community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
a24 march photo, fifth ave
by matt
Sunday, Aug. 24, 2003 at 12:46 PM
matt@indypgh.org (email address validated)
(for pittsburgh indymedia); marchers take fifth ave during the a24 demo
a large banner reads "STOP ALL WAR"
the march followed a rally at flagstaff hill and went north on morewood avenue, then west on fifth ave.
thanks
by rebel
Sunday, Aug. 24, 2003 at 6:16 PM
Thanks for the sticker (Bush-international terrorist) sticker, whoever passed them out! I put it on my oil guzzling car so that at least I am getting the message out! THANKS AGAIN!
you're welcome, officer
by pigpen
Sunday, Aug. 24, 2003 at 11:43 PM
thanks for coming. hope you don't get laid off.
Marchers
by Thad
Monday, Aug. 25, 2003 at 6:22 AM
While our message is one we need to spread, just look at the photo and see how the message was presented. The working class cannot identify with people who look and dress like this group of 150. They don't hear our message at all, they only see youth shabbily dressed, wearing masks, looking and acting militant, and it is an instant turn-off to them.
We can never hope to convince the working class if we don't start being a part of them. We need to listen to them and their needs, dress like them, eat where they eat, talk like they talk, intermingle with them. People are much more willing to talk to those whom they view as being the same as them. The only group that any single marcher appealed to were the other 149 with them.
We can never win our struggle without the working poeple. We cannot discuss issues with the working people if we don't make it so they want to be seen with us. We must strongly consider how we conduct ourselves and how our physical appearances will help determine the willingness of the working class individual to want to communicate with us.
disagree
by .
Monday, Aug. 25, 2003 at 7:06 AM
Assimilation is not the only option, I refuse to buy that. There were others who were not shabbily dressed youths. There were steelworkers at the rally, families brought their children, CMU fresmen, etc.
Disagree Strongly
by What's it matter?
Monday, Aug. 25, 2003 at 7:12 AM
I believe what you are referring to is the Columbus Day parade or something. A decent respectable permitted apologetic parade? If that was the case the A.N.S.W.E.R. drones would have ended the war in January.
.
by Thad
Monday, Aug. 25, 2003 at 7:27 AM
You may disagee if you wish, but I assure you that many form the opinions they have for our cause based upon how we present ourselves. We've been doing these things for years now, but our base never, ever grows. Haven't you noticed? I assure you, while there may be some exceptions, most people do not want to be identified with people who "dress funny" and who act militant. As long as we continue to disregard this, we can expect the same results we have received in the past. We need to do a complete overhaul of how our message is presented focusing on how to appeal to the working class enmass.
Thad
by Diversity of Tactics
Monday, Aug. 25, 2003 at 7:57 AM
Maybe we can sign petitions and email our congressman? You can't reform cancer, friend
t
by t
Monday, Aug. 25, 2003 at 8:00 AM
Actually it doesn't matter how you dress, what people disagree with are your opinions. I think most people also respect your right to voice your opinions, even if the reverse is seldom true.
blah blah blah....
by commentorite
Monday, Aug. 25, 2003 at 9:32 AM
frankly, i dont see how marching in streets and the next day going back to work or school will "change" the entire universe. what exactly are we hoping to accomplish here? attracting news coverage of our own arrests and "vandalisms"? attracting attention to carefully selective "messeges" with scientifically proven mass appeal? are we hoping more people will purchase a few of these ideas form the Protest-Thought store and then join in the advertising campaign? for what aim? ill tell you this: protest alone cannot be enough. we need more than a perpetual advertising campaign with stupid ideas to sell. our focus is far too narrow.
the "messege" may well get communicated, but so what? though we may have the Diversity Of Tactics we also have a diversity of messege, and these diverse messeges get drowned out by a few selective mass-marketable ideas: anti-globalization, anti-war, pro-choice, anti-occupation, or whatever happens to be in fashion; along with the mass-marketable slogans: "no war", "no blood for oil", "save the whales", "money for healthcare", and others. this fits perfectly into the mold of the workings of abstracted, alienated, 'representative' capitalist-democracy. our society is a process of massive socially constructed cooperatives and the most basic social unit --the small group of 5-15-- is ignored, downplayed, bypassed.
