Re: query on demo tactics

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

> i have a question for the tactics gurus here.
>
> is it neccessarily better that in a demonstration everyone winds up
> in the same city? would yesterday really have been ineffective if,
> instead of everyone converging in Washington, say, local groups
> formed demos of 10's (rural), 100's to 1000's (small town), to 10k
> to 100k (cities) everywhere on the same day/time????
>
> i've been thinking about the relatively small size of the turnout
> yesterday, and it seems obvious to me taht many more than 20-30k
> people in US stand vigorously against this occupation of iraq. why
> then choose tactics that appear to minimize this number?
>
> les schaffer

National rallies and marches on US capitals of politics and finance
-- Washington, D.C. and New York City -- are necessary.  The reasons
for their necessity include the following:

* Rallies and marches in D.C. and NYC always get national coverage in
such national newspapers as the Washington Post and the New York
Times, whose articles are often run in local newspapers that have few
reporters assigned to cover national and international news.  Even
the best coordinated days of national action held in hundreds of
cities get less coverage in national newspapers than rallies and
marches in D.C. and NYC with relatively modest turnouts.

* High visibility given by national media coverage, in turn, helps to
remobilize old activists and recruit new ones for future local
actions.  Right after each national protest, local organizers should
make sure to send a notice of national media coverage to local
activists, boosting the morale of those who participated in it,
giving those who wanted but couldn't go a sense of vicarious
participation, and letting those whose ambivalence prevented them
from going know what they missed out on; information about upcoming
local actions and educational forums must be included in the notice
of national media coverage, thus creating a virtuous circle between
national and local mobilizations.

* Local organizers who charter buses and vans to send activists to a
national demonstration must always try to get advance coverage of it
in the local media, by holding send-off rallies and press conferences
before, and/or organizing local solidarity rallies on, the day of the
national demonstration.

* Local organizers should hand out organizing resources -- flyers,
buttons, stickers, information packets, etc. -- to activists on the
buses and vans heading to national protests, so that the activists
can use them to help local and national actions and campaigns grow
after the national protests.
--
Yoshie

* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
* Calendars of Events in Columbus:
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>,
<http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>


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