Re: Violent Protesters put up to it?

Roslyn and all-

Thanks for another great report from Seattle.

I want to take issue with an important assumption that you and others
make, and that is that the appearance of militant (ie, violence against
property or cops) protest necessarily discredits social movements.  It may
well be that this is what some in power assume, but they may be wrong.

It seems clear to me that based on their class position and ideological
understanding, different people have very different reactions to militance
on the part of movements, partly depending on whether they are sympathetic
to the aims, of the movements in question.  [There is a strand of pacifism
on this list that I see as a middle class ideological tendency.  Typically
this standard is applied more rigorously to movements than to  
governments.]

I am quite certain that the image of militant protest in Seattle
has cheered millions of people around the world.  The fact that the
protest did NOT appear to be tame, in conformity with rules of polite
society, etc, etc, etc, makes it appear more powerful, determined,
serious, and in every way contrary to what the rest of the world expects
from sedated, fat and happy Amerika.  Most of those in the U.S. who were
dismayed by the militance probably didn't sympathize with the aims of the
movement in the first place.   

In short, if the authorities thought that provoking militance would
discredit the movement, I believe they were wrong.

RH