"we" have discovered and denounced this sort of thing in american government (the two gigantic political monsters which swallow all possible opposition), in corporate control over media (the carefully constructed newscast and the enginered mass-produced culture), and in the extreme alienation of you and i from this collectively produced medium (culture induced consumer-drowning). but yes sadly its true, "we" do this very same sort of thing ourselves in our mass-protest-movements; the diverse and the radical are drowned in a see of progressive mass-marketable moderation. and so it seems to me that we reduce all our efforts to nothing but another cog in the wheel of the churning bullshit world and an excuse for police overtime pay.
lets just be honest for the next mass protest, lets call it the More Overtime Pay for Cops March, or maybe the Riot Control Practice March so they can be prepared for the next REAL riot, or how 'bout the Lefty Advertising Campaign for Microwave Safe Dishes! and make some money while were at it!!!
blah...
not everyone...
by JohnRPGH
Monday, Aug. 25, 2003 at 9:55 AM
Those pictures only show the very front of the march, and the very front of the march was the only part that had people in masks, in all black, etc. There were only about 15-20 of us who looked "militant". I wouldn't say people hate us or can't communicate or support us when we dress like that, people talk to me all the time when i'm masked or in all black, and we got plenty people who approved of our message during the march.
don't go there
by rebecca
Monday, Aug. 25, 2003 at 2:51 PM
malekincat@earthlink.net
"We must strongly consider how we conduct ourselves and how our physical appearances will help determine the willingness of the working class individual to want to communicate with us."
How we treat other people is one thing, but getting into the whole clothing issue is just buying into the system we're supposed to be fighting. Some of the most communicative people I've known "dressed funny."
This is how the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses reason. When did you last let one of them into your house for a chat?
remember vietnam
by david
Monday, Aug. 25, 2003 at 3:30 PM
hippies & yippies got the same comments. but eventually people looked passed their dress and realized that the anti-war message was morally sound. having a few establishment-looking folks might have helped in a few cases. but an anti-establishment mass protest movement won't ever look like the establishment.
acting militant???
by ferret
Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2003 at 11:30 AM
i can see the looking militant statement.....
but acting militant? there was 0 property detruction, no assaults on police officers, what exactly was the looking militant bit you were talking about?
and might i also add, that the anarcho-syndicalist ARE part of the working class? but being an anarchist this day and age might land you in jail, indefinately, without charge.
i know i don't want the cops with my faceon film. that's why i wear the mask.
an idea
by Jan
Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2003 at 7:49 PM
I have an idea, let's all wear suits and ties and carry briefcases at the next march! We can all goosestep and sieg heil to Bush. We'll call it the compulsory patriotism march!
On the briefcases we'll have names of companies that support bush like Bechtel and Halliburton, etc.
What do you say people?
Innitiative
by Lightbulb
Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2003 at 5:36 AM
Yes, I like the idea of wearing suits and Halliburton briefcases. Bring 12 friends who are all willing to do this @ the next demo. That is the only way our direction will change. We cannot depend on POG and TMC for everything. Take the innitiative on your own. We are all people of vision in this movement but the path is becoming muddy with mis-direction and poor organization. Go with this idea. Run with it. Small affinity groups who all converge as one collective is the only way we will get a message across. Lets be willing to act on the ideas tossed around. ie, if you're throwing this idea out there be willing to actually organize and do it not hope someone else will see the idea and act upon it. The foot soldiers need to pick up our end and stop tossing blame about. We are all responsible.
agree
by jan
Thursday, Sep. 04, 2003 at 6:37 PM
I agree lightbulb,
but I don't know 12 people who are willing to do it. None of my friends even care what happens in the world, as long as it doesn't impinge on their life. And that's fine. I guess I need to stand on a street corner and recruit.
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