the reason rebellion is impossible in the US/UK is bc (in general) ppl's lives are too comfortable to want to make radical shifts in our economy + political system
― Mordy , Monday, 17 June 2013 16:47 (ten years ago) link
yeah... the reason rebellion is impossible is because no one wants to have a rebellion
― flopson, Monday, 17 June 2013 16:49 (ten years ago) link
Yeah I said that upthread. I don't think it's the only reason in the US, because here people's lives are becoming increasingly uncomfortable, and I think a lack of socially binding institutions, the spread-out way people live, etc., and myths like the protestant work ethic contribute (cf the famous Steinbeck line ""Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.")
But any population that is large enough and poor enough for long enough is kind of there for the organizing if someone can figure out how to do it.
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Monday, 17 June 2013 16:50 (ten years ago) link
theoretically ppl's lives here could be uncomfortable enough that rebellion becomes possible, but i don't see that happening any time soon. even the US's embarrassed millionaires have a higher quality of life than most of the world
― Mordy , Monday, 17 June 2013 17:09 (ten years ago) link
also the US maintains a pretty robust gulag system. that probably helps.
― Mordy , Monday, 17 June 2013 17:14 (ten years ago) link
psychologically you would have to change people's brains. it would take decades. or longer than decades. the u.s./capitalist way of life is so deeply ingrained in people. that idea of always growing, growing, growing...if you aren't making more or growing then you are a loser...its a part of everything from poor to rich. if everyone were suddenly poor, things might just get uglier not better. you have to replace the system with something that can work for these massive amounts of people. and the only way people would be okay with that is if people could live with the idea of having less. of living more humbly. which is where the decades and decades of reverse brainwashing comes in.
― scott seward, Monday, 17 June 2013 17:29 (ten years ago) link
its a conundrum.
my own pipe dream is this: large amounts of the population go to work for the govt. (a fantasy govt.) doing the hard work of making the entire country environmentally...uh...safer. its a big country. there is a lot that can be done. probably. i'm no scientist. you could have millions of people just planting trees for a living. beats working at rite aid. rite aid sucks.
― scott seward, Monday, 17 June 2013 17:34 (ten years ago) link
otmfm
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 17 June 2013 17:37 (ten years ago) link
I would rather work at rite aid than do outdoor physical labor for 8 hours a day
― iatee, Monday, 17 June 2013 17:37 (ten years ago) link
cool you can work at rite aid. also where'd you get 8 hours from? that's capitalist hours.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 17 June 2013 17:40 (ten years ago) link
sorry boss I can work overtime
― iatee, Monday, 17 June 2013 17:45 (ten years ago) link
So, some thoughts--
I do think there's an argument to be made for targeted property destruction (or PD) as an autonomous tactic *in concert with* an ongoing campaign or set of direct actions. To get some things out of the way, though:
- Breaking a bank window does not hurt Jamie Dimon.- Breaking a bank window at a protest with families, immigrants, and POC who might not be prepared for or in position to fight back against the attendant escalation in police action is stupid and wrong. - There's a pretty unfortunate dichotomy--and I was even perpetuating it upthread some--between the day to day work of community organizing and ostensibly 'insurrectionary' actions that involve PD. The reality is that the individuals I've known to take to PD are
also--once they take off the masks--some of the hardest working pavement pounders and movement builders I've ever met. They're not idiots looking for a fight.- Breaking a bank window will not jump start The Revo.
All that said. It's my thinking that PD is a tactic that ought to be understood as a rarely used tool in a robust toolbox. Every tactic ought to be scrutinized for effectiveness and evaluated from the same starting point: these are all tools, the only question is which
one is most useful to us right now.
Sometimes we need a rally. Sometimes another anodyne demonstration will echo nicely in the chamber of back patting liberal activism without making a sound outside of it. A lot of the criticisms leveled at PD for being ~merely symbolic~ attacks could be leveled
equally at many other approaches. The important thing when gauging usefulness is context. I think PD is rarely useful, but that it can be.
How can PD "help," as such?
It's been my experience, and historically the experience of lots of organizers, that people can find direct action profoundly empowering. Rather than yelling (again) at empty buildings holding tattered (or too-slick) signs, deliberately putting oneself at risk to
disrupt and impede business as usual. As I said upthread, I've seen ~normie bystanders~ who aren't deeply ensconed in some crustpunk culture inspired and galvanized by PD and other property-related disruptions. Some of these people have even gone on to
involve themselves in movement building work. Some people are repelled by PD. Some are charged by it. I don't pretend to know the proportions, but to exclude from activation people who aren't engaged or moved by the kabuki of the permitted march by
ruling out PD as always and everywhere unacceptable is to exclude people I've seen and worked with who've proven themselves valuable organizers. That's not something I'm willing to do.
