Otherwise, why work?

Duty, honor and a sense of community, things that selfish bastards like you wouldn't understand.

It's call greed, and it's perpetrators are the single greatest source of human misery, bar none.

at the expense of others is greed. Greed is wanting more than you need, while others have less than they need. Greed is growing lawn grass and paying farmers not to grow food, while thirty to forty thousand people, almost all of them children, a day die of starvation. Greed is dressing in clothes made in sweatshops by people who can't afford to wear them. Greed is burning gasoline that is as cheap as it is only because its bought with Arab blood.

Greed sucks. So does anyone who defends it. You're scum, an embarrassment to our entire species. Die off and quit wasting air.