July 18, 2005
Do It in September
A Weekend to Stop the War
By RON JACOBS
"In a little more than two months, a weekend of protest against the war in Iraq is scheduled to take place in Washington, DC, San Francisco, London, and several other cities around the globe. Like other protests against the US war on the world, this weekend is being organized by a wide number of organizations and individuals who are often not in agreement about many related subjects. As a participant in the protests, however, these disagreements should be secondary to our actual presence. With the US military death toll rapidly nearing 2000 and the Iraqi and Afghani cost in lives unknown to the general public, this is no time to debate subtleties of theory and politics..." continued at counterpunch
I wonder about American methods of protest. Do we see the urgency, TRULY, of what we protest? I look at people in Gaza, Palestinians, the Jewish Settlers who are being evacuated, the Basque, the Chechnians, Northern Ireland; do we understand what they go through day to day? Do we understand their protests and the sacrifices they make to take a stand?
ReplyDeleteA picture struck me of a Jewish settler, one who is being evacuated by the Israili army, sitting beneath a tank. Sitting beneath a tank.
Do you see what I'm saying here?
Americans gather, with drums, face paint and dancing-in a festival-like atmosphere. Palestinians throw rocks at men and boys with M-16s; the Basque bomb trains; the IRA (not so much now_ would bomb Irish and English targets.
Where do we get off? How do we think we're being effective? What does this mean for protest?
I certainly wouldn't be a fan of military action-by that I mean "militant" action. But is dancing in the streets the way to get heard? Is "settling" our petty politics enough to get a protest together?
What is real change and how do we get there?