Secondly it's worth noting that targeted PD is often the only time particular misbehaviors are even mentioned in the press. Large summits like the G8/20, or the NATO meetings, tend to be sponsored by major corporations & defense contractors. Attacks on their
buildings get coverage, and the March Organizer's Press Release of Grievances is finally put to use and quoted from to provide context.
Further it's worth thinking about PD as an attempt to create space for more mainstream activity and more radical activity as well--even as a diversionary tactic. It was put to spectacular use to divert the police from ongoing lockdowns at the WTO meetings in
Seattle & Cancun, where the lockdowns contributed to the delay & shutdown of those meetings, and in Miami where delegates from the global south cited the lockdowns as sources of courage in their opposition to the trade agreement. Organizers of Miami
actions cited the bloc's flashmob-style targetted attacks as key to delaying the inevitable crackdown and the meeting itself. I think also of the G8 in Alberta, where a bloc infamously descended on and destroyed a police truck bearing a water cannon waiting to be
aimed at the mass of protesters. When the backup arrived, it too was shortly incapacitated. This kept the mass demos going, as that particular mode of repression was prevented from being deployed.
It strikes me that ultimately the cases where PD can be inspiring, press-worthy, or tactically useful are ultimately rare, and that in cases where privilege and arrestability & wishes of fellow travelers are not taken into account the introduction of property
destruction into a demonstration is supremely boneheaded, shortsighted, and harmful to ostensible allies. Most of the time breaking shit is a bad idea--the reasons not to do it outnumber the reasons to do it. It's almost never a 'productive' action per se. That
should be acknowledged. But it's clear to me that while rare, these moments *do* exist.
Now, as I said above, there are propositions I certainly don't buy. There's a more abstract notion I've heard cited calling PD "moments of excess," where understood invisible lines are crossed in order to display their permeability. "Capitalist hegemony has colonized your mind, man, the bosses are no more invincible than this window." I think it's sort of silly and don't really buy this as a strong argument, but I understand what's being gestured at. I've encountered the argument that as a form of direct action that creates a cost, PD is a way of hurting objectionable business' bottom-line. This is sorta silly, obviously--most places have insurance that covers a broken window. (I've also seen this flipped, with "they have insurance!" used to justify PD).
Spectrum & iatee rightly note it's not just the windows. think about the effects on the people who work there, use the services, etc. This is certainly a worthwhile consideration, and as a guy who was once a banker when a small Austin black bloc threw a
brick threw my branch window, I've been on both sides of the glass. The bank is shut down during a stationary demo, which means a lot of thumb twiddling and hoping we'd get sent home early. When the glass breaks there are the moments of panic, the
subsiding of same as the bloc hauls ass and things calm down, and then everyone but the boss *does* go home early while the window gets replaced.
When I helped shut down a bank last fall I spent the day talking with the customers whose days we were busy affecting. There were certainly some that were upset their branch was closed (in fact, we'd spread out a dozen teams and closed every branch in the city), and annoyed that we were in their way. A surprisingly high number of the people I talked to, though--it certainly seemed like the large majority, though maybe there's some availability bias happening here--were ultimately supportive of our blockade once we laid out that we were fighting an eviction, and all the evictions. What I'm saying is that in my experience people are supportive of disrupting an institution that's carrying out injustice, even if it makes their day a pain in the ass.
This certainly isn't an argument for the institution of some flashmob insurrectionary terror squad--but as a tool of escalation, empowerment, press-grabbing, and activist self-defense, I think PD does have a limited and strategically-informed place.
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 17 June 2013 20:15 (ten years ago) link
wow weird formatting, sorry
is that legible to people, other than being nonsense
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 17 June 2013 20:16 (ten years ago) link
- Breaking a bank window does not hurt Jamie Dimon.- Breaking a bank window at a protest with families, immigrants, and POC who might not be prepared for or in position to fight back against the attendant escalation in police action is stupid and wrong. - There's a pretty unfortunate dichotomy--and I was even perpetuating it upthread some--between the day to day work of community organizing and ostensibly 'insurrectionary' actions that involve PD. The reality is that the individuals I've known to take to PD are also--once they take off the masks--some of the hardest working pavement pounders and movement builders I've ever met. They're not idiots looking for a fight.- Breaking a bank window will not jump start The Revo.
All that said. It's my thinking that PD is a tactic that ought to be understood as a rarely used tool in a robust toolbox. Every tactic ought to be scrutinized for effectiveness and evaluated from the same starting point: these are all tools, the only question is which one is most useful to us right now.
Sometimes we need a rally. Sometimes another anodyne demonstration will echo nicely in the chamber of back patting liberal activism without making a sound outside of it. A lot of the criticisms leveled at PD for being ~merely symbolic~ attacks could be leveled equally at many other approaches. The important thing when gauging usefulness is context. I think PD is rarely useful, but that it can be.
