Thanks to Kelly and Unleesh for providing this much needed perspective.
It is also an internal debate for me. When my kid asks me questions about
war, I tell her that I believe that humans are smart enough to solve
problems w/o violence. Smart kid asked me one time what I'd do if our
state was attacked by someone else. After a few hours of thought, I told
her that I couldn't tell her for sure, but I still believe that humans can
resolve things peacefully. Now, I also know that if anyone went after
her, w/o much thought I would act in whatever way I could to prevent her
harm. So what about all the other less obvious ways she is harmed? Media
images encouraging her to watch her weight, change her personality to get
some man, school ciricullums full of compulsory heterosexist ethnocentric
messages, etc. etc. Aren't these forms of violence against her? And of
course we don't live in a situation where we are being bombarded with the
threat of police action, like folks in many neighborhoods in the US.
But all of this begs the question about the difference between targetted
destruction of corporate property and violence. I'm sure that many who
lived through or are heavily inspired by the 60's maintain that it all
leads to random violence against people. Yet, if corporations have all
the control -- media, gov't, police, financial -- what can PEOPLE do to
subvert this gross injustice? Would the WTO march have gained press for 5
days were it not for the work of the black bloc? I also seem to remember
lots of discussion on this list about the benefits of ecotage. Ecotage is
clearly targeted destruction of corporate property. The only reports of
damage from the WTO events was 2-million dollars in damage to property and
local business. The only people hurt were the minor injuries inflicted by
the police. Sounds like the violence was pretty targetted to me.
Hey, I'm still mulling this over. But I'm not willing to fall back on
some philosophy that worked over 30 years ago with the full awareness that
the world has changed considerably. Political action should change
accordingly.
Randi Zimmerman
"In the process of infinate beginnings, even immortality is mortal."
-- Trinh T. Minh-ha
