The IDEAL prerequisites for victory of the resistance movement over corporate rule by means of demonstration are
- a completely peaceful demonstration with many participants with which all humanity outside the corporate headquarters can identify, and
- a fair worldwide media coverage of the event.
Basically, hooligans - whether paid by the corporations or subject to anarchist ideology - therefore are factual enemies of the people.
However, since 99 % of the media are controlled by the capital, we normally do NOT get a fair coverage of our efforts, to say the least !! Silence normally is their very efficient weapon to protect their masters.
To ensure that the event be covered at all, some controlled degree of violence directed against precisely identified appropriate targets in some cases may be justified, in spite of the consequently reduced number of sympathizers.
In Seattle the previous long preparations and focus on the event made any further attention unnecessary. The violence of the police furthermore ensured the big headlines in the media.
The hooliganism in Seattle therefore must be strongly condemned, because it unnecessarily reduced the sympathy in the world population whom we represent, and considerably discouraged the vast majority of the demonstrators who up until then had been in great enthusiatic spirit.
Additionally, the casual smashing of windows was directed against small as well as big stores and made it completely meaningless from our point of view.
CONCLUSION
FLEXIBILITY must be a key word in the planning of the coming demonstrations.
The coordinating group of the participating organisations must to an even higher degree than this time prepare the demonstrators for knocking down and turning over to the police any anwanted hooligans. Even if a hooligan should be killed, it would only be a very little loss as compared with the daily rate of 20.000 dead children due to corporate rule.
The coordinating group must beforehand have arranged for contacts worldwide that via the Internet all the time report on the media coverage.
Only in cases where the previous focus on the event or the police brutality is insufficient to make the media cover the story, is a minimum degree of violence justified, and only directed precisely at easily understandable targets.
Ole Fjord Larsen, member of United Peoples
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