It's been my experience, and historically the experience of lots of organizers, that people can find direct action profoundly empowering. Rather than yelling (again) at empty buildings holding tattered (or too-slick) signs, deliberately putting oneself at risk to disrupt and impede business as usual. As I said upthread, I've seen ~normie bystanders~ who aren't deeply ensconed in some crustpunk culture inspired and galvanized by PD and other property-related disruptions. Some of these people have even gone on to involve themselves in movement building work. Some people are repelled by PD. Some are charged by it. I don't pretend to know the proportions, but to exclude from activation people who aren't engaged or moved by the kabuki of the permitted march by ruling out PD as always and everywhere unacceptable is to exclude people I've seen and worked with who've proven themselves valuable organizers. That's not something I'm willing to do.
Secondly it's worth noting that targeted PD is often the only time particular misbehaviors are even mentioned in the press. Large summits like the G8/20, or the NATO meetings, tend to be sponsored by major corporations & defense contractors. Attacks on their buildings get coverage, and the March Organizer's Press Release of Grievances is finally put to use and quoted from to provide context.
Further it's worth thinking about PD as an attempt to create space for more mainstream activity and more radical activity as well--even as a diversionary tactic. It was put to spectacular use to divert the police from ongoing lockdowns at the WTO meetings in Seattle & Cancun, where the lockdowns contributed to the delay & shutdown of those meetings, and in Miami where delegates from the global south cited the lockdowns as sources of courage in their opposition to the trade agreement. Organizers of Miami actions cited the bloc's flashmob-style targetted attacks as key to delaying the inevitable crackdown and the meeting itself. I think also of the G8 in Alberta, where a bloc infamously descended on and destroyed a police truck bearing a water cannon waiting to be aimed at the mass of protesters. When the backup arrived, it too was shortly incapacitated. This kept the mass demos going, as that particular mode of repression was prevented from being deployed.
It strikes me that ultimately the cases where PD can be inspiring, press-worthy, or tactically useful are ultimately rare, and that in cases where privilege and arrestability & wishes of fellow travelers are not taken into account the introduction of property destruction into a demonstration is supremely boneheaded, shortsighted, and harmful to ostensible allies. Most of the time breaking shit is a bad idea--the reasons not to do it outnumber the reasons to do it. It's almost never a 'productive' action per se. That should be acknowledged. But it's clear to me that while rare, these moments *do* exist.
Spectrum & iatee rightly note it's not just the windows. think about the effects on the people who work there, use the services, etc. This is certainly a worthwhile consideration, and as a guy who was once a banker when a small Austin black bloc threw a brick threw my branch window, I've been on both sides of the glass. The bank is shut down during a stationary demo, which means a lot of thumb twiddling and hoping we'd get sent home early. When the glass breaks there are the moments of panic, the subsiding of same as the bloc hauls ass and things calm down, and then everyone but the boss *does* go home early while the window gets replaced.
When I helped shut down a bank last fall I spent the day talking with the customers whose days we were busy affecting. There were certainly some that were upset their branch was closed (in fact, we'd spread out a dozen teams and closed every branch in the city), and annoyed that we were in their way. A surprsingly high number of the people I talked to, though--it certainly seemed like the large majority, though maybe there's some availability bias happening here--were ultimately supportive of our blockade once we laid out that we were fighting an eviction, and all the evictions. What I'm saying is that in my experience people are supportive of disrupting an institution that's carrying out injustice, even if it makes their day a pain in the ass.
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 17 June 2013 20:18 (ten years ago) link
(hopefully getting a mod to delete that other post)
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 17 June 2013 20:19 (ten years ago) link
Get a blog motherfucker
― copter (waterface), Monday, 17 June 2013 20:21 (ten years ago) link
^^ easiest route for waterface to unendear himself to most of ilx
― Aimless, Monday, 17 June 2013 20:41 (ten years ago) link
waterface you can eat my butt 24 hours a day at hoosteen.net
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 17 June 2013 20:42 (ten years ago) link
*guyfieri.jpg*
― they are either militarists (ugh) or kangaroos (?) (DJP), Monday, 17 June 2013 20:42 (ten years ago) link
Wow you shut down a bank I guess you showed those banksters
― copter (waterface), Monday, 17 June 2013 20:43 (ten years ago) link
after we shut down 12 banks that day, my friend got to keep his house. so yeah, we did.
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 17 June 2013 20:43 (ten years ago) link
That's cool! Very cool dude.
― copter (waterface), Monday, 17 June 2013 20:44 (ten years ago) link
by making something about one person's house you allow the bank to win on the PR game
― iatee, Monday, 17 June 2013 20:46 (ten years ago) link
I think it's cool his friend got to keep his house.
I just disagree with the tactics. How many people's lives did you disrupt that day?
