Re: [Marxism] Report from Strasbourg

[Ralph Johansen <mdriscollrj@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Boy, this is good. What Ivan Drury reports here is very valuable. I was 
in Berkeley all during the 60s. The Vietnam Day Committee met briefly at 
my house when they were bombed out of their headquarters on Fulton 
Street. The times then were not remotely as appropriate to what was 
attempted then as is the case now. I haven't seen much of this sort of 
discussion on lists I am scanning. Anyone who experienced or has read 
about cointelpro in the 60s and 70s knows how this works. But of course 
the suits have learned too, and they pay well for strategic and tactical 
knowhow. One thing they know about that we often may not emphasize 
enough is discipline. When one of the only forms of expression available 
in opposition is taking to the streets, it's essential to know what 
level of sophistication and focused flexibility is called for to do so 
effectively. Certainly the apprehension shown by people like Sarkozy 
speaks volumes about how powerful we can be, if we act effectively, 
learning from our history of protracted, determined resistance, and by 
doing, and in a manner appropriate to people's comprehension and sense 
of their own needs and entitlements. To be able to organize in the face 
of repression, to minimize your losses and maximize your gains, to gauge 
how people's outrage and resolve can feed off this type of suppression 
of legitimate protest, is exactly what is called for in the period we're 
sliding into.

Ralph


"Ivan D. Drury" <ivanddrury@xxxxxxxx <mailto:ivanddrury%40yahoo.ca>>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( T h e B u l l e t ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 201 .... April 10, 2009
_________________________________________________

United Europe Represses the Right to Protest Against NATO

Ivan Drury

On April 4th the leaders of the NATO member countries met on the 
French-German border in Strasbourg France for the 60th anniversary of 
NATO. At this meeting the U.S. was to propose an escalation of the war 
in Afghanistan and ask for greater troop commitment from NATO countries. 
A major demonstration was organized to oppose this meeting, the 
occupation of Afghanistan, and to call for the dismantling of NATO. This 
demo also happened to coincide with the end of my time in Belarus, just 
days before my flight out of Germany back to Canada, so I was able to 
attend.

What Happened in Strasbourg

French President Nicolas Sarkozy had ordered every possible measure be 
used to put down the demonstration. But while he succeeded in stopping 
the protesters from setting foot in the streets of Strasbourg, the 
demonstration was all that was to be seen of the NATO summit in the news 
and the public imagination. In part, this can be seen as a victory of 
the demonstration: the state had pulled all the stops to suppress the 
voices of the street opposition to NATO, and the street had refused to 
be silenced. That the voice of this street appeared in the media 
stripped of criticism of NATO should not be surprising -- it would not 
have been regardless of the specific behavior of some of the demonstrators.

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