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.
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.