16 POINTS ON EFFECTIVE PROTEST COMMUNICATION....
The April 16th demonstrations in Washington DC against the World Bank and
IMF revealed a number of lessons about communication and decision making
during mass demonstrations which will need preparation now if they are to be
applied to the S11 demo.
I am writing as a local organizer from North Carolina, from which over 250
people in a variety of affinity groups participated in direct action. I went
to DC as part of a bicycle communication team, and learned a whole lot. I
hope these thoughts help. Im arriving in Sydney with an affinity group of 2
(Andrew and Lauren) on August 24. From then on, Im all yours in terms of
organizing and doing grunt work.
1) Essential communication resources (bicycles, walkie-talkies, cell phones,
megaphones) as well as literature and puppets shouldn't be centralized.
Melbourne police may not release seized items like DC police did after
storming the convergence center.
2) Its important for logistical support organizers to keep tabs and get
ready to involve affinity groups as they arrive. I would suggest having
"guides" ready to orient affinity groups, help them get integrated into the
decision making process, and assessing people's resources and needs. Guides
can help make sure each affinity group has within it people who have been
trained in medical, commubnications, legal, and other fun skills. In DC,
alot of affinity groups kind of disintegrated or got lost in the crowds
without some guidance.
Unfortunately in DC, there were far too few communications liasons to
implement quick consensus decisions by spokes, or change strategy when it
was needed - on one occassion myself and 5 other cyclists observed and
reported over and over the main route delegates were being bused in, but
without clear proceedures, walkie-talkies, or easilly-found comm-team
members, flying squads didn't get the word to block those intersections
until an hour later. By then, with no delegates to block, hundreds of
protesters directed their energy into unrelated streets and got gassed by
angry cops.
3) There are never too few bicyclists! we are fast, personal, resourceful,
and fun! Seriously, if other forms of communication break down, bicycles
are excellent in emergencies.
4) Cyclists should work in pairs and meet dailly for strategy (the one in DC
was 5 minutes and inaudible)
5) Every comm team, bike team, and affinity group needs copies of detailed
city maps
6) Cycle teams should work out a route pattern and stick to it. By this i
mean having overlapping routes which cyclists take every 30 minutes or so,
with responsibility to check in with comm team members on their route. This
way info can be verified by the second team, and comms receive regular
updates about the situation by radio and eye/ear. If not, it is impossible
to tell who is legit.
7) Comm teams need to be discreet yet identifiable to bicycle teams and
affinity groups they are working with, the affinity groups or flying squads
they are working with, and so on. There were a lot of plants in DC with
radios and cameras and video, so it was impossible to find comms people.
Comm teams could have a flag bearer who is easy to spot.
8) Every affinity group should have a flag/identifiable rallying point,
mechanism for selecting spokes and making quick decisions, and a conception
of what their limitations on action/movement are. In DC, some affinity
groups stood their ground at blocakge through thick and thin, others left as
rumous were spread that "the action's moved" and so on.
9) Ideally, every affinity group should have their own communications liason
with a walkie talkie.
10) Up to the minute updates do wonders for participants and organizers
alike. Comm teams or comm reps from affinity groups should consistently
help relay information about the status of the protest.
11) Comm teams need to design a system for giving reports, a way to make
confirmation, and a way for people to identify themselves.
12) personally, I think the affinity group model of mass demonstrations is
essential as we challenge transnational corporate military empires. It will
be a tough struggle so we'd better be organized! The thing is, as these
protests continue, more people will come because its the thing to do. We
need to invest affinity groups with a greater sense of importance and
connection and make it obvious to people who come alone that next time they
need to come prepared. But flip[ side, though, is that big demos also need
mechanisms for helping crowds organize towards productive tactics. Lets
face it, a thousand people showing up the day of can be manipulated by cops
and each other to do all sorts of unstrategic stuff. We are naive and
foolish to pretend that radical democracy and consensus can magically evolve
from crowds who have not been practicing it before they arrive. Consensus
between individuals who know each other takes long gruelling work. So
personally, i think it is very valuable to have "marshalls", or some other
way to help the crowd make informed decisions, and even act to prevent
tactics that would undermine goals arrived at by consensus. You wouldn't
let a sexist loudmouth derail a productive meeting would you? Lets realizer
that crowds carry all sorts of baggage and assumptions, and need good
facilitators to actualize their collective power.
13) On April 17 as the day wore down, some organizers made a unilateral deal
with the cops to let protesters cross a line to get symbolically arrested,
so as to end the action. This may have been a good decision, but there was
no effective process to make it as a spokescouncil. During the action,
there needs to be a clear process for making major strategic decisions or
changes if it seems necessary. This power could be invested in a core
planners/strategists if they have the trust of the spokescouncil and the
action has a clear set of goals. I suggest having a few comm teams
empowered to call spokescouncil meetings (and relay calls for such meetings)
on the spot, and then gather localized clusters of affinity groups'
spokespeople to make quick decisions. Otherwise, it will get made by a few
people without any guidance or guidelines.
14) We need literature that is everywhere available for the public and
participants to read. In DC, there was no solid compilation of info,
strategy, goals, demmands, message, etc.. that people could turn to. Many
bystanders heard so many views on the protest but no background info they
could digest on their own. If a call is put out and articles/info solicited
from many organizations and participants before hand, this critical aspect
of message-deliverance can be done democratically and effectively. This
also creates a good role for people who want to hand out lit around the
city.
15) tactics should always accomplish symbolic or tangible impact on our
target: in this case, the WEF. opportunities will present themzelves to
block off intersections, bridges, what have you, but spokescouncil should
set priorities and discuss ways to make action effective rather than impact
only residents detrimentally.
16) If we are looking to get local community members involved, it has to
start yesterday and we have to build personal relationships.
Whew. I hope it is helpful.
Solidarity from the USA, and may the empire fall shortly!
peace
Andrew Pearson
--
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