- cross-posted to:
- world@quokk.au
- cross-posted to:
- world@quokk.au
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Middle of a weekend in approved areas. That accomplishes so much. Big “vote out the fascists” vibes.
Pretty much, we see this sort of thing happening every few years and people still don’t understand that protests on their own accomplish nothing. You have to build dual power to organize things like strikes and work stoppages. That’s what hurts capital. The protests come after that.
Yep exactly. There’s no backbone to these. It’s a weekend parade then back to brunch.
You have to build dual power to organize things like strikes and work stoppages. That’s what hurts capital. The protests come after that.
Yes, although protests can complement that process of building dual power, they don’t have to come afterwards. Like you’ve said, protests on their own accomplish nothing, yet they can still be an important way to gain awareness and introduce a broader range of people to these politics and groups involved.
I am speaking generally, I haven’t paid attention to these No Kings ones, but they’d surely be an avenue for fresh faces to meet socialist parties among all the spectacle.
Right, I agree with all that, my impression is that this particular form of protest is entirely performative though. They never seem to translate into actually building things like mutual aid networks, unions, or any other kind of permanent structures. It would be nice if people would start doing those things for a change.
Some are trying, but it’s a slow process going from toothless protests to a serious movement. It took decades for the civil rights movement to reach a point where people took it seriously. It took generations for union labour to gain legitimacy. We let the tools of community organizing and collective action rust away in complacency. It’s going to take time to reforge them.
Have you been you them? These protests are filled with people disseminating info and recruiting people into local resistance orgs.
If people are using them for recruitment and education, that’s a good thing. We’ll see if this ends up building into anything substantial.
“Let’s have all the thoughtcrime people gather in one place and one cluster of cell towers so we can keep track of them”
I’ll never understand this “protesting doesn’t work” talk. I’m pretty sure it’s just false, but I don’t know where it comes from. Just stay inside if you want. who the fuck cares? what are you exactly?
The group that keeps throwing these events is constantly telling people how to contact their congresspeople and what to say to them, and is gathering support for a strike on may day. at these events people are handing out flyers for their groups, zines, petitions. I met a couple who do a marxist quarterly, and an environmental group organizing more serious demonstrations.
It was great to get out and just chat with people and feel sane for a little bit. The reason it was on a weekend and with proper permits was to get as many people out as possible.
Protests work. History shows mass action forces change. This event however is not a protest. It is a parade. Parades (like other events BBQs, picnics etc.) have their place for morale and recruitment but they are not political weapons. Confusing spectacle with action harms the movement.
Real protest needs specific actionable goals. It needs a strategy for disruption that hits capital where it hurts. It needs a plan for escalation when ignored. It requires a solid organized base ready to act. This event has none of these. No Kings is not a demand. It is a slogan without a material target (and even if it was the fact it drops the kings label in countries that retain a monarchy really is kneecapping itself).
Contacting congresspeople accepts the bourgeois state as the solution. They serve capital. Begging them for change is a dead end. Permits mean the state approved your dissent. That is managed opposition. There is use here though. Meeting organizers builds networks and recruiting is possible. But calling this a protest pretends action is happening when it is not. It funnels revolutionary sentiment into harmless spectacle. It dissipates energy rather than concentrating it. Do not mistake spectacle for struggle.
If I am not wrong, the last time something similar happened, it was the No Global movement. Their main book was No Logo by Naomi Klein. The author became much more moderate since then. Or maybe she has always been someone like AOC.