― copter (waterface), Monday, 17 June 2013 20:46 (ten years ago) link
lol fuck you
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Monday, 17 June 2013 20:48 (ten years ago) link
being disruptive is not the waterface way
― sjuttiosju_u (wins), Monday, 17 June 2013 20:49 (ten years ago) link
I am the Occupy of ILX.
#occupyilx
― copter (waterface), Monday, 17 June 2013 20:49 (ten years ago) link
bootlicking is, xp
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Monday, 17 June 2013 20:50 (ten years ago) link
How many people's lives did you disrupt that day?
people=people who needed to use a bank. duuuuuuuuuuuuh
― copter (waterface), Monday, 17 June 2013 20:50 (ten years ago) link
soccupy
― sjuttiosju_u (wins), Monday, 17 June 2013 20:51 (ten years ago) link
― iatee, Monday, June 17, 2013 8:46 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
this is why it's never solely about one person's house--it's about a movement to oppose evictions, and every piece of literature we produce, every interview we give, every time one of our homeowner's speaks at a rally or to the press, we work to emphasize that this is bigger than one person in one house. and i can tell you that no journalist in this city runs the story as 'bank does a nice thing.' it runs as 'activists win victory against bank.'
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 17 June 2013 20:52 (ten years ago) link
emphasize it sure but it's very clear that the tactics to get one bank branch to modify a mortgage aren't going to be effective on a macro scale because it's the difference between asking them to give up basically nothing and asking them to give up something substantial
― iatee, Monday, 17 June 2013 20:55 (ten years ago) link
Hoos your daddy now, Big Bank?
― scott seward, Monday, 17 June 2013 20:56 (ten years ago) link
yes, you've cracked the nut of 'organizing a mass movement against foreclosures.' i don't know how to solve that problem either, but people better versed in the appropriate policy questions are doing a lot of thinking about it right now, and i'm listening.
xp
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 17 June 2013 20:58 (ten years ago) link
as in 'what is the pressure point to attack that will result in motion in the direction we're aiming'
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 17 June 2013 20:59 (ten years ago) link
well the only way to make radical political changes in society is the actual political process
― iatee, Monday, 17 June 2013 21:06 (ten years ago) link
there needs to be a platform for the political process to fall back upon otherwise there's no reason to change; protests form the foundation of that platform
― they are either militarists (ugh) or kangaroos (?) (DJP), Monday, 17 June 2013 21:08 (ten years ago) link
I don't think bothering a bank until they decide x thousand dollars isn't worth this annoyance constitutes progress...it's kinda just a feel goody activism. it's not super far from someone being the lucky person to get a home makeover show on tv and it pulls at the same heartstrings. xp
― iatee, Monday, 17 June 2013 21:09 (ten years ago) link
ya I agree w/ this and I was the first ilxor at ows for the record. I don't think protesting is bad but it also can quickly become navel gazing when it refuses to engage w/ the political meatgrinder
― iatee, Monday, 17 June 2013 21:14 (ten years ago) link
activists should give the banks home makeovers instead and see what happens
― ttyih boi (crüt), Monday, 17 June 2013 21:14 (ten years ago) link
― iatee, Monday, June 17, 2013 9:09 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
no, one win isn't the fuckin revolution. it's a step that builds momentum, gains membership for a movement, builds community power and solidarity. every time we win one, the number of people at our next local meeting has doubled. and we're not even really killing it the way they're killing it in minnesota, for example, where they in fact *are* winning policy changes based on the successful creation of a statewide network that mobilizes as a unit.
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 17 June 2013 21:18 (ten years ago) link
Most successful political movements have radical and non-radical wings. It basically boils down to "You can get with this [milder-mannered, "legit" group working through political process to achieve relatively reasonable goals] or you can get with that [more "militant" group who won't compromise so gladly and will cause you a lot more trouble]."
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Monday, 17 June 2013 21:19 (ten years ago) link
and it's way more fun to be on the far side.
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 17 June 2013 21:19 (ten years ago) link
drunk guy told me once "i'm mostly an anarchist bcz i think it's important that there are anarchists in the world"
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 17 June 2013 21:24 (ten years ago) link
"i don't know what i want, but i know how to get it..."
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 17 June 2013 21:25 (ten years ago) link
are you sure he didn't say "alcoholic"?
― ttyih boi (crüt), Monday, 17 June 2013 21:26 (ten years ago) link
"You can get with this [milder-mannered, "legit" group working through political process to achieve relatively reasonable goals] or you can get with that [more "militant" group who won't compromise so gladly and will cause you a lot more trouble]."
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Monday, June 17, 2013 9:19 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
lol kudos didn't notice this
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 17 June 2013 21:26 (ten years ago) link
broadly speaking I think there's an inverse correlation between how fun any given political activism is and how efficiently you're using your time
― iatee, Monday, 17 June 2013 21:30 (ten years ago) link